Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Ofsted

Overall, it is too early for Ofsted to judge how well-prepared schools are to fulfil their new duty to secure access to careers guidance for their pupils. This will be the main focus of a survey, commissioned by the Department for Education that Ofsted is carrying out on careers advice. We intend to publish the final report, which will be based on inspections of secondary schools, in summer 2013.

Ofsted is also planning to carry out a survey on foundation learning for 16 to 18 year-olds, which is a programme to support young people into employment, education or training. The report will focus on the quality and impact of careers guidance received by the young people. The findings are expected to be published in spring 2013.

The evidence given below draws upon Ofsted national survey reports published between 2010 and 2012.

Apprenticeships for young people (Ofsted 2012).This good practice report presents some of the common factors that have led to high performance in the work of 15 providers extensively involved in delivering apprenticeships to young people. It includes an evaluation of how the providers successfully recruited young people as apprentices and introduced them to the world of work.

Economics, business and enterprise education (Ofsted 2011). This report evaluates strengths and weaknesses in economics, business and enterprise education in primary schools, secondary schools and colleges.

Girls’ career aspirations (Ofsted 2011). This report evaluates the extent to which careers education, guidance and other provision can raise aspirations and inform the choices of courses and careers by girls and young women to support their long-term achievement. It identifies weaknesses and examples of good practice in these areas.

Moving through the system—information, advice and guidance (Ofsted 2012). This report focuses on the importance of providing high quality information, advice and guidance to enable young people (as well as their parents and carers) to make thoughtful and well-informed choices about their next steps in education, training or employment, particularly at age 16 and beyond.

Progression post-16 for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities (Ofsted 2011). This survey evaluates the arrangements for transition from school, and the provision in post-16 settings, for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities up to the age of 25.

The special educational needs and disability review—a statement is not enough (Ofsted 2012). This review was commissioned to evaluate how well the existing legislative framework and arrangements served children and young people who had special educational needs and/or disabilities. It considered the early years, compulsory education, education from 16 to 19, and the contribution of social care and health services.

The purpose, nature, quality and impartiality of careers guidance provided by schools and colleges, including schools with sixth forms and academies, and how well-prepared schools are to fulfil their new duty

1. Ofsted’s recent surveys found that when careers guidance was provided by the schools themselves, its quality varied. The three most critical factors in determining the quality of careers guidance were: the priority given to it within the school curriculum; the extent to which the staff providing it had enough knowledge or experience to do so effectively; and the impartiality and breadth of the advice. The introduction of national standards for this work had helped to raise its profile but, at the time of most of the visits (between 2008 and 2010), the surveys found no evidence of consequent improvement in the quality and consistency of the provision of careers services.

2. The Connexions service generally provided good support in the institutions visited. Nevertheless, particularly in the secondary schools visited, careers education was sometimes taught by those who did not have sufficient and up-to-date knowledge and, in some cases, the provision was perfunctory. The information, advice and guidance given were not always sufficiently impartial about the options available to young people at the age of 16, for example where secondary schools had their own sixth forms. Schools that had made careers guidance a high cross-curriculum priority had good links with a wide range of employers and ensured that their work-related learning and work experience programme provided pupils with good opportunities to explore their possible career options. Effective activities included: experience or work tasters; workplace visits to allow direct observation of a professional at work; mentoring activities; and extended discussion with a professional about what their job was actually like.

3. Young people aiming to progress to study at level 3 (including AS and A levels) and then progress to university received good support and guidance. However, course and career choices made by the girls and young women in the schools and colleges visited were predominantly stereotypical and mirrored the national picture of take-up of courses.

4. The weakest area of careers guidance related to progression to vocational training, especially apprenticeships. The better provision involved good links with employers and well-coordinated work experience, but almost every young person interviewed for the survey on apprenticeships said that the internet was their first step in finding information and researching potential employers and apprenticeships. Inspectors came across several examples of bright young people feeling that they had been derided by their teachers for wanting to progress to work-based learning, particularly in care or hairdressing, rather than staying on at school.

The Extent of Face-To-Face Guidance Offered to Young People

5. Ofsted is unable to comment on the extent of face-to-face guidance currently offered to young people in schools. This will be one of the main focuses of the forthcoming survey on careers guidance.

6. Colleges, including sixth form colleges, and independent learning providers are generally effective at ensuring that learners have good information on their courses at interview and at induction. The weaker aspect of their service is often careers guidance to support learners as they decide on their next step. This tends to be near the end of their course, which can restrict learners from making decisions about their future options at an earlier stage.

At What Age Careers Guidance Should be Provided to Young People

7. Despite the fact that it was never a statutory requirement to provide enterprise education and work-related learning at Key Stages 1 to 3, the better schools surveyed generally regarded it as an essential element of the whole-school curriculum. Such guidance helped to prepare children and young people for their futures within the complex and dynamic economic, business and financial environment in which they live. It also helped support the development of ideas for a future career.

8. In the survey on career aspirations for girls and young women, careers education was weak in Key Stage 3. This made informed choices of courses and careers difficult. In particular, the girls interviewed had only limited knowledge and understanding of how their choices influenced their future pay and progression. Eleven of the 12 mixed schools visited were not doing enough to promote the confidence, drive and ambition of girls and young women to take risks in challenging vocational stereotypes. The 13 all-girl schools said that confidence and competitive attitudes were easier to promote in the absence of boys.

The Role of Local Authorities in Careers Guidance for Young People

9. Since 1 April 2012, local authorities have had responsibility for the transition arrangements for careers guidance until 1 September 2012. As they will continue to have responsibility for careers guidance for vulnerable young people, the section below comments on local authorities.

The effectiveness of targeted guidance and support offered to specific groups, such as Looked After Children, children eligible for Free School Meals, teenage parents, young offenders, those with special educational needs or disabilities and those at risk of becoming NEET

10. In all of Ofsted’s surveys, there was considerable variation in the quality of advice and guidance, and, in particular, a failure to meet the needs of some of the most potentially vulnerable young people. In the local authorities visited, young people who had learning difficulties and/or disabilities were disproportionately represented among those not in education, employment or training and this was true even in the authorities generally performing above the national average.

11. In the survey on progression post-16 for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, a lack of expertise was found to have a considerable negative impact on the quality of planning for transition. This was because of a lack of knowledge about learners’ needs and the range of local provision that might meet those needs. The recommendations for further study at post-16 made in learning difficulty assessments were not sufficiently objective or based solely on need. Work-based learning provision was rarely considered as an option. Where there were good plans, specialist staff had involved the young person successfully and enabled her or him to consider a range of provision.

12. The surveys found better examples of pre-16 careers guidance and related courses for a discrete group of students, such as Travellers, or excluded students who had become disengaged with traditional school learning. This involved discrete projects or provision led by specialist staff who were skilled at successfully engaging young people who, for a variety of reasons, had not previously made a successful transition at age 16 to employment or participation in any form of education or training.

13. The support and guidance provided for looked after children was more effective in the local authorities that had a virtual headteacher or an officer with specific responsibility for this group. Ofsted has no specific evidence about the effectiveness of support for children eligible for Free School Meals, teenage parents or young offenders.

The Link Between Careers Guidance and the Choices Young People Make on Leaving School

14. Ofsted does not have the necessary evidence to address this question directly. However, there is evidence that shows where young people had work experience at school to help them decide on an apprenticeship, they were more likely to make good progress in that apprenticeship.

15. Young people who had experienced visits to work places, visits to schools by employers and careers events valued getting face-to-face advice from an employer. As stated, young people who had undertaken well-organised work experience, or some form of vocational taster courses while still at school, were more successful in making good progress with their apprenticeship framework than those starting straight from school without such experience.

16. Most of the students in the secondary schools visited were given good opportunities for enterprise activities and other work-related experiences. However, work experience was not always timed or managed well; its evaluation was a major weakness and seven of the secondary schools did not have systems to evaluate the impact of work experience on students’ learning and development or eventual career options.

The Overall Coherence of the Careers Guidance Offered to Young People

17. Although work experience could provide young people with a useful insight into their possible career options, it was often poorly coordinated locally. This is mainly because most schools in an area select the same weeks for Year 10 students to undertake work experience and the numbers that employers can accommodate in the more popular vocational areas are limited. Employers should be given the opportunity to respond to more requests for such experience across a wider time frame.

18. All our surveys found the monitoring of learners’ destinations to be weak. Too little was known about the destinations of learners once they had left post-16 provision. Too many of the local authorities visited did not use the data they held well enough to track the progress of young people and they were therefore not able to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the strategies that they had put in place. Five of the local authorities visited knew little about the progress and destinations of care leavers after the age of 16, and only a small number of the secondary schools visited knew how well their students who had left at the end of Year 11 were doing.

19. A more systematic national approach to the collection and analysis of data about learners’ destinations would help to ensure that limited public resources are deployed effectively to support learners in making a successful transition to adult life.

October 2012