Current Work
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Alongside our ongoing programmes and activities CRAC works on a variety of projects and contracts with a range of different partners and clients. Within this section we highlight some interesting examples of our current work.
icould: Inspiring young people through career stories
icould aims to support young people in making career decisions by inspiring them through access to thousands of stories of real people in all walks of life. |
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National Trust Young Heritage Leaders Award
CRAC have worked in partnership with the National Trust to develop the Young Heritage Leaders Award - an accredited award to develop the leadership skills of young volunteers working within the National Trust. This award incorporates leadership training, volunteering, coursework, mentoring and residential challenges. Young people from throughout the UK have participated in the programme drawn from a variety of backgrounds. One notable participant was awarded the runner up prize in the Daily Mirror and Princes Trust Young Achiever of the Year Award. The next step for the Young Heritage Leaders Award is to create a regional derivative which can operate in properties and locations throughout the UK and make a real difference to both communities and the volunteers who work with the National Trust.
English Partnerships
CRAC is delighted to announce that we are going to be working with English Partnerships to help them promote career development internally.
CRAC will be designing and delivering two separate 90 minute workshops, the first entitled ‘Career discussions at Work’ one for line managers (the givers) and one for all other staff, (the receivers) . The purpose of both is to enable staff to feel more confident in participating in effective career discussions.
- Conducting Career Discussions at Work for Line Managers: will provide managers with the insight, tools and techniques to enable them to provide effective career guidance to their teams.
- Participating in Career Discussions at Work for Staff : will provide staff with the insight, tools and techniques they need to get the best out of career discussions with their line managers and/or other appropriate individuals within the organisation.
- The second strand, the Career Development Workshop will focus on how to engage in effective personal development planning. It will enable participants to fully understand their skills and strengths and how they can develop personally within their current role in order to achieve their goals.
CRAC will also be producing a handbook, which will act as a guide to career management within English Partnerships. As well as practical tools and techniques, it will also include policy and more general information to assist staff with their career management choices. Contact Caroline Barnes for more information.
Career Decisions of Undergraduate Engineers:
How can we ensure that more engineering graduates become professional engineers?
CRAC recently commissioned research into the careers mindset of current engineering students and launched it in National Science & Engineering Week at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, London. With 80% of UK engineering employers anticipating that they will not fill their graduate vacancies this year, we were keen to quantify the perception that significant numbers of engineering students are being lured away into the city for lucrative financial careers. The final report is now available to
CRAC Members.
In line with a growing number of global organisations, CRAC Member Deloitte recruits Chinese graduates. In 2007, for the first time, Deloitte will be recruiting graduates in China who will be trained in London before returning to China to work in local Deloitte offices. Building on our experience of working with Chinese undergraduates, CRAC has been commissioned to develop a week long pre-induction programme focussing on the cultural differences associated with working for a global organisation.
Stimulating Physics
CRAC is delivering a contract for the Institute of Physics as part of the Stimulating Physics project, which aims to increase participation in physics-based courses in higher education. In 2006 CRAC undertook research in schools on the effectiveness of IoP career publications. We are now in the process of developing a case study to be delivered in schools highlighting different aspects of careers using physics qualifications. Through the summer and autumn we will be devising and delivering CPD events for teachers increasing the quality of physics careers advice given within schools.
CRAC's employer network is becoming increasingly aware of the potential of the postgraduate pool, but many experience that researchers are unable to sell themselves in assessment centres: unaware fully of what the employer is looking for and unable to articulate the transferability of the skills they have developed during their PhD. This UK GRAD Programme project developed in partnership with CRAC associate Shiona Llewellyn is a one day bespoke event for postgraduate researchers which has been piloted with 2 careers services.
Collaborative Career Planning: a group approach to planning your future
The vision for this UK GRAD project is that through using a peer coaching approach, we can make more significant interventions and have more meaningful engagement with people in this area of personal development. The programme will be developed and delivered in partnership with CRAC associate Dr Jeremy Mead.
The Higher Education Volunteering Awards
We are pleased to announce that CRAC has won the contract to develop and deliver the Higher Education Volunteering Awards on behalf of the Higher Education Academy and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The awards were launched in early June 2007.
