In addition to speaking, delivering workshops and creating resources, I’m now an author too. Please see below for information about The Ladder: Supporting students towards successful, confident futures published by Crown House Published in February 2021 and my fiction, The Back Row Boys stories for PSHE from Amazon.
 
“The Ladder is beyond incredible, offering so many ideas to implement.
It is going to become a careers education bible for so many people.”
– Stacey Drake, Careers Leader of the Year in the CDI’s UK Career Development Awards 2020 

The Ladder: Supporting students towards successful futures, and confident career choices.

This is my first book commissioned by a publishing house – Crown House Publishing – and is a distillation of the past 15 years of working with young people to support and develop their skills, overcome challenges and improve their self-awareness. Alongside IE, as the Enterprise Director of National Careers Week it is my role to explore the ways young people access future thinking and ambition – not just the practical steps but the personal and attitudinal ones too.

Designed for all teachers, SLT, HoY and Heads of Subject, #TheLadder is about how using a few simple and largely cost-free ideas, subjects can link to the future and inspire all students towards a fulfilling and happier future. Including background research on inequality and what we can do to overcome it, the book also includes dozens of resources and tools to support schools in bringing the future to life in all aspects for our young people.

Here is the final cover art, and for details of the book please go to the Independent Thinking Press website: https://www.independentthinkingpress.com/books/teachingskills/the-ladder/ 

To purchase the book, visit the Crown House website: https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/publications/the-ladder

Here are the Amazon reviews of the book. 

The Ladder - book cover
The Ladder by Andrew Bernard from Independent Thinking Press  

 

Please see the introduction of #TheLadder including chapter-by-chapter description.

 

Articles.

Following on from the publication of The Ladder, please see links here to articles I’ve also written about careers and skills development in young people:

Fiction: Back Row Boys.

Mark Allen looks like he has it all going for him. Great school, talented at sport, friends – life seems to be full of potential – the thing is, Mark doesn’t feel like he fits in. He wants to stand out, he wants to be popular and he uses his humour and his confidence to start the Back Row Boys at Aldersham Boys’ School.

I (Bernie) wrote the Back Row Boys series of books under the Jamie Stone pen-name during the 2020 lockdown as a series of one hour e-books for teens. The four stories (so far) are based on episodes in my life and how it affected who I am and what I did. The themes are based on real events and all themes I touch on in my school talks – especially LAUNCH and Life By The Balls. From September 2020 I am offering author talks and workshops alongside the book as part of your PSHE and RSE curriculum.

The books are now collected into one paperback volume with a series of PSHE / RSE questions designed for each of the stories in the book which I hope will inspire reluctant readers and promote learning and understanding about a number of issues through PSHE and pastoral sessions. There is no swearing and no sex depicted in the books but they do not flinch from discussing the social and emotional issues which are at play during adolescence and teenage years.

Back Row Boys - cover

The four books included in this paperback are as follows:

Criminal Fashion stealing clothes to fit in and getting arrested.

Where are you really from? is about family secrets, mixed heritage and adoption.

Battle Lines is about anger management, football fighting and the law.

Curve Ball is about sex and relationships and medical issues including cancer. 

You can order Back Row Boys: The First Four Stories here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08B379FQT/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4

We’re also working on a books plus subscription video offer which will incorporate some of the stories from the books, presented in an engaging way and some of the questions explored for short, sharp PSHE / RSE sessions.