Executive Summary
Teachers and the wider education workforce play a key role in supporting young people’s career decision-making. However, the pace of change in the economy and industries can make it challenging for teachers to stay up to date with the skills employers need in a future workforce and the variety of opportunities and career pathways available to their students.
The Teacher Encounters Programme is designed to help teachers increase their
confidence and knowledge of the range of opportunities in today’s world of work. It provides an opportunity for teachers to engage directly with employers to see and learn about the different career pathways relevant to their subject and how that subject is applied practically in the workplace of today.
Key Findings
Impacts on teachers
• 93% of teachers said engaging with employers was a good use of their time
and they would like to do it more frequently. This is important given the time
and curriculum pressures facing teachers.
• 91% said it had improved their confidence in having careers-related
conversations with their students.
• 78% said their experience of engaging with employers made them better able
to deliver their subject.
Impacts on employers
• 97% said it helped them explain to teachers and young people their future
skills needs.
• 96% of employers said they are keen to engage with teachers more
frequently.
• 91% said teacher encounters had been beneficial to their organisation.
Impacts on the provision of career support.
• 96% of teachers said they had improved their abilities in key areas like being
able to better support their students, link their subjects with careers and
improve their knowledge of different pathways to work.
• Teacher’s confidence in bringing the careers conversation into their day-to
day work rose significantly as a result of the programme. Confidence levels in
engaging with employers rose by 92%, talking to parents about their children’s
careers and pathways rose by 63% and delivering career-related learning and
talking to students about careers and pathways rose by 47% and 27%
respectively.
Impacts on the provision of career support.
• 96% of teachers said they had improved their abilities in key areas like being
able to better support their students, link their subjects with careers and
improve their knowledge of different pathways into work.
• Teacher’s confidence in bringing the careers conversation into their day-to
day work rose significantly as a result of the programme. Confidence levels in
engaging with employers rose by 92%, talking to parents about their children’s
careers and pathways rose by 63% and delivering career-related learning and
talking to students about careers and pathways rose by 47% and 27%
respectively.
• Teachers also reported increases in career-related knowledge as a
consequence of the programme, with knowledge of technical and vocational pathways and use of labour market information (LMI) both up 19% and
understanding the skills employers are looking for up 14%.
• There was also a direct impact on classroom practice with a 37% increase in
the number of teachers saying they now know how to develop curriculum
materials relevant to the world of work (up from 57% to 78%).
Impacts on employer engagement with education
• 77% of employers said they were now much more able to engage with
schools effectively and a similar proportion (76%) said they now know how to
deliver more effective teacher encounters in the future.
• 68% of employers said they had learned useful skills through working with
teachers and more than three in five said they now had a better
understanding of what young people needed to move successfully into work
(67%) and the barriers they faced (63%).
• 49% of employers said their organisation was now more likely to recruit young
people and 45% said it would increase diversity in recruitment.
Support for the Teacher Encounters Programme
• 95% of employers said they would recommend the programme to colleagues
and other businesses.
• 87% of teachers said they would recommend the programme to other
teachers and schools
Conclusion
The report on the Teacher Encounters Programme has demonstrated that there is a strong case for the ongoing development of this programme. When teachers have the opportunity to meet with employers, there are observable benefits to teachers and schools as well as to employers and their organisations. These benefits appear to accrue even when interventions are relatively light touch. Whilst teacher encounters should not be considered a replacement for career advice and guidance, there is good reason to believe that teacher encounters are an important tool for bringing education and employment into better alignment through empowering a whole school approach, gaining teacher and SLT buy-in, and embedding careers in subjects and the curriculum.