National Apprenticeships Week: helping young people explore rewarding career paths

National Apprenticeships Week is a great opportunity for students to access employer events and careers guidance. It also gives us a chance to reflect on the pivotal role high-quality careers education plays in helping young people make confident decisions about their futures.

From inspiring primary pupils to empowering secondary students, PSHE education has a crucial part to play in equipping students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to make informed choices about their career pathways.

Starting early: building aspirations in primary education

Careers education doesn't just start at secondary school. It's something we can and should introduce early on.

Research shows that early exposure to careers education helps children develop broader aspirations and avoid becoming constrained by societal or familial pressures later in life.

The KS1-2 Career Explorers lesson pack from the Careers and Enterprise Company provides a fantastic starting point for you to introduce this education in an age-appropriate way — encouraging primary pupils to explore their interests and skills, and opening their eyes to the wide range of opportunities available to them in the future.

Navigating careers: empowering secondary students

At the secondary level, a core focus is ensuring students have access to comprehensive and balanced information about career pathways, including apprenticeships.

Our Navigating Work, Study and Careers lesson pack supports students at key stage 3 through to key stage 5/post-16, to:

• Reflect on their personal interests, skills, and values and how these can influence career choices.
• Explore a range of routes, including degrees, T-Levels, and apprenticeships.
• Build skills and personal attributes to overcome challenges and setbacks in their journey.

By challenging stereotypes and misconceptions, these lessons empower students to make choices that align with their strengths and ambitions.

Broadening horizons: apprenticeships beyond the trades

A common misconception about apprenticeships is that they are limited to traditional trades such as plumbing or construction.

While these are valuable and rewarding pathways, apprenticeships also offer opportunities in diverse sectors such as law, healthcare, and cyber security. And highlighting these options in careers education helps students see the wide range of possibilities open to them.

For instance, you could signpost the gov.uk 'Find an apprenticeship' tool, where students can search for apprenticeship opportunities and filter by job type/company and location.  

Showcasing real-world opportunities: Environment Agency resources

Real-world examples can inspire students and help them see how their interests and passions align with career opportunities.

The Environment Agency’s Careers for Change and Caring for the Environment resources provide a valuable opportunity to connect students — through careers education — to their values and the causes they care about, such as environmental sustainability.

These free resources illustrate how apprenticeships and other pathways can lead to meaningful and impactful careers.

• KS1: Caring for the environment
• KS3: Careers for change
• KS4: Growing careers for positive change
• KS5: Getting started in the workplace

Supporting the Gatsby Benchmarks: a framework for success

The Gatsby Benchmarks (updated in 2024) provide a statutory framework of eight benchmarks that secondary schools and colleges can use to improve their career guidance programme.

PSHE education plays an instrumental role in helping schools and colleges to meet these standards — through introducing a wide range of career options (including apprenticeships), raising aspirations and helping students make confident, informed decisions.

This approach also fosters equity, ensuring every student has the opportunity to explore pathways that align with their skills, interests, and ambitions.

Creating an equitable future

Careers education is about more than just preparing students for the world of work.

It’s about inspiring them to imagine a future that aligns with their passions and potential. And by integrating careers education into PSHE education, we can support wider Careers Education, Information, Advice, and Guidance (CEIAG) approaches.

Learning opportunities like those explored within the ‘Living in the Wider World’ strand of our Programme of Study can also help our young people explore all the opportunities available to them, including apprenticeships.

So this National Apprenticeships Week — and year-round in our PSHE education curriculum — let's explore the ways we can broaden horizons and challenging misconceptions, empowering students to take the first steps toward fulfilling and rewarding careers.

See our money and careers page for guidance, lesson packs and CPD opportunities to help you deliver this vital element of PSHE.