Business groups and Yorkshire MP call for better careers advice

LEADING business organisations have backed a Yorkshire MP's call for all schools to provide careers advice that meets a legal standards.
Graham StuartGraham Stuart
Graham Stuart

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart wants all schools to have to achieve a quality award in careers guidance.

He has written to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan calling for the guidance to schools on the issue to be toughened up and his letter has been signed by the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Chambers of Commerce and the manufacturers’ association the EEF.

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Mr Stuart, a former chairman of the Commons Education Committee, said: “Young people have never faced a greater variety of choices in their post-14 education, but a series of reports, including from Ofsted, the Education Select Committee and the National Careers Council, have expressed serious concern that the quality of careers information, advice and guidance in our schools isn’t good enough.

“Without this, too many young people end up on the wrong courses and either in the wrong job or not in work at all.

“There is no silver bullet to improve careers education but both business and careers experts alike agree making this change would encourage England’s schools to up their game - and better prepare their pupils to make a success of their lives.”

Dr Adam Marshall, acting director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Careers guidance needs reforming to fit the needs of the 21st Century, with a greater emphasis on business engagement.

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“The Chambers of Commerce have been working with businesses and education providers across the country, to improve communication and interaction to help bridge the gap between the worlds of education and work.”

Meanwhile, in Leeds children as young as seven are being encouraged to aim for a place at university, by attending after-school classes at a centre in Beeston.

The centre, run by national education charity IntoUniversity, has been opened in partnership with the Leeds University and is working with children from primary school upwards.

Schools taking part include Hunslet Moor, Hugh Gaitskell, New Bewerley and Greenmount primaries, Lawnswood and Cockburn high schools, the South Leeds Academy and the Elliott Hudson College.

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