Welcome to our Careers Section
Rhyddings aims to provide the best possible careers education, information, advice and guidance to pupils through the Gatsby benchmarks as stated below:
- Providing a stable careers programme.
- Learning from careers and labour markets information.
- Addressing the needs of each pupil.
- Linking curriculum learning to careers.
- Encounters with employers and employees.
- Experiences of workplaces.
- Encounters with higher and further education.
- Personal guidance.
Our careers programme is designed to meet the needs of pupils at Rhyddings. It is differentiated and personalised to ensure progression through activities that are appropriate to students’ stages of career learning, planning and development.
Year 7
- Developing skills and aspirations: Careers, teamwork and enterprise skills, and raising aspirations
Year 8
- Community and careers: Equality of opportunity in careers and life choices, and different types and patterns of work
Year 9
- Setting goals: Learning strengths, career options and goal setting as part of the GCSE options process
- Employability skills: Employability and online presence
Year 10
- Readiness for work: Readiness for work
Year 11
- Building for the future: Self-efficacy, stress management, and future opportunities
- Next steps: Application processes, and skills for further education, employment and career progression
Implementation of Careers Guidance
Each Year group is provided with opportunities that promote careers awareness and provide individualised advice and guidance. This is done through timetabled PSHE lessons in Yrs7-10 and through separately organised ‘Citizenship days’ for Yrs 7-11. All pupils are also given access to Startprofile – an online web service with information about careers, qualification routes and next steps.
The programme is reviewed and impact is measured in September of every year; the next review is in September 2025, as part of the school development plan.
A copy of our current CEIAG policy is available to view on our policies page.
Life after Rhyddings…
The law now states that young people must be in education or training until they are 18. The question for pupils to consider before they leave at the end of Year 11 is – what next?
High School Sixth Forms – several local schools have sixth form centres where they offer A-Levels. This is a similar style of study to your GCSE studies, but at a more ‘advanced’ level.
Further Education Colleges – Local colleges provide a wide range of A-Level, BTEC and diploma courses in a variety of subjects.
University Technical Colleges – They specialise in technical subjects with training, sponsored by universities and employers.
Apprenticeships – Qualifications gained whilst working (and earning money) – available in over 170 different industry sectors. You may need to complete a pre-apprenticeship to develop your skills beforehand.
Job-related learning with a Training Provider – They provide a variety of different routes, including apprenticeships, to get you onto the right path for your chosen career.
Pupil Destinations – click to view the destination data for Rhyddings pupils.
Need advice?
Mrs Dutton is your Careers Lead in school. She can provide you with information, put you in touch with suitable colleges and training providers as well as help you with your CV.
Further information and advice:
- Xello
- Youth Zone – Lancashire County Council
- The National Careers Service – a great place to go if you need some help to choose or change your career. They also offer skills tests, course search and job advice. Their CV package can help you write a CV and you may also be eligible for face to face support.
- Prospects – Career planner with advice and ideas for jobs.
- Bright Knowledge – Careers, qualifications and pupil life info.
- Careersbox – Real video stories of young people working in all the major employment industries.
- icould – Not sure what to do with yourself? Careers ideas and inspiration here!
- The Apprenticeship Guide – Everything you need to know about apprenticeships!
- Stem Careers – Dendrite connect offering information from a number of STEM employers.
- Labour Market Information – General information about the labour market
- Lancashire skills & Employment hub – Lancashire labour information
Writing your CV
Here are some useful files for creating your CV which you will need to apply for colleges, apprenticeships, training and jobs.
- How do I write a CV?
- CV – Example
- Build your CV and save a copy
- How to write a covering letter
- Application Letter – Example
Local Sixth Forms & Colleges
- Accrington Academy
- Accrington & Rossendale College
- St. Christopher’s
- Blackburn College
- Burnley College
- Clitheroe Grammar Sixth Form
- St. Mary’s College
- Myerscough College
- Nelson & Colne College
- Runshaw College
- QEGS
Apprenticeships & Training Providers
What is CEIAG?
CEIAG stands for Careers Education, Information, Advice, and Guidance. All people, at various stages of their life, receive some sort of support in terms of their career development; the kind of support needed is defined by their needs and preferences.
- Careers Education = taught lessons on various aspects of career development.
- Careers Information = news and data about courses, jobs, career paths and opportunities.
- Careers Advice = suggestions and opinions relating to careers from either an informed or informal source.
- Careers Guidance = more in-depth support, often helping recipients understand things about themselves or the world around them that otherwise they would not perceive.
What is a career?
A career is defined as “a person’s journey through work, learning, and life”. At Rhyddings, we understand that the first stages of young people’s career development are often the most important, and we provide comprehensive and ongoing support to our students to help them reflect on their capabilities, understand the nature of the choices they face, and move forward towards their future goals.
The nature of a ‘career’ has changed and continues to change. Many of our students’ parents or grandparents will have grown up in an age where it was common for a person to decide on their future career path very early – with some young people not getting a choice at all – and then working for long periods with one employer. Nowadays, careers are very fluid – young people will have many more employers throughout their lifespan, and they will more than likely have more than one ‘career’.
Sixth Forms
All Sixth Forms are essentially, extensions of existing secondary schools, where students can progress from year 11 onto Year 12. Sixth Forms welcome applications from external students. They previously offered just A-Levels, but some offer vocational options, too.
St Christophers, Accrington
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School (BRGS)
Clitheroe Royal Grammar School (CRGS)
Westholme School, Blackburn
Alder Grange, Rawtenstall
St Wilfrid’s, Blackburn
Colleges
A provider of A-Levels, vocational courses and Apprenticeships based in Blackburn, Lancashire.
A provider of A-Levels, vocational courses and Apprenticeships based in Blackburn, Lancashire. Note: Burnley College’s Apprenticeship offer is known as Themis, which you can find more out about at https://www.burnley.ac.uk/themis-home/.
Accrington and Rossendale College
A provider of vocational courses and Apprenticeships based in Accrington, Lancashire. Note: Accrington and Rossendale College is part of the Nelson and Colne College Group.
A provider of A-Levels, vocational courses and Apprenticeships based in Nelson, Lancashire. Note: Nelson and Colne College are part of the same group as Accrington and Rossendale College, and call themselves collectively the ‘Nelson and Colne College Group’.
A provider of A-Levels, vocational courses and Apprenticeships with sites based in Leyland and Chorley, Lancashire.
A provider of A-Levels, vocational courses and Apprenticeships with sites across Preston, Lancashire.
A provider of vocational courses and Apprenticeships specialising in the Land, Animal and Sports industries, with sites in Bilsborrow (near Preston) and at Witton Park in Blackburn.
Other Providers
Some institutions offer full-time vocational courses but are not, strictly speaking, a Sixth Form or College.
Accrington Stanley Community Trust
A provider of full-time vocational courses, with a new site on Thorneyholme Road, Accrington, due to open in 2020. Please note: ASCT have a link with Accrington and Rossendale College.
A provider of Apprenticeships in diverse sectors including Engineering and Dental Nursing, Training 2000 also offer full-time courses, too.
A provider of Apprenticeships locally, NLTG also offer full-time courses and Traineeships for students not ready to engage with an Apprenticeship.
A provider of training and Apprenticeships, specifically for the Hair and Beauty industries.
What is Labour Market Information?
The ‘Labour Market’ is the availability of different jobs and vocations across a particular area – local, regional, national, or international. Looking at the labour market around you can help you understand the importance of the career choices that you will make throughout your education and beyond.
There’s a simple way to think about this. If you love creative industries, and feel that you want to develop a career within them, then considering the labour market around you is important. Is it likely you will find a job in the creative industries in the Hyndburn area? There are some opportunities, but certainly not as many as there will be in locations such as Manchester, Leeds, and of course London. Therefore, studying creative industries may mean that you need to aspire to study and/or work away from Accrington.
How to access Labour Market Information
There are many ways to access labour market information, both online and in person.
- Possibly the easiest way to access labour market information is to look on a jobsearch website. These are generally the way most people access job vacancies nowadays (before they existed, people used to look in newspapers). Popular sites include indeed.co.uk, www.monster.co.uk, and www.reed.co.uk.
- Jobsearch sites will give you an immediate understanding of the jobs around you, but of course, you won’t be working full-time until you decide to finish your studies. Therefore, labour market information that deals with trends is probably more useful to you – particularly as it may anticipate coming changes to the labour market from technology.
A quick warning though – some of these information sources are not particularly user-friendly and you may not understand some elements!
- The Office for National Statistics is the government body that collects information on various things – among them, how many people are employed in particular industries, what qualification levels they have, etc. They have a site called NOMIS which shows labour market information – visit it at www. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/, and you can look at information on particular areas such as Hyndburn, Burnley, and Blackburn, as well as wider regional areas.
- The Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (lancashirelep.co.uk) is an organisation that works across Lancashire, and the industries and economies that will thrive in future years.
- The Careerometer tool situated here
First Careers
https://www.firstcareers.co.uk
This website is great for younger pupils to explore how their favourite subjects can lead to a range of careers and discover work experience opportunities with well-known employers.
Prospects
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles
All pupils can browse one of the most comprehensive lists of job profiles giving information about the role, qualifications, salary and the skills required. There are also tips for gaining work experience in each career.
UCAS
This is more than just a universities website. Young people and their families can find out about different careers, apprenticeships, going to college as well as university.
National Careers Service
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/explore-careers
This is a government website with up to date information about careers. It provides you with an overview of careers available in the UK today.
UK Averages
Open Events 2025-26 ????
What are your future plans? open events are a great way for to look at all your options and make an informed decision. This document gives dates of local sixth forms, FE Colleges and Apprenticeship providers to help you make the right decision for you.
