Education and Skills Bill

moved Amendment No. 111: 111: After Clause 18, insert the following new Clause— ““Careers education The Secretary of State shall commission an independent review into the effectiveness of the provision of careers advice in England and the appropriateness of a single all-age advice and guidance service as established in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”” The noble Baroness said: The new clause raises the issue of careers education, which we on these Benches have already said is very important in helping young people secure a prosperous future. The guidance that young people receive about their careers is often crucial in helping them to make important choices for their future. At the moment, I fear that careers education in England is a rather hit-and-miss affair. The service is gradually being subsumed into Connexions as part of a universal approach to helping young people. While I am all in favour of joined-up thinking, it is an unfortunate truth that Connexions will inevitably end up concentrating its resources on a narrow band of what might be called ““problem young people””. Because it is trying to do so many things at once, a clear emphasis on careers guidance is missing in many places. Many young people end up getting rather threadbare and inadequate advice. All the right intentions are there, but not necessarily the breadth of knowledge and training to advise on careers matters. I had an interesting meeting with Kieran Gordon, the immediate past president of the Institute of Career Guidance, who suggested one model of careers education that he believes to be very successful. It involves fully trained, independent careers advisers spending time both in schools and with employers. That way, they get to know the young people they were advising and they get to know what employers were looking for, which makes it easier to match them up. The advisers are impartial and get to know pupils and employers over several years. I suggest that careers education should be a continual process, not just a series of one-off meetings where young people are presented with a range of ideas to choose from. Many have no idea what they want to do, or even what is available for them to do. We should be looking at a system that has prepared young people to know their own minds so that they can make decisions for themselves, with appropriate guidance. Young people should be trained to think flexibly so that they can better adapt to changing options. Once we have set young people on a course to training and employment with the Bill, we should ensure that we can still provide guidance while they are getting there. It is one thing to increase participation, but we should be encouraging progress too. By providing ongoing careers advice, we ought to be able to help young people use the opportunity of longer training and education to make the most of that opportunity. I have made some suggestions today but I do not claim to have all the answers. That is why I have proposed the new clause, so that we might explore the best way forward. We have the advantage of the careers education models already in place in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We have nothing to lose and potentially much to gain by learning from them. I beg to move.