Careers advice needs clear direction
Ravi Chandiramani
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
We're in the darkest depths of recession, and about to enter a transformation in post-16 learning through the expansion of diplomas and apprenticeships. Young people could really do with some sure-footed careers advice right now.
So it's unfortunate that information, advice and guidance (IAG) services are, on the whole, anything but. The government's IAG strategy has been delayed twice and is now slated for the autumn. Meanwhile, Connexions services are stinging from the attack meted out in last week's government-commissioned report on social mobility Unleashing Aspiration (see p11). The report called for careers responsibility to be removed from Connexions and reallocated to schools and colleges. Its verdict on the service is harsh on the Connexions advisers who do a sterling job to put young people on the path to success.
But there's no escaping that Connexions has failed the many through its rigid focus on prioritising the few, with the imposed target of reducing young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) distorting its focus. From the outset, Connexions has suffered an identity crisis over whether it is a universal or a targeted service.
There is now an establishment consensus emerging that careers advice should come under the remit of schools, with the Conservatives also supporting such a move. This has the advantage of accessibility, putting careers advice close to where young people are. But it has two major disadvantages. First, it could bypass, ironically, the young people whom Connexions has been accused of focusing on too heavily - those excluded from school or at risk of becoming Neet. And second, schools have a vested interest in filling their sixth forms. So they cannot necessarily be trusted to provide impartial advice on the full range of post-16 options, notably the new diplomas and apprenticeships.
If schools are handed the responsibility, they must be held to account for the quality and range of the advice they commission. If this means they become subject to Ofsted inspection, then so be it. As for the Connexions brand itself, it has become too tired and tainted to carry any value, and ought to be consigned to history. Since councils took responsibility for the service in April 2008, it has drifted along with no coherence.
We need an IAG strategy that provides clarity and hope to the next generation and we need it urgently.