Worry over advice as school leaving age up

Youngsters who received their GCSE results this summer will continue some form of studying until they are 17 in a move to raise the education participation age. From 2015 it will increase to 18.

As students head back to full-time education, begin an apprenticeship or combine work with part-time studying, business groups suggested more needed to be done to raise awareness about the change.

John Wastnage, skills policy adviser at the British Chamber of Commerce, said many employers did not know about the change.

He added: “The duty is on the individual and not the employer and I don’t think that’s been very well communicated” he said.

“Employers don’t have a responsibility with regard to raising the participation age. There’s a concern that some employers may just decide not to employ 16-year-olds, because they are concerned they have a new duty to make sure they’re (young people) also in training and that’s not the case,”

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders said the sector supported the plan to raise the education participation age.

However he added: “We have been expressing serious concerns to the Government for some time about the implementation of this very significant new policy about which there are many unanswered questions in the absence of a coherent and funded implementation plan.”

The Government said this week that pupils who did not get a C in GCSE English and maths will have to continue studying until they do.