You inherited this inquiry from previous committee chair Robert Halfon who stepped down in late 2022. Why is careers education such an important issue?
Speaking to young people, including in my own constituency, I think they often feel that they don’t get enough of it, or they don’t get the right kind of careers education advice. So I was very pleased to continue the inquiry that Robert had started.
One of the concerns that he had which I share is that not enough young people are told about the opportunities in vocational education, in apprenticeships and things other than university.
What we heard from a lot of [young people we engaged with] is that at school, they were getting no exposure whatsoever to those vocational opportunities, but actually at college they were. So what became clear is that there was this difference between what the schools were doing to open up the world of careers and what was being done in colleges.
Did you find that there is a lack of consistency between what different schools offer?
In my neck of the woods in Worcestershire, we have a really good careers hub and good connections between schools and the private sector. I know that’s not the case everywhere. What I wanted to look at was some of those regional disparities. It’s about getting the connections right between the bits of work inside and outside schools, it’s about making sure that the right supports are in there.
The right careers advice brings together all the different options that are out there, talks about the vocational and the academic opportunities, but also explains the world of work. What we wanted to make sure is that we have a system to support that co-ordinationbetween the school-based careers advice, and then how it could have been linked with 16 to 19 learning.
And what part does geography play in access to careers advice and opportunities?
The impression that we got is that a lot of the advice young people get is dictated by their geography and their opportunities immediately around them. A case in point was that we heard from young people in Lancashire, which is at the heart of where BA Systems is operating. But they were saying if you weren’t in the right bit of Lancashire, the great stuff BA Systems is offering didn’t come to your door. What you ended up with was only the local jobs in retail, or perhaps sectors which are a bit less glamorous. So, it was a good example of some of the barriers that need to be overcome.
In addition to inconsistent approaches between schools and regions, are there any groups that are not currently well served by careers education?
There were concerns, particularly outside of London, about ethnic minority groups and their access to suitable work experience, as well as for children with special educational needs.
One of the things I saw was a fantastic example of tailored special educational needs careers advice going on in the Black Country careers hub. It would be nice to see that available much more widely because there is this concern that many children in specialist settings end up with very little or no careers advice, or what they do have is not necessarily appropriate to finding them work in the future.
Making sure that it is properly tailored and that the right support is there in alternative provision and specialist settings will make a big difference to young people’s life chances and their aspirations.
The government has a big drive on disability employment, and I think making sure that is joined up with education would be a good opportunity to improve outcomes for young people.
To create the right opportunities for disadvantaged groups, do schools need to have higher aspirations for pupils?
It’s a bit of everything, because it’s also about employers recognising when they can tailor their offer to people with specific needs.
We had some great examples – when I went to this Black Country careers hub, they had an outdoor landscaping business. It was finding that a lot of young children with autism didn’t like being stuck indoors, they wanted to be outside because they concentrated and worked much better when they were outside.
They had partnered up with this college in order to provide opportunities for teenagers with autism to work in their business. They then found them incredibly loyal and hard working staff. There should be a win-win here, if we can find those opportunities and get employers working with education providers.
I think it’s important to find that and have the ambition across the whole of the sector to drive that.
Your report also highlights how access to work experience is variable and too reliant on parents to generate opportunities which can put some children at a disadvantage. What ways can that be tackled?
We’ve all come across stories of work experience where someone was stuck making the tea or photocopying. That is a waste of opportunity. Genuine work experience, when teenagers get to engage with, learn from and experience something different can be incredibly valuable, liberating, and help to raise aspirations.
Making sure that there’s a proper suite of opportunities available to schools is really important.
One of the things we’d like to see is better cataloging of all the opportunities that there are in a particular area, or all the opportunities for hybrid work experience that might be available to schools, so that those who feel that they’re in an area that doesn’t necessarily provide the range of opportunities that their students want, can look further afield.
Are the problems with work experience the same everywhere?
Probably the biggest divide we saw when we talked to students about work experience was between London and everywhere else.
Students from London were saying “there are great opportunities on our doorstep” and almost everywhere else students were saying that their choice was limited. That is a concern.
It’s about making sure that the full breadth of opportunities is available in as many areas as possible, and also reducing some of the barriers for businesses and employers to give work experience.
A lot of the feedback we had from businesses was that it was something which was too much hassle, too much trouble, that they have too many hoops to jump through. We did make recommendations about trying to remove some of those barriers, trying to make sure it’s as straightforward as possible, whilst of course meeting safeguarding obligations.
What other changes to the careers advice system would make a difference for disadvantaged groups of children?
One of the biggest things would be to start talking about careers and opportunities earlier and to have a real push on primary schools. Making sure that children understand the sheer variety of different types of work, not just thinking of perhaps the one job they might have seen in that community but thinking of other types of work. That’s something that can start in primary school.
We’ve made some recommendations about tailoring the Gatsby Benchmarks for primary and I’ve seen some fantastic work going on in primary schools, including specialist primary schools, on this front, but it’s the exception rather than the rule. If that can be made more general, I think that will make a difference for every pupil up and down the country.
For disadvantaged groups what will make a difference is specific routes for pupils with special educational needs and in alternative provision, and what can be done to find the right tailored work experience.
There are some good examples but they’re not standard. There are too many settings, which are specialists or providing alternative provision, where careers is an afterthought or not really done at all. Making that offer really universal and working on those areas will make a big difference for young people.
Have you had any feedback from the government on your report? Do you think you’re pushing at an open door?
I think we are, and it probably doesn’t hurt that the skills minister is of course, the person who started the inquiry. He’s very aware of the importance of this and I’m keen to work with him to make sure as much as possible that the recommendations get picked up and implemented.
I think it feels like the government is listening, and this is an area where there’s cross-party support for some of the work that’s going on.
