Young people's access to work experience 'remains patchy and inconsistent'
Gabriella Jozwiak
Monday, November 19, 2018
Too little progress has been made on improving young people's access to work experience with it remaining "patchy and inconsistent" despite recent reforms, the youth select committee has warned.
A report by the group of 11- to 18-year-olds, following an inquiry on the issue, has called on the government to hand education inspectorate Ofsted a new duty to inspect the organisation charged with delivering careers guidance reforms.
The government gave the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) responsibility to co-ordinate part of its careers strategy in January 2018, which included helping schools meet eight benchmarks - known as the Gatsby Benchmarks.
These benchmarks replaced a previous obligation on schools to offer all students two weeks of compulsory work-related activity - usually interpreted as a placement - at ages 14 to 16, with programmes of activities designed individually by schools in line with the benchmarks.
The committee's report, Realising the Potential of Work Experience, states: "Both the benchmarks and CEC show potential.
"But previous attempts to drive up quality and consistency of provision have not resulted in high-quality support becoming available for all young people.
"Given the substantial public money invested in it, DfE should instruct Ofsted to inspect the quality of CEC-funded provision, as it used to do for the National Careers Service."
In addition, it calls on government to commission an independent review of the CEC's impact on access to work experience for the most disadvantaged young people.
The report argues that work experience is not only beneficial for young people, but also to the economy as it can help generate interest in jobs where there are skills shortages, such as STEM industries (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
It also states that young people need to experience a range of good-quality work experience placements.
But it raises concerns that with freedom and flexibility to set their own work experience opportunities, schools with more privileged children could offer better opportunities than their peers in more deprived areas might receive.
To counter this, the committee recommends the government track and publish data on what sort of placements and activities children are completing, and release them as part of an annual "health check on young people's parity of access to work experience".
The committee also questions why the government has not included online provision for work experience in its redesigned National Careers Service website, as was the case in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
"This is a missed opportunity," it said. "We further recommend the department work with young people to co-produce this resource, and that it involves them as ambassadors in promoting the site on an ongoing basis once it is launched."
Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow said the report shows the committee is essential in representing the views of "our country's future".
"I am delighted to see the launch of this report, and I am confident my parliamentary colleagues will consider its conclusions," he said.
Youth select committee chair Claudia Quinn said: "The government must act now to ensure the most disadvantaged young people can access high-quality work experience."
Work experience was chosen as the topic of the inquiry following votes in BYC's 2017 Make Your Mark ballot.
The CEC was set up by government in 2015 to create a national network connecting schools and colleges, employers and careers programme providers.
