Rachael’s Blog: Getting engaged in careers advice

In the just published FEdS newsletter I write, briefly, about the after-the-riots debate and reference a recent blog by education correspondent Mike Baker who, in turn, highlights a thought provoking post by David Price OBE on the disengagement of young people from education and communities.

He writes that “the disengagement for many of these young people begins in school, when their interest in learning is sacrificed in pursuit of high-stakes testing and the attendant ‘drilling-and-killing’, worksheets instead of work experience, doing learning to them, not with them; when the very notion of a ‘values-driven curriculum’ is seen as dangerous left-wing nonsense, and the dominance of academic knowledge has driven out any respect for schools whose kids wanted to learn real-life, practical skills.”

I don’t agree with this entirely but it did make me think about the Government’s new careers service offer to young people and adults and the responsibility it places on schools to provide impartial and independent guidance to pupils. It is a controversial policy but, for me, the issue is not about schools having this responsibility, it’s how they deliver it to “disengaged” young people. If a small but disturbing number of young people are not into school, what’s going to encourage them to think about their future careers via guidance provided at or by their school?

And even if that advice is independent and impartial i.e. delivered by external providers, how will it reach them?

According to the DFE and BIS, the new National Careers Service, which becomes operational next year, will offer an online and helpline service for young people and adults, but “as adults do not have consistent access to careers guidance through other settings, the National Careers Service will also provide face-to-face careers guidance for adults, through a network of public, private and voluntary sector organisations.” This will not be offered to schools. They “will be free to make arrangements for careers guidance that best suit the needs of their pupils…”

It’s true that fast-developing online careers advice and mentoring sites may suit many young people who can navigate their way round the communications systems, but they’re not a complete solution. For many, having face-to-face advice could be life-changing. To provide this mix of advice, schools will need to invest time and money – and if they don’t have it? What then?

And what happens to that hard core of disengaged youth? The ones we saw caught up in the summer riots in London, Manchester and Birmingham. How do we have a hope in hell of engaging them in any kind of guidance at the (early) age they need it by leaving schools “free” to make their own careers advice and guidance arrangements; or in the case of NEETS – the local authorities.

Many would argue that we have had a flawed, failing and inadequate careers “system” for far too long and what the Coalition Government is doing in these austere times is freeing up responsibility, if not cash, to those who should be able to sort it out.

In fact, a lot is being done in a fairly haphazard and unsynchronised way across the public, private and voluntary sectors but, post the riots, we do need to address some fairly fundamental issues – and providing inspirational advice and guidance to people at a young enough age for it to have some impact and influence, is certainly one of them. And this needs greater thought and investment than the new National Careers Service provides. All of us have a stake in making this work.

I  am not sure more reviews are an answer, either. However, the DfE is currently carrying out a “Positive for Youth” consultation series, though you’d be hard pressed to find it on their website. One of the papers looks at how to engage more businesses in supporting young people and the organisations that work with them.

It is interesting that the CBI is looking at this theme also and this is certainly a time for greater business involvement in the provision of careers guidance and mentoring. The DfE consultation is seeking views on the role business can play in working with voluntary and community sector organisations and young people and how the Government can promote and grow this role and the number of businesses involved. There’s more information about this on the FEdS website and we’d appreciate your views to pass on to Government.

Also if you want to blog on this issue on the FEdS’ website, please get in touch with me