Last month data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that for the period October to December 2022, there were 788,000 young people aged 16 to 24 who were not in education, employment or training (NEET).
This was an increase on 724,000 from July to September 2022, and the statistic underlines a worrying return to pre-pandemic levels of NEET.
At a school level, we know that it’s students from the poorest backgrounds who are most likely to end up in this situation. Despite having the same talents as their wealthier peers, they simply don’t have the same opportunities.
Careers education: stopping school students becoming NEET
At Southmoor Academy, serving an area of high deprivation in Sunderland, we could easily be one of those schools seeing many of its graduating cohort become part of those NEET statistics.
However, this year we were thrilled that every member of our past Year 11 class is currently in education, employment or training - the first time the school has achieved such an outcome.
This outcome is a real testament to all the hard work of the staff and students at the school, and we couldn’t be prouder.
So how did we do it?
Getting staff buy-in
When I took on the careers leader role five years ago, I knew careers education could play a key part in preventing our students from slipping through the cracks.
My first job was to get buy-in from our school leaders, so careers would be embedded into a school-wide strategy - encouraging all teachers to prioritise it.
It can be difficult for schools, particularly those facing more challenges in poorer areas, to feel like they have the time to prioritise careers education. But it was vital that colleagues understood it to be just as important as academic preparation, making a massive difference to a young person’s future.
I was lucky to have a headteacher who is a real champion of careers and can clearly see the value of high-quality, consistent careers education in school.
We appointed a “Careers Champion” for each subject - a key contact who I work with to cascade and disseminate information to colleagues.
I had to ensure that colleagues understood that we were not asking them to totally change what they were doing, but to formalise how they deliver careers within the classroom.
Many of my colleagues were already doing this, but it was about making sure that the links to careers in their subjects were explicit. This is where a good careers strategy is essential.
The value of soft skills
We know that getting good grades is only one part of the job when supporting students to thrive post-school. Recent research from Teach First shows that when businesses are considering recruiting young people, the top skill they look for is broader soft skills, with 69 per cent saying this.
This is why, as part of this careers work, we have made promoting soft skills a key focus of every lesson delivered in school, helping students to look beyond the classroom at the wider world and their futures.
As we restructured our curriculum, careers were given equal priority with knowledge and skills, with all lessons featuring these three areas.
We refer to them as “Know More, Do More, Go Further”, with “Go Further” focusing on key employability skills, such as listening, teamwork, leadership and speaking.
A small group of staff developed these ideas and implemented them into lessons before a full rollout across the school.
Bringing in expertise
Of course, careers education is not something that teachers can be expected to do alone - it requires specialist help, too.
At Southmoor we hired a dedicated specialist careers adviser, who is the bedrock of the careers guidance we offer our students.
She works with practically every student in every year group across the school, advising them and their parents on a range of elements from GCSE options to work experience and college and university options.
I believe that every school needs a permanent careers adviser. We previously had one who worked for the local authority, but they would only come in once or twice a week and did not really know the students.
We wanted to ensure that there was a key figure in school who students would know and trust to support them in making the big decisions.
Our careers adviser is fully trained with the appropriate qualifications and is central to life at Southmoor.
What’s more, as not all of our students automatically see university as a next step when they start with us, we also have a fantastic raising aspirations coordinator, who works closely with university and further education providers, to show all our students what those next steps could look like.
However, bringing in additional staff can result in huge budget challenges. I work closely with our headteacher to adapt existing roles and make school funding stretch when it’s possible.
All staff have regular training on how to embed careers into all aspects of teaching, and the support of senior leaders has been key to making this happen.
While we worked hard to make this a success in our setting, if the government wants to see a reduction in NEETs, schools, particularly in poorer areas, need more dedicated funding to train and support specialist staff working in these communities.
Working with businesses
Finally, it’s absolutely crucial to get businesses involved in supporting local schools to help inspire the next generation.
Working alongside our enterprise adviser, we set up a support database where local employers can register and say what support they are able to provide. We can then use this when we need specific employers for certain activities, with many keen to support the school because they recognise that we are providing the workforce of the future.
This week, as part of National Careers Week, we’re welcoming a variety of employers who will open our students’ eyes to a huge variety of different opportunities.
Representatives from engineering and construction firms, the charity sector, Sunderland City Council and energy providers, among others, will be coming in to answer student questions, provide them with helpful contacts for work experience and inspire them to think of post-school options.
Ultimately, we believe we have shown that with the right support, young people from any background can achieve great things, and our zero NEET figure is a testament to that.
Simon Wareham is assistant headteacher at Southmoor Academy in Sunderland and a Teach First Careers Leader
