The study advocates a “careers shop” in each of Fife’s 19 secondary schools, open in the evenings and staffed by careers professionals currently based in separate centres. The report says the average session with fourth, fifth and sixth-year pupils lasted just an hour and was “totally inadequate”. Fourth-year leavers, who need help the most, were particularly poorly served.
It notes: “There are very few guidance teachers totally dedicated to the provision of careers guidance. Indeed the prominence of the careers component within the guidance system tends to be very limited.”
But Alex Kelly, rector of Auchmuty High in Glenrothes who has chaired a guidance group for Fife secondary heads, said schools and parents were generally happy, “although that is not to say the service could not be improved”.