Liverpool charity Career Connect launches impact report for 2023/24

In 2023/24, Career Connect had contact with 97,719 people across the UK, with the aim of empowering them to move forward in employment, education or training – wherever they are in their journey.

It also generated an impressive additional social value of £8million through activity such as the creation of apprenticeships, supporting responsible regional business growth, and reducing its environmental impact.

Career Connect, whose Head Office is based in Liverpool’s Exchange Flags, was established in 2001 as part of the Connexions network before becoming a separate organisation. It became a charity in 2011.

It offers a range of services that support people to move forward in their careers and in life.

Sheila Clark, CEO of Career Connect, said:

“This year, in driving forward our vision for a society where every individual realises their potential, I’m proud to say that we have extended our impact and reach to more people than ever. No matter where we operate, everything we do is driven by our values – inclusive, person-centred, aspirational, impartial and professional.

“We are seeing more demand for our services, and more people with complex needs and barriers to employment, education or training. At the same time, government funding for careers services is yet to increase in real terms.

“Effective and impartial careers support can change lives – making a long-term impact on people’s economic, physical and mental health, and wellbeing outcomes. Investing in careers support is ultimately an investment in all of our futures.

“I am proud of the positive contribution we have made to thousands of lives, and I would like to thank each of our dedicated people who place our participants at the heart of what they do. There is still more to do, and we will continue to build on our impact to change even more lives.”

In 2023/24, Career Connect has:

Provided careers education, information and guidance to 45,795 young people across 214 schools and colleges.

Career Connect’s Education and Business team works in mainstream schools, specialist schools, and alternative provision, with the same aim – to provide tailored services that meet the individual needs and aspirations of students. The team has delivered individual careers interviews and support, careers fairs and employer mock interviews and workshops, organised Work Experience, and sessions on enterprise and challenging career stereotypes. They also deliver the Quality in Careers Standard and CPD sessions, mentorship and consultation for Careers staff.

The team ran the second successful What Next Careers Show in Wirral, which welcomed more than 700 students and 55 employers.

It has also continued to work with nine secondary and ten primary schools in Knowsley, to provide an inspirational programme helping young people to develop an understanding of university life and experience.

Been responsible for tracking and support services for 41,629 young people across eight local authorities, with substantive support provided to 26,229 young people.

Career Connect’s provision includes one-to-one, impartial support and mentoring for young people aged 16+ or those coming up to school leaving age and at risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET). The Charity tracks young people’s career destinations across a number of local authorities and engages with those without a destination, to offer careers support. Targeted and innovative work across the Northwest has included:

Careers Fest, a city-wide job, training, and apprenticeship fair, run by Career Connect’s Liverpool team in collaboration with Liverpool City Council and The Learning Foundry. More than 100 young people and 30 exhibitors were in attendance.

The Sefton team seeing major success in the rollout of an early intervention model delivered on behalf of Sefton Council (Sefton NEET Reduction and Early Intervention Service). Providing targeted support from Year 9, the programme aims to keep young people engaged with learning and pathway planning. Of those pre-16 young people identified as being ‘At Risk of NEET, the programme has seen reductions of up to 16.8% of at-risk young people that are NEET upon leaving school.

The Manchester team partnering with Manchester City Council to provide employability support and 6-month Living Wage placements with the Council’s Neighbourhoods team, for young people facing barriers and wanting to go straight into employment.

Supported 10, 068 adults in the criminal justice system to move towards a new path.

Activity in 2023/24 included delivering the HMPPS CFO3 programme, part-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF). From 2015-2024, Achieve enrolled more than 19,000 individuals onto the CFO3 project, providing interventions to address barriers such as debt, substance misuse, and family relationships, with the aim of helping to prevent reoffending.

The Careers Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG) programme, run by the Achieve team in five male prisons across Lancashire and Cumbria since 2019, achieved employment rates for participants almost 1.7 times higher than the national average within six weeks post-release. Throughout the year it consistently achieved the highest monthly % employment on release percentage, both regionally and nationally.

The team’s work on the Greater Manchester Integrated Rehabilitative Services – Employment, Training, and Education (IRS-ETE) programme for people on probation, saw them achieve an initial assessment of 97% of referrals within the targeted 10 days, despite significant demand.

Provided careers training and CPD for 227 people across local authorities, schools and professional careers agencies.

Career Connect’s Training and Development Team has delivered Open Awards Level 1 & 2 Employability, City & Guilds Level 3 Certificate in Advice and Guidance, Level 4 Diploma in Advice and Guidance and Level 6 Diploma in Careers Guidance and Development. The team also conducted CPD with three local authorities, on careers guidance and practice and sessions on safeguarding.

For the fifth year the team delivered the Level 6 Career Leaders programme for those leading Careers programmes in schools, funded by the Careers and Enterprise Company, with many Careers Leaders returning to complete the full Level 6 careers qualification with Career Connect. Career Connect is an assessment centre, accredited to deliver courses through four awarding bodies: OCR, City & Guilds, ILM and Open Awards.

Amplifying voices through research

2023/2024 also saw Career Connect build on its research, with the aim of creating positive change. The Charity published five research reports on topics including place-based youth employment support, elective home education and what works in supporting adults who have been in prison into employment.

The Charity also presented at three national conferences and contributed evidence to inquiries conducted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Youth Employment and Select Committees relating to employment support.

In March 2023, Career Connect embarked on its first national consultation exercise to assess views on the strength of evidence about the impact of independent careers support for young people.

Growing Participant Voice

The Charity’s Participation Voice work is going from strength to strength, with its latest cohort of Youth Ambassadors in post and the expansion of participation work from Youth Voice to now include adult participants.

Creating Wider Social Value

The Charity’s impressive social value figure of £8 million was calculated using the Social Value TOMS (Themes, Outcomes, and Measures) tool framework.

This considers wider reach through activity such as the creation of apprenticeships, training opportunities and providing a Real Living Wage to staff; supporting responsible regional business growth through our support for mental health and wellbeing initiatives, and equality and diversity; using its Beneficiary Fund to provide practical support to participants; and decarbonising and safeguarding our environment through a range of initiatives including working with Positive Planet.