Leicester College Careers Team has been successful in winning a prestigious award on Thursday 5th July 2018. Awarded by Juniper Training in Leicester and as part of their annual awards ceremony, the College Careers Team received the CEIAG provider of the year! The award highlights the continual high standard of Careers Education, Information Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) provided by the highly dedicated careers team at the college: ‘in recognition of your robust CEIAG offering and dedication to Juniper’s young people’. Our thanks to Vishal Makwana, Leyna Yates and all at Juniper; an organisation where the staff are passionate about helping young people progress into education, training, and employment.

The College Careers Team are also delighted to have been nominated and shortlisted for their work on the Teenage and Young Adult Survivorship Service into this year’s Nursing Times Awards, ‘HRH integrated approaches to care’ category. The Careers Team have been an integral part of The BOOST project which was initially designed as a pilot in 2016/17 with the aim of bridging the gap in careers provision available for young people who are in remission or recovering from cancer. It was identified that young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer and have successfully been through treatment and are now in remission lacked general Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) about the opportunities available to them.

The Careers Team were first approached by Laura Cutler (Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust), who wanted to forge a partnership with Leicester College Careers Team to provide IAG to patients identified as needing support. After a referral from Laura and her team, a designated Careers Adviser will pick up the referral and make contact with the individual through a variety of platforms. This referral process has been hugely effective in achieving positive outcomes for the young people we have supported. Laura Cutler commented; ‘First of all I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you who have been involved in making these projects become a reality and for your continued hard work and support’.

The shortlisting requires a presentation to a panel of judges on the 19th September 2018 at the Nursing Times Headquarters in London which includes a ten-minute presentation and ten minutes of discussion afterward. The awards night is in London on the 31st October at the Grosvenor, London.

Good luck with this innovative project!

By Katie Whale

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