Justine Greening has become the third government minister to announce a long-awaited “careers strategy”, two years after it was first mooted by government.
The careers strategy will be launched “in the Autumn”, the education secretary told a conference on social mobility held by the Sutton Trust this morning.
Such a strategy was first proposed by Sam Gyimah in December 2015, a former education and childcare minister, when he said the DfE would “publish a comprehensive careers strategy in the coming weeks.”
However this never materialised, and eventually Robert Halfon, then minister for skills, told a meeting in Parliament in January this year that the careers strategy would be published the next week. Again, this did not happen.
Now Greening has told delegates in London today that she “will launch our careers strategy” “this Autumn”, adding it would have a “clear focus on driving social mobility.”
In answer to Schools Week‘s questions, Greening said technology would be central to the new strategy.
“We will look at how we can use technology to frankly enable young people to access much better information faster.
“If you look at the National Careers Service and the website that has, it’s accessed a huge amount, so we need to pull all this together.”
The new strategy will be linked back to aims of the post-16 Skills Plan , added Greening, which aims to replace 20,000 further education courses with 15 high-quality routes.
Business employers will also be expected to take a more active role in talking to pupils about careers, said Greening.
Earlier in her speech Greening said business employers were keen to work with schools because they “knew it was the right thing to do”. The DfE would “look at the work we think needs to be done in schools” on careers advice, she added.
The National Careers Service website is dull, dull, dull. Its counterparts in Scotland and Wales are much more user-friendly and interesting.
England is reinventing the wheel. 25 years ago TVEI increased the importance of both vocational education promoting generic work-related skills and careers education and guidance. Now we have successive governments kicking it down the road after having smashed it up.
Given the career paths taken by most Cabinet ministers, I’m not surprised that they understand nothing about careers education. In what other sphere would someone with no experience in a particular subject (eg education) be appointed to oversee a major area of national policy?
Worthwhile reading – Opening Doors, Breaking Down Barriers: A Strategy for Social Mobility (2011, p.51) – “Not knowing how to achieve your ambitions can be as damaging as not having those ambitions at all. Good careers advice can help young people to increase their confidence, motivation and desire to succeed. We will establish an all-age careers service by April 2012
The all-age careers service will provide independent, professional advice on careers, skills and the labour market. It will give people improved access to information on different careers and the qualifications necessary to enter particular jobs, enabling them to make well informed choices. Evidence shows that tailored advice and guidance can increase the participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education, and can therefore increase social mobility too.” 6 years on and numerous reports all pointing to the need for individuals having access to professionally trained careers advisers, alongside encounters with employers, mentors and volunteers. England is lagging behind other nations!
Exactly. That’s what happens when our education department was run for over four years by someone who loathed careers officers and described them as ‘self-interested’ parties speaking ‘garbage’. http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/12/careers-advisors-are-self-interested-parties-who-talk-garbage-says-gove