National Careers Week 2018 is here, the first since the government’s careers strategy, published in December 2017, acknowledge the benefits of starting careers guidance earlier. Announcing a £2 million programme to test approaches to careers guidance in primary schools shows that this is likely to be a priority area this year and about time too!

As one of the newest recruits at Hopscotch, I’m really excited about becoming part of the growing team!

I’ve always been interested in working with children but it was a work experience placement at a special needs school when I was 14 that made me sure this was the right choice! As part of my Psychology A level studies, I was fascinated to find out how children learn and this inspired me to study a degree in Education Studies at Cardiff University.

Student Volunteering Week is upon us, and it’s got us thinking how much being socially aware means to our young people. According to a recent survey, it seems a great deal. Findings show that the proportion of 16-24 year-olds saying they volunteer has increased by more than half in recent years, which is a drastic rise based on historic data.

TES recently reported that there has been a massive slash in the number of school governors, linked to the increasing number of academy conversions. Having been a school governor myself since 2013, I’m continually amazed at the level of responsibility we have and the decisions we’re asked to make, so this announcement is concerning.

There is a 20,000 annual shortfall of engineering graduates. Not surprising as only 10% of the young people surveyed by EngineeringUK said they had considered a career in engineering.