Report calls for scrapping of Connexions careers service
Charlotte Goddard
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
A report into social mobility commissioned by Gordon Brown has called on the government to remove careers responsibility from the Connexions service.
The report from the Panel on Fair Access to Professions, chaired by Labour MP Alan Milburn, calls for the government to reallocate £200m to schools and colleges to give them the freedom to tender for careers services from a range of providers.
It says: "Throughout our work we have barely heard a good word about the careers work of the current Connexions service. We can only conclude that its focus on the minority of vulnerable young people is distracting it from offering proper careers advice and guidance to the majority of young people. The service is simply not good enough and requires a radical rethink."
The report, Unleashing Aspirations, makes more than 80 recommendations on how to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access the professions. These include:
* Schools to place more emphasis on proving a range of extra-curricular activities
* The government to provide resources to allow state schools to participate in Cadet Force activities
* The establishment of a network of Arts Explorers aged five to 11 who would take aprt in cultural programmes
* Ofsted to be given new powers to inspect schools on the quality of their information, advice and guidance.
Milburn said: "We have raised the glass ceiling but we have not broken through it. There is a tail of educaitonal underachievement that we have to do something about."
Last month Milburn told MPs during a Commons debate on social mobility that information, advice and guidance (IAG) services are in need of a "fundamental overhaul".
