Jo Batch

About Me

I have 40 years experience working as a professional careers adviser. I have had many roles to date but all have been around IAG. My career has been and still is dedicated to supporting individuals to achieve and aspire.

 To give a flavour of my experience and skills I have given a brief description of each role and the main responsibilities.

 I began as a generic careers adviser working in both state and independant schools in Essex, delivering individual guidance interviews and career based group talks.I liaised with careers teachers to deliver the CEIAG programme across years 9 to 11. Simultaneously I had responsibility for working with employers in a geographical area to encourage them to employ young people and to further young peoples' colleagues' and my own knowledge of the world of work.

My next role was post 16 work which largely revolved around higher education and UCAS. I worked exclusively in sixth forms and the local further education college.

As a training officer for a"Job Training Programme" I worked with adults.I ran inductions for the unemployed and did career action planning with the trainees.To support them to achieve their goals I was responsible for sourcing and implementing their training packages and the subsequent monitoring and evaluation of their progress.

This role led to becoming an adult guidance adviser , I was part of a small team who initiated a whole new adult  guidance service within the local authority. My work included planning and the delivery of psychometric testing, redundancy counselling, outreach, skills audits for local businesses and one to one guidance . Throughout this period I developed an extensive network of contacts with local business and both local and national education nad training providers.

At this time I also developed and delivered a " New Horizons " course for women returners at a local adult education centre as I had by then achieved an adult teaching qualification.

 A short time working with " Connexions" extended my skills to include working with young people who had multiple problems.As a personal adviser I was brokering  appropriate specialist support from agencies such as drug, mental health or housing services.

 These skills were  invalauble when I became the lead "Connexions" adviser at another FE college. I managed a team of advisers as well as delivering IAG myself. I gained experience of working with students from overseas and undertook transition reviews for students with additional needs.Every year I negotiated the partnership agreement with the college careers co ordinator  and wrote an annual report on the activities of the careers team.

 After "Connexions" was decommissioned I became an IAG Participation Consultant with the local LEA, my specialist area was further education. My time was spent consulting with educational establishments on the implcations of the 2011 Education Act and resulting demise of " Connexions". This led to co- developing CEIAG programmes within schools and facilitating careers events such as conventions and industry days across the LEA. 

That was a temporary post, my next role was  the careers coordinator  in the further education college where I had previously  been the lead adviser, this is my current post. I still carry out one to one interviews and group work but now coordinate the CEIAG programme within college part of which includes assisting colleagues to organise and run an annual careers fair for nearly 4000 students.I have led the college through  matrix re accreditations and careers quality awards ( QICS).My main task now is to lead the college on the new " Careers strategy"  through to 2020 and beyond.