Promoting the CP
Promoting the CP to parents
This page brings together key messages and practical resources to help you, as school leaders and IB Coordinators, communicate the value of the Career-related Programme (CP) to parents and prospective families. The messages are designed to be adapted for your school websites, letters, presentations and promotional materials, helping you explain what makes a CP education distinctive: how it combines academic challenge, career-related learning and personal development, and how it prepares students for university, further training, employment and life beyond school.
What makes the IB Career-related Programme distinctive?
Key messages
The IB Career-related Programme (CP) offers a distinctive pathway for students who want to combine academic study with learning that has a clear connection to their interests, aspirations and future. It brings together at least two Diploma Programme (DP) courses, an approved career-related study and the CP core. The result is a challenging and flexible programme that connects academic learning, practical application and personal development.
Schools can use the following messages to communicate its value to students and parents.
Academic challenge with a practical purpose
The CP combines the academic rigour of DP courses with career-related learning. Students develop their understanding through academic study while exploring how knowledge and skills can be applied in professional and real-world contexts.
Promotional message: Academic ambition meets practical application.
A pathway shaped around your interests and aspirations
Students can select DP courses and career-related study that reflect their strengths, interests and future plans. This gives them greater ownership of their learning and creates a programme with a clear sense of personal purpose.
Promotional message: Build a programme around what interests you and where you want to go.
Develop skills that matter beyond the classroom
The CP core develops transferable skills such as communication, collaboration, critical and ethical thinking, intercultural understanding, reflection and self-management. These are valuable not only for further study and employment, but also for navigating change and making informed decisions throughout life.
Promotional message: Develop the confidence and skills to take your next steps.
Connect learning with the world around you
Through community engagement and career-related learning, students explore issues beyond the classroom, consider different perspectives and understand how they can contribute to their communities. Learning becomes more meaningful when students can see its relevance and potential impact.
Promotional message: Understand the world around you – and find ways to make a difference.
Become an independent and reflective learner
The CP encourages students to take responsibility for their learning, set goals, investigate questions and reflect on their progress. The Reflective Project, in particular, develops the ability to research an ethical dilemma, evaluate different perspectives and communicate a reasoned position.
Promotional message: Learn to think independently, question thoughtfully and make informed judgements.
Broaden your horizons and understand different perspectives
Language and Cultural Studies encourages students to explore language, identity and culture, and to consider how perspectives are shaped by experience and context. This develops intercultural understanding and the ability to communicate and work with others in an increasingly connected world.
Promotional message: Broaden your perspective and learn to work across cultures.
Keep your future options open
The CP supports progression to further and higher education, apprenticeships and employment. It gives students the opportunity to pursue a particular area of interest while retaining the academic learning, transferable skills and broader outlook that can support a range of future pathways.
Promotional message: Follow your interests while keeping future possibilities open.
IB resources
The IB have a section of their website dedicated to the CP. On it you will find a downloadable poster giving 10 reasons why the IB career-related programme is the ideal study for students looking to pursue a range of pathways, and the CP subject brief.
CP stories are a curation of short stories from alumni of the CP.
Helpful websites
The International School of London provides a particularly useful example of how to promote the CP to prospective students and parents. Its website clearly explains who the programme is designed for, why students might choose it, what universities and employers value, and how academic and practical learning complement one another. I particularly like the way it presents the CP as an academically challenging but specialised pathway, rather than an alternative for students unable to pursue the DP.