AEIAG0101
Written evidence submitted by Janet Hutchinson
I have worked in education supporting young people to achieve their potential since 1983. I was originally a secondary English and Maths teacher but have also delivered a wide range of other subjects at pre and post 16 from Entry level to A level. I have worked as a vocational and key skills tutor and delivered pastoral and career work in schools/sixth form colleges as well as being one of the original Learning Mentors in Stratford East London my final teaching job was as a Head of Sixth form in rural Lincolnshire. I am also the mother of a 24 year old and have seen how important her school’s career programme was to her. Whilst a traditional academic myself my daughter is dyslexic and I have become very aware that the academic/exam focus in many schools is not helpful for many young people. I worked as a Career Education curriculum adviser for the Lincolnshire and Rutland Connexions service from 2001 to it’s TUPE into Lincolnshire County Council in 2008. I then continued to support the Careers agenda including working with one of the Quality awards Career Mark across the East Midlands. In 2015 ages 55 I was made redundant a very challenging time but with colleagues set up an LLP called Complete Careers to continue the work we had been doing both local and further afield.
Complete-Careers primarily supports 4-19 education providers offering personal guidance, consultancy, quality assurance and workforce development relating to career interventions with the core purpose of enabling people to make successful transitions. I am not a guidance professional but a Career Education expert. Holding a Masters in Career Education Development and Guidance from CCCU. I have therefore worked in the careers field now for over 20 years and have strong opinions about what is working and what is not.
I will respond to each term of reference:
The current system of CEIAG has seen some much change since the Careers Strategy in late 2017. Significant achievements include:
However there is also much confusion Government decide to use the term Career Guidance to mean CEIAG and this has not been helpful to any of the element that make up CEIAG. There has also been little or no funding to support career education the learning that is required to help young people make well informed realistic decisions about themselves and their futures.
Whilst there is a Career Learning framework recently updated by the CDI there is no requirement to teach anything specific and it is often given little time and space in learners education.
A Careers Scotland report in 2004 provided evidence that if learners had a career aim whilst in school then they are more likely to be motivated and to achieve. Unfortunately the push towards the Ebacc and the measuring of progress 8 etc. have meant learners are not as often as they should be offered a broad curriculum that reflects their needs and interests.
As I child I often heard that the Jesuits said they if they had a child until they were 7, they had them for life. In the last few years more and more is being said about young people and their attitude to work, learning and themselves and their aspirations needs to be worked with in primary education before it’s too late. This is particularly true of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in care, home schooled from ethnic minority background’s and With SEND. They will often have less support, fewer opportunities to learn and experience the wider world and less access to ICT that will allow them to access information.
Unless young people are taught to understand their strengths and value all of them and to identify a range of learning pathways that suit them and opportunities that inspire and motivate them then they are unlikely to see the point of having good exams results.
Schools and colleges must identify the needs of their learners. To help make the CEIAG system better there needs to be Direct ring-fenced funding for careers education in all schools. And better training for all staff teaching and support so that understand what is meant by CEIAG and how it will help motivate and inspire learners.
Protected time – and more robust identification and application of the skills and knowledge required to manage and deliver CEIAG would also be beneficial. Careers Leaders often operate under challenging conditions. They have huge responsibility and often as little as 1-2 hours per week to manage careers for thousands of learners.
Although we believe that the adjustments recommended in this section would significantly improve the current CEIAG system, Learners educated at home or in alternative provision are arguably some of the most vulnerable and local authorities should have a duty to ensure that every learner outside of mainstream education is provided with a robust careers programme including career education, information advice and guidance.
Whether and how the government should bring responsibility for CEIAG under one body, for example a National Skills Service…
Currently many organisations schools and colleges develop with their careers programmes. These include the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC), Career Development Institute (CDI) Gatsby Foundation, National Careers Service, Ofsted, Quality in Careers Standard, Amazing Apprenticeships, Discover Uni, Enterprise Advisers and Coordinators, Job Centre Plus, LMI for All, Skills Builder and STEM. This is confusing for every school and college. Many of the providers have overlapping agendas and services and very few coordinate and join their priorities at national level, creating confusion locally. Some are in it to make a profit while other are social enterprises or charities. In addition hundreds of careers companies and tech companies offer unregulated careers information services to schools and colleges.
This needs to improv. A single body could help to provide some much-needed structure. Neighbouring countries in the UK Careers Wales and Skill Development provide more joined up better models. Addressing the plethora of public funded organisations and initiatives (including those above) can provide funding for a national career development service. This could coordinate connect and quality assure provision. and regulate connect to adult careers services. A national career development service could provide a clear strategy for CEIAG and enable flexibility of context at regional and local level. The name ‘National Skills Service’ is too narrow for the context of CEIAG. It is essential to recognise that knowledge and attitude development is every bit as important as skills and that CEIAG prepares for far more than just employability and economic development, it also is a key enabler for overall wellbeing. ‘Career Development England’ could be a more suitable name
The CEIAG system for young people in England has been decimated over the past decade It is therefore essential that young people are at the centre of any new reforms and that their needs are prioritised. We therefore urge for any new body to be within the Department for Education and begin to have effect from EYFS to post 16 learning.
The National Careers Service is not fit for purpose for young people. The website is not user friendly. Young people have commented on this and the usefulness of the helpline service on feedback to the National Careers Service, which outlines clearly that the service for young people is not working[ii].
The Careers and Enterprise Company unfortunately has generally employed staff with more of a work than education focus and this has been detrimental but has developed significantly evidencing its effectiveness. Originally this was to better connect schools with employers, but, following the Careers Strategy, the remit grew to supporting schools and colleges to meet Gatsby Benchmarks 1-8. The Compass Tool and Compass Plus provide the opportunity for organisation self-assessment and to track learner encounters and experiences. However this is organisation owned rather than learner owned so does not motivate or inspire as it could. The Careers and Enterprise Company have trained over 2000 Careers Leaders in England and most areas of the country now have a Careers Hub, as well as support from Enterprise Coordinators and Advisers. Unfortunately many of these are not qualified or trained in CEIAG so do not fully understand the work they are trying to do.
The Careers and Enterprise Company has provided support and resources to help schools and colleges to meet elements of the Gatsby Benchmarks, as outlined as best practice in 2014 in the Good Careers Guidance, Gatsby report. However many of those the government listen to in relation to Careers are not actually qualified or have knowledge of the underpinning academic knowledge on which CEIAG is built. much of the direction for Gatsby and other careers initiatives are influenced by individuals with no direct careers experience or qualifications. This approach is dangerous
The Gatsby benchmarks are insufficient to prepare learners for their future. We need more in terms of career learning and quality assurance (CDI framework and the Quality in Careers Standard) to improve the system.
The work of the Careers and Enterprise Company should continue to be funded, but the Career Development Institute and the Quality in Careers Standard need to be properly resourced to enable them to achieve the same impact.
Careers can be better embedded in the curriculum
To help embed the above ‘tripod approach’ in secondary schools:
There should also be statutory guidance for primary schools to introduce career learning from age 4-11. The Education and Employer Taskforce ‘Drawing the Future’ report[iv] highlights how values can be deeply engrained from age 7 and how career learning can raise aspirations, broaden horizons and support social mobility. Primary schools need help and support in understanding what career learning is in a primary context and how they can access existing mechanisms (tripod approach) to embed best practice.
How the Baker Clause could be more effectively enforced
How the Government can ensure more young people have access to a professional and independent careers advisor and increase the take-up of the Lifetime Skills initiative.
Schools have a moral duty to ensure learners and their parents/carers are provided with the knowledge and understanding of the full range of learning pathways and qualifications available, as well as the different education providers they could access. The Baker Clause provides clear instructions for compliance with this. Ofsted have a role to comment on the Baker Clause in inspection Ofsted need to take a closer look to include reporting on:
The careers profession has been badly neglected and young people, teachers, parents, communities and policy makers need to ensure they have a clear understanding of what current CEIAG is and the impact it can have on an individual. Careers work needs to receive better professional recognition with agreed professional rates of pay and conditions across all sectors.
There needs to be a significant increase of funding for the Career Development Institute and the Quality in Careers Standard to enable them to create a balanced robust system. In addition every school and college should be given protected funding as well as time and pay and conditions to improve the quality of their careers provision. It is also appropriate to include inputs in all initial teacher training so that all teachers begin their career with some understanding of career learning and their role in supporting learners to achieve their potential and make successful transitions.
Starting career development in secondary is too late. Primary schools need support including staff training to bring the ‘tripod approach’ into 4-11 learning, along with a funded extended primary pilot
Measures need to be introduced urgently to identify and put in place systems to support learners educated at home and in alternative provision as well more resources for those in disadvantaged areas and groups.
Support organisations, agencies and initiatives need streamlining, rationalising and coordinating with a requirement to work together so Careers Leaders can easily identify what they need and what is available.
The system will only ever be as good as those who can access it. Urgent attention is required to support learners educated at home or in alternative provision.
Careers work needs to become central to all education to ensure England supports and develops its future workforce to enable all to contribute to the economic and environmental challenges of the 21st Century.
[ii]March 2022