Connexions going; IMJack CAFE fills in for careers information

Despite the number of young people leaving schools and colleges with increasing uncertain futures rises, the significant budget cuts in the careers profession and the near decimation of area-based grants from the Department of Education to local authorities, means that the position of the Connexions services looks increasingly fragile.

Connexions logo

Connexions offers advice on a wide-range of subjects for young people aged between 13 and 19.  The service has provided young people with impartial advice, information and guidance on education, careers, housing, money, health and relationships for many years.  Along the way, Connexions has helped to remove barriers to learning and progressions; enabling young people to make a successful transition into adulthood and working life. Without this service, young people that are not in education or employment are likely to be the most badly affected by these budget reductions.

There will be fewer apprenticeships available in public-sector organisations, coupled with a significant decline in job opportunities for school and college leavers, due to the public sector cuts.  What will take the place of Connexions to offer impartial advice to individuals? Who will motivate and inspire individuals to aspire to more than claiming benefits?

There is a concern that schools and academies are to be expected to offer this impartial advice in addition to all other new responsibilities they are expected to undertake.  Many schools, however, do not have the knowledge and experience to adequately fulfil the role of the service offered by Connexions.

Flier for connexions

“Save the Connexions Service” Campaign has been launched by Unison, exploring the option of a legal challenge to local authorities as councils have a legal duty to provide impartial careers advice to all young people in their local areas. (“The Guardian”, Aug 2010).  Despite this, service cuts are looking to begin as early as September, which may affect those young people who fail to get on to higher education courses this year.

What is needed now are strategies to help reassure young people that major changes in public, private, voluntary and community sectors will not restrict access to frontline services.

IMJack CAFE (Career Advice and Further Education) offers access to careers information and real life stories about jobs students may be interested in pursuing.  Thousands of employees, from businesses and organisations in all sectors of industry have made available their career profiles, including details of qualifications or training required, the best and worst aspects of the job and day-to-day tasks they partake in.   Some mentors have furthermore made themselves available for pupils to question directly, using the secure and moderated communications systems within IMJack.

CAFE gives students the chance to browse many different career options at their own leisure; providing them the opportunity to access real information and experiences about various roles within businesses and organisations not be available to them in other formats.  CAFE is no substitute for the comprehensive service provided by Connexions, but we hope that it can at least offer some support to pupils and other young people uncertain about their way forward when considering their career options.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us via www.imjack.com.

Saphra Bennett, Stewart Boutcher, August 2010

IMJack as an aid to personalised learning

In the last few years, teaching has moved towards a more student-centred teaching and learning experience. Before being allowed to teach, teachers are required to undertake a level of teacher training such as a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) which specialises in Pedagogy- ‘the art of teaching’.  Such training encourages teachers to get to know their pupils, by accessing their individual progress through various assessments.

Pedagogy Personalised Learning

Many schools are now familiar with the vision for personalised teaching and learning, defined by Christine Gilbert in the Teaching and Learning Review, 2010, as “Taking a highly structured and responsive approach to each child’s and young person’s learning, in order that all are able to progress, achieve and participate. It means strengthening the link between learning and teaching by engaging pupils – and their parents – as partners in learning.” (source http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/)

Teachers are taught to support their pupils and provide the necessary tools for independent learning, which reinforces a sense of accomplishment for the pupil. This notion of self-gratification from independent learning is based on the social learning theory, one of the most influential theories in development and learning. This theory is connected to other cognitive theories of learning and is based around the idea that individuals learn better through reinforcement and observation. For observational learning to be successful, it is important for ‘attention, retention, reciprocation and motivation’ to be involved.

It is now becoming commonplace for schools to use computers and interactive white boards whilst teaching different lessons.  Research on the use of technology in classrooms has concluded that there is a noticeable effect on achievement and that such use of technology is highly effective when used alongside traditional classroom instruction by teachers.

IMJack is used as a secure social learning network, to allow users to find and use information and communicate with people within their network.  It also offers schools a space within which to assist learning through interaction, generating attention, helping retention, reciprocation and motivation, as well as enhancing a pupil’s sense of ability and accomplishment.  The use of IMJack can help send confidence building messages, allowing students to observe the success of others in tasks, whilst improving their own success, reinforcing positive social learning experiences.

IMJack aids learning, allowing teachers to creating an interesting, interactive and fun learning environment for their pupils.  IMJack can be personalised by teachers to present information to their class and gives pupils a chance to practise assessing their own level of understanding on various educational topics set by the teachers, as well as aiding them to find relevant information in relation to such topics.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us via www.imjack.com.

Stewart Boutcher, Aisling Forde, Saphra Bennett, August 2010

In the last few years, teaching has moved towards a more student-centred teaching and learning experience. Before being allowed to teach, teachers are required to undertake a level of teacher training such as a Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) which specialises in Pedagogy- ‘the art of teaching’.  Such training encourages teachers to get to know their pupils, by accessing their individual progress through various assessments.

Furthermore, teachers are also taught to support their pupils and provide the necessary tools for independent learning, which reinforces a sense of accomplishment for the pupil. This notion of self-gratification from independent learning is based on the social learning theory, one of the most influential theories in development and learning. This theory is connected to other cognitive theories of learning and is based around the idea that, individuals learn better through reinforcement and observation. For observational learning to be successful, it is important for ‘attention, retention, reciprocation and motivation’ to be involved.

It is now becoming commonplace for schools to use computers and interactive white boards whilst teaching different lessons.  Research on the use of technology in classrooms has concluded that there is a noticeable effect on achievement, and is effective when used alongside traditional classroom instruction by teachers.

IMJack is used as a safe social learning network, to allow users to find and use information and communicate with people within their network.  It also offers schools a space within which to assist learning through interaction, generating attention, helping retention, reciprocation and motivation, and enhancing a pupil’s sense of ability and accomplishment.  These uses of IMJack can be used to send confidence building messages, allowing students to observe the success of others in tasks, whilst improving their own success, reinforcing positive social learning experiences.

IMJack aids learning, allowing teachers to creating an interesting, interactive and fun learning environment for their pupils.  IMJack can be personalised by teachers to present information to their class and gives pupils a chance to practise assessing their own level of understanding on various educational topics set by the teachers, as well as aiding them to find relevant information in relation to such topics.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us.

Aisling Forde, Saphra Bennett, July 2010

Social Awareness with IMJack – safely!

In the 21^st Century it is vital that all young people have an understanding and good command of how to use technology, this includes the use of computers and the internet.  It is a well known fact that young people use social networking site on a regular basis.  This is where children can strike up different relationships, perhaps with inappropriate people, and even continue playground bullying.  This can be worrying for parents who can not have control of what goes on at all times.

It is important to teach young individuals about relationships and what ‘normal’ relationships and friendships should be like. In a world of social networking this is very important for young people to be able to identify and notice any strange behaviour and be able to protect themselves from any form of bullying.

Schools address the subject of relationships, bereavement and bullying through the lesson of PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education).  This lesson has been a part of most schools for about a decade.  It is within the PSHE lessons that children are taught how to “manage risks, say ‘no’, negotiation in relationships, divorce, separation and living in reconstituted families.”

I am sure this makes parents and legal guardians feel better that schools are taking the time to address such issues and make young people aware of, how to spot and manage difficult issues.

At IMJack we believe that security is very important and are committed to keeping those who use the site safe. On our CAFE site, there are measures taken to keep children secure within a social learning environment, with one easy way to report any inappropriate behaviour quickly without causing any confusion.

In the bottom right of the IMJack system is a panic button; this button is directly linked to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection and is used to flag any inappropriate content or contact in a secure and confidential way.

Parents and legal guardians can be rest assured that measures are being taken to protect children, and children themselves can feel happy knowing they can report anything which might make them feel uncomfortable whilst using IMJack.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us via www.imjack.com.

Aisling Forde, Stewart Boutcher July2010

IMJack CAFE is up and running.

CAFE gives young individuals the opportunity to look around in a safe and secure network, developing their knowledge about different careers and prospects in an interactive bright and welcoming environment.

CAFE is made up of hundreds of different mentor profiles, consisting of at least the answers to 8 questions about a mentor’s job, such as “What does your job involve?” and “What is the best thing about your job?”.  Most mentors have taken the time to include information about their normal “Day in the life” and many are also prepared to answer student questions, sent securely through the CAFE, ensuring the students’ safety.  All this has been achieved through the willingness of mentors to share about their jobs and we are very grateful to everyone who has contributed.

I recently logged into this new IMJack application and found it very inviting to look around and explore different careers.  As a young teenager in school I remember being asked to think about what career I would peruse once I left school and completed all my exams.  There was always a lot of pressure to succeed and do well academically, but I had no idea what career or job I would go into or what was even out there.

Children generally only know about the obvious careers such as doctors, nurses, teacher, lawyers, etc.  However with this new launch of the IMJack CAFE it is so much easier to search for a much greater range of options.  There is even a list of company names which can be searched if you have an idea of what kind of company you might want to work for.

I would have loved the opportunity in school to be able to access such different and useful information, inspiring me in an easy, appealing way, with the security of being in a moderated and regulated site.

We are very proud of CAFE and would like to share it with you.  CAFE is now available in beta form on IMJack; please contact us if you would like access to the CAFE in your community.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us via www.imjack.com.

Aisling Forde, Stewart Boutcher July2010