careers

Rural youth unemployment is an indictment of our current rural policy approach. The erosion of careers advice for school children is something I’ve long suspected and mentioned previously in Hinterland – now my fears have been confirmed in a damning report by Ofsted.

The report follows the introduction of new rules in 2012 giving schools the legal duty to provide their own careers guidance – a service previously provided by local
councils. The report documents how too many school leavers are being railroaded
into taking a degree course at the expense of technical qualifications that
lead directly to a job: “very few schools promoted the full range of
progression routes that were available”, such as vocational qualifications and
apprenticeships for more practically-minded pupils.

Just half of schools placed one or more teenager onto an apprenticeship programme. The report also found that the National Careers Service, which was set up to offer advice online and by telephone, had made “little contribution” to careers guidance for young people in the schools Ofsted visited. In response, Matthew Hancock (the
Skills Minister), suggested employers get involved in providing careers advice.
The report ‘Going in the right direction? Careers guidance in schools from
September 2012’ can be downloaded here.