Adam Bradford: Prepare students for real world, not qualifications

I am not surprised. The qualifications body City & Guilds commissioned a national research report which concluded that teenagers are aware of less than one in seven of the range of jobs available to them. I find that particularly startling. I know from my school years in the region that careers guidance was somewhat hit and miss. It is now being called a ‘postcode lottery’, and for good reason.

I challenged my career advisor when I was 16 and told her about my passions and motivation, in particular my vision to become an entrepreneur. I was told to consider becoming a teacher instead as setting up a business was only for ‘those people from Dragon’s Den’. Here lies the first problem – delimiting advice.

To challenge this, I asked about the routes available for me to continue with the career path I had decided I wanted to follow. The advisor said they would have to go away, do some research then follow up with me. They did not follow up. Problem two – careers advisors with little to no real world experience.

It is not just me. I spoke to dozens of young people on GCSE results day about their options. Most said they only took their qualifications in order to progress to the next level. It’s the same old school, college, university paradigm that we need to shift. Recently I teamed up with fellow entrepreneurs, who similarly wish for a broader offering of careers advice for the next generation, and wrote to the new Skills Minister, Robert Halfon MP, to express our views.

Alas, it seems this constructive attempt to mobilise the issue fell flat. His department’s public relations division has responded in a defensive and contrite manner. Of course, his team said it is vital that the Department for Education and Skills provides opportunities to young people so that they can succeed in the jobs market. Their letter went on to explain the range of apprenticeships on offer and discussed how colleges can enrol 14-year-olds onto technical courses. What the letter omits to say is how this is often seen as a throwaway option for those who are not necessarily as academically gifted. A practical career option is not a signal that you are in any way less academic or talented that others.

The DfE’s answer to this question seems to have been in a £90m careers policy investment which enables colleges and other education providers to go into schools and explain what they do and to continue to fund the Careers & Education Company. That translates to preparing students for more qualifications, not preparing students for the real world or broadening their options in terms of career choices.

I challenge Mr Halfon to take on board what City & Guilds have said and design a practical, vocational, accessible careers curriculum which gives young people an opportunity to explore the world of work and connect it with their passions. We ask ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ in nursery school. However, then the dialogue changes to ‘what course do you want to study at college?’ or ‘which university are you applying for?’

A study published last month found that one third of graduates believed their degrees did not represent value for money either. In the wake of Brexit, we need to be developing a nation of young people who are headstrong, ready to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges, and who are fired up with the skills and the passion to make a real difference to the world. Choosing an inappropriate career option can cost motivation, time and money.

From my experience working for almost a decade in the youth sector and in mentoring young people directly, I am always astonished at the misrepresentation and misunderstanding of millennials. The phrase is used foolishly to represent the current generation of young people leaving school and entering their first paid work.

They are not a lazy, idle, needy generation who think the world owes them something. Studies show this generation as hard-working, perhaps harder workers than the previous generation, a generation determined to do well and who have an overwhelming passion to change the world.

The real question here is – why is this talent not being unleashed? We need careers advisors in schools who have actually had careers. We need businesspeople entering schools more regularly, to tell their stories and offer expert industry advice, perhaps even paving connections for entry-level employment in specialist areas.

That connection between education and business really needs to take shape soon, otherwise young people will continue to be trained and advised for industries which will be obsolete by the time they graduate.

Adam Bradford is a young social entrepreneur from Sheffield. He is involved in several social impact campaigns, including gambling and autism awareness. He is the recipient of a Queen’s Young Leaders Award for his work.