Careers Programme - Step Beyond

Careers education, information, advice & guidance, and post-16 education.

At Salford City Academy, we want our students to leave school with high aspirations and make informed decisions on their next choice of destinations. Embedding careers education in the culture of the school from the outset and providing a coherent careers journey will allow our students to take responsibility for their personal development and make the most of all opportunities presented to them.

Salford City Academy recognises that there is an expectation to provide careers education in Years 7-11 and to give learners access to impartial and independent careers information, education and guidance, providing extra support as required for learners with additional needs, as outlined in the Gatsby Career Benchmarks.

As part of the Step Beyond Programme, we offer the following:

Every pupil, whatever their ambitions, should have the opportunity to explore what it is like to learn at the full range of learning providers, including colleges, universities, apprenticeships, and training providers (including employers), University Technical Colleges (UTCs), and Studio Schools. That is why we ensure there is the opportunity for a range of education and training providers to access Years 8 to 11 students via assemblies, form time sessions, character days, and educational visits. By hearing directly from a range of providers, every pupil can build up a full picture of the options available and consider how the opportunity to study or train in different ways, and in different environments, might suit their skills, interests, and aptitudes. This will lead to better-informed choices and help to reduce the risk of young people dropping out of courses.

Students, parents, teachers, and employers can find out more information about our careers programme by contacting our trained advisor, Mr Byrne.  Should you wish to make an appointment, please contact us at connor.byrne@salfordcity-academy.org.

Working alongside GM Higher, we operate an extensive Careers programme that runs alongside all of the specific year group activities. All year groups participate in careers driven activities designed for their age range, including careers fairs, mock interviews and STEM activities. Students are able to experience lots of opportunities to speak to representatives from a wide range of career sectors, universities, colleges and training providers raising their future aspirations.

We evaluate our careers provision at the end of each term and do this effectively via the compass+ evaluation tool. This tool is used to let us know how we are performing against the Gatsby Benchmarks and provides us with areas for improvement.

In addition to this formal monitoring of the impact of CEIAG and provider access will be carried out through:

• The school’s CEIAG checklist
• Careers guidance interview records
• Informal feedback from students, parents, teachers and employers through random sampling
• Student questionnaires for individual guidance interviews and group work
• Lesson observations
• Enterprise Advisor reviews
• Termly pupil voice via My Aspire
• Local partnership engagement logs
• Feedback from associated HE institutions

Review

The careers information on this page will be reviewed in August 2026.