AEIAG0017

Written evidence submitted by Mr David Andrews OBE, Independent CEG Consultant, Visiting Fellow at University of Derby International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS) and Fellow, National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC)

Summary

This evidence is submitted by a teacher and independent consultant with over 40 years of experience of working on CEIAG for young people. The main points are:

The role of CEIAG is to help young people make informed decisions about their futures in education, training and work and to manage successfully their transitions from one stage to the next. It benefits both the individual and the efficient operation of the labour market and the education and training system.
CEIAG comprises several components: careers education in the curriculum, both through other subjects and discrete time; information about the labour market and future study options; encounters with colleges, universities, apprenticeship providers and employers; personal careers guidance interviews with a professionally qualified careers adviser.
In recent years, through promotion of the Gatsby Benchmarks, training for careers leaders and support from Careers Hubs, all managed efficiently and effectively by The Careers & Enterprise Company, there have been significant improvements in CEIAG in secondary schools and colleges, and these means of support should not be removed in any attempts to enhance the provision further.
Similarly, the current projects to develop careers education in primary schools are helping to promote the benefits of starting to learn about careers and the world of work at an earlier age.
Nevertheless, progress towards the desired standard in schools and colleges has not been consistent or fast enough, and there is inadequate support for young people who find themselves outside the education and training system.
Factors limiting progress include:

removing the statutory duty on secondary schools to provide careers education;
not increasing school and college budgets when placing upon them an additional duty to provide careers guidance;
a failure to put in place an accountability measure for schools;
not incentivising schools and colleges to develop their provision of CEIAG through access to development funding;
not including training on CEIAG in all forms of teacher training and professional development;
not retaining the successful, targeted service when Connexions was closed down.

Recommendations

Retain and continue to promote the Gatsby Benchmarks.
Continue to provide the careers leader training programme.
Continue to roll out nationally the network of Careers Hubs.
Reinstate the statutory duty on secondary schools to provide careers education in the curriculum.
Continue to support the development of careers education in primary schools.
Include in school and college budgets an additional allocation for personal careers guidance.
Require all schools to work towards the national Quality in Careers standard, and to publish whether or not they have achieved it.
Make development funding for CEIAG available to schools and colleges linked to working towards the Quality in Careers standard.
Fulfil the commitment to include training on CEIAG in all forms of teacher training and professional development.
Establish and resource a careers guidance service for young people not in school or at college, through local authorities and the National Careers Service working together.

CEIAG and its purpose

The role of careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) is to support individuals’ progression through education and training, and into work. CEIAG should help individuals make informed decisions about their future and to manage successfully their transitions from one stage of learning and work to the next. It benefits both individuals, by enabling them to fulfil their potential and find the right pathways for them, and society, by assuring that the education system and the labour market work efficiently, with fewer wrong choices and less drop out.

All of this cannot be achieved solely through access to information on the opportunities available and a careers interview, although both are important elements of CEIAG. The service needs to include careers education, through which young people gain knowledge and understanding both about the full range of opportunities available and about their own strengths, interests and aspirations, and develop the skills required to plan ahead, make decisions and make successful applications. This requires time in the curriculum, both through linking subject teaching to careers and dedicated time, often organised as part of personal, social and health education (PSHE). Alongside careers education, young people should have access to information on the options available and opportunities to hear from, and visit, providers of further and higher education and apprenticeships, and employers. They should also be offered guidance interviews with professionally qualified careers advisers at key times when making choices.

These components of a good CEIAG programme have been succinctly summarised in the Gatsby Benchmarks, a framework which the Department for Education (DfE) expects all secondary schools and colleges to use to develop their provision.

The CEIAG programme in a secondary school or a college needs to be led and managed by a nominated member of staff, the careers leader. All schools and colleges are required to have a named careers leader and the DfE is funding a national programme of training for this key role. Evidence from the Gatsby pilot in the North East demonstrated the benefits of schools and colleges working collaboratively to develop their careers programmes, and this model of support is now being rolled out nationally through the establishing of Careers Hubs. Both the careers leader training and the Careers Hubs are managed by The Careers & Enterprise Company. Schools and colleges where the careers leader has completed the training, and those which are part of a Careers Hub, achieve more Gatsby Benchmarks than schools and colleges where the careers leader has not registered for the training or are not in a Careers Hub.

Current situation

The quality of CEIAG for young people in secondary schools and colleges has improved over the past six or seven years, through promotion of the Gatsby Benchmarks and the roll out of the careers leader training programme and the network of Careers Hubs. These are features of the current policy that should not be removed or replaced. However, progress towards the required standard has not been consistent across all schools and colleges, nor fast enough. On average schools and colleges are only achieving half the number of Gatsby benchmarks and one in five schools are not meeting the target of at least 75% of pupils having a careers interview with a qualified careers adviser by the end of Year 11. Provision remains patchy.

There is a growing body of evidence that indicates that learning about careers and the world of work should start at an earlier age, in primary schools. The DfE, through The Careers & Enterprise Company, is currently funding a number of projects to develop and promote careers education in the primary sector.

A weakness in the current system that will be of particular concern to the Committee is the lack of support for young people who, for a variety of reasons, are not in school or at college. This includes those who have dropped out of the system but also the increasingly large number of home-educated young people. The current CEIAG policy for young people in England assumes that every young person is in a school or college. Support for young people outside the education system is poorly resourced and is dependent on the commitment of individual local authorities.

There are several factors limiting the progress of improvement of CEIAG in secondary schools and colleges.

Firstly, in 2012 the statutory duty on secondary schools to provide careers education in the curriculum was removed in a decision for which no rationale has ever been given. In the 30 years since the National Curriculum was introduced, no other part of the statutory curriculum has been removed.

Secondly, when the statutory duty to secure access to careers guidance for pupils was transferred from local authorities (LAs) to individual schools and colleges, none of the funding that LAs spent on the universal careers guidance element of Connexions was transferred to schools and colleges. The budgets for school and colleges have not been increased to cover the costs of meeting the additional responsibility of providing careers guidance.

Thirdly, there is no accountability measure placed on schools. We have a national quality standard for CEIAG, the Quality in Careers standard, fully aligned to the Gatsby Benchmarks and managed collaboratively by the main careers sector bodies and the headteachers’ and principals’ associations, but the DfE only strongly recommends that schools should work towards the standard. Colleges by contrast, are required to achieve the equivalent matrix standard. Schools are required to publish certain information about their CEIAG provision on their websites, but the information specified does not include whether or not they have achieved the Quality in Careers standard.

Fourthly, schools have not been incentivised to develop their provision of CEIAG, for example through being able to bid for funding. The evaluation of the Gatsby pilot showed that one of the reasons why the schools and colleges involved were able to make greater progress towards achieving the Benchmarks was because they had access to development funding. The sums of money were relatively modest, but the schools and colleges responded positively to the support. The fact that schools and colleges have made the progress that they have done so far is because of the support from The Careers & Enterprise Company, especially the careers leader training programme and the Careers Hubs. This represents good value for money from the investment in these forms of support by the DfE but that investment has not been complemented by making funding also available directly to schools and colleges to develop their provision of CEIAG.

Fifthly, while the national programme of careers leader training is having a positive impact on improvement, progress on some Benchmarks, particularly linking subject teaching to careers, will remain limited unless an introduction to CEIAG is included in the training of all teachers. In its Skills for Jobs White Paper, published over a year ago, the DfE committed to build careers awareness training into every stage of teachers’ professional development, from initial training to education leadership. To date there has been no further information on how, or when, this will be implemented.

The lack of provision for young people not in school or college has already been highlighted. One of the more successful features of the Connexions service that was closed down when responsibility for careers guidance was devolved to individual schools and colleges, was its work with those young people who, for whatever reasons, had become disengaged from education, training and employment. No adequate replacement for this part of the service was established and it represents a classic example of dismantling something that is working well when seeking to improve another part of the service.

Recommendations

Drawing on the analysis above I propose the following recommendations to the Department for Education (DfE).

Retain and continue to promote the Gatsby Benchmarks framework.
Continue to provide careers leader training free of charge to the school or college
Continue to roll out the network of Careers Hubs so that eventually all schools and colleges are members of a Hub.
Reinstate the statutory duty on secondary schools to provide careers education in the curriculum.
Continue to support the development of careers education in primary schools.
Include in school and college budgets an additional allocation of funding to cover the costs of providing personal careers guidance for pupils and students.
Require all schools to work towards the national Quality in Careers standard and to include a statement on whether or not they have achieved it in the information they are required to publish. This would serve as a means of accountability to both young people and their parents/carers.
Make development funding for CEIAG available to schools and colleges, conditional upon committing to work towards the Quality in Careers standard. This could be managed by The Careers & Enterprise Company and administered through the Careers Hubs.
Include training on CEIAG in all forms of teacher training and profession development, from initial teacher training and the Early Career Framework to middle and senior leadership programmes.
Establish and resource adequately a careers guidance service for young people outside education and training, through local authorities and the National Careers Service working together.

March 2022