About the Greater Manchester Careers Community of Practice
What is the Greater Manchester Careers Community of Practice?
GMCA is working with a dynamic network of stakeholders to strengthen the careers education system by creating an environment where a community of businesses, careers professionals and specialists can come together with shared purpose and intent to improve outcomes for young people.
The community participants are empowered to:
- Engage proactively in the system and participate in decision making to enhance the outcomes for young people.
- Exchange and develop deeper knowledge, learning and best practice.
- Collaborate, identify and tackle the system barriers to maximise opportunities for young people.
The Greater Manchester (GM) Community of Practice is managed by the Careers team, which is part of the GMCA Education, Work and Skills Directorate. The team works in strategic partnership with the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) to deliver the national Careers Hub model.
The Community of Practice model is progressive with quality assurance at the center, using CEC’s Careers Impact System (external website), Employer Standards (external website), the Future Skills Questionnaire (external website) as well as a number of local data sets such as BeeWell survey as a framework.
The GM Community of Practice, the second largest outside London, consists of over 230 schools and colleges across Greater Manchester committed to ensuring every young person in our city-region has the best chance to succeed and make their best next step. This includes alternative provision and SEND schools (schools for young people with special education needs and disabilities). In total, around 200,000 young people aged 11 to 19 are being supported.
Why is the GM Careers Community of Practice important?
The GM Careers Community of Practice exists to:
- Enable every young person to explore the different options and career paths available to them, to help them make informed decisions about their future.
- Remove barriers and tackle disadvantage, as well as raise the aspirations and motivation of young people.
- Support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as those with additional needs.
- Promote technical and vocational pathways and ensuring these are given parity with academic routes.
- Reduce the number of young people who become NEET (not in education, employment, or training).
- Support employers’ talent pipelines, address skills gaps, and boost recruitment; particularly in growth sectors.
How the GM Careers Community of Practice works together?
With the support from the Careers team, the GM Careers Community of Practice collaborate to create a high quality, sustainable and inclusive pan-GM system for careers and skills.
- Schools and colleges share best practice and work on shared priorities to drive improvements.
- Local employers connect with schools and colleges, to foster effective partnerships and provide high-quality future talent insights.
- A range of stakeholders work strategically to align with local education, work and skills priorities through strong partnerships.