Coming to Birmingham in November - The Skills Show

The Skills Show is at the NEC, 15-17 November 2012. It gives you a chance to:

• meet top employers and talk to real people about real jobs
• try interactive Have A Go’s, offering you the chance to try a bite-size taster of a new skill, trade or profession
• speak to experts from some of the biggest names in skills, careers, Apprenticeships and education, to get free, impartial advice
• speak to colleges, universities and learning providers from across the UK, about the different entry routes into a host of different career sectors.

Entry is free — find out more and register at theskillsshow.com

Beyond 16 — all new and out now...

Beyond 16 is our guide - online and downloadable PDF - to help you make decisions about what to do when you finish Year 11. It has just been completely updated and revised for young people who will finish Year 11 next summer. It covers the four main options available to you at that time:

• taking an education course at school or college
• joining an Apprenticeship programme with an employer
• starting a Foundation Learning programme at school, college or with a work-based learning provider
• finding a job, which because of the Raising of the Participation Age will need to include training leading to an accredited qualification

You can get Beyond 16 through the Connexions Birmingham website.

Exam results days 2012

Exam results days are here and at Connexions Birmingham we have revised and relaunched our seasonal webpages giving you results information and advice, focusing on what to do if things haven’t gone exactly as planned. There are separate sections for GCSE and A Level results.

Follow Connexions Birmingham on Twitter

We’re now using Twitter to get information to young people across Birmingham — we’ll be tweeting the latest apprenticeship or vacancy opportunities, plus other news items that might be useful or interesting. Our username is @CNXBham and you can follow us at twitter.com/CNXBham

New: Connexions Outreach across the south of Birmingham

We have looked at new ways to make sure that young people who we are working with across the south of Birmingham can get access to the Connexions service after we had to close the Northfield and Kings Heath Connexions Centres.

The Connexions South Outreach service starts on Monday 18 June 2012 and is based in a range of places, alongside various other existing services.

• The Factory (Longbridge)
• Frankley Youth Centre (Frankley)
• Maypole Youth Centre (Druids Heath)
• Quinborne Community Centre (Quinton)
• 641 Youth House (Selly Oak)
• The Square Club (Weoley Castle)

The Connexions South Outreach page on our website has opening times, full addresses and interactive maps for each of these new services.

What you thought about the future of Connexions - 2012

In early 2012, Connexions Birmingham ran a major consultation exercise to find out what you thought about our proposals for the future of the Connexions service. We had to make these proposals because of changes to the law about careers guidance, and because Birmingham City Council needs to save money. We had views from young people, parents, and schools and colleges. We have a summary of the proposals and what you told us about how you felt about them on our website.
As well as asking what you thought about the proposals, we asked how satisfied you — young people, parents and schools — were with the Connexions Birmingham service. It was great to see that, overall, 88.4% of people joining in the consultation were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” and the figure for just young people rises to 91.3%.

National Careers Service launched today

The new National Careers Service was launched on 5 April 2012 — if you’re aged between 13 and 19, you get the website at nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk and the phone helpline 0800 100 900, plus careers advisers via webchat and email. Remember that Connexions Birmingham is now becoming a service which offers careers information advice and guidance to targetted groups of young people who might need extra support. We will only be offering “universal” careers information advice and guidance to wider groups of young people if your school/college is buying that service from us. You’ll be able to find out more about these changes soon on our website.