Session 1: Introducing teacher externships, strategic pilots in North East England and national rollout

This session introduces the concept of teacher externships – a model that provides teachers with an opportunity to interact with employers, observe how their subject knowledge is applied in the workplace, and discuss relevant career pathways with learners. It highlights the origins of the model at the Academies of Nashville in Tennessee, how this model was adapted for pilots in North East England and strategies used by the Careers & Enterprise Company for scaling up and sustainably implementing the model across the country.

The session was led by Cherakee Bradley (Real-world Learning Consultant, Edge) and Kerry Senatore (Programme Manager, Careers & Enterprise Company).

Key Points Summarising Session 1

Teacher externships involve building partnerships between schools and local employers, with teachers visiting workplaces – typically for 1-5 days – to see how their subject is applied in the real world.
Teachers can discuss relevant career pathways with employers and develop curriculum-linked projects using the business for context.
Core benefits for teachers include: Better understanding of how their subject matter is applied in real jobs, boosting their confidence in curriculum delivery, and providing students with better-informed careers advice and guidance.
Core benefits for students include: Understanding the relevance of what they are learning to the workplace, better knowledge of what skills they might need and how to develop them, and expanding awareness of local careers.
Core benefits for employers include: Ensuring that local curriculums meet workforce needs, building community links, and contributing to a talent pipeline.
The model originated from the transformative Career Academies of Nashville, which successfully embedded externships to improve attendance, behaviour and graduation rates.

Externships Pilot in the North East of England

Inspired by Nashville, Edge piloted teacher externships in the North East of England from 2017-2021:

To gain insight into the economic needs of the region, Edge partnered with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership beginning in September 2017.
Together, along with local community employers and schools, the pilot engaged 89 teachers across 24 employers and reached 2,500 students through subsequent curriculum projects.
Examples of projects range from a science team creating offshore renewable energy resources for their learners to an IT team working on cybercrime projects alongside their local police force, and maths teachers visiting a civil engineering company to learn about bridge structures.
95% of teachers who participated said that they gained valuable workplace insights. 91% felt more confident advising students on careers after taking part. 90% agreed they would modify their classroom instruction to incorporate what they had learned.
The pandemic allowed for the piloting of virtual externships, raising the possibility of potential for a hybrid model going forward.
100% of employers who took part agreed that doing so enabled them to achieve their own goals and objectives, and all would recommend it to other employers.
Following the pilot, Edge has developed a suite of resources available for teachers and employers who wish to explore the model further.

Building a Scalable National Framework

Building on Edge’s pilot, the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) has developed a national framework for scaling teacher externships and evolving them into a wider range of placed-based teacher industry encounters:

The CEC, the national body for careers education in England, is focused on raising the quality of careers guidance. They have a particular interest in technical education and supporting economically disadvantaged young people. Part of their work involves ‘teacher encounters’ (a term that better captures the full range of possibilities for teacher-industry engagement, e.g. job shadowing, workplace visits, employer networking events – not just externships)
As keystone role models, the CEC sees teachers as core drivers of economic productivity who must learn about growth sectors such as digital technologies, life sciences, and the green and creative industries. They emphasise the need for a whole-school, place-based approach to careers.
The CEC is currently implementing a 2-year plan with a framework that defines what meaningful, high-quality teacher encounters look like. Crucially, their definition focuses on outcomes and consistency, rather than prescribed inputs, allowing for flexibility as their model evolves.
During the first year of the CEC’s 2-year plan, 1,000 teachers around the country undertook industry encounters via local careers hubs. This allowed the testing of various solutions to different regional needs, such as targeting locally significant industries or tackling geographical issues with apprenticeship uptake. Encounters ranged from teachers undertaking an apprenticeship for a day to experiencing a real-life assessment day.
Year 1 external evaluation shows high commitment from teachers and employers to continue with teacher encounters, with teachers reporting improved subject confidence and ability to advise students.
The evaluation also found that employers valued “influencing the influencers” and having a chance to shape workforce preparedness.
Year 1 evaluations have informed scaling up for year 2. Year 2 evaluation findings, published in September 2024, will further refine the CEC’s future approach. Their goal is to build long-term self-sufficiency and sustainability into the system and to make externships a consistent component of teacher CPD and career pathways.