FOUR UK MINISTERS SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON EVOLVING EDUCATION AND CAREERS IN A COVID LANDSCAPE

November 6, 2020 dmh

It’s not often we have four Ministers from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland available during these very challenging times. My sincere thanks to Ministers and government officials for prioritising this during their busy schedules. These short videos offer insight to priorities and plans in the coming year. You may find the videos helpful in reflecting on the realities of education and careers policies and practices in your context wherever you are in the world.

Minister Gillian Keegan, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, Department for Education, England:

“Careers guidance is vital in helping to develop talent and opportunities for all…We are investing over £100m in financial year 2020/2021 to help young people and adults get high quality careers advice.”

Minister Jamie Hepburn, Minister Business, Fair Work and Skills, The Scottish Government:

“This year has, of course, been a truly exceptional time and with that the economic landscape has changed and continues to change rapidly…in our own Programme for Government we committed to delivering a new careers strategy…The value and requirement of good quality careers information, advice guidance services has always been important for us, but never more so than today.”

Minister Diane Dodds, Minister for the Economy in Northern Ireland and Member of the European Parliament:

“Enhancing the skills of our people of all-ages will be key…even before the pandemic developing a highly effective skills pipeline was a key priority…In Northern Ireland I’ve made sure careers guidance is available to everyone regardless of their age or employment status…The availability of impartial and reliable careers support provided by professionally qualified advisers is more important than ever.”

Minister Ken Skates, Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales:

“Here in Wales we are fortunate to have an all-age national careers service delivered by Careers Wales…continuously developing their digital offer e.g. CareerCraft based on Minecraft and as we move into the new academic year…our Careers Advisers are working hard to offer advice digitally as well as face-to-face…Moving forward our schools are preparing for a 2022 roll-out of a new curriculum within it the Careers and Work Related Experiences (CWRE) will be significant.”