These are among 10 wide-ranging recommendations made by teacher training charity Teach First in a new report on tackling the barriers facing young people when it comes to accessing high-quality careers guidance.
The report also calls on the government-funded Careers and Enterprise Company to do more to develop actual tools and resources to support careers education in schools.
And another recommendation asks the UK’s 230,000 small and medium enterprises to donate one day a year of staff time to schools.
There were 121,000 16 to 18-year-olds classified as NEET at the end of 2015 and the publication – entitled The Progression Report: Empowering school-leavers to make informed choices – warns that young people from low-income backgrounds are hit hardest by poor or non-existent careers provision.
The report states: “For 16-year-olds on free school meals, there are only three places they are more likely to end up than their wealthier peers, and only one is positive: studying in a further education college, dropping out of a course, or NEET.”
This year, Teach First has been piloting its Careers and Employability Leadership Programme to develop careers leaders in schools and the report says that senior leadership support is vital.
It states: “One of the most important findings from the pilot has been the crucial role played by the school’s senior leadership team, who must integrate the plan as a key aim in their wider school improvement plan and give it sufficient visibility and priority.
“Governors and multi-academy trusts should aspire to each secondary school having a high-quality, trained careers leader responsible for overseeing a whole-school careers and employability strategy. In all schools, including primary schools, responsibility for careers and employability education should be explicitly allocated to middle leaders. Regardless of the approach taken in practice, senior leaders and governors in schools must champion this work.”
Elsewhere, the report highlights a number of barriers to Apprenticeship uptake among poorer students: “Information is often hard to find, and experience shows that young people from low-income backgrounds are particularly affected when systems are difficult to navigate.”
It calls for the government to develop the existing Find an Apprenticeship service into a “comprehensive and universally recognised one-stop-shop for Apprenticeships in the same way as UCAS is for higher education”.
It adds: “It should outline all the available Apprenticeship opportunities and link them directly to the employer’s application process.”
The report also warns about a lack of tools and resources for schools. It highlights resources including The Which? University website, Barclays LifeSkills project and Teach First’s own Access Toolkit, but says many more are needed.
It says the government-funded Careers and Enterprise Company, which has been set up to identify and tackle gaps in careers advice and guidance across England, should do more.
The report adds: “The Careers and Enterprise Company should act as a champion for the development of new tools for teachers: identifying what new tools are needed; supporting projects to develop them; and sharing best practice of what’s available.”
Teach First also points to research showing that every employer contact is worth an extra 4.5 per cent in a young person’s future pay packet. The report therefore calls for existing government plans for large organisations to give staff volunteering leave to work with schools to be expanded to SMEs – which it says could result in 10 days of business support per school each year.
The report adds: “Building on the plans that every large organisation give staff three days of volunteering leave, every SME should give a total of one day of staff time per year to support schools.”
Sam Freedman, executive director of programmes at Teach First said: “SMEs are perfectly placed to help inspire the next generation to succeed – whether that means going to university, undertaking an Apprenticeship or moving directly into the workplace. Pupils with access to this type of career support at school are more likely to prosper in their future career – so it’s time to make sure all pupils get the opportunity – not just the few”.
Other recommendations in the report include starting widening participation work at primary school and focusing more on areas where poor pupils are often disadvantaged, such as extra-curricular activities and work experience.
- The report, which has been written with support from PA Consulting Group, can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/2dAETPX. You can also download the Teach First Access Toolkit for free at http://bit.ly/2dCVg3P