VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE – DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION WRITTEN QUESTION – ANSWERED ON 5TH DECEMBER 2018.

In response to a written question asked by the Labour Lord Murphy of Torfaen :- “To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Careers Strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, published on 4 December 2017.”

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2018-11-23.HL11756.h&s=careers+education#gHL11756.r0

The following responses were submitted by the Conservative Lord  Agnew of Oulton :-

“Working closely with the Careers & Enterprise Company and the National Careers Service, we are making good progress in delivering the commitments in the careers strategy.

We have created 20 new Careers Hubs, each with a Hub Lead and central hub fund, the majority of which are coordinated by the Local Enterprise Partnership or Combined Authority. We recently announced that we will create a further 20 Careers Hubs, bringing the total to 40. We have also brought in a requirement for all maintained schools to publish information about their careers programme on their website, including the name and contact details of the Careers Leader. Additionally, we have selected 14 high quality training providers to deliver Careers Leaders training. We have offered the first 500 training bursaries to fund Careers Leaders to attend this training and we recently announced new investment to increase our offer to approximately 1400 training bursaries for schools and colleges.

We have also launched a £2.5 million investment fund to invest in personal guidance for young people and Continuing Professional Development for careers guidance professionals. We have procured a new National CareersService, which will provide high quality bespoke support for those who need it most, including people with low qualification levels and those with learning difficulties and special educational needs and disabilities.

The Careers & Enterprise Company recently published their ‘State of the Nation’ report which measures school and college careers programmes in relation to the eight Gatsby Benchmarks of Good Career Guidance. This evaluation mentioned that Compass is a free online tool for schools and colleges in England to self-assess against the Gatsby Benchmarks. For the 946 schools that have completed Compass more than once, the average number of benchmarks achieved has increased from 1.9 to 2.9. Approximately 600 schools matched with an Enterprise Adviser and completed Compass in both the period of 2016 to 2017 and the period of 2017 to 2018. For these schools, performance against Benchmark 5 (employer encounters) has increased from approximately 40% to approximately 55%.”

Lord Murphy then asked a second question :-

“To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made on the CareersStrategy pilot scheme for routes into careers for vulnerable groups.”

The response from Lord Agnew :-

To target more support on those who need it most, the government has invested £5 million during 2018 in a new round of the Careers & Enterprise Company’s funding. This will help disadvantaged pupils to receive the additional support that they need to prepare for work, including opportunities for mentoring and personal guidance from a qualified careers professional. We have also established 20 Careers Hubs focused on groups of young people and areas most in need of targeted support and we have announced a further 20 Careers Hubs for 2019.

The government is also providing funding of £1.7 million to test new approaches and produce resources to improve careers information, advice and guidance for individuals who are disadvantaged or vulnerable. We want to broaden aspirations and raise awareness of pathways into training and work for young people with special educational needs and disabilities; looked after children and care leavers; and young people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Organisations have been recruited and work with these groups will start in January 2019.”