AEIAG0062
Written evidence submitted by Youth Future Foundation
Youth Futures Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organisation established in December 2019 (with an initial endowment of £90m from the Reclaim Fund) to improve employment outcomes for young people from marginalised backgrounds. We aim to narrow the employment gap by identifying what works and why, investing in evidence generation and innovation, and igniting a movement for change.
We are submitting evidence to this inquiry since we believe that careers education, information and advice is essential to support young people from marginalised backgrounds into work. The submission draws upon Youth Futures Foundation’s Evidence and Gap Map – the world’s largest mapping resource that shows the global evidence base on what works to improve youth skills, employment and job quality – to support the arguments put forward. It also includes quotes from members of our Futures Voices Group (FVG). Our FVG is made up of 12 young people who sit at the heart of our organisation, feeding into our vision and strategy and advocating for young people on the issue of employment.
1. Whether the current system of careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) is serving young people, particularly:
Numerous studies note the difficulty of evaluating careers advice and guidance systems. Every intervention takes place alongside complex contextual, behavioural, social and economic factors (Hughes and Gration 2010, DfE 2021), and it is difficult to unpick the impact of participation in CEIAG on the short-and long-term careers of young people. Therefore relatively few studies explore employment outcomes; however there is substantial evidence on how good-quality CEIAG impacts on skills for job-seeking and career management, general employability, and participation in further education and training. Overall the evidence is stronger for an impact on short- and medium-term outcomes than long-term ones (DfE 2021).
For example, a 2017 evaluation of the National Careers Service found that, although it was difficult to identify impacts on employment and benefits use, there was ‘… a relatively strong positive effect in relation to education and training’ (Lane et al 2020). It was not possible to identify employment effects, partly because of the presence of multiple confounding factors and unobservable differences between the ’treatment’ and ‘control’ groups in the study. A wide-ranging review of the evidence on ‘what works?’ in careers provision in colleges found that good-quality careers provision can result in greater rates of entry to higher education, moderately improved academic attainment, positive destinations and lower NEET rates (Williams et al 2018).
Strong career exploration skills are ‘… more positive and confident about the choices they make post-16 and more likely to make a successful transition’, as a result of better career exploration skills. In England, those who demonstrate those skills by the end of Year 11 are more likely to have made transitions that indicate progression at that stage (Hughes and Gration 2009). Key skills for ‘career exploration’ include the ability to use different media (online sources, networks, etc) to learn about career options and pathways, and high-quality factual information about these (Morris 2004).
A review of the evidence found that that good quality careers advice can support the development of skills that enhance career decision-making, including skills such as decision-making, self-awareness, opportunity awareness and information searching, certainty and decisiveness and transition skills (Killeen and Kidd 1991).
The impact on short rather than longer-term outcomes may be particularly marked for young people from marginalised or disadvantaged groups. A review of the literature in 2021 found the following examples:
DfE 2021
Tailored provision that reflects the needs of specific student groups, for example those with special educational needs or disabilities, and those with characteristics that suggest they are at risk of becoming NEET, is also important (Williams et al 2018).
“There was almost no education on your rights as a disabled person in work... The careers advice assumes everyone is non-disabled.” FVG member
“I think a more diverse range of careers advisors from varied ethnic backgrounds could... help ethnic minority students feel like they have someone who can relate to them and their goals.” FVG member
“Those who are in the care system already have adult responsibilities, therefore would require more support when applying for jobs and accessing careers.” FVG member
Multiple studies identify the importance of personalised, ‘reflective’, and individual sustained support for young people who experience disadvantage and marginalisation (DfE 2021), who may not be able to draw on large networks of parental contexts or extensive social capital (Holt-White et al 2022). This approach is associated with various positive impacts, possibly including a reduction in NEET rates (Hughes et al 2016). Students from lower socioeconomic groups were more likely to progress to further study where they experienced positive student-teacher relationships and engagement with careers advisers (DfE 2021).
“We need to democratise awareness [of careers and how to access them]… you can’t even have those dreams if you aren’t aware of what’s out there.” FVG member
“For those who are not aware of the education system, because their parents have not gone through the process themselves, it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to careers.” FVG member
Face-to-face provision is important for this group because it helps young people to access support that they trust (Balaram and Crowley 2012), making them more likely to follow guidance and gain confidence. This should be accompanied by information presented in other formats (such as online resources), but the latter cannot be the only channel used. Collaboration between schools, careers services and employers, and labour market information presented in a format that young people can understand are also key features of good practice (ibid.).
Proactive careers guidance, where schools ‘reach out’ to young people rather than wait for them to access careers guidance or to make full use of it, is also especially effective for these students (Holt-White et al 2022, DfE 2022). This includes both information, and also activities to make young people aware of more ‘ambitious’ jobs and educational routes that are available to them (Holt-White et al 2022).
“I found the commitment of the school to promote and check up on [careers activities] helped to create accountability, which really helped...” FVG member
2. How careers and skills guidance could be better embedded in the curriculum across primary, secondary, further, higher and adult education, to ensure all learners are properly prepared for the world of work
“Are we being limited because teachers are being limited... what is the actual first block of information?” FVG member
There is strong support for the effectiveness of intensive and personalised provision both with students in school and also with older people seeking employment support (Hughes and Gration 2009, Hughes et al 2016). For the latter group, this is associated with participation on education and training, gaining a qualification (Killeen and White 2000) and possibly also with progression into employment (Reynolds et al 2010). For young people, this is (as discussed above) especially important for young people at risk of marginalisation, but all students can benefit.
Parents and families have a substantial impact on young people’s career decision making, and therefore embedding parental engagement in school careers activities can be effective in helping students to consider a wide range of careers and post-school pathways (Barnes et al 2020, DfE 2021). Effective parental engagement in careers activities is collaborative, continuous and carefully planned; tailored to different families and levels of engagement; highly accessible; grounded in an understanding of context; and highly collaborative between families and schools (Barnes et al 2020).
‘Experiential’ activities, such as visits to cultural sites, universities, workplaces and other settings, and opportunities to volunteer and try new things, may help to raise student aspirations for further study and careers, as well as improving attainment (Gorard 2017).
“The system [of careers education, information, advice and guidance] is too situation dependent for young people as it is currently.” FVG member
“Embed careers throughout regular subjects... there’s no obvious need to learn Pythagoras [to many pupils], so they need to make this clearer in a way that young people understand!” FVG member
3. How schools could be supported to better fulfil their duties to provide careers advice and inform students of technical, as well as academic, pathways.
Effective careers guidance is sustained over time within the school career and embedded within the curriculum. Programmes that developed a clear framework, such as the Gatsby Benchmarks, appear to be effective in building skills for job-seeking and career planning, as well as raising academic attainment. For example, an interim evaluation of the Gatsby Careers Benchmarks implementation in north east England found that learners had improved some ‘career readiness’ skills (such as career management, transition, work readiness and information seeking), and may also have better outcomes in some aspects of GCSE attainment (Hanson et al 2019). An evaluation of a holistic and sustained careers education programme, also using the Gatsby benchmarks, found improvements in attainment, attendance and progression (Moore et al 2017).
Programme implementation relies on strong facilitation and leadership, and robust organisational infrastructure. The evidence is also strong on the need for and impact of sufficient funding, time and resource (Hanson et al 2019, Williams et al 2018). Both teachers and specialist careers professional have a role to play, the former working within the curriculum and the latter in specialist areas such as liaison with employers and using current labour market intelligence (DfE 2021).
“Careers advisors should be more aware of social movements and schemes that can support young people into employment.” FVG member
Features of good-quality careers provision include a professionalised careers staff, curriculum embedding of skills for employability (such as personal effectiveness, resilience, confidence), and collaboration with employers in designing personal skills provision, e.g. on communication, team working and problem solving (Williams et al 2018). Contact with employers and work experience, as well as mentoring and work-related learning are also effective (ibid). As well as provision for decision-making and information seeking, students can also benefit from support with the transition from education to work (DfE 2021).
References
Balaram B and Crowley L (2012) Raising aspirations and smoothing transitions: the role of Careers Education and Careers Guidance in tackling youth unemployment, The Work Foundation
Barnes S, Brown A, Bimrose J and Wright S (2020) The role of parents and careers in providing careers guidance and how they can be better supported: Evidence report, Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick/Gatsby Foundation
DfE [Department for Education] (2021) International approaches to careers interventions, Department for Education (authors: Pye Tait Consulting and Carol Stanfield Consulting)
Gorard S, Siddiqui N, Huat S B, Smith E and White P (2017) Children’s university: Evaluation report and executive summary, Educational Endowment Foundation
Hanson J, Vigurs K, Moore N, Everitt J and Clark L (2019) Gatsby Careers Benchmark North East Implementation Pilot: Interim evaluation (2015-2017), Research digest, International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby
Hughes D, Adamson J, Stutz A and Richards N (2016) Championing careers guidance in schools: Impact evaluation, CFE Research
Hughes D and Gration G (2009) Evidence and impact: Careers guidance-related interventions, DMH Associates/CfBT Education Trust
Killeen J and Kidd J (1991) Learning Outcomes of Guidance: a Review of Research, Research Paper No. 85, Sheffield Employment Department
Killeen J and White M (2000) The impact of careers guidance on adult employed people, Department for Education and Employment Research Report RR226
Lane M, Conlon G, Peycheva V, Mantovani I and Chan S (2017) An economic evaluation of the National Careers Service, Research Report, Department for Education
Morris M (2004) The case for careers education and guidance for 14-19 year olds, National Foundation for Education Research
Reynolds C , Barry M and Nic Gabhainn S (2010), Evaluating the impact of the winning new jobs programme on the re-employment and mental health of a mixed profile of unemployed people. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 12(2), 32-41
Williams J, Buzzeo J, Spiegelhalter K and Dawson A (2018) Careers provision in colleges: What works? Careers and Enterprise Company
March 2022