Education and careers for 14 to 19 year olds

Connexions Bury - The information, advice, guidance and support service for young people in Bury

Connexions Bury is the independent and impartial information, advice, guidance and support service for 14 to 18 year olds or up to the age of 25 if you have special education needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Connexions services are delivered by qualified professionals called Personal Advisers who will support you to develop realistic and sustainable plans that are related to your aspirations. Connexions Bury holds the Matrix, a recognized national award, which means, that it has been externally assessed as an organisation that meets the criteria of providing high quality information, advice and guidance.

Connexions is able to help you if:

• In year 11, you are identified and referred by your school, because you need support with your post 16 plans.
• You have left school and have no plans in place.
• You have left college, employment or training prematurely and you have no plans in place.
• You are attending college, employment, or training and you are thinking of leaving with no next steps in place.

They offer information, advice, guidance and support on:

• Apprenticeships
• Money matters
• Jobs and Training.
• Housing
• Traineeships
• Health
• Careers
• Teenage pregnancy and parenting
• Personal development opportunities
• CVs and application forms
• Job searching and interview techniques
• Education - college and university courses including the local offer for children with special educational needs and disabilities

What to do next

At school in year 11:

You need to contact your form tutor, careers teacher or support worker outside school to request an appointment, where the school has not referred you yet. Usually, your interview will take place in school.

Completed year 11:

You need to call into the Connexions Centre (no need to make an appointment), see the contact us area for details.

Other important information

Young people with specialist educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Connexions can work with and support a young person with additional needs until they are 25 years old. Initially, they will work with schools to identify those young people that need support with their transition plans, predominately from year 10. Further, we work with a wide range of organisations and agencies that support young people with SEND. We also contribute to the Education, Health and Care Plan assessments which will support you to make the transition into further education or training.

Access to Careers Guidance in Schools and Colleges

You need to be aware that it is the responsibility of schools and colleges you are attending to provide careers guidance and that Bury Connexions no longer offer this service. Please will you contact your school or college for further details.

Your views count

It is important that we receive feedback from young people, parents and carers that have recently directly or indirectly experienced our services; to improve what we offer them in the future. Please will you follow the link so you are able to offer feedback One community - Connexions

Confidentiality and Connexions Bury Privacy Notice: Your Guide to the Information we keep about you

We offer a confidential service to young people and Connexions Bury is only able to share relevant personal information to named and categories of organisations to offer you an effective service. It is able to do this under their 'public task' duties authorised by the Education and Skills Act 2008. Consent from you is not required to share these types of information unless it is classed under General Data protection Regulation as 'special category' sensitive type of information. Full details on how we treat and share your information is detailed in the  Connexions Bury Privacy Notice

Further useful websites and information

14 to 16 provision

Bury Council has researched a list of alternative provision available to 14 to 16 year old school pupils. The list is not exhaustive and will be updated on an ongoing basis. If you are interested in any of the provision listed, please contact the provider to find out more about what they offer.

•  14-16 Provision [131kb]
  •  Bury Youth Service School Offer 2015-2016 (referred to in the 14-16 provision document) [1Mb]
  •  Military standard training alternative provision (referred to in the 14-16 provision document) [498kb]
• Raising the participation age - Information about the Government raising the age at which young people need to continue in education or training

Careers

• National Careers Service
• Gov.uk - Apprenticeships

ESF RAISE CEIAG Project

Bury Council is a delivery partner in the ESF RAISE project which is a programme funded by the European Union. This Greater Manchester programme is co-ordinated and managed overall by The Growth Company.

The programme is primarily for young people in Year 11 at school who are at risk of becoming unemployed.  It involves a qualified Connexions adviser working with individual students in their last year of school, providing them with enhanced careers information, advice and guidance and other support. This additional support is to help each young person overcome any barriers to making a successful transition to education, employment or training.

For further information contact Jenny Mills at Connexions Bury.

Tel: 0161 253 7761

ESF NEET Project 2016-18

Bury Council is a delivery partner in the ESF NEET Project coordinated by Career Connect. The project is for young people aged 15 to 18 and 19 to 24 if they have a learning difficulty and/or disability. Connexions and Bury, Employment, Support and Training (BEST) will be working with over 300 young people over the life of the project (until March 2018) who are not in education, employment or training or at risk of becoming so. The aim is help young people, particularly those who are vulnerable, to engage in employment, education, traineeships and apprenticeships.

 BEST Case Study [103kb] - As an illustration of how the project can help young people, BEST has supplied this case study of one young person they have been working with.

For more information please contact:

• Vilma O'Shea - 0161 253 5983
• Roger Pakeman - 0161 253 7469

European Social Fund income and payments 2013-14 and 2014-15

 Bury Council Supply Chain Fees and Charges to be viewed alongside our Fees and Charges Policy 2013-14 and 2014-15 [39kb] - This return shows the income received for the Investing in Young Bury ESF Project and payments to providers for the last two academic years in which the project was operating.