CPaBL - FAQs/schools

Frequently Asked Questions - CPaBL Schools

Question 1
What types of support can my school expect to receive through the programme?

Response:

• Personnel - a regional team of School Support Services (SSS) and Career Services (CS) staff; MoE, Education Review Office staff working on the CPaBL evaluation; other schools in your region also on the programme.
• Resources - a range of resources (hard copy and online) will be developed specifically for this programme. Career Services have key responsibility for this aspect of the work, with assistance from SSS. Existing resources will be amended to target this initiative.
• Funding - each school will receive a set level of funding for the 2 year programme, made up of a base amount and additional funding derived from Yr 9-13 student roll numbers.

Question 2
Who should be involved from within my school?

Response:
All staff, the Board of Trustees and parents should be aware of this programme happening in your school.
There will be a key Careers Team who will lead the work. The school Careers Team will involve the careers advisor, Principal or designated senior manager, STAR and Gateway Coordinators, transition teacher and others as deemed appropriate.

Question 3
Who owns this programme

Response:
The school owns the programme with the support of the MoE and the CPaBL support team. It is up to each individual school to meet the needs of their students and wider school community. These needs will have be identified initially through the Data Information Profile process, and then further developed in consultation with your regional team.

Question 4
What is a CEP? And PSA?

Response:
A CEP is a Career Education Plan and;

• is the result of ongoing self-review of careers education policies, plans and programmes
• is embedded in or linked to school policy and planning documents such as the Charter and Strategic Plan
• requires whole school and community involvement and ownership.

A PSA is a Professional Support Agreement. This is a written delivery agreement between three parties - the school, Career Services and School Support Services (CPaBL Team). It is there to ensure that roles and responsibilities for all parties are clear and that effective and appropriate professional support is provided.

Question 5
Who should we be linking with outside of our school, to get maximum benefit from this work?

Response:
Part of the philosophy behind CPaBL is that schools are encouraged to make links with local businesses, Youth Transition Services or similar, Tertiary Education Commission (re Gateway), other schools in their cluster, people in their communities (such as local iwi), families/whanau. This list is not exhaustive. A school will link with whoever best can meet their identified needs. These links should be a key component of the CEP and PSA.

Question 6
What will this programme mean for our students? What might they notice is happening differently?

Response:
Students will be:

• Developing Self Awareness
• Becoming Aware of Opportunities
• Making Decisions and Planning
• Taking Action

By the time they are transitioning from school they should be able to make informed decisions about the next step and possible careers. It will mean a targeted approach to their individual transition and career needs, and a means by which their voice will be heard. It may mean that their teachers are talking to them more frequently about this area, and all should be referring to the same key messages school-wide. Students should notice a `buzz' in the Careers area of the school!
See CPaBL Student Outcomes for more details on the MoE website at www.minedu.govt.nz.

Question 7
We have completed the Data Information Profile? Where to from here with this data?

Response:
This data gives you a starting point, providing a structure for developing a profile of your school's current career education programme, and the foundation for a needs/gap analysis to enhance the career education programme within the school. It also makes links between retention, achievement and career education; and it is the essential first step towards Self-Review to build capability and sustainability.

Question 8
How can I advocate for my role as Careers Advisor through this programme?

Response:
By taking up the professional development opportunities provided through CPaBL the careers advisor becomes more skilled. CPaBL raises the profile of career education in the school allowing for time, money and resources specifically aimed at career education and programme development. If a school takes full advantage of what is on offer through CPaBL, it should see good results in the student outcomes in retention and achievement as well as career planning. This in turn, will positively highlight the careers programme in the school and the careers advisor.

Question 9
How can I fit this extra work on top of my already busy day/timetable?

Response:
CPaBL specifically targets a school-wide approach to career education, led from the top. Funding has been provided for teacher release days in recognition that the CPaBL will take time away from what you would have normally been doing. CPaBL is a team effort and is not meant to fall on any one person within a school.

Question 10
What happens to this work in our school when the Ministry funding stops at the end of 2008?

Response:
From the outset it has been clearly stated that schools should use CPaBL funding to build sustainable systems of careers education. Career Services will continue to provide resources, as they always have, and both Career Services and School Support Services will continue to be available to schools once central funding ends. More importantly though, is that the schools will have built systems within their schools to support positive student outcomes, staff will have had professional development, and the bar will have been raised for career education in schools.

Question 11
What impact will the introduction of the new Curriculum have on this work in my school? How can we align these two areas for maximum benefit?

Response:
The draft curriculum starts from a vision of what school leavers in NZ need to live and work successfully in their world and builds on principles which espouse `coherent pathways'. The curriculum areas can therefore be seen as contexts for developing the key competencies related to that vision of school leaver capabilities. Career Advisors (and other guidance staff) are therefore potentially central to this curriculum as they never were before.

The Key Competencies sections needs to be carefully studied/understood by experts in careers/transition/Gateway/STAR area. It is an opportunity to develop good practical ideas about how we can work within faculties using the `Vision' statement and the `Key Competencies' as shared goals, to better integrate the co-construction of pathways into students' learning in all curriculum areas. The draft curriculum better integrates the whole idea of students being supported to build pathways, navigate their way though NCEA...... and raises questions about how groups of trained staff, including careers professionals, could work more closely with curriculum heads etc to support the development of the competencies in the context of deliberately planned pathways.