CGF0011

Written evidence submitted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)

Introduction

  1. The NFER welcomes the opportunity to respond to the DfE’s latest memorandum and submit a written response to the Select Committee’s follow-up inquiry on careers guidance for young people.
  2. As requested, this response builds on our previous consultation response on careers guidance for young people to the Education Committee (2012).

Executive Summary

  1. We welcome more inclusion of employers and business leaders into schools and colleges and their contribution to bridging the skills gap and inspiring young people. However, in view of the fact that evidence indicates that young people turn to school staff that they know and their families for careers information, advice and guidance, we suggest that more emphasis should be placed on further developing young people’s, teachers’, careers advisers’ and parents’ awareness and understanding of the current skills needed for the workplace and the current routes to achieving them.
  2. We believe that the Government should, firstly, place more emphasis on the professional development of teachers so that they are sufficiently briefed to provide informed and impartial careers advice on vocational as well as academic routes. Secondly, it should place more emphasis on updating parents on the current skills needed in the workplace and the routes their children could take to acquire them.
  3. Additionally, we suggest that the Government considers further ways to ensure that all players are more aware of the importance of young people receiving independent and impartial guidance to support every young person’s successful progress – by, for example, recommending alternative progression routes or, if appropriate, ‘vocational’ education to an ‘academically able’ young person.
  4. We feel that the Deputy Prime Minister’s plan (announced in April 2014) to set up a UCAS-style, one-stop online shop for vocational opportunities should be implemented with urgency. This would provide a coordinated information service for young people on college courses, apprenticeships and traineeships.

Overview (paras 2 to 8)

  1. It is good that youth unemployment is falling; however, despite a growing economy, 13.5 per cent of 16-24 year olds were not in education, employment or training in the first quarter of 2014.[1] Furthermore national statistics, for example those highlighted in the Institute for Public Policy Research’s report Remember the Young Ones: Improving Career Opportunities for Britain’s Young People (IPPR, 2014), indicate the mismatch between the jobs young people are training for and the actual jobs available. The Institute points out that 94,000 young people were trained in beauty and hair for just 18,000 jobs, while only 123,000 were trained in the construction and engineering sectors for an advertised 275,000 jobs.
  2. We appreciate the role that employers can play in schools and colleges and consider that their involvement is a positive development. However, the number of employers (cited by the Department of Education) involved is small (for example 1000 Speakers in Schools talks and 100 pupils participating in a Skills Challenge) and we believe that the Government’s approach should be more far-reaching. There is a whole range of skills and information that help young people to make decisions about their pathways and careers. We believe the acquisition of such skills and information would be more effective if it were an embedded part of young people’s school experience – and therefore delivered to all.

Transfer of duty (paras 9-14)

  1. We welcome the inclusion of evidence from the Ofsted report (2013) in the Government’s updated response but would like to point out that the Ofsted report showed that the majority of schools were not yet implementing their careers guidance duty effectively.
  2. We note that the Government says that the reform of careers guidance ‘is encouraging positive developments in the school system’. We consider that it would be helpful to independently evaluate this policy to establish the actual impact on young people.

Extension of the statutory duty; coherence and consistency; Government guidance; approaches to collaboration (paras 15 – 21)

  1. In April 2014 the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) , NFER and the 157 Group of Colleges published a good practice brief on careers engagement for leaders of schools and colleges. This document highlights the principles of effective careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) as evidenced and agreed by the partner organisations. It also provides an audit to establish CEIAG priorities; suggests methods and tools for implementation of plans; and suggests ways to review and evaluate progress. We are starting to gather evidence on how the Careers Brief is being used. For example, one local authority reported that the Brief is: ‘useful … and is helping to shape future strategy and practice’. Feedback has also informed us that employer engagement is a challenge in terms of capacity and securing the right mix of employers and that securing sufficient capacity and resources for careers guidance is difficult. Additionally, our interviewee said that: ‘supporting parents to understand and value different pathways is a real challenge’. Another local authority reported that they found the Brief useful but that: ‘challenges seem to continue to be engagement of [school] senior leaders [in careers guidance]’.
  2. In terms of developing a collaborative approach to delivering careers guidance and sharing good practice, the Deputy Prime Minister’s plan (announced in April 2014) to set up a UCAS-style, one-stop online shop for vocational opportunities should be implemented with urgency. This would provide a coordinated information service for young people on college courses, apprenticeships and traineeships. Local authority-level prospectuses have been trialed before, albeit the focus was on all course options available for 14 to 19 year olds. Findings from NFER’s guide to developing an online 14-19 prospectus of learning opportunities (Blenkinsop, 2006) should be considered in further developments. Research on the Young Apprenticeship Programme by NFER reported the ‘importance of ensuring that young people are provided with sufficient information, advice and guidance (IAG) to ensure that they make an informed choice that is right for them …’(Golden et al., 2010, p. 23).

 

 

 

Accountability; the Ofsted framework; destination measures (paras 22- 26)

  1. We note that destination data is another means of accountability for schools and we welcome the fact that the government will keep the progress made by schools, as observed in Ofsted inspections, under review. However, we consider that there is a need to ensure that the system creates the right incentives that place the young person at the centre of it and that there are clear and agreed outcome measures against which to judge the success of the careers system. In our Careers Brief we highlight that, in order for young people to fulfil their potential and contribute their skills to the workforce, the primary motivation for schools should be to enable and support young people to proactively engage in their journey to a career so that they consider all options open to them and select the best way forward for their interests, motivations, learning styles, abilities and aspirations.
  2. Where young people are encouraged to enter their school sixth form, successful completion of their Level 3 course should be monitored closely and rates of completion made widely available.

Schools careers plan; schools and the National Careers Service (paras 27-32)

  1. In lieu of requiring schools to produce careers plans, we note that the Government encourages schools to put information on their websites and believes that young people and their parents will be attracted to schools that can demonstrate effective links with employers and provide high-quality inspirational activities. While this might be part of the story, we also note from previous evidence (for example the Evaluation of the Implementation and Impact of Diplomas: Information Advice and Guidance (Wade et al., 2011) that young people want to understand qualifications and whether they are going to enable them to progress and they seek information, advice and guidance from their teachers, their parents and careers advisers. This means that parents and teachers need to have a broad understanding of current routes to different careers or, at the very least, know where to obtain relevant information.
  2. We welcome the expansion of the National Career Service’s role, as their extended remit should help to provide more careers information to young people and look forward to seeing the evidence of its contribution to ensuring young people are receiving high quality careers guidance.
  3. We welcome the fact that the National Careers Service’s surveys indicate that satisfaction rates for customers who received support via the telephone helpline are high but point out that not all young people appear to access this support. For example, the Student Room Group Options Survey (2014) stated that 23 per cent of young people surveyed did not think that they had enough information regarding A2/BTEC subject choices and how they might affect university options. Furthermore, 27 per cent either disagreed or completely disagreed that they had received enough information on alternatives to university. This highlights the point that many young people are still not receiving quality careers guidance and that the NCS urgently needs to raise its profile with schools, colleges and young people.

Quality of careers guidance; Teachers and careers guidance; Apprenticeships (paras 33 – 42)

  1. We welcome the clear statement that website access is not sufficient on its own to enable schools to meet their statutory duty for providing careers advice.
  2. Evidence from the Sutton Trust Higher Ambitions report (Nash, 2014) highlights the importance of keeping teachers abreast of current routes to careers. The NFER Teacher Voice panel indicated that 65 per cent of teachers said they would rarely or never advise a student to take an apprenticeship if they had the grades required for entry to university. We feel that the ‘hope that the forging of stronger relationships between schools and employers’ will enhance teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the workplace may not be strong enough. Developing teachers’ broad understanding of up-to-date routes to careers in their specialist areas, and where to impartially direct young people for more detailed information, is a priority.
  3. Professional development for teachers, based on the revised guidance in this area, on how to signpost pupils towards appropriate sources of information is an urgent priority if teachers are to fulfil the Government’s ‘expectation’ that they will carry out this task. Research by the Boston Consulting Group (2013) (presented as part of the recent Higher Ambitions Summit) reported that 80 per cent of teachers surveyed claim they do not have enough knowledge to give advice and about half admit they have given poor advice. Furthermore, 57 per cent of teachers said that they feel pressured into advising students to stay at school post-16 in order to gain funding, even though more appropriate options may be available elsewhere, such as in a further education college or an apprenticeship scheme (p. 21). Furthermore a recent UNISON survey found that the majority of schools ‘had reduced their careers advice and many rely on overworked teachers to provide it, rather than careers experts’ (UNISON, 2013, p. 3). We suggest that the quality of careers guidance would improve if teachers received professional development in this area.

 

  1. Evidence from the Edge Foundation (2014) highlights the role of parents in influencing young people in their decisions of routes to employment. They highlighted their finding that many young people are reportedly being actively discouraged from opting for vocational education – with one quarter of parents (27 per cent) judging vocational education to be worthwhile. Meanwhile, a study by the Association of Colleges (AoC) in partnership with the Skills Show states that 70 per cent of young people turn to parents and 57 per cent to teachers for careers advice (Freshminds, 2014).
  2. These two findings highlight a challenge and an opportunity. They suggest that many young people turn to their parents for advice, and many parents feel that vocational routes are not as valuable as academic pathways. We suggest that more weight should be placed on informing parents as well as teachers, about current alternative routes to careers.

 

Ensuring quality; careers education and work-related learning; targeted support; youth contract (paras 43 – 56)

  1. We welcome the increased focus on high-quality work experience post-16 and our evaluation of the post-16 work experience placement trials (Sims et al., 2013) indicated that the principal factors contributing to successful placements were: effective coordination, good matching of students to placements, ensuring students were well-prepared for placements, and flexibility in timing of placements.
  2. In terms of targeting support at young people at risk of disengaging from learning at key Stage 4 or before, NFER’s research, Indicators to Identify the Disengaged (Southcott et al.,2013), suggests that indicators need to take account of softer indicators such as a young person’s attitudes and family circumstances as well as harder measurable data.

References:

Blenkinsop, S. (2006). Essential Guide: Developing the 14-19 Prospectus. Slough: NFER [online]. Available: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/DPR01/ [13 August, 2014].

Boston Consulting Group (2013). Real Apprenticeships. Creating a Revolution in English Skills. London: The Sutton Trust [online]. Available:

http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/APPRENTICESHIPS.pdf

[10 September, 2014].

Edge Foundation (2014).  ‘Children labelled 'too clever' for vocational education’, News, 5 February [online]. Available: http://www.edge.co.uk/news/2014/february/children-labelled-too-clever-for-vocational-education [10 September, 2014].

Freshminds (2014). Careers Guidance Guaranteed: Summary Report of Online Survey. London: Freshminds [online]. Available: http://www.aoc.co.uk/sites/default/files/Freshminds%20Summary%20Report.pdf [10h September, 2014].

Golden, S., O'Donnell, L. and Benton, T. (2010). Evaluation of the Young Apprenticeships Programme: Outcomes for Cohort 3. Slough: NFER [online]. Available: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/91041/  [13 August, 2014].

Institute for Public Policy Research (2014). Remember the Young Ones: Improving Career Opportunities for Britain’s Young People. London: IPPR [online]. Available:http://www.ippr.org/assets/media/publications/pdf/remember-young-ones_Aug2014.pdf [10 September, 2014].

Nash, I. (2014). Higher Ambitions Summit. London: The Sutton Trust [online]. Available: http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/higher-ambitions-report-final.pdf [10 September, 2014].

Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (2013). Going in the right direction? (HMI 130114). Manchester: Ofsted [online]. Available: www.ofsted.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/surveys-and-good-practice/g/Going%20in%20the%20right%20direction.pdf  [10 September, 2013].

Sims, D., Southcott, C., Lynch, S. and Wade, P. (2013). Evaluation of the Work Experience Placement Trials (DfE Research Report 298). London: DfE [online]. Available: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/WEXX01 [10 September, 2014].

Southcott, C., Stevens, E., Featherstone, G. and McCrone, T. (2013). Indicators to Identify the Disengaged (NFER Research Programme: From Education to Employment). Slough: NFER [online]. Available: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/INDS01 [10 September, 2014].

The Student Room Group (2014). Options Survey (2014). Brighton: The Student Room Group [online]. Available: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/images/feature/options2014.pdf [10 September, 2014].

UNISON (2013). The UK’s Youth Services: How Cuts are Removing Opportunities for Young People and Damaging their Lives. London: Unison [online]. Available: https://www.unison.org.uk/upload/sharepoint/On%20line%20Catalogue/22532.pdf [10 September, 2014].

 

Wade, P., McCrone, T. and Golden, S. (2011). Evaluation of the Implementation and Impact of Diplomas: Information Advice and Guidance (DfE Research Report 122). London: DfE [online]. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/183042/DFE-RR122.pdf   [10 September, 2014].

September 2014

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[1] ONS, Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), May 2014, and ONS, Labour Market Statistics, May 2014,