The Association of Colleges is to receive over £400,000 to teach staff in 12 colleges to deliver effective careers training for disadvantaged learners.

The Careers & Enterprise Company today announced the first wave of organisations to benefit from a £2.5 million investment fund to support personal guidance in schools and colleges.

Four organisations will share just under £870,000 in the first phase, with up to £1.7 million available in the second round. The four organisations are Achieving for Children, Adviza, the AoC and Careers Connect.

The AoC will receive the largest slice, being given £431,000.

The project is aimed to “strengthen and extend the reach of their existing personal guidance delivery” within  12 colleges (see list below).

It will train curriculum staff to “deliver effective ‘triage’ which supports the delivery of every learner receiving a personal guidance interview” and the colleges included will be “providing support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and special educational needs”.

The AoC previously said the “type of additional activity” supported through the fund includes upskilling “existing careers professionals – qualified staff get access to continuing professional development, unqualified staff supported to achieve QCF Level 6” and “training for new careers professionals for future delivery”.

“Our proposal will aim to develop effective ways for groups of colleges to work together to deliver personal guidance in a cost-effective way,” the association added.

The ‘Personal Guidance Fund’ invests in “projects that deliver innovative models of personal careers guidance to clusters of schools and colleges”, the Careers & Enterprise Company said.

“With a focus on the training of careers development professionals, the fund aims to explore the effectiveness of different approaches to career guidance, and how they can be scaled up and integrated across the education system.”

These programmes will be used to create “case studies, develop guidance on scaling best practice, identify new approaches and make the case for further investment”.

Career Connect, a charity working across the North West, will receive £220,000 to provide careers advice and guidance services in 12 “identified schools” in the region.

Adviza is working across Thames Valley and has been given £114,000 to deliver two programmes.

The first will offer a “number of level six career guidance trained advisers the opportunity to gain an accredited coaching qualification” and the second will “improve the impact of personal guidance by harnessing the power of parents and carers”.

Achieving for Children will receive £105,000 to work across 13 mainstream and special schools, “providing ‘Next Steps’ personal guidance interviews to students with education, health and care plans and those with special educational needs in years 10 and 13”.

The interviews will “provide information on post-16 options and help them explore longer term aspirations”.

Claudia Harris (pictured), chief executive of the Careers & Enterprise Company, said: “Personal guidance is a key ingredient of a good careers education.

“We know there are already countless careers professional doing really effective, innovative work in the personal guidance space. This fund is about backing and celebrating that good practice, so it can be scaled up and shared across the country.”

Applications for the second wave of funding are open from today (October 16) until the end of November. Interested organisations should contact investment@careersandenterprise.co.uk.

The 12 colleges to receive targeted careers training:

                Abingdon and Witney College

                Barnsley College

                City of Westminster College

                Derby College

                Heart of Worcestershire College

                Isle of Wight College

                Leicester College

                Petroc

                RNN Group

                Selby College

                South Devon College

                York College

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