Careers and Employability

Enabling our Students to Achieve Their Full Potential

Career exploration, subject choices and pathway applications are crucial in ensuring students link their learning in the classroom to the working world.

We are committed to raising the aspirations of all our students through the provision of varied and high quality careers guidance, support them in making and managing choices and transitions that affect their futures, as well as preparing them for the world of work.

That is why, in addition to the wealth of early support students receive each year from our staff and sixth form ambassadors, we offer independent careers interviews from an early age, as well as having a dedicated careers lead.

Having Mrs Moyo (c.moyo@habstrustsouth.org.uk), our careers lead, within the school means that pupils have instant access to a number of careers services throughout the school day, this will ensure that our pupils are well informed and able to take advantage of the array of opportunities available to them. Our main focus being on supporting our pupils long-term careers ambitions, and providing a range of opportunities for students from Year 7 all the way through to Year 13. We make use of our exceptionally trained tutors, visiting our annual careers fair held on-site for all students in years 7 - 13, talks from our alumni students, our Haberdashers' apprentices, careers and enterprise competitions including the Brillant Club, Envision and the Livery Awards, utilising our links with external consultants and speakers from some of the UK’s largest companies to engage our pupils with higher education, training and the world of work. In addition to our careers lead our students follow an extensive careers program, this prepares them for making informed decisions  about their future, applications for university, apprenticeships, college or work; whichever is their chosen pathway.

The Careers provision is guided and evaluated against the Gatsby Benchmarks, which we are proud to meet each one.

Applying for University was a supported process. My tutor and Mrs Moyo both guided me to write the best personal statement for me and my desired course. The UCAS and Apprenticeship evening gave me a good insight of what was best for me.  

2022 - Sixth Form Leaver

 Career exploration, experience of industry and application support are key to enriching the post-16 offer and ensuring our students are prepared for their next stage of education, higher apprenticeships or employment.

In 2020, our cohort of sixth form students secured outstanding destinations, with 70% securing a place at a higher education institution to study. Examples include:

• Politic & International Studies at the University of Warwick
• Pharmacy at University College London
• Natural Sciences at Exeter
• Biomedical Science with Medicine at St. George’s University
• Banking & Finance at The London Institute of Banking & Finance

Furthermore, 21% of our students went on to secure a higher apprenticeship and employment with multinational companies.

These outstanding destinations stem from the unique support we receive from the Haberdashers’ Trust, where students are given scholarships to contribute towards their higher education costs, exclusive work experience opportunities and networking events.

Information, Advice and Guidance offered includes:

• General careers interviews - Exploring specific career ideas and identifying the different routes into chosen career paths will equip students in achieving their ambitions. A careers interview will give you the information to allow you to make informed decisions on your progression and career paths.
• Employability - Helps to identify the skills that are required for employment and equip students with the skills set to enable them to produce CVs, apply for jobs, gain interview skills and job preparation. Through workshops and one-to-one sessions, students will gain the knowledge to allow them to effectively search for employment.
• Apprenticeship advice - Provides students with information about apprenticeships and the different levels available, which allows students to explore apprenticeships as an alternative progression route into their chosen career.
• Higher education -Through the delivery of workshops and one-to-one guidance, students will be supported in applying for entry into higher education. We can help students construct personal statements and student finance applications. Students will be equipped with the knowledge to identify what degrees are suitable to achieve their career goals.

This video explains the differences between apprenticeships and University to support our students and parents understand the apprenticeship route in more detail: 

How we measure and assess the impact of the careers programme

 Haberdashers' Crayford Academy works closely with the Careers and Enterprise company. This is an external organisation that supports schools to ensure they are following the DFEs newly devised Careers Strategy. 

“The careers strategy sets out that every school and academy providing secondary education should use the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Benchmarks to develop and improve their careers provision. This statutory guidance has been restructured around the Benchmarks with information on what schools need to do to meet each one. The Gatsby Benchmarks are not a statutory framework but by adopting them, schools can be confident that they are fulfilling their legal duties: the existing duties to secure independent careers guidance and provide opportunities to a range of providers to inform pupils about technical education qualifications or apprenticeships and the new duty to publish information about the careers programme on the school website.”

As an education establishment we ensure we use the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks as a foundation when planning and implementing our Careers Strategy. The effectiveness of our provision is inspected and audited by the Careers and Enterprise Company using the Compass Careers Benchmark Tool.

Contact the Careers Service at Crayford Academy

For further information, please contact our Careers & Transitions service: 

Mrs C Moyo, Careers Coordinator and UCAS Lead | c.moyo@habstrustsouth.org.uk | 01322 402 180   

Date of the next review of the published information: September 2023