Schools ordered to offer career advice
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Schools will be legally obliged to provide career advice, apprenticeships, and career talks to children in a shakeup by The Department for Education in a move that will see more children provided with a detailed breakdown of their options post-16.
The Department for Education has stated that schools must ensure that pupils have at least six interactions with apprenticeship providers and further education experts or they could face legal action from the government.
This new plan for education was published as part of a consultation surrounding the department’s latest career advice requirements and how they will be put into action.
Legal duty
The skills and post-16 education act 2022, which came into effect earlier this year, mandates that all schools have a legal duty to provide pupils with high-quality careers advice, made up of at least six encounters with providers who have been fully approved to provide advice, support and opportunities in the word of technical education and apprenticeships.
This will be good news for businesses across the UK who are experiencing severe shortages in labour, due to the fact that not enough children are being taught about apprenticeship opportunities and technical qualifications, in favour of university degrees.
In theory, it should point more children towards technical roles where they can receive on-the-job training in industries as diverse as film and engineering.
Technical qualifications
Under the new law, children must be offered career advice in years 8 or 9, have two more consultations in years 10 and 11, and another two encounters in years 12 or 13. This means that, from a very early age, they will have the world of technical qualifications and apprenticeships opened to them, and this will enable them to better consider their options.
This law was put into place after criticism that existing rules were not being properly enforced and many children were left unaware of all the options available to them. Many were not given any meaningful career advice at all, not even an Interest Inventory Test or a meeting with a careers advisor to work out what they might like to do, which was naturally not deemed to be good enough.
In its new draft guidance, the Department for Education said that, although there had been significant progress, there is more work to be done in the battle to ensure that every pupil is able to learn about the benefits of technical education qualifications and taking up apprenticeships.
Ladder of support and intervention
Any school that does not meet the newly laid out requirements, which will be mandatory from 2023, will be met with a “ladder of support and intervention” to ensure that pupils get access to the information they need. If failures persist, then legal action may be taken as a last resort, but there is hope that this will rarely if ever be needed.
Thankfully, schools have until September to put plans in place, and once things are up and running, it should mean more kids taking up technical qualifications, which will massively help to plug the serious skills gaps that are being experienced in numerous industries at present.
