The British Youth Council’s Youth Select Committee has spoken. And it has spoken with arguably more sense, more clarity and more passion than many older (and many who would make a claim on being wiser) committee members.

The 11 young people raised serious grievances with the government about work experience back in November 2018.

They ruled that action needed to be taken on “unequal’ work-experience opportunities.

This week, the chair of the committee, Claudia Quinn, expressed her disappointment at learning that the government had made no concrete commitments to address their concerns.

“The government needs to take steps to address the patchy, unequal nature of young people’s access to work experience and this response doesn’t take into account the very real concerns we’ve brought to their attention,” she said.

The response she was referring to was … let’s say, vague at best. The government reaffirmed its commitment that “every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace”. But it refused to make a firm commitment to commission further research on the quality of work experience, stating that it would only ‘look carefully’ at how the evidence base could be improved.

However, the committee did welcome plans to undertake further investigation into whether there was value in dedicating a section of the National Careers Service website to work experience. It also praised plans to involve pupils in the design of any new resources.

Ms Quinn said: “We were, however, pleased with the government’s commitment to involve young people in the design and testing of any National Careers Service new resources and services. Young people should be consulted on things that impact them, and we’re excited to hear the government has acknowledged this.”