Careers guidance for schools that helps young people move forward with confidence
Innervate Career Services works with schools to provide high-quality, inclusive careers guidance and the practical support around it.
From one-to-one guidance and clear action plans to caseload planning, quality assurance and careers support, we help schools make sure young people get the right guidance at the right time.
Young people don’t know what they don’t know
Most young people don’t have their future worked out at 15 or 16. And why would they?
They might have an idea of a job without really knowing what it involves. They might think there’s one successful route forward. They might have strengths they’ve never really thought about, or feel completely overwhelmed by the number of decisions ahead of them.
A good careers conversation gives them space to work some of that out.
Our advisers help young people understand more about themselves, explore options they might not have considered and think through what could suit them. Sometimes that leads to a very clear next step. Sometimes the biggest shift is simply realising they have more options than they thought.
The meeting matters. So does everything around it.
Good careers guidance doesn’t begin when an adviser walks into the room, and it doesn’t end when the meeting finishes.
During
The conversation is shaped around the young person in front of us: what they need, how confident they feel, how they communicate and where they are in their thinking.
After
Students receive a clear career action plan bringing together what they’ve discussed, useful resources and practical next steps. Schools receive information and evaluation that helps them understand what’s been delivered and keep those conversations going.
The aim is that the guidance doesn’t become an isolated hour that everyone forgets about afterwards.
Different young people need different conversations
There’s no single way to have a good careers conversation.
Innervate works across mainstream and specialist settings, and our advisers are supported to adapt their approach for young people with SEND, anxiety, lower confidence or different communication needs.
That might mean slowing things down, breaking information into smaller steps, using visual or practical tools, spending longer building trust or recognising that, on that particular day, choosing a destination isn’t the most important thing.
What sits behind the guidance matters too
Schools quite rightly need to think about price, availability and how many students can be seen. But the quality of those conversations matters just as much.
Innervate is Matrix accredited, and our careers advisers are supported through ongoing professional development, observation, feedback and supervision.
There’s a wider team and structure behind every adviser we send into school, helping us keep standards high, support the advisers doing the work and keep learning from the feedback we receive.
Built through trust
Innervate began in 2012, when changes to Connexions left local schools needing another way to make sure their students continued to receive careers guidance.
Natalie Papworth was already working with those schools. When school leaders asked if she could carry on supporting their young people independently, she said yes.
Innervate started with six schools and grew largely through recommendation. School leaders moved schools and took Innervate with them. Careers Leads recommended the service to colleagues.
The service has grown and changed since then, but the principle behind it hasn’t: do good work for young people, support schools properly and build relationships that last.
