Careers Advice

Schools have a legal obligation to provide independent careers guidance.

Sheffield Futures supports schools to not only meet this obligation, but to go far beyond it. Our career education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) offer includes a wealth of resources and placement of a Careers Adviser in the school.

We help schools to develop and maintain exceptional careers offer, with the eight Gatsby Benchmarks at their heart. With Ofsted reports placing a greater emphasis on schools’ CEIAG offer, the Gatsby Benchmarks are now recognised by all schools.

Our Careers Advisers are qualified to at least Level 6, are registered with The Career Development Institute and DBS approved with enhanced status. Not being affiliated with any learning provider or employer means that our support is completely independent. Moreover, we provide tailored advice and guidance for each individual student.

We currently work in 14 secondary schools across Sheffield, supporting young people in Year 9 –13 with tailored careers advice and guidance.

Working in your school

We can deliver a tailor-made package that suits you, your students and your budget.
Young people tell us that they value one-to-one discussions. After every interview we produce an electronic Individaul Development Plan (IDP).

Typically, we offer:

  • Guidance interviews: individual, tailored discussions with students
  • Talks: group discussions, school assemblies and drop-in career clinics
  • Support writing CVs and Personal Statements
  • Post exam results support
  • Attendance at parents’ events
  • Help with events, such as careers fairs
  • Support with employer interaction
  • Inset for your staff
  • Tracking and managing transitions

Options

At Sheffield Futures we produce our own youth-friendly resources for schools and colleges. We have an emphasis on local information as well as including the national picture. These include a printed Options booklet for every Year 11 student (for schools that buy in our careers service), and a series of regularly updated factsheets, including 25 ‘What can I do with…?’ leaflets exploring the links between curriculum subjects and career options, a range of HE and Y10/11 information sheets, Y8/9 resources, and help with job searching.

To give you a sense of our Options booklet, here are some sample pages from Options 2024.

If you wish to buy copies of Options for your students they start at £4 per copy and work on a sliding cost scale depending how many you wish to purchase.

Please get in touch with Amy to find out more and to explore how we could support your students.

Email amy.cooke@sheffield-futures.org.uk or call 07919 335 429
photo of a physical copy of the Options Guide 2024

Don’t take our word for it!

“Working with Sheffield Futures has been fantastic. The support and guidance around options – both at GCSE and Post-16 – is incredibly comprehensive and of huge value to our students. The team are knowledgeable, responsive and dedicated to supporting students to the best outcomes possible. Post-16, in particular, can feel like an overwhelming array of options but working with Sheffield Futures has been a great guide to navigating this! Would absolutely recommend.”

Tom Highnett

Assistant head Teacher High Storrs

“Sheffield Futures offer excellent support to our staff and more importantly, the pupils in our school. Their support and knowledge has been and will continue to be invaluable. Their experience and advice is excellent and has assisted so many pupils in choosing and pursuing the next stage of their education and training. .”

Charlotte Lake

Careers Leader at Handsworth Grange School

Resources for schools

If you’re a school that buys our services you’ll find a whole raft of brilliant careers information and resources below. Post 16 options, Gap Year websites, A Levels explained, What Can I Do with English, Geography, Drama (and loads of other subjects) – you’ll find it all here.

Y8 / Y9 Options

Y10 / 11

Y12 / 13

What Can I do with…

Routes into…

Job Hunting

If you’d like to see something else included here, let us know!

Email us