The government should ensure that dedicated, full-time careers advisers are funded in every secondary school, according to a new report.
This is needed to make sure that all young people receive guidance and assistance, researchers say. And there should be an immediate move to provide additional guidance to students who do not have careers support from parents or elsewhere “to ensure equitable access to opportunities around careers advice”.
The research, published today, has been carried out by the Social Market Foundation on behalf of the charity Speakers for Schools.
The report also proposes embedding “assumed knowledge” about careers into the curriculum; for example, by using data on average salaries in maths classes.
Researchers found that access to “assumed knowledge” - knowledge sometimes assumed to be held by everyone about how the careers system works - is “heavily skewed” towards students from more affluent families and those with parents who have been to university.
They say that work experience “can help to fill in the gaps in assumed knowledge, identify future opportunities and build confidence to take the first step on to a career ladder”.
Pressure to fund careers advisers
The report comes amid concerns about the Labour government achieving its ambition to close the disadvantage gap. This summer the public spending watchdog warned that the Department for Education lacked a strategy or monitoring plan for reducing the gap.
Labour has pledged to roll out professional careers guidance across all schools and guarantee two weeks’ work experience for all students.
Today’s report says the government must ensure that the rollout “helps level the playing field by building on best practice to deliver high-quality, high-impact experiences that are equitably distributed throughout the UK and accessible to all young people”.
The Social Market Foundation also recommends adding careers provision to the key criteria on which schools are graded during Ofsted inspections.
In the research, a third of 1,000 young people surveyed from the least advantaged backgrounds did not receive careers advice from family or friends, compared with just 5 per cent of those with a parent or guardian with a postgraduate degree.
Private school students were 11 percentage points more likely to have spoken to a careers adviser at school.
Less than half of young people eligible for free school meals thought that salaries could be negotiated, compared with 64 per cent of their more well-off peers.
Nick Brook, chief executive officer of Speakers for Schools, said: “Raw talent and academic ability are not always enough for young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds to overcome the barriers they face to future success.”
However, he said that the problem “is fixable” if pupils “are exposed to rich experiences of the world of work whilst at school, to demystify careers and provide valuable insights”.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the union would like to see schools and colleges “better supported by the government and by employers to provide the two weeks’ worth of work experience pledged in Labour’s general election manifesto”.
He also called for “a much more extensive careers advice network on which schools and colleges can draw to provide expert independent guidance to their students”.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “For too long, quality careers advice has been out of reach for most children, holding them back from success and exacerbating inequality.
“We’re determined to change this, which is why we will offer two weeks’ worth of work experience for every young person, better careers advice at school, and bring in a new Youth Guarantee of access to training, apprenticeships and back-to-work support.”
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