About Us
Career Lift-Off exists to help to young people and adults achieve their potential in working life where they make best use of their strengths and skills to have satisfying and fulfilling careers. The approach is practical so every individual can make the best of themselves in a world of work that can be tough to compete in. Customers of Career Lift-Off are parents of 14–21-year-olds, undergraduates, graduates, and adult career professionals.
Michael Stockwell
Founder of Career Lift-Off
The Vision Behind Career Lift-Off
About Michael Stockwell
Michael Stockwell MA, PGCE, is a fully qualified careers guidance professional and career coach. His experience in the field spans the last twenty years and includes impacting on the lives of a wide range of people.
- School, college, and university students
- Recent graduates
- Apprentices
- People who have SEND (Dyslexia, ASC, ADHD, intellectual impairment, mental health problems, young professionals, corporate executives, unemployed people)
Amongst his qualifications he brings training in applying cognitive behavioural psychology to his guidance and coaching approach and as a Registered Test User with the British Psychological Society he is able to interpret occupational assessments of ability, aptitude, and personality to help clients with their career planning and decision making.
As an experienced secondary school teacher up to A Level, he understands the importance of grades to young people, can interpret the qualifications framework in England and Wales, and can coach learners effectively about further study and relate this to future careers.
Realising career potential
Career Guidance with Impact
Michael is focused on outcomes for young people and adults in his guidance and coaching work. Examples are young people hearing about careers for the first time, validating an existing career goal, and recognising their soft skills and talents. Adults in gain much from an objective person in the career coaching process and gain much through setting realistic goals and through weighing up their options before making confident decisions.’ Alongside his private work, he delivers career guidance in both state and independent schools in the South of England.
How Michael Helps Young People Succeed
As an experienced careers guidance and development professional who is registered with the Career Development Institute, Michael helps young people to plan confidently for careers they are matched to and assists them to get there. Effective career planning can lead to mental wellbeing, happiness and higher lifetime earnings.
Michael in his free time
You will catch him watching Basingstoke Town FC at home games on a Saturday or sometimes playing golf with friends or playing table tennis at Queens Club, Basingstoke. You might sometimes see him at the Anvil or Haymarket in Basingstoke enjoying gigs and theatre or out walking in local countryside with family members.
Michael’s Expertise and Unique Approach
He has exceptional skills in engagement with students of all personalities and backgrounds and is also skilled at ensuring young people who have SEND can engage with and gain from his services. His wide network of contacts amongst employers, apprenticeship providers, colleges and universities give him the opportunity to advise young people on a wide range of opportunities and he enables them to learn the skills to build up their networks with employers, contact hiring decision-makers and make successful applications for jobs.
What Sets Michael Apart
Five key words that set Michael apart in his professional work are insightful, intuitive, warm and solution-focused. He was a secondary school teacher teaching up to A Level in his first career with subsequent career experience in sales, publishing and project development in the voluntary sector along the way to becoming a careers professional. He has also worked extensively with adults in careers advice and guidance, workplace placements, job retention support and delivering workshops for executives in career transition. What motivates him is the importance of young people being able to make the best of themselves in future careers.