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Careers strategy: Schools to get designated ‘careers leaders’

Schools will get funding to train new designated “careers leaders”, the government has announced in its long-awaited careers strategy.

The government has announced that it is allocating £4 million to provide “training and support” for at least 500 schools and colleges, but says it wants to aim for a leader in “every school and college”.

The funding works out as around £8,000 for each of the institutions initially involved.

The strategy, first announced almost two years ago and re-launched several times, sets out how the government intends to improve careers advice and guidance across the education system.

Under the strategy, schools will also be expected to provide pupils with “at least one meaningful interaction with businesses” every year. They will be asked to focus on employers in the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) industries.

A £2 million trial of careers activities in primary schools will also go ahead. These will test ways of engaging younger children with careers advice, and will be based in the government’s 12 social mobility opportunity areas.

There will also be £5 million in funding to develop 20 new “careers hubs”, which will be led by the Careers and Enterprise Company. These hubs will aim to link schools, colleges, universities and local businesses, in order to “broaden the aspirations of young people”.

Anne Milton, the skills minister, warned today that pupils will “continue to be held back” if they don’t have the right advice at the right time to make “informed decisions about their future”.

“It matters to me that we give people from all backgrounds the best possible preparation to move into a job, or training that enables them – whatever their background or wherever they live – to have a fulfilling life.”

The Careers and Enterprise Company has also welcomed its “expanded role” in the education system. The organisation, which has already received around £90 million in funding to date, will act as the “backbone organisation” coordinating the efforts announced in the strategy.

We are grateful for the strong partnerships we have developed with the Local Enterprise Partnerships, schools, colleges and employers and over the coming months we will share a plan on how we will collectively take forward the recommendations in the strategy,” said the company’s chief executive Claudia Harris.

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2 Comments

  1. Time was when professionally-trained, local authority careers officers used to co-ordinate careers work among the area’s schools. There were well over one hundred LAs doing this work.
    This work has been trashed especially since Michael Gove called them ‘self-interested’ parties spouting garbage. The replacement: 20 ‘careers hubs’ designed to ‘broaden aspirations’.
    Well-designed careers education and guidance programmes broaden aspirations. http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2017/01/careers-advice-in-schools-cant-be-offloaded-to-employers-or-websites