Written by Gina Keith, Corporate Support Assistant
Have you heard of National Careers Week? National Careers Week (NCW) is a celebration of careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. The aim is to provide a focus for careers guidance activity at an important stage in the academic calendar to help support young people leaving education.* 2021’s NCW will be the 10th anniversary of the week taking place from 1st – 6th March and the celebrations will be digital!
Here at CSW Group our careers team provides information, guidance, and support to young people so they are more informed when exploring their next steps. This includes targeted support for young people with Education, Health and Care Plans who have educational transitions to make, as well as delivering contracted services to schools to help them meet their all-important Gatsby Benchmarks! As this links nicely with what NCW is all about, I make it my mission to make sure our team is involved and coordinate the pledges our team makes to support the week!
So why do I love National Careers Week? I am lucky enough to look after CSW’s social media accounts, which means I get to interact with some fantastic teams online, get involved in national days and campaigns and share what we do at CSW. The empowerment that fills my social media feeds during NCW is incredible and you feel as though you are part of a community all working towards the same goal of Empowering Positive Change through Careers Education.
I am delighted to have spoken to Founder and CEO of National Careers Week, Nick Newman, to ask him some questions about his role, why the week is important and how to get involved in NCW2021.
As the Founder and CEO of National Careers Week, how did it start?
It started with the #SaveCareers campaign I started on Twitter after the Govt cuts to the Connexions service and other youth services across the UK.
What did you do before your NCW venture?
I was the Founder and CEO at Careersbox – the first free online careers video platform for education.
Why do you think it’s such an important week in the diary?
Because CEIAG isn’t embedded within curriculum we felt we had to find a way of parachuting careers Ed into the system… it’s amazing how it spiralled!
How rewarding has it been seeing NCW develop into what it is now?
Professionally speaking it’s been the proudest and most humbling journey I have ever been on.
Did you ever think it would be such a prominent event?
No… I never set goals back in the day – we just tried to get bigger each year through lobbying and sponsorship.
2021 will be the 10th Anniversary of NCW, how can people get involved in the celebrations?
It’s going to be predominantly digital for obvious reasons, so it’s all about getting involved across social media and being a part of that special buzz! Share what great careers work the careers family are doing – a time to celebrate the communities great work and share the positive work being carried out.
What career advice would you give your younger self?
It’s not a sprint it’s a marathon, reputation and trust are EVERYTHING!
I would like to say a big thank you to Nick for answering some questions about National Careers Week, I am personally really looking forward to getting involved in the week! As the date is firmly in our diary, its my job now to coordinate our pledges. Our pledges could be staff supporting the goals of the young people they work with, working with schools to develop their careers education or by helping someone to unlock their potential, whatever they maybe, I can’t wait to share them! Follow us on twitter to keep up to date with our involvement.
Make sure 1st– 6th March is in your diary! You can find out more about National Careers Week on their website https://nationalcareersweek.com/ and be sure to keep up to date with the day on their twitter. Make sure you get involved with NCW2021 by using the official hashtag #NCW2021.
*Source: https://nationalcareersweek.com/new-site-template/ethosandvision-2/