According to the latest report from the National Careers Council, careers advice and services in schools need to be urgently improved.
The report highlights that receiving decent careers advice is a postcode lottery; for example, one region in England has 134 careers advice providers, another has only one.
The report makes four key recommendations:
- The government should establish an employer-led advisory board to advise on careers provision.
- The government should provide school and colleges with free and/or subsidised access to independent and impartial career development professionals’ expertise.
- The National Careers Service should improve its website to make it more appealing to young people, parents and teachers.
- The government should support the scaling up of existing and successful initiatives and the piloting of innovative local models.
Deidre Hughes, chair of the National Careers Council, said: “A culture change in careers [is] urgently needed. Some progress has been made in the last 12 months, but this has been far too slow. Meanwhile, our education and labour markets remain complex and confusing for young people, parents and teachers. We urge government and others to take action across England to halt the rapid decline in careers services for young people.”
