What is Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG)?

CEIAG stands for Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance.

Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) is a range of activities designed to help students and young people make informed decisions about their future educational and career paths. CEIAG is particularly important in high schools where students are starting to make key decisions about their post-16 pathways.

CEIAG prepares students and young people for their future. It supports them to acquire the self-development and career management skills they need to achieve positive employment destinations.
CEIAG includes various activities like career interviews, workshops, one-on-one guidance, and work experience. These activities help students make informed career choices as they transition to sixth forms and beyond.

The purpose of CEIAG is to help young people make informed decisions about their post-16 pathways. By providing them with personalised advice and guidance, we ensure that students are aware of and can explore a wide range of career opportunities. This approach helps them to understand and navigate their career options and educational opportunities more effectively.
Our support is crucial not only in preparing them for the workforce but also in enhancing their employability and facilitating a smooth transition from education into work. Through CEIAG, we aim to broaden their perspectives and encourage them to consider diverse paths that align with their interests and abilities.

CEIAG is a range of activities including one-to-one appointments, group sessions, assemblies, parent’s evenings, and careers fairs.

At Progress Careers, we provide a customised careers service that we can tailor to fit your school’s existing careers programme. We work with schools to identify the areas of their existing career provision that need improvement and work soley on this, resulting in a practical, cost-efficient solution. Our team of enthusiastic and knowledgeable advisers pride themselves on delivering high-quality careers guidance that works for both your school and its pupils.

We can help you reach your CEIAG needs by delivering a personalised career guidance service to your school that we are 100% focused on. Our approach not only complements but also enhances your existing CEIAG programme, integrating seamlessly with the strategies you already have in place.

We deliver our careers service through a range of activities, focusing largely on one-to-one tailored career appointments. We can work with schools of all sizes to create a careers guidance service that works for them.

We tailor the delivery of career advice and guidance to suit the needs of your school in order to help you work towards the Gatsby Benchmarks. Our flexible service offerings include careers cafes, assemblies, careers roadshows, and one-to-one advice. Additionally, we offer support during Parents Evenings and Results Days, ensuring that your CEIAG programme is robust, comprehensive, and effective.

At Progress Careers, we centre our approach to career guidance around a 5-phase framework to ensure that all young people have access to the CEIAG that aligns with their needs and aspirations. Here’s a closer look at each phase and how it contributes to effective CEIAG implementation:

Understand
We start by gaining a comprehensive understanding of your school’s specific needs and the unique aspirations of your students. In this initial phase, we explore your existing provisions and identify opportunities for enhancement. We focus on the motivations and requirements of your students to ensure our services perfectly align with your school’s needs.

Identify
Building on our understanding, we identify the most effective CEIAG interventions for your school. Whether it’s through individual sessions or group activities, our tailored approach aims to deliver focused, impartial careers advice that addresses your specific requirements and ensures impactful outcomes.

Establish
Our dedicated Careers Advisers and leadership team work collaboratively to establish and implement the identified careers guidance strategies. This phase involves setting up the necessary frameworks and mechanisms to efficiently execute these strategies, maximising the benefits for your students.

Manage
Support extends beyond the classroom, continuing even as students transition to significant milestones, such as moving beyond Year 11. We are present on Results Day to assist those who might not achieve their hoped-for grades, and we continue to track their progress into post-16 education or training, ensuring seamless transitions and ongoing support.

Promote
In this final phase, we actively promote the long-term benefits of receiving timely and effective careers advice. Our team is committed to advocating for the importance of CEIAG, aiming to reach more students and empower them with the guidance needed to make informed decisions that shape their future success.

The Gatsby Benchmarks provide a framework of eight key benchmarks designed to enhance career guidance programs in secondary schools and colleges. Developed by Sir John Holman, a former headteacher and the founder of the National STEM Learning Centre, for the Gatsby Foundation, these benchmarks set the standards for what constitutes good career guidance:

1. A stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each pupil
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experiences of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal guidance

By aiming to meet the benchmarks, schools and colleges can develop a careers programme that provides young people with the necessary knowledge and understanding to make well-informed choices about their futures. Enhancing career guidance through adherence to the Benchmarks not only leads to improved student outcomes but also boosts aspirations and enhances engagement with education.

Our provision meets Benchmark 8, but we offer extra support to schools to help them meet the other seven.