Careers Health-Check Checklist

Working alongside the Careers & Enterprise Company, Talentino! created this Checklist to support you to think about the careers provision you have within your SEND setting. It is a great tool to help evaluate what you are doing currently, and what you can implement to further improve your offering. It looks at Careers Leadership, Careers Strategy & Programme, Gatsby Benchmarks, Careers Guidance, Young Person’s Career Experience at School/College, and Considerations for young people with SEND.

By following the link, you will be taken directly to the health-check resource page from the Careers & Enterprise Company website. From here you can download the document either as a Word document, or as in interactive PDF. This allows you to fill in the details and keep it on record for future referral.


Career Planner “My Career Development Plan”

This forms the ‘Careers Story’ for your students and enables students to get involved and own their own career development. It highlights the process through which they will progress, with a clear and simple tracking process, of getting ready for their career, and what steps they can take to realise their aspirations. Each stage of their Early Career Development can be marked with a series of ‘emojis’, which mark their progress, and can help you as a career coach establish where extra development is required. For the benefit of staff and Careers Leaders, there is also some brief information on how ‘Careers at EVERY Level’ links to each of the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks, to support how you can create and improve your careers programme.

Clicking this button will take you to the online preview of the Planner, where you can download it and save a copy for each learner.

We have also put together this PLANNER GUIDE to make sure the Planner works for you when you download it.


Career Coaching Curriculum Lesson Plans

Working alongside SEND teaching professionals, we have created a suite of lesson plans which you can use to improve the careers offering for your students. They have been designed to complement the activity you are already doing, and each lesson plan is designed to follow a system that you are familiar with. The curriculum covers a range of abilities, meaning that you are able to choose the right material and deliver a truly tailored careers approach to your students.


Before I go to work…

This set of task cards will help your students to identify and develop the activities required to get ready for work on a daily basis. Each activity is shown in ‘communicate in print’, and then there is included a written description in further detail.


When I am at work…

This set of task cards will help your students to identify and develop the softer skills and activities which sit around the actual job they are doing. They are wide-reaching in scope and therefore relevant to a wide variety of careers that your students may be interested in pursuing. Each activity or skill is shown in ‘communicate in print’, as well as a more detailed written description.

Jobs you could do

Aimed more at students at the MLD and SLD level, this resource aims to help students explore careers they may be interested in pursuing. It is based on research we have conducted on jobs held by adults with learning difficulties, making this an authentic and realistic career exploration resource for your students. Each ‘card’ represents a particular job, which is shown in ‘communicate in print’, and there are 129 options included. It acts as a prompt for further research and encourages your students to think about the types of jobs they would like, and therefore what sort of work experience would be enjoyable and how they can go about their desired employment path.



JOB FAMILIES

This resource consists of 21 job categories, with imagery, so students can recognise different roles within each category. Students can see the range of career options in each category, and it encourages the exploration of diverse job opportunities aligned with their interests, skills, and capabilities. 

Work Related Skills for Independent Living Task Cards

This resource can be used in conjunction with the ‘wall planner’. It takes each skill and goes into more detail on each stage of the process of each activity, so your students can show they are able to demonstrate each skill. Progress can be made from conducting an activity with support and guidance from a career coach or staff member, through to being able to demonstrate the skill completely independently.


Work Related Skills for Independent Living – Planner

This tool helps you and your students to keep track of the specific work-related skills for independent living they have acquired. Each card symbolises a separate work-related skill and can be applied to the front page which is individual to each student to show their ability to carry out each step. The following resource named “Work-Related Skills for Independent Living” is to be used in conjunction with this planner, going into more detail on each skill to be developed by your students.

Clicking this button will take you to the online preview, where you can download it and save a copy for each learner.

We have also put together this  PLANNER GUIDE to make sure the Planner works for you when you download it.

GOOD THINGS ABOUT WORKING

This resource is a valuable tool to support students to recognise and appreciate the advantages of having a job. Each “card” highlights a different positive aspect of working, along with conversation starters to encourage students to discuss their future careers. 

TRANSITIONS

This resource provides visual cues and conversation starters for various transitions, and is particularly helpful for those who struggle with social communication. It can be used at various stages, creating an opportunity to discuss students concerns around transition and begin the process of planning and preparation. They have also been designed to develop student capability in interaction in public places as well as in educational settings.

Work Experience Guide

Our work experience guide aims to support you as a careers leader to improve the work experience specifically for young people with SEND. Included is a combination of our own research and information on how to secure appropriate work experience placements and prepare your students, as well as providing a wealth of external resources to support you further.


Work Experience Cards & Prompts

This set of task cards will help your students to explore a range of career characteristics relating to work experience. To help prepare your students for when they go on work experience, they will have a better understanding of what they might experience, what issues they may have to deal with, and how that can be done. They are wide-reaching in scope and therefore relevant to a wide variety of work experience placements that your students may be interested in pursuing. Each aspect is shown in ‘communicate in print’, as well as a more detailed written description.


Employer Encounter Guide

Employer encounters are a hugely valuable aspect of a young person’s early career development, as well as being a statutory requirement. But it is not always easy to provide, particularly for young people with SEND. This guide will offer advice on the types of encounters which are viable and useful for your students, as well as advising on how to approach securing these experiences. As well as information, this guide also includes some great examples of activities for you and your students, for example ambassador visits, workplace volunteering, or creating a social enterprise with support from local employers.


Bambino STEM Employability & Enterprise

Based on the seven ‘families’ of skills discussed in the Bambino resource, this programme aims to apply these to a business-focused project you can establish with your students. This is a great way to contextualise employability skills in an enjoyable environment for them. It will also give students experience in employability skills, enabling them to identify what career aspects they enjoy, develop their business-focused skills, and also self-evaluate for their future careers education. Each of the seven employability skills are explained in further detail, and the programme presents you as staff with lesson plans we have created alongside SEN teaching professionals.


Bambino Peer Coaching Cards

This resource can be used to help develop the fundamental skills required across the spectrum of employment possibilities. There are 40 different skills which you can use as a basis for early career development sessions, and they are organised into seven ‘families’ of skills: communication, problem-solving, motivation & adaptability, organisation, teamwork, numeracy, and negotiation.

PMLD Enterprise Lesson Plans

Working alongside SEND teaching professionals, we have created a suite of lesson plans which you can use to improve the careers offering for your students. They have been designed to complement the activity you are already doing, and each lesson plan is designed to follow a system that you are familiar with. The lesson plans cover a range of abilities, meaning that you are able to choose the right material and delivery a truly tailored careers approach to your students.


PMLD Reference Images

Objects of reference are a strategic pedagogical choice, promoting engagement, inclusivity, and communication in a supportive educational environment for students with profound and multiple learning disabilities.

SEND Gatsby Toolkit

Working alongside the Careers & Enterprise Company, Talentino! created this toolkit to help address the Gatsby Benchmarks, offering practical advice and information. If you are working to deliver the Gatsby Benchmarks for young people with SEND in whatever setting – special schools, mainstream schools, colleges, PRUs, AP, SEMH, virtual schools or hospital schools – you will find this resource particularly valuable. There are two sections within this resource – Part 1 explores the wider context, with support for you and young people with SEND. Part 2 – is a larger section that focuses on the Gatsby Benchmarks from a SEND perspective, and includes resource links and case studies, top tips for employers, top tips for schools information on ‘why this matters’ and ‘what this means in practice’.

Clicking this button will take you directly to the PDF version of the toolkit online from the Careers & Enterprise Company website.


Careers at EVERY Level Training Videos

The training videos have been created to take you systematically through all the elements of the training. They have been organised in bite size chunks; no film lasts longer than 34 minutes. Time for natural breaks and discussion points have been organised throughout – we don’t recommend trying to watch them all in one go.