School careers system ‘inadequate’

THE amount of work experience and one-to-one advice on
jobs available to pupils has declined since schools were made responsible for career services,
according to a new report which has been backed by a Yorkshire MP.

The Education Select Committee chairman Graham Stuart said today’s think tank report should serve as “another wake up call to ministers” that the current service was inadequate.

It follows a warning from schools watchdog Ofsted that more than three-quarters of schools they had inspected were failing to give decent impartial careers advice to pupils.

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Since last September secondary schools have had a legal duty to provide careers advice to 14 to 16-year-old pupils.

The Pearson think tank has produced a report which shows that more than a quarter of schools polled said there had been less career provision in their school in 2012/13 than there had been a year earlier.

Particularly sharp falls were
reported in key areas such as
the availability of work experience, which was down 14
per cent on the previous year, careers libraries, down 12 per cent and individual careers counselling, which was down nine per cent.

In a speech launching the new report today Mr Stuart, the Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, will say: “The blunt truth is that the careers system in our schools is inadequate. And in too many schools, both the quantity and the quality of the guidance on offer is deteriorating.

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“If the system fails students, a human and economic cost is incurred both by young people themselves, and by the wider society that risks squandering their talents. As today’s report makes clear, a key part of the answer lies with the new National Careers Service, whose remit should be extended to support – and challenge – schools.

“Pearson’s report should serve as another wake-up call to ministers.”

Ofsted produced a report last week which warned that giving schools responsibility for careers services was not working with pupils only getting “narrow” information and rarely told about courses other than A-levels.

It suggested few schools knew how to offer a good careers service and claimed they did not have good links with businesses to give pupils experience of the working world. The report also condemned Government guidance for schools on careers.

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