AEIAG0085

Written evidence submitted by The Prince’s Trust

About The Prince’s Trust

1. Youth charity The Prince’s Trust helps young people to develop the confidence and skills they need to realise their ambitions, so that they can live, learn, and earn. Founded by The Prince of Wales in 1976, the charity supports 11- to 30-year-olds who are unemployed, struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. The Trust has helped over a million young people to date, and we support upwards of 65,000 young people a year.

2. Many of the young people helped by The Trust are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness, mental health problems, or have been in trouble with the law. The programmes offered by the charity give vulnerable young people the practical and financial support needed to stabilise their lives, helping develop self-esteem and skills for work. Three in four young people supported by The Prince’s Trust move into work, education, or training.

Our work with schools and colleges

3. The Prince’s Trust runs a wide range of programmes that support young people into employment, education, and training. We will be drawing on this experience to inform this response.

4. The Prince’s Trust works in both schools and colleges to deliver personal development courses and qualifications through our Achieve and Team programmes. Our Team programme supports 16–25-year-olds to develop their skills and confidence – helping to prepare them for their next step. The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme supports young people aged 11 to 19 to engage and succeed in education. The Prince’s Trust works with around 40 per cent of England’s FE colleges, and approximately 850 schools across the UK.

This response:

The Prince’s Trust’s vision that every young person should have the chance to succeed. Our experiences of working with young people in schools and colleges, as well as with unemployed young people, have led us to make the following key points in this response:

      High quality, well-funded CEIAG in schools can help to boost social mobility, as well as supporting Levelling Up across the country

      An effective CEIAG system must also include high quality provision for post-16 learners and adults, particularly if we are to ensure it supports the needs of the future economy

      To ensure effective CEIAG leads to positive outcomes for young people, we must also work to create and maintain routes to good quality jobs

High quality, well-funded CEIAG in schools can help to boost social mobility, as well as supporting Levelling Up across the country

5. Good quality careers advice at school is important to ensure all young people succeed in life. And young people recognise this too, with almost 70% agreeing when surveyed that having good exam results and receiving good careers advice are equally important[1]. We also know that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to have access to comprehensive careers advice amongst their family networks[2], meaning they rely more on schools to provide them with the information they need to plan for their future – underlining the need for access to high quality CEIAG for these pupils in particular.

6. It is concerning that over a third of senior leaders do not think that their school has adequate funding and resources to deliver good quality careers education and guidance – and even more worrying when we see that schools in more deprived areas are less likely to have access to specialist careers advisers[3]. It is essential that schools receive the funding necessary to support all young people with their next steps, particularly those young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds who are more likely to end up not in employment, education, or training (NEET)[4] without this guidance.

7. We welcome the decision to make the Baker Clause statutory in schools, as it will help to ensure that all young people are fully informed of their choices and that there is some measure of accountability in place to ensure that schools deliver this. Wherever possible, enforcement of the Baker Clause should be done by ensuring the support is in place to help schools to deliver, as opposed to any punitive measures.

8. The Gatsby Benchmarks are a welcome framework to incentivise improved careers provision across providers, and evidence shows that, where they have been adopted, they have been very successful[5]. Where there has been a delay in take-up, this has been attributed in part to resourcing issues[6] which further underlines the need for adequate funding and resourcing, particularly in state schools to ensure all young people have access to high quality CEIAG.

9. It is good to see increased attention from Ofsted towards CEIAG in the most recent framework for inspection, and it is welcome that this now includes references to both the Baker Clause and Gatsby Benchmarks[7]. Alongside a well-funded system, accountability measures that can incentivise a focus on provision of high-quality, effective CEIAG for all pupils are critical.

10. In several meetings of the Youth Voice Forum- a subsidiary of the Youth Employment Group[8] where young people meet monthly to discuss a variety of topics- young people have raised their experiences of CEIAG. Concerns have ranged from feeling that advice is not individually tailored, to the need for better guidance on academic alternatives, to the individual experiences and aspirations of advisors influencing young people’s choices. All of these, the young people we spoke to warned, risk disengaging young people from the process entirely. It is important for young people’s choice to be at the centre of guidance, and the system should work to ensure that these choices are well-informed, and that young people understand the routes to follow to achieve their goals.

11. Corroborating these conversations are findings from The Prince’s Trust’s 2022 Youth Index survey, which showed concerns from over half (56%) of young people that their education was not preparing them for the reality of the workplace. This survey also showed that 67% of young people thought there was too much emphasis on grades versus preparation for work, and 41% saying that they had no idea to find a job when they left school. Concerningly, less than a quarter of young people said that they were introduced to a wide spectrum of jobs when they were at school[9]. Ensuring good quality careers provision is in place throughout a young person’s school journey is vital to facilitate a smooth transition between education and employment – but there is clearly more work to do.

12. As well as supporting young people to get the qualifications they need to achieve their ambitions, there must be a focus on developing their employability and personal skills – and CEIAG interventions are an important part of this. This remains critical as we begin to see the lasting effects of the pandemic and the widening of the disadvantage gap. Work is needed to ensure that young people from all backgrounds are equipped to succeed.

13. The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme is a personal development programme for 11-18 year olds, delivered in education settings through a flexible, modular approach. The programme supports young people to develop the confidence and key transferable skills they need to support their future – with the option to complete a qualification in Personal Development and Employability as a part of this. The programme content has in recent years been adapted to ensure it supports schools to meet all 8 of the Gatsby Benchmarks – and feedback from schools delivering the programme has underlined how it not only supports them to meet these benchmarks, but also in delivering the wider core curriculum.

14. Schools and other providers have told us that young people transfer the skills they learn through the Achieve programme to other areas of their school life and that it prepares them to step up to the challenges they will face post-16. Schools should be supported to deliver programmes such as this, which can enhance learning and contribute to improved provision of CEIAG in schools – and a clear signal from government on the value of broader personal development activities in school would help encourage and facilitate these activities.

15. Young people cannot be what they cannot see, which is why it is concerning that Prince’s Trust research in 2018 found that 15 per cent of young people claim they do not have any role models, increasing to a quarter (26%) of NEETs[10]. The same survey found that one in five young people have never met someone who does a job they would like to do, underlining how crucial the visibility of diverse role models is. Experiences of the workplace, inspirational talks and careers guidance can all play a role here, and there is also a role for mentoring as a part of a high-quality system of CEIAG.

16. Through many of The Prince’s Trust’s programmes we provide wraparound support that includes a mentoring offer, and in schools have a focused mentoring programme - Mosaic[11]. Through connecting students to positive role models who combine life experience with a structured programme, this helps to raise their confidence, aspirations, self-efficacy and boost their employability. We also know that mentoring opportunities are something that young people value – with our Prince’s Trust Youth Index this year showing that half of young women agree that having a mentor would improve their confidence in their future[12]. The department should consider how to boost role of mentors to enhance careers guidance offerings.

17. There is also a clear role for employers in supporting the delivery of CEIAG programmes – something that The Prince’s Trust has seen first-hand through partner support for our Achieve programme. The role for employers in a high-quality system of CEIAG is varied, from providing experiences of the workplace, offering inspirational talks and role models, or sharing information about their expectations and needs – and this should be supported and facilitated by the systems in place to ensure it is accessible to all schools and all students, not just those with personal connections.

18. Investing in CEIAG for young people can also have longer-term and more widespread benefits; by providing young people with the support they need to pursue their aspirations, a high-quality careers offer can also be a powerful facilitator of social mobility. Social mobility has been found to be positively related to productivity, with analysis suggesting that a modest increase in the UK’s social mobility could be associated with an increase in annual GDP of approximately 2%[13].

19. Supporting CEIAG could also be a powerful tool to achieve the government’s levelling up ambitions. A report investigating trends in careers education found that, in 2021, there was a 24% increase in schools providing local labour market information to most of their students and that the longer schools and colleges had been in a Careers Hub, the higher their Gatsby Benchmark scores[14]. These findings indicate the benefits of integration between schools and the local labour market, for young people and for the local economy. As such, the Unit for Future Skills outlined in the Levelling Up White Paper[15] provides a clear opportunity to use data effectively to improve transitions between education and work, and ultimately outcomes for both young people and the local economy.

20. The identification of 55 education cold spots earmarked for investment through the Levelling Up White Paper[16] will benefit schools, and their pupils, in areas that most need support. While the targeted approach is welcome, we know that challenges with funding and resourcing for careers guidance are widespread and the benefits of a more general uplift to funding alongside this should be considered – ensuring young people are supported to succeed, wherever they live.

An effective CEIAG system must also include high quality provision for post-16 learners and adults, particularly if we are to ensure it supports the needs of the future economy

21. In a report from The Prince’s Trust and The Learning and Work Institute, supported by HSBC, a model of future sectoral growth found that the sectors where young people are substantially overrepresented, such as retail and arts and entertainment, are projected to remain smaller in the long-term than they were before the pandemic. By contrast, the demand in sectors like health and social work, where young people are currently underrepresented, are projected to increase significantly (shown in Figure 17).

22. While it is important to ensure that young people are supported to pursue their individual ambitions, ensuring that they are clear on the opportunities available to them is also valuable. This modelling underlines the need for measures to increase participation in sectors where young people are underrepresented. As a part of this, young people must be clear on what qualifications and programmes of study will help them to succeed in their chosen pathway – with a recent study from UCAS showing that 26% of BTEC students and 18% of A Level students reported being unable to pursue a subject that interested them at degree level because they had not studied a relevant qualification at Level 3. The Government should look at the role for improved provision of high-quality careers guidance for older learners as well as those in secondary school, and may also want to explore the value of public campaigns on the merits of jobs in growth sectors, as well as the qualifications that provide a path to them.

23. CEIAG is a great way to encourage young people towards careers in growth sectors, and importantly, it is also essential in efforts to diversify those sectors. Polling found that more than half of young women believed their school did not provide them with the skills or understanding to pursue a job in the digital sector[17]. Another survey found only 16% of females have had a career in technology suggested to them compared with 33% of males[18]. This may go some way to explaining the gender gap in the technology workforce, where just 26% of those in the tech workforce are women[19]. High quality careers guidance should have a clear EDI strategy that is executed consistently across all delivery to foster greater diversity in areas of opportunity in the labour market.

24. Research shows that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to have career aspirations that don’t match their educational goals, due to uncertainty about the qualifications needed to access their chosen career[20]. One study also found that five times as many young people want to work in arts and entertainment and sport as there are jobs available[21]- and while young people should be supported to pursue their aspirations, this emphasises the need for well-informed advice and guidance from an early age.

25. However, we also know that skills demand in the labour market continues to shift. Helping young people to understand the opportunities available to them, and the qualifications that will help facilitate their aspirations is important – but supporting them throughout their working lives to retrain, adapt and move careers is also critical. The government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee will help to provide a safety net for young people in the future, as well as providing the opportunity for workers to retrain as their sectors decline or as their aspirations change – but easy access to CEIAG for adults alongside this opportunity for training will be critical to the success of this offer.

26. While we need to meet skills shortages, flexibility will be needed to address long-term skills needs. Analysis in 2017 suggested that 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 hadn’t been invented yet[22] and as such, it can be difficult to anticipate the skills the next generation of young people will need.

27. One of the best ways to address the transitory nature of the work force and the economy, is to ensure that young people have the skills and confidence to learn, so that they are ready to retrain or upskill throughout their lives. Alongside this, adult education funding is essential to facilitate an adaptable labour market where labour supply is able to retrain to meet labour demand. Adult Education Budget funding should be increased – both at a national and devolved level through relevant combined authorities. This would enable providers to ensure high-quality provision, and to effectively deliver intensive programmes to older learners who are NEET or harder to engage – supporting those who may struggled in education, who have spent time out of the labour market, or who need to retrain.

To ensure effective CEIAG leads to positive outcomes for young people, we must also work to create and maintain routes to good quality jobs

28. Whilst the recent fall in youth unemployment is welcome news, it is essential that attention now turns to the crisis of participation that is driving acute labour shortages- which is disadvantaging the future of those young people furthest from the labour market and those with additional barriers to employment.

29. The number of young people who are NEET and inactive, that is not in work and not looking for work, poses a significant challenge as numbers of vacancies continue to reach record highs. It is important that young people receive high quality guidance on the opportunities available to them, and undoubtedly CEIAG is a helpful tool to engage young people and prevent them from becoming NEET. However, the factors that discourage young people from participating in employment, education, and training must also be addressed.

30. As a part of this, promoting apprenticeships as a good route into employment would be a positive intervention, particularly in those sectors identified as utilising this pathway more frequently for their entry-level roles. Pre-pandemic trends in apprenticeship starts for young people and at lower levels were however concerning, and while careers guidance that highlights apprenticeships as a positive option is important, we must also work to ensure that these options remain a reality.

31. Despite providing a great route into employment for young people, data shows a shift in the age profile of people starting apprenticeships in recent years, with half of apprenticeship starts in 2020/21 over the age of 25[23]. In most recent statistics, we have also seen an uptick in starts for learners over the age of 25 while the number of apprenticeship starts among learners under 25 continued to decrease[24]. These figures show a significant shift in who apprenticeships are serving and where they are supporting skills development – risking removing the first step on the ladder to a successful career. Reforms to the apprenticeship system are needed to ensure that opportunities for young people, and at lower levels, remain an excellent route into work.

32. When it comes to ensuring a smooth transition from education into employment, in which young people have the information and guidance to make informed decisions about their future, closer working between DWP and DfE is required. This is particularly necessary for disabled young people, who struggle to find good information and advice about making the journey into employment.

33. The Department may wish to consider the value of signposting and supporting young people into pre-employment and pre-apprenticeship programmes as a bridge between classroom-based study and employment as a part of CEIAG programmes – helping to build personal and employability skills, as well as preparing them for a successful experience in the labour market. This support is particularly valuable for post-16 learners who have struggled in school, and for those who may have fewer qualifications. 

34. While engaging young people with the labour market is important, it is also important that the work they find is high quality. A survey of young people found that 62% of people feel the pandemic has made it harder to find high-quality work[25]. Mental and physical health were cited as the biggest barriers to finding high-quality work. Amongst warnings of a youth mental health crisis, it is essential that work fosters good wellbeing in young people. The benefits of good quality work to the individual are high, and these benefits are often felt by the employer too, as good quality work and wellbeing are strong predictors of employee retention[26].

March 2022