Your child will need to make a series of learning and career decisions. We provide guidance, coaching and inspiration to help them.
What does a Careers Adviser do?
Careers Advisers help people make decisions about education, training and work.
Our Careers Advisers are professionally trained. They have a Level 6 qualification in Career Guidance and Development or an equivalent. They are registered with the Career Development Institute (CDI) UK Register of Career Development Professionals.
How we support your child
We want to encourage your child to be positive and excited about their future. We will help them make the best career decisions for them so that they can reach their potential.
Every maintained secondary school in Wales has a Careers Adviser. Your child will first be able to meet one of our advisers in secondary school.
The support your child receives is personalised to their needs. Careers Advisers use a range of tools and information to find out what support your child needs.
Everyone has access to our digital tools and resources.
Some learners find it hard moving into education, training or a job when they leave school. We work with schools to find out who is likely to be in this position and give these young people extra support.
What Advisers cover
During group and individual sessions advisers will aim to:
- Broaden horizons
- Develop key skills for career planning, both short and long-term
- Raise awareness of the skills needed for current and future jobs
- Support young people to make decisions for their next step and beyond
Careers education in schools
The new Curriculum for Wales is for 3 to 16 year olds. All areas must include careers and work-related education. This means that your child will develop their understanding of the world of work across all subjects.
Careers Wales services help your child apply this learning to themselves and their own career development.
Other Careers Wales staff who support schools
Careers and work-related experiences (CWRE) Coordinators
CWRE Co-ordinators help teachers to include careers education in their lessons.
They provide online resources for primary schools. They work with teachers in secondary and special schools. They also work with colleges.
They set up learning events for teachers, governors, and leadership teams.
Business Engagement Advisers (BEA)
Our Education Business Partnership brings together schools and employers. BEAs plan and support activities to inspire young people about their career opportunities.
They offer a range of activities to secondary and special schools.
Activities could:
- Involve one employer or several employers
- Take place face-to-face or digitally
- Have a career or sector focus, or support part of the curriculum
BEAs also arrange careers fairs where pupils can meet and hear from lots of employers. These include Choose your future, Welsh in the Workplace and What Next?
Our Career Discovery Week events take place online every year. There are separate events for primary schools and secondary schools.
Schools are responsible for organising work experience for their pupils. But, we do organise certain work experience activities.
Details we hold about your child and why
We need to hold personal data about the people we work with to provide our services.
To help your child plan their future we will hold information which may include:
- Their name
- Home address
- Subjects they are studying
- Exam results
- Work experience
- Any ideas they may have about their future education or career
- Details of any support needs they may have
- Contact details for them and a parent/guardian
We may share or receive personal data about them with or from their school, college, training provider and other organisations that may help them with their future career plans.
We treat personal data with respect. Find out more in our privacy notice.
We may contact you or your child by email, text or phone. This will be to send them information relevant to their education and career ideas.
Support at every stage
Find out about decisions your child will make, how we help and how you can build on this at home.
Get ideas to explore the world of work with your child and find out how we support primary schools.
Find out about choices your child will make in Years 7, 8 and 9 and the support they need.
Get information about the options your child has after year 11 and how to help them.
Discover ways to support your child with learning and career decisions in further education.
Learn how we can help your child if they're looking for a job or are in work or work-based training and how you can support them.