The careers advice crisis

Too many young people fall off the radar of local services once they leave school, the Committee of Public Accounts recently announced. While the overall number of young people not in education, employment or training has fallen, the actual figure could be further swelled from among the 100,000-plus young people that committee chair Margaret Hodge MP asserts are effectively invisible to the state. 

For these young people, the importance of careers advice while they are at school is particularly important. The government’s Youth Contract that provides extra support to the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach 16 and 17-year-olds, is set to stop taking on young people in March. With no single initiative currently planned to take on its role, it seems that schools will be an important source of guidance to help these young people find work, secure training or Apprenticeships.