Member Article

Guidelines may offer North West teens careers hope

Government guidelines published this week which require schools to offer access to high quality careers advice could have done more for teenagers across the North West according to Career Connect.

The careers advice charity, which operates across the North West including Liverpool City Region and Salford, believes new statutory guidelines on careers advice in schools will help to equip young people in the region to seize opportunities as the economy continues to grow. But the charity also feels they could have been more ambitious.

With flourishing creative, digital and professional services industries, plus a revival in the manufacturing and logistics sectors through developments like SuperPort, the North West is on the brink of significant economic growth.

But for some time Career Connect has been concerned that some schools have not sufficiently prioritised careers advice due to competing budget demands.

The Careers Guidance and Inspiration in Schools guidelines published this week are an effort by the Government to address this problem. They encourage schools to provide improved careers services, which include high quality, independent careers guidance and the provision of face-to-face advice and guidance from a range of sources, specifically qualified careers professionals, as principles of good practice; however they do not identify how this should be resourced at school level.

Career Connect chief executive Kieran Gordon said the guidelines, drafted following a damning Ofsted survey of careers advice provision in schools nationally, were a step in the right direction in ensuring that schools provide access to help for pupils.

However he also highlighted the fact that the guidance is still weak in important areas, showing a lack of understanding about how this can be done effectively. According to Kieran, it confirms his suspicion that the Government wants schools to do this on the cheap.

“The employment market is extremely complex and probably more diverse than it has ever been,” he said. “It is impossible for someone to offer quality, useful careers advice without real insight into the regional and national marketplace.

“It may be that where schools and families have strong links to business and the professions through the occupations of parents that young people can get access to the types of experience that will help them form opinions, but for the majority, where this is not the case, they are left to rely on well-meaning but occasional inputs from some local employers.”

“There are schools in the North West that are committed to delivering good quality advice but there are also many young people who have been let down. Poor advice has left them playing catch-up to get the right skills or qualifications, and in the worst cases young people have struggled to enter the job market at all.”

The guidelines, which include the creation of the Careers and Enterprise Company to encourage schools to work with careers advice agencies such as Career Connect, also includes £5 million of funding to support advice in schools. While new investment was welcomed by Career Connect, the charity warned it is inadequate for the size of the responsibility facing individual schools.

“With opportunities growing and firms looking for candidates with the right skills, it is more important than ever to make sure they can recruit from the local area,” said Kieran.

“These new statutory guidelines could have made a real impact on young people’s lives because they could have required schools to provide, independent quality careers advice from trained professionals as a right for all young people.

“Here at Career Connect we have an experienced team who work alongside schools and businesses to ensure young people get the right skills to allow employers to give them opportunities.”

“The Government has listened to the concerns of groups like the National Careers Council, the CBI and the Career Development Institute who have warned that many young people are missing out. These guidelines, whilst helpful, underestimate the size of the challenge locally.”

To learn more about Career Connect visit www.careerconnect.org.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dan Minchin .