Guidance aims to forge better links between schools and businesses
The Department for Education has published new careers guidance for schools as skills and enterprise minister Matthew Hancock urged employers to play a larger role in providing information about jobs for pupils.
Under the guidance, school students will be “inspired and mentored by employers and business leaders” to pursue ambitious careers, the government said.
Schools will be expected to offer mentoring and coaching, inspirational speakers, workplace and higher education visits, networking events and careers fairs.
There is also a push from the guidance to use initiatives such as Business in the Community, Career Academies and Inspiring the Future to forge better links between schools and employers.
Hancock said: “To be successful in their future careers, young people need inspiration and mentoring as much as advice. This important guidance will encourage schools to help pupils develop high aspirations to realise their potential.
“Employers and those themselves in careers they love are best placed to pass on knowledge and enthusiasm to young people. That is why we are encouraging schools to build links with employers to ensure pupils leave school with the skills employers need.
“There is now no excuse for schools and colleges not to engage local employers or for employers not to support schools and colleges to help young people in the transition from education to employment.”
Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, which represents 29 of the most influential colleges in the further education (FE) sector, welcomed the guidance. She said she was delighted as previously young people’s experience of careers guidance in schools “has been very variable”.
“We wholeheartedly agree with the assertion that pupils in schools will be inspired by the presence of employers and other role models in this work, and this guidance offers schools some helpful ideas about how best to achieve this. Recent research from City & Guilds showed that an overwhelming majority of school pupils were clamouring for more contact with the world of employment. I know that schools will want to work ever more closely with their local FE colleges, which have a proven track record in employer relations.”
Sedgmore said she was pleased that the guidance is statutory, but added: “I would have looked for more ‘musts’ than ‘shoulds’, to be clear about the crucial role that guidance plays in a young person’s life”.
Publication of the guidance comes as part of a broader government shift towards more rigorous career planning support, as outlined in its inspiration vision statement, published in September 2013.
