Our aim is to weave employability through the curriculum. We define employability as a set of skills, knowledge, understanding and personal attributes that make a person more likely to choose, secure and retain occupations in which they can be successful and happy. We see it as equipping boys with skills for life beyond Eton. In doing so, the Career Education Department seeks accreditation biennially through the awarding body Career Mark to attain the Quality in Careers Standard (QiCS). In Nov 2022, the department was revalidated as making good progress towards this national standard and won a Gold Award through Complete Careers.
School leaders have ensured that careers education is comprehensive and relevant. As pupils move up through the school, support becomes more individualised and related to psychometric testing. Recent initiatives by careers leaders have broadened the scope of careers advice to include, for instance, guidance about degree apprenticeships and opportunities for direct employment.”
ISI Report 2024
Eton Futures introduces boys to the significance of employability and encourages them to develop this throughout their time at Eton. If you, a family member or friend are an employer, education or training provider and could support our Employability programme (including work experience placements, careers talks, networking opportunities and attending our Career Fair), please do contact us on [email protected] . We would be delighted to hear from you and to add you to the network of local employers that we currently partner with in supporting our students and those in our local schools partnership.
Learners at Eton College benefit from a comprehensive program of support, aimed at helping them to transition to destinations that are positive for them.
Career Mark Quality in Careers Standard assessment report 2022
We calibrate our success against the eight Gatsby Benchmarks, fundamentally a description of what good career education, information, advice and guidance should look like.
1. A stable careers programme
2. Learning from career and labour market information
3. Addressing the needs of each boy
4. Linking curriculum learning to careers
5. Encounters with employers and employees
6. Experience of workplaces
7. Encounters with further and higher education
8. Personal guidance
Eton Futures was first awarded the prestigious Quality in Careers Standard in 2018.
We have two level-7 qualified career coaches who hold the Qualification in Career Development (QCD) awarded by the Career Development Institute. As such, our progress is reviewed regularly against the CDI Framework (April 2021) along the following six dimensions of employability:
a. Growing throughout life
b. Exploring possibilities
c. Managing career
d. Creating opportunities
e. Balancing life & work
f. Seeing the big picture
There is a high level of support offered to learners, but there is a strong emphasis on self-development and independence, which means that the learners are well-prepared for the next stage of the life.
Career Mark Quality in Careers Standard assessment report 2022
The department ensures that boys receive age appropriate guidance, information and advice through a planned programme of career, employability and enterprise education delivered via a variety of agencies and partners. The general programme includes assemblies, parent meetings, regular Focus on Careers newsletters as well as access to at least weekly VocSoc speaker meetings, sector-specific networking events, and other co-curricular society meetings focussed on the professions.
We run Business Insight Days, immersing groups of boys in a company or a sector for a whole day, exposing them to the culture of a business and acquainting them with some of the many career tracks that exist within it. We utilise the Shortlist.me platform to allow boys the opportunity to practise asynchronous interviews, a widely used selection tool. There is an extensive range of information and advice available on our internal platform Firefly and boys also have access to a wide range of other online platforms and services such as Morrisby, Unifrog, Shortlist.me, EtonX, SACU and Cappfinity Strengths Profiling.
In principle, career education is made available to all Blocks (year groups), but the following timeline indicates particular events and opportunities available for boys in each Block:
F Block (Year 9)
- ‘Success Needs A Plan’ workshop
- Career Education @ Eton boardgame
- ‘Morrisby Aspirations’ Profiling
- F Block baseline survey
- ‘World of Work’ tutorial
- ‘REED Virtual Work Experience’ programme
E Block (Year 10)
- Skills workshops (2)
- ‘Labour Market Information research exercise’
- Career/Higher Education exploration in SACU
- Research volunteering opportunities
- One-to-one meetings with Career Education
- Extensive Business Insight Day programme
D Block (Year 11)
- Morrisby Psychometric Profile
- Independent advisor meeting and report
- Tutor meeting to discuss Morrisby
- ‘CV Writing’ module
- Volunteering planning
- Work experience planning
- Business Insight Days
- One-to-one meeting with Career Education
C Block (Year 12)
- Ikigai
- ‘Strengths Profile’
- Accessing LMI module
- Promotion of MOOCs
- CV and cover letter support
- Volunteering planning
- Work experience planning
- Gap Year advice
- Workshop programme including LinkedIn, Financial Trading and others
- Business Insight Day programme
B Block (Year 13)
- ‘Applications and How to Fail’ module
- Assessment Centre module
- UCAT and LNAT training
- Revisit ‘Strengths Profile’
- LinkedIn workshop
- CV and cover letter meetings
- Gap Year planning and support
Contact Information
Cathy McKenna RCDP, PGDip, QCD
Head of Career Education, [email protected]
General Enquiries to [email protected]
