Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance

1 The system of CEIAG

Our inquiry

1. This inquiry was launched in January 2022 and aimed to look at how well the current system for careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG) is working, with a particular focus on children and young people. We received 136 written evidence submissions and held seven oral evidence sessions with a range of witnesses, including a panel of young people aged between 16 and 19, supported by Teach First. In our final oral evidence session we took evidence from the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, under whose Chairmanship the Committee had started the inquiry.¹ We would like to extend our thanks to Teach First for their support with organising the session with young people, and to all those who provided written and oral evidence to this inquiry.

The policy framework for CEIAG

2. Since 2012, careers education, information, advice and guidance for young people has been primarily delivered through schools and colleges. All secondary schools and colleges are under a duty to provide careers guidance to pupils from years 7 to 13, and to those aged up to 25 with an education, health and care plan (EHCP). This applies to all maintained schools, academies, free schools, alternative provision settings, and further education and sixth form colleges. The careers guidance should be impartial; include information on the range of education or training options; and promote the best interests of the students.² Prior to 2012 the lead agency for careers provision was the Connexions Service, which offered young people access to personal advisers to help them with a broad range of issues including careers advice and guidance.³

3. Schools and colleges receive support from the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) through local Careers Hubs, training programmes, and other resources, which will be discussed in more detail in chapter 2. CEIAG provision is included in Ofsted’s school inspection handbook, and Ofsted is legally required to comment on the careers guidance provided at colleges to 16- to- 18-year-olds and students aged up to 25 with an EHCP. Schools and colleges can also gain formal accreditation of their careers programme through the Quality in Careers Standard, the national quality award for CEIAG provision.⁴

2017 Careers Strategy

4. In 2017, the Department for Education published a Careers Strategy setting out its plan for the careers system.⁵ This included a number of measures to be implemented over three years to the end of 2020, which included:

• Schools and colleges to use the Gatsby benchmarks to improve careers provision, and tools to be provided to support this. The Gatsby benchmarks are discussed in more detail in paragraph 8 below.
• A named Careers Leader to lead the careers programme in schools and colleges, a job specification and standards for this to be developed, and training to be funded
• 20 Careers Hubs to be funded by Government and supported by the CEC
• Schools to offer every young person seven encounters with employers—at least one each year from years 7 to 13
• All schools and colleges to have access to an Enterprise Adviser.⁶

5. The Department provided us with a detailed overview of progress against the measures in the Careers Strategy.⁷ This shows that the majority of the measures have been achieved, although a few areas remain to be fully completed. In particular, it shows that only 70% of schools had access to an Enterprise Adviser by the end of 2022, although the strategy’s ambition was for all schools and colleges to have access to one by 2020, and only 71% of schools and colleges provided at least one employer encounter per year.

6. Several written evidence submissions commented on the lack of an updated strategy for CEIAG provision and suggested that this would be useful in improving provision and setting clear goals and commitments.⁸ Dr Rebecca Montacute, Senior Research and Policy Manager at the Sutton Trust, said that the 2017 strategy “has been allowed to lapse and not be replaced”, describing this as the “core challenge” for careers provision.⁹ Philip Le Feuvre, Chief Strategy Officer at NCFE, also suggested that a core part of an updated strategy should be “agreeing what the right outcomes are that you are looking for and a commitment to measure against them”, highlighting that there is currently a lack of evidence about what works in careers provision.¹⁰

7. The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, the Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, told us that the 2017 strategy had “set some early foundations” and Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education at the Department, said that the strategy had been used to test and develop new approaches, which were then built upon and expanded through the Skills for Jobs White Paper.¹¹ The Skills for Jobs White Paper was published in January 2021 and set out a number of measures to improve careers provision, including improvements to the National Careers Service website, further rollout of Careers Hubs, and improving alignment between the organisations delivering CEIAG, which will be discussed in further detail in chapter 2.¹²

Gatsby benchmarks

8. The eight Gatsby benchmarks were developed in 2014 by Professor Sir John Holman on behalf of the Gatsby Foundation and set out what good career guidance looks like.¹³ The benchmarks are non-statutory, but the Department’s guidance sets out that schools and colleges are expected to use them to develop their careers programme¹⁴, something that was put in place as part of the 2017 Careers Strategy.¹⁵ Schools and colleges can track their progress against the benchmarks using the Compass tool provided by the CEC; however, use of the tool is voluntary, meaning that we do not have a full picture of schools’ progress against the benchmarks—something that our predecessor Committee raised in its accountability hearing with the CEC in November 2018.¹⁶ 4,200 schools and colleges use the tool, representing 84% of all state-funded schools and colleges.¹⁷

9. The written and oral evidence we received expressed broad support for the Gatsby benchmarks. Several submissions stated that the benchmarks provide a useful framework to support schools and colleges to develop their provision, and Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG at the Co-op Academies Trust, and Nick Chambers, CEO of Education and Employers, both described the framework as “fantastic”.¹⁸ Some evidence submissions suggested that the benchmarks encouraged a “tick-box” approach to careers provision rather than focusing on quality.¹⁹

10. However, we heard that progress towards meeting the benchmarks has been slow. CEC data shows that, of the 4,200 schools and colleges who reported progress through the Compass tool, the average number of benchmarks achieved was 4.9 out of a possible eight, an increase from 4.0 the previous year²⁰, and from 1.87 in 2017.²¹ While this is an improvement, the proportion of schools meeting all the benchmarks in full remains low—Oli de Botton, CEO of the CEC, told us that only around 12% of schools are meeting all eight benchmarks, but emphasised that it is a relatively new system, and that “change takes time”.²²

11. Some benchmarks are more likely to be fully achieved than others. The most commonly achieved were benchmarks 2 (learning from career and labour market information) and 8 (personal guidance), and the least commonly achieved were benchmarks 3 (addressing the needs of each pupil) and 7 (encounters with further and higher education).²³ Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, suggested that many schools are likely to “opt for those benchmarks that they can tick off” most easily, particularly those with less capacity and funding to focus on CEIAG.²⁴ The chart below provides a breakdown of the proportion of schools and colleges meeting each benchmark.

Figure 1: The proportion of schools and colleges meeting each Gatsby benchmark, 2021/22

Source: Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

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12. We heard some suggestions that there should be stronger enforcement of achievement of the benchmarks, for example through Ofsted or statutory guidance, as there are “no real sanctions” for not achieving them.²⁵ Professor Tristram Hooley told us that Ofsted “does know what the Gatsby benchmarks are [and] does pay attention to it”, but that “it would be nice if Ofsted raised it more regularly and was more focused on it”.²⁶ However, some witnesses urged caution on “rush[ing] into enforcing” the benchmarks, suggesting that it was more important for schools to receive adequate support and funding to enable them to meet them.²⁷ The Minister told us that Ofsted has a “very important role” in ensuring that schools meet the benchmarks, and that the “grade descriptors for a good judgment in Ofsted make specific reference to using Gatsby benchmarks to develop and improve career provision”.²⁸

13. The Gatsby Foundation are currently analysing and reviewing the benchmarks, stating that they are “keen to ascertain how we can maintain the impact of the benchmarks and assess what, if any, changes might be needed.” This will involve a programme of consultation and stakeholder engagement in 2023, with the results published in late 2024.²⁹ Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education at the Department, told us that the Department does not “have a timeline set currently for saying there will be a new set of benchmarks, but [they] are absolutely talking to Gatsby about that.”³⁰ We also heard about the lack of any equivalent to the Gatsby benchmarks for primary schools, which will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 3.

14. The system of careers education, information, advice and guidance has undergone many changes over the past decade. It appears that the right framework is broadly in place, but there is a lack of a clear overarching strategy and stated outcomes. Progress towards meeting the Gatsby benchmarks has been slow, with schools and colleges only meeting just over half of them on average. Furthermore, the system of self-reporting means that we do not have a full picture of how many are being achieved.

15. The Department should publish an updated Careers Strategy, developed in consultation with other Departments and relevant stakeholders, by the end of 2024. This should include clear, measurable outcomes and dates by which these should be achieved, including targets for increasing the number of schools achieving the Gatsby benchmarks in full.

16. High-quality CEIAG provision is an essential part of pupils’ personal development and should be a core part of the Ofsted framework. The Department must ensure that Ofsted is upholding a strong focus on CEIAG provision when inspecting schools, in particular looking at schools’ achievement of the Gatsby benchmarks.

17. The Department should update its statutory guidance to make reporting through the Compass tool compulsory for all secondary schools and colleges, and work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that they are providing the support and resources needed to do this.

2 The organisations delivering CEIAG

Careers and Enterprise Company

18. The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) was established in 2015. It is a private limited company which receives almost all its funding from the Department³¹ and supports schools to deliver CEIAG by offering information, resources, tools and training, and by helping to broker relationships between schools, colleges and employers.³² Its main activities, as set out in its grant funding agreement for 2023/24, include developing the network of Careers Hubs; linking schools and colleges to employers and other external careers providers; and providing training and support for Careers Leaders in schools and colleges.³³

19. Our predecessor Committee held accountability hearings with the CEC in 2018, in which it highlighted a number of concerns, including high spending on research, low awareness of the CEC’s work, and lack of impact assessments and measurement of outcomes.³⁴ The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education assured us that there had been a “dramatic improvement” in these areas and that Oli de Botton, who took over as its Chief Executive in 2021, is “transforming” the organisation.³⁵ This was supported by oral and written evidence: we heard that the CEC had “developed significantly”³⁶, that the new leadership had “made a concerted effort in shifting the focus of the organisation”³⁷ and that there has been a “marked improvement in the way in which the organisation is run and the strategy behind it”.³⁸

20. The evidence we received demonstrated broad agreement on the importance of having an organisation to take on the role of co-ordination between schools and employers and to provide resources and support for schools.³⁹ Many of the school representatives we spoke to, as well as other organisations, had had positive experiences of working with the CEC.⁴⁰ However, some areas for improvements were identified, including concerns around levels of funding, the need for more measurement of the CEC’s impact on young people’s outcomes, and a focus on short-term projects which lack continuity.⁴¹ Katharine Horler, Chair of Careers England, highlighted that the CEC had started from a base of very little provision, saying that “it is worth remembering that when it came there was an absolute vacuum and it has had to catch up on the vacuum.”⁴²

Careers Hubs and the Enterprise Adviser Network

21. Careers Hubs bring together schools, colleges, employers, and apprenticeship providers in local areas to “build strong local partnerships, learn from each other and develop high-quality careers programmes that align with local economic and skills priorities.”⁴³ The 2021 Skills for Jobs White Paper stated an intention to “continue to extend coverage of Careers Hubs to local communities across England”⁴⁴ and CEC data shows that, as of October 2022, 90% of schools and colleges were in Careers Hubs.⁴⁵ The CEC’s grant offer letter for 2023/24 sets out a goal of all eligible institutions being offered the opportunity to join a Careers Hub by August 2024, with a minimum of 95% being part of one.⁴⁶

22. We heard many positive things about the impact of Careers Hubs and there was broad support among oral and written evidence for the ambition to expand them. Evidence highlighted the importance of having local collaboration between schools, employers and training providers, describing them as the “glue in local systems […] essential to providing coherence for delivery in schools”⁴⁷ and several submissions referenced positive experiences of working with Careers Hubs.⁴⁸ A few submissions suggested that longer-term funding would be helpful to develop Hubs and ensure quality of services⁴⁹ and the Sutton Trust highlighted the importance of ongoing evaluation of the programme to ensure that it continues to have an impact.⁵⁰ CEC data shows a positive impact of Careers Hubs: schools in Careers Hubs are more likely to be meeting the Gatsby benchmarks, and are more likely to be increasing young people’s awareness of apprenticeships.⁵¹

23. The Enterprise Adviser Network (EAN) brings schools and colleges together with Enterprise Advisers (EAs)—volunteers from businesses who work with schools and colleges to support them to develop their careers provision.⁵² CEC data shows that, in 2022, there were over 4,000 EAs working with schools and colleges⁵³. We received mixed views on the impact of Enterprise Advisers. Professor Tristram Hooley said that the EAN, along with Careers Hubs, had “helped to increase coherence locally, but it is underpowered both in terms of resourcing and authority to achieve the level of coherence that is needed.”⁵⁴ There were some views that their role was useful and had brought about improvements in connecting schools with employers,⁵⁵ while others had had less positive experiences of EAs and found that they had not provided the support needed or that it was too time-consuming to engage with them.⁵⁶

Careers Leaders

24. The Department’s statutory guidance states that all schools and colleges are “expected to appoint a Careers Leader who has the skills, commitment and backing from their senior leadership team, including protected time that enables the Careers Leader to carry out the role effectively.”⁵⁷ The CEC is expected to support Careers Leaders by delivering training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes and developing digital tools to support their work.⁵⁸ The Sutton Trust have found that 95% of senior leaders report that their school has this role⁵⁹, and the CEC told us that 2,702 Careers Leaders have completed funded Careers Leader training programmes while 4,077 have either completed or participated in free online training modules.⁶⁰

25. Written and oral evidence gave positive views about the role of Careers Leaders, highlighting the importance of having a member of staff in schools with the responsibility for CEIAG;⁶¹ Katharine Horler, Chair of Careers England, told us:

Having leaders has made a difference in schools. There were no leaders before. What you found before was that there were not people sitting on the senior leadership team of schools championing careers by making sure that it was on the curriculum and young people were getting guidance. Having careers leaders has been a significant development.⁶²

26. However, there were also concerns that many Careers Leaders do not have the time and capacity to carry out their role effectively, as they are expected to balance the role with teaching and other responsibilities. Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, said that “quite often your careers lead is not just focused on careers; they are also teaching geography or PE or whatever else”⁶³ and Professor Tristram Hooley highlighted that almost half of careers leaders have less than a day a week allocated to their role.⁶⁴ This is despite the Department’s statutory guidance stating that Careers Leaders should have “protected time that enables the Careers Leader to carry out the role effectively”.⁶⁵ The Sutton Trust suggested that Careers Leaders should be “given equivalent time off-timetable to other similarly vital roles, such as a Head of Year”.⁶⁶

27. The Careers and Enterprise Company appears to have made improvements over the past few years and is achieving positive results, particularly through the expansion of Careers Hubs. 90% of schools and colleges are now part of a Careers Hub: we would like to see this expanded to all schools and colleges as soon as possible to ensure consistency of provision across the country.

28. Careers Leaders are much needed in schools and colleges, but many are struggling to fulfil their responsibilities effectively due to lack of time amid competing pressures, and almost half have less than a day per week allocated to their role. This is a crucial role that must be given the appropriate time and resource.

29. The Department should set an objective for the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that 100% of schools and colleges are part of Careers Hubs by the end of 2024, and must provide the CEC with the appropriate resources and funding to achieve this.

30. The Department should update its statutory guidance to suggest an appropriate proportion of time that Careers Leaders should be given to fulfil their role and should require schools and colleges to publish information on the time they have allocated to the role on their website. It should ensure that the Careers and Enterprise Company is collecting and publishing data from schools and colleges on the proportion of time that Careers Leaders have to fulfil their role and whether Careers Leaders feel this is sufficient.

National Careers Service

31. The National Careers Service (NCS) is delivered by the Department and provides careers information, advice and guidance to people in England.⁶⁷ The NCS is delivered through three main channels:

• The website, which provides information about career profiles, local training opportunities, a “skills assessment tool” which matches skills to career profiles, and a webchat function to talk directly to careers advisers.
• The telephone helpline, which includes a dedicated exam results helpline for young people and their parents.
• Face-to-face support, which is delivered through local community-based contractors in nine areas of England. This offers support targeted at adults in six priority groups, including unemployed people over 50 and those who have been unemployed for more than 12 months; those qualified to below level three; those with learning difficulties; those aged 18 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET); and single parents.⁶⁸

32. We consistently heard that the NCS is not well-used by, or targeted towards, young people. A 2021 study by the Department found that fewer than 10% of 18–19-year-olds reported that they had consulted the NCS in the 12 months up to 2018 and only a very small proportion (approximately 1%) of young people who had used more than one source of careers advice said they had found the NCS to be the most useful source of careers advice.⁶⁹ Witnesses agreed: Professor Tristram Hooley of the University of Derby said that the NCS is “pretty much entirely an adult service”⁷⁰ and Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG at the Co-op Academies Trust, told us that “anything lower than key stage 4 students would struggle with the language used on the website, so it is not something I would use with younger students”.⁷¹ Among our panel of young people aged between 16 and 19, none of them had ever heard of or used the NCS.⁷²

33. We received somewhat unclear information from the Department as to whether or not the NCS, in particular its website, is intended to be used by young people under 18. The Department’s written evidence states that young people aged 13 to 18 can “access ongoing in-depth information, advice and guidance from the service via local telephone-based career advisers or the National Careers Service website”.⁷³ However, in our accountability hearing with the Secretary of State in December, the Permanent Secretary to the Department, Susan Acland-Hood, said that she was “not totally surprised that children have not heard of the National Careers Service” as it is “not meant to provide services to children”.⁷⁴ When we asked the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education for clarification on this point, he told us that “students from 13 can use the National Careers Service, predominantly online, but the core service for schools and colleges and young people is the Careers and Enterprise Company”.⁷⁵ Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education at the Department, said “I do not think it will ever be the case that every young person feels that they need to use the National Careers Service, and that is okay. If you are at school, clearly, schools have the lead in providing good careers education to young people, supported by the Careers and Enterprise Company.”⁷⁶

34. We heard that, as well as support available through schools and colleges, online resources have an important role to play and that, in the absence of a government-run website targeted at young people, private companies and other organisations are filling the gaps. Joe Pardoe, Head of CPD at Big Education Academy Trust, told us that, as schools have limited resources and competing pressures on their time, “having resource available for students outside of the school day to explore their own career and what they want to be in the future would be helpful”.⁷⁷ Nick Chambers, CEO of Education and Employers told us:

Just out of interest, I googled, as a young person trying to find information, about jobs in sustainability and green careers. You get lots of commercial companies telling you things and two websites that were very good. One was in Canada and one was in France. If you look at where young people are going to look for information, where they have the full range of careers, videos and everything else, that could be done quickly and would support schools nationally and help young people to access all this information.⁷⁸

35. Several young people we spoke to had used websites and online tools to access information on careers and help choose different subject options, which they had found helpful, referencing Springpod (a website offering information about work experience, university courses and apprenticeships) and Unifrog (providing information about university courses and apprenticeships) among others.⁷⁹ Holly, a GCSE pupil from Manchester, told us:

Throughout my time in secondary school, my school invested in a website. […] You were able to put in your predicted grades, the sort of grades that you had or were expected to get, and you were able to look at different career paths. You could take different personality tests, different tests that would test what you would be like in a workplace, maybe if you are a visual learner or an audio learner. It was to gear you towards a career that may be suitable for you. […] I feel that it is so helpful for people, especially those who have not had the greatest careers education. They are able to do it themselves.⁸⁰

36. The Department’s written evidence sets out an intention to “ensure that every young person and adult can access personalised careers information and advice online by improving the National Careers Service digital offer”.⁸¹ This was reiterated by Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education at the Department, who told us on 15 November that there was an “ongoing programme of work” looking at how to improve the NCS website for young people, and that the Department is “particularly thinking about how we look to develop the digital offer to make it more engaging to young people”.⁸²

37. The National Careers Service website is theoretically available to young people from the age of 13, but in practice is not targeted at or being used by them. Fewer than 10% of 18–19-year-olds had used it in 2018 and none of the young people we spoke to had heard of it. While we accept that schools and colleges have the main responsibility for CEIAG provision a high-quality, accessible website offering information and guidance is essential to complement their work and offer an alternative to young people outside of school or college.

38. The Department should either work with DWP to ensure that the National Careers Service website has content appropriate and accessible to young people under 18 or create an alternative to the National Careers Service website which is accessible to and useful to young people. In the meantime, it should update the National Careers Service website to provide links to suggested websites which are more appropriate for those aged under 18.

“Confusing, fragmented and unclear”: improving alignment between the bodies delivering CEIAG

39. The 2021 Skills for Jobs White Paper describes the landscape of CEIAG as “confusing, fragmented and unclear”,⁸³ a view that was echoed in much of the oral and written evidence we received. In addition to the CEC and NCS, careers advice and guidance is also provided by a range of different organisations, including work coaches at the Department for Work and Pensions, JobCentre Plus School Advisers, the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge Programme (ASK), the National Collaborative Outreach Programme, trade unions, the private sector, and programmes run by local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships.⁸⁴ Evidence suggested that this has resulted in duplication and a lack of coordination within the system, left gaps for some sections of the population, and has made it difficult for people to understand the range of services available.⁸⁵

40. In our call for evidence for this inquiry we asked for views on whether responsibility for CEIAG should be brought under a single all-age body, for example a National Skills Service. We received mixed opinions on this question. Many submissions commented that this could help to solve some of the problems of fragmentation in the system and improve coherence and clarity of support; some also pointed out that this would bring England into line with other nations of the UK, who have single bodies for CEIAG.⁸⁶ On the other hand, we heard concerns about the impact of further reform and the upheaval this would cause, and the difficulty that a single body would face in meeting the different needs of young people in school and college and adults looking to find work or reskill.⁸⁷ However, there was broad agreement that greater alignment and clarity was needed in some form, and several submissions suggested that the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions needed to work more closely together in this space.⁸⁸

41. Professor Sir John Holman was appointed as Independent Strategic Adviser on Careers Guidance to the Department to provide advice on the question of alignment, among other issues.⁸⁹ He sent his recommendations to the Department in June 2022, in which he highlighted the problem of “confusion and inconsistency” in the careers landscape, and recommended bringing the various organisations under a “single strategic umbrella function”, without merging them into a single organisation. He suggested that the Department should do further work to scope this in more detail, but recommended that it should have “responsibility for coordinating, commissioning and overseeing local careers delivery services for young people based on clear evidence of need”.⁹⁰ He also highlighted the importance of a common strategic framework, improved joint working between the DfE and DWP, and the development of a single source of information about occupations and careers.

42. The Minister told us that he was “looking at a common strategic framework and branding”⁹¹ which he described as a “one-stop shop”:

What I mean by that is, we bring all the websites together. If you want to do an FE course in a particular area, you would be able to find it on that website, or you would be able to find the apprenticeship, the institute of technology or the careers advice that you need on that website. We would bring them all together as one particular branding.⁹²

When questioned on whether this would be entirely digital, the Minister confirmed that this would be the “first step” and said that he would write to us with further details over the coming weeks and months.⁹³

43. There is a broad consensus that the current structure of CEIAG provision is fragmented, causes confusion, and creates gaps and overlaps. We do not believe that creating a single, all-age body is necessary at this stage, but agree with Professor Sir John Holman and others that there needs to be more alignment between the existing organisations and that areas of overlap should be removed.

44. The Department should follow the recommendation set by Professor Sir John Holman to bring the existing delivery bodies under a single strategic umbrella function, sharing a common strategic framework and coordinating local services. We ask the Minister to update us on his planned reforms in this area and provide us with a timeline for implementing them. We recommend that these should go further than simply bringing together websites: the Department should take an in-depth look at the governance and functions of the different bodies to ensure that their work is fully aligned and that any areas of overlap are addressed, coordinating with other Government Departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions.

Funding

45. Government funding for CEIAG provision is delivered through the CEC and NCS, as well as through the other relevant bodies and organisations referred to in the previous section. Approximately £100 million per year is spent through these two organisations: the Department spent £70.4 million through the NCS in 2021/22⁹⁴ and the CEC’s grant funding for 2023/24 was £29.7 million,⁹⁵ a small increase from £29 million in 2022/23.⁹⁶

46. We heard that it is difficult to estimate how much money in total is spent on careers provision across the various different organisations, particularly focusing on young people under 18. Katharine Horler, Chair of Careers England, said that “you have to pretty much discount the National Careers Service money because very little of that is spent on young people”⁹⁷ and Chris Percy, an independent researcher and consultant, told us:

It is hard to piece together all the different bits of money that central Government are putting into this, even if you ignore local government and what resource goes in from schools and employers […] It could easily be as low as £50 million a year, it could be as much as £100 million a year.⁹⁸

47. We heard many concerns about the amount of funding being spent on CEIAG. A high number of written evidence submissions cited low levels of funding as being the cause of inadequate careers provision, or inhibiting further improvements⁹⁹; Professor Tristram Hooley described the system as “wildly under-funded” and said that “it is very likely that the current state of practice is as good as it can get given the current (inadequate) level of funding.”¹⁰⁰ We heard that the level of funding is significantly lower than that which was previously spent through the Connexions service, when around £200 million per year was spent on careers¹⁰¹: Professor Tristram Hooley described current spending as being an “order of magnitude difference” compared to what was spent in the past.¹⁰² Chris Percy also told us that spending in England is “per capita, secondary education, half of what Wales spends and a fifth of what Scotland spends”.¹⁰³ Some submissions highlighted research by PwC in 2014 which estimated that it would cost between £173 million and £207 million, or between £38,000 and £76,000 per school (depending on school size and location), to deliver the Gatsby benchmarks;¹⁰⁴ by contrast, the Minister told us that the £30 million funding for the CEC translates to around £5,000 per school.¹⁰⁵

48. The lack of direct funding for schools and colleges to deliver CEIAG was highlighted as a problem by many. Submissions pointed out that, when the statutory responsibility for CEIAG was transferred to schools and colleges, they did not receive any additional funding or resources to deliver it.¹⁰⁶ Many said that this had created disparities in CEIAG provision between different schools and colleges, with those who were better resourced or who saw CEIAG as a high priority spending more than others.¹⁰⁷ Katharine Horler, Chair of Careers England, told us that schools are spending around £2 per pupil on careers.¹⁰⁸

49. Lack of funding for schools and colleges to be able to provide one-to-one sessions with careers advisers was cited as a particular problem. The eighth Gatsby benchmark sets out that every pupil should have had a careers guidance interview by the age of 16 and a further interview by the age of 18¹⁰⁹, and the Department’s statutory guidance states that it “urges senior leaders to […] invest in personal guidance provided by a qualified careers adviser”.¹¹⁰ Submissions highlighted that this is a service that schools and colleges generally need to buy in from external providers and that the lack of specific funding often means that they are unable to offer this.¹¹¹ Other activities that it was suggested that schools would need funding to deliver included: providing Careers Leaders with enough time to fulfil their role; brokering work experience placements; CPD opportunities for teachers; and achieving the Quality in Careers Standard, which costs around £1,500 for a secondary school to achieve.¹¹²

50. We heard a number of suggestions as to how best to address this issue. Several submissions suggested some form of ringfenced funding for schools and colleges to spend specifically on CEIAG activities.¹¹³ However, some witnesses highlighted the need to ensure that the amount was sufficient to enable meaningful activity¹¹⁴ and Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, urged some caution around giving money to schools without the appropriate support and guidance to enable them to make decisions on expenditure, as there are “a lot of sharks in the market” and schools “tend to opt for the closest and easiest solution rather than the one that might be offering them the best value for money”.¹¹⁵ The Minister told us that providing money directly to schools and colleges for CEIAG would “not be so easy” with the level of funding available, and highlighted that some schools might struggle to find the capacity to procure services directly, for example schools in rural areas.¹¹⁶

51. Some submissions suggested providing one-off developmental funding for schools and colleges to develop their CEIAG provision, which was available to schools in the initial pilot of the Gatsby benchmarks and was shown to have had positive results.¹¹⁷ There were also suggestions that, rather than give funding directly to schools for them to buy in support, the Government could provide access to independent careers advisers directly, for example by making this available through the CEC.¹¹⁸ The Quality in Careers Consortium recommended making funding available to schools and colleges for them to achieve the Quality in Careers Standard, which they estimated would cost around £3 million per year.¹¹⁹

52. The Government’s Levelling Up White Paper identified 55 education investment areas (EIAs), representing the local authorities with the weakest educational outcomes.¹²⁰ The Schools White Paper subsequently identified 24 priority education investment areas (PEIAs), which are a subset of the EIAs and have been selected according to combined levels of performance and deprivation.¹²¹ EIAs and PEIAs have access to packages of support to help them improve pupils’ educational outcomes: these include trust capacity funding, funding for wifi connectivity and levelling up premiums for teachers in EIAs, along with further support around local needs, family hubs, behaviour hubs and attendance in PEIAs. However, support for CEIAG provision is not included in these packages.¹²²

53. The Department’s expenditure on CEIAG provision is around £5,000 per school—falling far short of the estimated £38,000 to £76,000 needed to achieve the Gatsby benchmarks. The expectation on schools and colleges to pay for CEIAG out of their already stretched budgets is causing significant disparities in provision, and we have heard that schools are only spending £2 per pupil on careers. This has led to gaps in support for certain activities, in particular access to independent careers advisers and for schools to achieve the Quality in Careers Standard.

54. The Department should pilot a programme of funding careers advisers directly through the CEC, rather than requiring schools and colleges to buy in this support from their existing budgets.

55. To target those most in need of improvement, we recommend that the Department should make one-off developmental funding available to schools and colleges who have the lowest record of achieving the Gatsby benchmarks to support them to improve their CEIAG provision, setting out clear objectives and conditions of receiving this funding.

56. The Department should include support for CEIAG provision in the package available to education investment areas and priority education investment areas and use this to develop pilots in these areas to explore what works best.

3 CEIAG in primary schools

“Seeing the art of the possible”: the benefits of starting early

57. There is no statutory duty on primary schools to provide careers education, as the duty on schools and colleges applies only to pupils in years 7–13.¹²³ The Department’s written evidence stated that they “encourage career-related learning to begin in primary schools with a focus on discovering the world of work and broadening the horizons of young children”, and highlighted that career learning is part of the citizenship framework at key stage two.¹²⁴

58. We heard strong support for starting careers education in some form in primary schools. Several written evidence submissions highlighted evidence showing that children form ideas about future careers at a young age, and stated that careers education can play a key role in challenging gender stereotypes and raising children’s aspirations, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.¹²⁵ Nick Chambers, CEO of Education and Employers, highlighted a study of 20,000 children in 19 countries which showed that “the career choices that children at seven were aspiring to were very similar to 17-year-olds and had nothing in common with the labour market”, with gender stereotyping being present across all countries.¹²⁶ Alice Barnard, Chief Executive of Edge Foundation, told us:

By the age of 10, girls have already decided they will not be a doctor or an astronaut or a fireman; they will be a nurse or a caregiver or a teacher, so we know that it starts early on. If we want to start to take down some of those barriers we need to be working in primary school […] It is all about seeing the art of the possible.¹²⁷

59. Evidence highlighted the importance of ensuring that any careers education provided at primary level is age-appropriate and tailored to the specific needs and abilities of each key stage. We heard that careers education at this stage should be focused on exposing children to different types of jobs, raising aspirations and breaking down stereotypes, with a focus on “ensuring that children before the age of 10 do not rule out options for themselves because of where they live or what their parents do”.¹²⁸ Witnesses suggested that careers education should be differentiated according to key stages, with the early years focusing on “role play, dressing up, having fun around careers”,¹²⁹ moving towards more of a focus on specific subjects, addressing stereotypes around social status, and transitions to secondary at key stage two.¹³⁰

60. We heard positive examples of schools and academy trusts who had taken the decision to invest time and resources into careers at primary level. Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG at Co-op Academies Trust, described the Trust’s approach of having a careers lead and a careers-focused governor in every primary school, and Joe Pardoe, Head of CPD at Big Education Academy Trust, highlighted the work of primary schools in the trust to create joint projects with employers to expose children to different jobs from a young age.¹³¹ John Snell, Headteacher of Welton Primary School in Somerset, explained that the school uses a range of approaches including outside speakers, careers-related lesson plans and activities, and careers days to incorporate career links into the curriculum: this meant that, on moving to secondary school, pupils are “fired up with the subjects […] which is then enabling them to focus on their studies in the future.”¹³²

Support for CEIAG provision in primary schools

61. There have been increased efforts to support CEIAG provision in primary schools in recent years. The Department’s 2017 Careers Strategy set out an intention to test careers activities in primary schools, providing £2 million in funding to test new programmes or expand existing ones.¹³³ This included a pilot to scale up Primary Futures, a programme run jointly by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and Education and Employers, which connects schools with volunteers who speak to children about the world of work. Through the pilot, Primary Futures expanded its work to reach over 67,000 more pupils.¹³⁴

62. In January 2023, the Department announced a new careers programme for primary schools, which provides £2.6 million to bring together primary schools in local areas and train teachers to develop and deliver careers programmes to pupils in years one to three. The programme will be coordinated by the CEC and delivered by Teach First and will be rolled out across 55 disadvantaged areas to 2,200 primary schools.¹³⁵ The new funding was welcomed by witnesses, who saw it as a positive move towards improving careers provision in primary schools, and suggested that it would help schools to find the time and resources to provide careers education.¹³⁶ However, several suggested that it should be expanded to cover the whole country¹³⁷ and Graeme Napier, Director of Improvement at the Academies Enterprise Trust, said that the money available “does not feel like a lot of funding” to support provision across the country.¹³⁸

63. We also heard positive things about the Primary Futures programme: John Snell said that the programme had been an “absolute godsend” in enabling Welton Primary School to quickly and easily find volunteers to speak about different jobs.¹³⁹ Nick Chambers, CEO of the Education and Employers charity which runs Primary Futures, told us that the programme had had “positive gains for those inspiring children about the importance of maths and English”, with 88% seeing gains in these subjects and showing a better understanding of the relevance of what they were learning in school.¹⁴⁰

64. We heard about the importance of a central framework and guidance to support schools to develop their provision.¹⁴¹ Primary-level provision is not included in the Department’s statutory guidance, but the Career Development Institute has created a Career Development Framework handbook for primary schools, and the Quality in Careers Consortium offers a quality award for primary schools which schools can use to receive accreditation for their careers provision.¹⁴² One key gap highlighted by witnesses was the lack of any equivalent to the Gatsby benchmarks for primary-level provision. There was broad agreement that this would be helpful, and several of the academy trusts and organisations we spoke to had developed their own set of primary benchmarks based on the Gatsby model, including the Co-op Academies Trust, Education and Employers, and the Academies Enterprise Trust.¹⁴³ Anthony Barnes, Professional Adviser to the Quality in Careers Consortium, suggested that the Gatsby Foundation would “probably […] be actively thinking about how they can adapt the Gatsby benchmarks for primary”.¹⁴⁴ Written evidence also highlighted the Career Benchmarks Primary Pilot developed by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and the EY Foundation, which had been received positively.¹⁴⁵

65. Starting careers education early is essential to broadening children’s horizons and showing them the full range of opportunities in the world of work. The Department has so far been taking an approach of relatively small-scale pilot programmes to test approaches, which appear to have been making a positive start, but support should be scaled up as soon as possible to ensure that the whole country can benefit.

66. The Department should evaluate the success of its careers programme for primary schools after its first year, and if it has been shown to have a positive impact, scale it up to cover all areas of England. In doing so the Department should consider working with the full range of providers who have demonstrated their ability to provide effective programmes in this space.

67. Additionally, the Department should work with the Gatsby Foundation to develop a tailored set of benchmarks for careers education in primary schools and provide guidance and resources through the Careers and Enterprise Company to support schools to meet them.

4 Embedding careers into the curriculum

The situation in schools and colleges

68. The fourth Gatsby benchmark focuses on linking curriculum learning to careers, with a particular focus on STEM subjects, stating “All teachers should link curriculum learning with careers. STEM subject teachers should highlight the relevance of STEM subjects for a wide range of future career paths.”¹⁴⁶ Much of the written and oral evidence presented to this inquiry emphasised the importance of these links being made, as this can help pupils to understand the relevance of the subjects they study to the world of work and expose them to a wide range of opportunities.¹⁴⁷ It was also suggested that this can bring particular benefits for disadvantaged pupils, who have less access to support and guidance, and are less likely to be exposed to role models outside the classroom.¹⁴⁸

69. Data from the CEC shows that in 2021/22 this was the fourth most commonly achieved benchmark, with 70% of schools and colleges who reported using the Compass tool fully achieving it and 30% partially achieving it. This represents a significant increase since 2018, when 38% of schools fully achieved the benchmark.¹⁴⁹ We heard about some strong examples of this being done well by schools and colleges. The Academies Enterprise Trust has worked with a number of employers to co-create curriculum content linking the curriculum to relevant careers, including work with Pinewood Studios to develop maths lessons showing how key concepts of maths are used in the film industry.¹⁵⁰ Graeme Napier, Director of Improvement at the Academies Enterprise Trust, told us:

As a result of providing that sort of context, we found that engagement in that particular aspect of the curriculum increased dramatically for us, particularly for those students with additional needs or special educational needs. If I am teaching the plans and elevations of shapes, as soon as I start talking about movie sets or studios, engagement goes through the roof.¹⁵¹

Similarly, Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, said that they “do see some very interesting classes of brilliant practice”.¹⁵² However, Chris Percy, an independent researcher and consultant, suggested that “relatively few” teachers were doing this well.¹⁵³

70. The proportion of young people reporting having learned about careers in their lessons is much lower than the CEC data from schools suggests: the Youth Voice Census 2022 found that 29.5% of 11- to 18-year-olds said they had learned about careers in curriculum lessons, echoed by Sutton Trust research finding that 30% of state school pupils said they had found out about a particular career in their usual lessons.¹⁵⁴ The Sutton Trust also highlighted that their research shows that classroom teachers are less likely than senior leaders to say that links to careers are being made within the curriculum, “perhaps reflecting some ambitions for careers guidance not filtering down into classroom practice”.¹⁵⁵

71. We spoke to a panel of young people who had had mixed experiences of links to careers being made within the curriculum. Some had experienced this being done to a high standard, particularly in colleges: for example, Hollie, a mechanical apprentice, told us:

I did A-level maths, and every single topic that we did my teacher made sure to spend a lesson on, “This is where this maths is used” […] The starter would be like a crime scene and they would do the blood splatter by using trigonometry and triangles […] That was really good because it opened a lot of people’s eyes to, “Yes, I chose maths but I don’t have to be a mathematician”.¹⁵⁶

On the other hand, some of the young people we spoke to had had little to no experience of this: Maddelin, an engineering apprentice, said that she had not experienced this at all at school, and James, a machinist apprentice, said that most of his teachers “just linked [subjects] back to being teachers because that was all that they had done”.¹⁵⁷

72. It appears that linking curriculum content to careers is happening to a greater extent at post-16, especially in colleges. The Department stated in its written evidence that colleges are “further ahead in this area, having long been leaders in linking vocational subjects to specific jobs”.¹⁵⁸ CEC data shows that, in 2021/22, 93% of colleges said that most learners had been made aware of the importance of English for their career, and 91% said this for maths; this compares with 75% of schools.¹⁵⁹ This was echoed in what we heard from our panel of young people, several of whom said that their schools had not linked their subjects to careers until the post-16 stage: Hayley, a sixth form student, said that her teachers “have only started mentioning [career paths] since A levels”.¹⁶⁰

73. There is also variation between subjects. CEC data shows that, in 2021/22, 91% of schools said that 76–100% of pupils had experienced curriculum learning linking PSHE to relevant career paths, compared with 75% who said this for English and maths, and 76% who said this for science.¹⁶¹ Young people who had experienced the curriculum being linked to careers most commonly reported this being done in history, and a few mentioned it being done in maths.¹⁶² John Snell, Headteacher of Welton Primary School, suggested that history more easily allows teachers to make links with relevant careers compared with other subjects.¹⁶³

Barriers and challenges

74. Several witnesses told us that this benchmark was a particularly challenging one for schools to achieve.¹⁶⁴ Lack of knowledge and adequate training among teachers was the biggest barrier mentioned: Qdos Education pointed out that expecting teachers to link their subjects to careers is a “huge ask of teachers who have limited experience of the world of work”¹⁶⁵ and Joe Pardoe, Head of CPD at the Big Education Academy Trust, said that “many teachers may not have experienced those routes personally and they might not be able to tie it to their subject as naturally as they may do other things”.¹⁶⁶

75. Much of the written and oral evidence suggested that including careers in teacher training would improve teachers’ ability to link their subjects to relevant careers.¹⁶⁷ Philip Le Feuvre, Chief Strategy Officer at NCFE, and Katharine Horler, Chair of Careers England, both told us that teachers receive “very little” training on careers,¹⁶⁸ and the Sutton Trust highlighted their research showing that over three quarters of state school teachers (88%) felt their teacher training did not prepare them to deliver careers information and guidance to students.¹⁶⁹ Submissions suggested including this at various stages of teacher training, for example during initial teacher training, the Early Careers Framework, National Professional Qualifications, and ongoing CPD opportunities;¹⁷⁰ Teach First acknowledged that there are differing views about how best to do this and suggested that the Government should consult the sector on the best approach.¹⁷¹ The Thomas Dudley Group also highlighted a pilot scheme delivered by the Black Country Skills Hub in which teachers and school staff spend one day per week in a local business, aiming to support teachers to “include the experience into their lesson plans to make their subject interesting and relevant.”¹⁷²

76. When we questioned the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education on this issue, he agreed that careers should be “in almost every part of the work that is done in a school” and highlighted the training for Careers Leaders delivered by Careers Hubs. He also told us that the Department will be launching a pilot over the coming year “with 1,000 teachers to engage them with business and work experience”, which would enable teachers to “go back to schools and be able to promote those work experience opportunities for their students.”¹⁷³

Space within the curriculum

77. We also heard that the lack of dedicated time and space within the curriculum represents a barrier to the inclusion of careers-related content. The National Institute for Career Education and Counselling said that “CEIAG within the curriculum has been marginalised”, suggesting that this could be due to an increased emphasis on attainment targets.¹⁷⁴ Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, described the curriculum as being too narrowly focused to enable links to be made to careers, stating that it was “designed, in essence, for the Victorians” and that teachers need to be given “the time they need to be able to make the curriculum happen and be alive”.¹⁷⁵

78. We received several submissions suggesting that the curriculum should be revised to include specific links to relevant careers and skills¹⁷⁶ and Anthony Barnes, Professional Adviser to the Quality in Careers Consortium, suggested that “getting a working party together to produce that curriculum guidance […] would not be a difficult thing to do”.¹⁷⁷ However, evidence also acknowledged that there are many pressures on curriculum content and teaching time:¹⁷⁸ Chris Percy, an independent researcher and consultant, highlighted that “if we are going to put in 10 minutes on a career, something little has to come out”.¹⁷⁹ Over the past few years, the Department has undertaken some work to develop model curricula in some subjects, including history and music; however, links to relevant careers and the world of work does not appear to be an explicit part of this work.¹⁸⁰

79. We have heard some strong examples of careers being successfully embedded into the curriculum and the situation is improving, with 70% of schools and colleges fully achieving the relevant Gatsby benchmark, up from 38% in 2018. However, more support and guidance must be put in place to enable this: currently, teachers lack the training and support they need to be able to do this effectively, and the curriculum itself does not provide explicit links to relevant careers.

80. The Department should launch a consultation on how best to incorporate careers education into different levels of teacher training, including for primary school teachers, looking at every level including initial teacher training and Early Career Frameworks, National Professional Qualifications and CPD.

81. There is a clear need to explore ways in which teachers can gain familiarity with the world of work in sectors relevant to the subjects they teach, in order to be able to pass this knowledge on to their pupils. We look forward to hearing more details of the Department’s upcoming pilot to connect teachers with businesses: the Department should use this opportunity to provide more teachers with experience of modern workplaces across a range of sectors.

82. In the Department’s work to develop model curricula, it must engage with CEIAG professionals and employer representatives to ensure that links to relevant career paths and examples from the world of work are incorporated.

5 Connecting employers with schools

Employer engagement with schools

83. Many written evidence submissions stated that engaging employers with schools is essential to providing high-quality careers education: having strong links with employers supports schools to develop their CEIAG provision and allows pupils to learn directly from employers, gain experience of the workplace, and hear about the range of opportunities available in their local area and beyond.¹⁸¹ It can also be beneficial to employers in supporting recruitment and training, demonstrating a commitment to corporate responsibility, and developing young people’s interest in and knowledge of their work.¹⁸² Employer engagement can take many forms, covering a wide range of activities such as:

• Careers talks
• Mentoring opportunities
• Role models
• Workplace visits
• CV writing and interview practice
• Co-design of learning opportunities and curriculum content
• One-to-one careers advice; and
• Work experience opportunities.¹⁸³

84. Co-ordination between employers and schools and colleges is largely facilitated by Careers Hubs and the Enterprise Adviser Network (EAN) run by the CEC. They work together with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to bring together schools, colleges, employers, and apprenticeship providers within a local area, and with Cornerstone Employers, who work with schools and colleges and provide volunteers for the EAN.¹⁸⁴ The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education told us that the answer to improving employer engagement is “literally, careers hubs, careers hubs, careers hubs”, highlighting that there are currently 419 Cornerstone Employers working with schools and colleges, and that 70% of schools and colleges have access to business advisers.¹⁸⁵

85. Several written evidence submissions commented that employers face barriers to working with schools and colleges. These included: lack of capacity to work with individual schools; schools lacking time and capacity to engage; lack of a clear point of contact in a school; and schools focusing on promoting universities to young people over apprenticeships.¹⁸⁶ Robert Peston, founder of Speakers for Schools, told us that it had been “frustrating” trying to engage with schools due to the lack of a clear point of contact, particularly if schools did not see the value of building relationships with employers.¹⁸⁷ Some written evidence submissions also suggested that there was reluctance on the side of employers to engage with schools and colleges, particularly when they were not delivering the credentials for entry into the relevant industry, and that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular struggle to find the resource and capability to engage with schools.¹⁸⁸

Improving access to work experience

86. The sixth Gatsby benchmark sets out a goal for every pupil to have had at least one experience of a workplace by the age of 16 (additional to any part-time jobs), and one further experience by the age of 18.¹⁸⁹ Prior to 2012, schools were under a statutory duty to provide every pupil in key stage 4 with “work-related learning”, which was generally interpreted as work experience, most often as a placement during the summer term of year 10.¹⁹⁰ This duty was removed in 2012 due to concerns over cost and quality of placements.¹⁹¹

87. We heard that work experience can have a transformative impact on young people’s career choices, allowing them to gain first-hand experience of different sectors, develop key workplace skills, and make informed decisions about which career paths to pursue.¹⁹² Submissions suggested that this is particularly important for disadvantaged children and those with SEND, who have less access to role models and other opportunities and can benefit more from seeing and interacting with people of similar backgrounds in the workplace.¹⁹³ Richard Hamer, Education and Skills Director at BAE Systems, told us that BAE Systems uses work experience as a “direct tool to recruit”, and that this approach had helped them to open up opportunities for disadvantaged young people, as they “often express themselves better doing the real job rather than in artificial situations”.¹⁹⁴

88. This benchmark is one of those less commonly achieved by schools, with 52% of schools fully achieving it in 2021/22 and 45% partially achieving it.¹⁹⁵ Speakers for Schools found a “discrepancy between student and teacher reports of work experience provision”, with teachers more likely than pupils to say that it is offered to pupils.¹⁹⁶ A Sutton Trust survey found that 55% of teachers said that work experience placements were arranged through their school, but only 30% of year 13 students, and 10% of those in key stage four, reported having taken part in work experience arranged through the school.¹⁹⁷

89. Our panel of young people emphasised the importance of work experience, but had generally been given little or no support from their school to arrange placements. Some had seen opportunities advertised through the school but had not been given support to apply for them¹⁹⁸, or been left to arrange their own placement entirely.¹⁹⁹ This meant that work experience was largely accessed by those who were motivated and had access to opportunities:

Mariam: If it was during term time, for example, that was fine, they would let you do it, but it was not school—[…]

Miriam Cates: If you are proactive and if you have support, then you can do it.

Mariam: Exactly. I have friends who have done absolutely nothing throughout sixth form, but other people who have done so many different things. It is dependent on the person and what you want to do for yourself.²⁰⁰

90. Witnesses emphasised the importance of taking a flexible approach to work experience to ensure meaningful and valuable experiences. Robert Peston, founder of Speakers for Schools, highlighted that work experience should be “more than just a box-ticking exercise”²⁰¹ and Graeme Napier, Director of Improvement at the Academies Enterprise Trust, suggested that there should be a “shift away from that very traditional idea that a work experience placement is a two-week block that looks like this and has to happen on these dates”, in order to engage more employers and offer a wider variety of opportunities for young people.²⁰² Speakers for Schools research highlighted that one of the key concerns with the former statutory duty on schools to provide work experience was that it often did not result in meaningful placements, with the focus being on “securing a placement, any placement, resulting in little more than a rubber-stamping or box-ticking exercise.” They emphasised that rollout of work experience should be done gradually, with a focus on quality of placements and building employer capacity, and recommended as a first step developing a toolkit setting out what constitutes meaningful work experience.²⁰³

Geographical inequalities and the role of virtual placements

91. We heard that there is a gap in access to high-quality work experience placements for young people in rural areas and those based outside the south-east of England;²⁰⁴ Philip Le Feuvre, Chief Strategy Officer at NCFE, described a “growing crisis” in work experience which is “amplified by regional disadvantage”.²⁰⁵ The young people we spoke to who lived outside London were acutely aware of these disparities and the impact this had had on restricting their own opportunities. Holly, a GCSE pupil from Manchester, did not think it was “very fair for children outside the London area, that they are not being given those same opportunities”²⁰⁶ and Harley, a sixth form pupil, told us:

I am from a small town in the north, and we have a Greggs and a McDonald’s. There are not very many hubs of respected professions that are pushed in school and the work experience is not available. The school does not have a network in Manchester or London of places that will take on students who want to do law or top medicine students and stuff like that.²⁰⁷

92. Virtual work placements were suggested as a means with which to close this gap and offer more opportunities to young people around the country.²⁰⁸ Virtual placements saw an explosion in popularity during the pandemic, and have been recognised as meeting the Gatsby benchmark criteria for work placements since 2020.²⁰⁹ Speakers for Schools developed a virtual work experience programme in 2019, which significantly expanded in 2020 due to the pandemic, and now delivers over 100,000 virtual placements per year. Feedback on the programme showed that young people valued the placements and had developed new skills and confidence as a result.²¹⁰ Similarly, Holly and Harley on our young people’s panel both told us that being able to participate in Teach First’s virtual Pupil Forum programme had “opened many doors” and meant that “geographical implications did not matter”.²¹¹

93. However, it was acknowledged that virtual placements come with limitations and should not be seen as the only solution to geographical inequalities in work experience. Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG at the Co-op Academies Trust, said that students do not develop skills in the same way when working from home,²¹² and Speakers for Schools acknowledged that in-person placements “enable young people to judge whether they feel comfortable in a physical work environment”, which can be particularly important for those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with additional needs.²¹³ Witnesses also mentioned the risk that virtual placements create a divide between those who have access to digital technology and those who do not: Robert Peston emphasised that the virtual model “reinforces the inequality that we have between middle-class kids and less advantaged kids” and suggested that the ideal approach would be for every young person to have both a virtual and a physical experience of the workplace.²¹⁴ The Department’s statutory guidance states that virtual placements “can be used to complement in-person experiences”.²¹⁵

94. We also heard about the importance of support for schools to make links with a wider range of employers and to enable them to promote opportunities outside their local area. Speakers for Schools said that the Department should “work with schools, local authorities and employer groups” to promote a range of placement types both locally and across the UK, and suggested that a national platform of placement opportunities, along similar lines to the National Tutoring Programme website, would help schools identify employers and open up more opportunities to pupils across the country.²¹⁶ Professor Tristram Hooley from the University of Derby said that “every school chasing every business in its area can be a nightmare for both the schools and local businesses” and suggested that there is “a strong case to be made for some kind of brokerage between those two”.²¹⁷ Nick Chambers, CEO of Education and Employers, highlighted the importance of “making it easy for employers and making it easy for teachers” to connect.²¹⁸

The administrative burden: myths and reality

95. The Department’s statutory guidance states that schools and colleges “need to check the employer has risk management arrangements in place, along with appropriate policies and procedures to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.”²¹⁹ The Health and Safety Executive sets out guidance for employers and schools on the health and safety requirements for work experience students. This outlines that the responsibility for health and safety falls on the employer, but states that schools should check the employer’s risk management arrangements and should ensure that employers know in advance about students who may be at greater risk, for example due to health conditions.²²⁰ The CEC has produced resources for employers on delivering work experience placements, which set out requirements on Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) checks, employer liability insurance, and risk assessments.²²¹

96. We heard that the administrative requirements of organising work experience placements can form a barrier to schools being able to offer them. Qdos Education described the administration as “tortuous”²²² and Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG at the Co-op Academies Trust, told us that it is “incredibly difficult to keep on top of everything, on top of the paperwork, to get all the consent, to get staff out to visit the students while they are on the placement.”²²³ However, other witnesses suggested that the administrative burden was not as high as some schools thought: Philip Le Feuvre, Chief Strategy Officer at NCFE, and Chris Percy, an independent researcher and consultant, suggested that there were “myths” around requirements such as risk assessments, which were having a “chilling effect”.²²⁴ Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, said:

Schools are super-sensitive around safeguarding because that is a major area that Ofsted does monitor. It is something where they feel very insecure and they worry about, if there was an incident, how they would be able to prove that they had tried everything to mitigate that and to manage risk. I do think that that makes them over-cautious. You see that with school trips and school outings. There is this real fear of going out and beyond if they feel that they cannot risk assess every element of that.²²⁵

97. The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education agreed that access to work experience should be “as easy as possible” and said that he would be happy to work with the Minister for Schools to look at helping schools overcome any barriers to organising placements.²²⁶

98. Too many young people are missing out on high-quality work experience placements, particularly the most disadvantaged and those living outside large cities. Increasing access is crucial to opening up opportunities for young people across the country: virtual and hybrid placements can play a key role here, but should not be prioritised at the expense of in-person experiences.

99. We have heard that administrative requirements, particularly concerns around safeguarding, may form a barrier to schools being able to arrange work experience placements. Safeguarding is an essential aspect of every school and college’s work. The opportunity for young people to experience the workplace and access the benefits that such placements offer is also crucial. We welcome the Minister’s agreement that access should be as easy as possible and his commitment to help schools overcome any barriers.

100. The Department should consult on the administrative requirements for schools and employers to provide work experience and consider whether any requirements can be removed or lightened without compromising the safety and wellbeing of pupils. It must work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that these requirements are communicated clearly to schools and employers, along with clarity on what is not required.

101. The goals set out in the Gatsby benchmark of experiences of the workplace provide a useful framework for schools to follow, but schools must ensure that opportunities are of high quality and tailored to pupils’ individual needs and aspirations rather than following a ‘tick-box’ approach to organising placements. The Department should work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to develop a toolkit setting out what constitutes meaningful work experience to count towards the Gatsby benchmark objectives and ensure that this is shared with Careers Leaders in schools and colleges.

102. The Department should develop a national platform for work experience placements, which includes virtual opportunities, allowing schools and employers to collaborate over finding and organising placements. It should work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that Careers Hubs are promoting work experience opportunities and offering the right support to schools.

Vocational and technical education—correcting the imbalance

103. A common theme in the oral and written evidence we received was that careers education tends to steer pupils towards academic routes and does not focus enough on vocational and technical education: the National Foundation for Education Research described this as a “fundamental imbalance in the CEIAG provided by schools in England”.²²⁷ It was suggested that this arises from a general lack of ‘parity of esteem’ between academic and technical routes, as well as from the fact that most teachers follow academic routes and therefore have less knowledge and understanding of other paths.²²⁸

104. Among our panel of young people, most had heard about apprenticeships at school or college. Many nevertheless felt that there was a strong bias towards university over technical routes, with the exception of one who felt that her school had pushed apprenticeships to the detriment of academic routes.²²⁹ Mariam, a sixth form pupil, told us:

We did a term and looked at [apprenticeships] […] but it was not a massive thing. You could sense in the class everyone was like, “Can we move on now? No one really wants to do this.” It wasn’t really a pushed thing in my school or anything like that. There was a stigma around it.²³⁰

The Baker Clause and provider access legislation

105. The ‘Baker Clause’ was introduced as an amendment to the Technical and Further Education Act 2017. It aimed to address the issue of bias towards academic routes by requiring schools to give training providers and colleges access to pupils in years 8 to 13 to discuss technical education and apprenticeships, and to publish a policy statement setting out how they do this.²³¹ Throughout this inquiry, we heard many concerns about low levels of compliance with the Clause and the lack of an accountability mechanism to enforce it.²³²

106. The Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022 brought in reforms, termed the provider access legislation, which aimed to address these problems by improving enforcement, as well as increasing the number of encounters schools are required to provide. As of January 2023, schools are now required to provide at least six encounters with providers of technical education or apprenticeships, four of which are mandatory for pupils to attend (two in years 8 or 9 and two in years 10 or 11), followed by two in years 12 and 13 which are optional for pupils to attend.²³³ Providers can include further education colleges, independent training providers, Institutes of Technology, University Technical Colleges, Studio Schools, and other apprenticeship training providers. If concerns are raised about non-compliance, schools will move up a “ladder of intervention” including a review of the school’s careers provision, a letter from the Department, Careers Leader training and the use of the Secretary of State’s intervention powers. In “extreme cases”, the school could lose access to careers support or be placed under a legal direction to comply with the legislation.²³⁴

107. As the legislation only came into effect towards the end of this inquiry, we were not able to hear detailed evidence on its impact, but Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG at the Co-op Academy Trust, described it as “welcome in the career world”, saying:

For all the career enthusiasts out there, it is perfect because it raises the profile of careers, it raises the expectation and it provides absolute clarity as to what the expectation is in school. There is a timeframe for when all the employer encounters have to happen or whether it is with FE, HE and so on—all the providers. Again, it is helping that development of careers.²³⁵

108. We do not yet have any data on what proportion of schools are complying with the new requirements and what action is being taken in cases of non-compliance. When we asked how the Department planned to monitor compliance, Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education, referred to Ofsted’s thematic review and to the data the Department receives through the Compass tool, which tracks schools’ progress against the Gatsby benchmarks.²³⁶ However, as the use of this tool is voluntary and the Gatsby benchmarks do not monitor the number of encounters pupils receive, this is unlikely to provide fully accurate data on compliance.²³⁷

109. We have also previously called for greater enforcement of the Baker Clause by Ofsted in our 2021 report into the educational attainment of white working-class pupils.²³⁸ It does appear that there has been some progress on this: Ofsted stated in its submission to this inquiry that the school inspection handbook was updated in September 2021 to “emphasise the importance of schools understanding and meeting the requirements of the Baker Clause”, and that “a school is very unlikely to be judged to be good, and could not be judged to be outstanding, if provision for CEIAG was weak and the school was not meeting the requirements of the Baker Clause.”²³⁹ Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education at the Department for Education, told us that the Department had “seen instances of Ofsted picking schools up on not delivering the Baker Clause”.²⁴⁰

Incentives for schools

110. We heard about the importance of ensuring that schools have the right incentives to inform pupils about the full range of post-16 options. Many submissions highlighted that the current school funding system means that schools with sixth forms are financially incentivised to encourage pupils to continue in their sixth form, instead of leaving to explore other routes, as they receive funding for each pupil.²⁴¹ Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, told us that this means that schools are not encouraged to “work collegiately with further education colleges and other providers to find the best place for their young people to be”.²⁴² This is likely to be a difficult problem to solve: Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education at the Department, acknowledged that “there will always be an incentive for schools that want sustainable sixth forms, which we have to manage”.²⁴³

111. We also asked about the ways in which schools can be incentivised through inspection of their destination data, to ensure that sufficient weight is given to the proportion of pupils pursuing vocational and technical routes as well as university. Roger Cotes told us that this will be “one thing that Ofsted will look at when it inspects”,²⁴⁴ and the Department later wrote to us stating that Ofsted inspectors use destinations data as a “starting point” but will “focus on the quality of education as experienced by pupils first hand”, including the extent to which they are ready for the next stage of education, employment or training.²⁴⁵

112. The new provider access legislation is an important step in the right direction to ensure that pupils are hearing about the full range of post-16 options available. We look forward to seeing the impact of these reforms, but we are concerned that there currently does not seem to be a robust system of monitoring compliance.

113. Simply informing pupils of the options available is not enough to tackle the fundamental bias towards academic routes still seen in many schools. As long as schools are incentivised to steer pupils towards academic paths and to celebrate university admissions over apprenticeship or work outcomes, this problem is likely to remain.

114. The Department should directly track compliance with the new provider access legislation and ensure that the appropriate action, as set out in the statutory guidance, is taken when schools are failing to comply. We recognise that Ofsted is not awarding “outstanding” grades to schools not complying with the Baker Clause—it must now ensure that this is being applied consistently across all schools to the new provider access legislation.

115. The Department should develop potential solutions to the problem of schools being incentivised to encourage pupils to follow academic routes. As a first step, it must ensure that Ofsted are giving appropriate weight to employment and vocational routes when looking at destinations data and pupils’ preparedness for their next steps, and that schools are actively promoting apprenticeships as a positive destination alongside universities.

6 “Cultivating optimism and hope”: Improving CEIAG provision for specific groups of pupils

Disadvantaged pupils and those from minority ethnic backgrounds

116. We received evidence that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds often need more support than their peers to access opportunities and raise their aspirations, but in many cases are less likely to receive high-quality careers education and guidance. A 2021 study by the Department found that pupils who were eligible for free school meals were more likely than those who were not to say they had received no information, advice or guidance in the past 12 months at age 18–19 (10% compared to 6%)²⁴⁶ and research by the Sutton Trust found that schools in more deprived areas are less likely to have access to a specialist careers adviser, with 21% of teachers in the most deprived areas reporting that non-specialists delivered personal guidance, compared to 14% in more affluent areas.²⁴⁷ Teach First stated that schools with high numbers of disadvantaged pupils have more pressures on their time and budgets, meaning that “CEIAG can be seen as a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than an ‘essential’”²⁴⁸ and Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, said:

If you are in a school in an area of social and economic deprivation, then you are focusing on your school refusers, attendance, SEND and all the other priorities that you are trying to deliver. Careers advice and guidance become the poor relation—the thing that gets dropped because all the other priorities start to stack up.²⁴⁹

117. Evidence strongly stated that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have particular need for high-quality careers provision, as they are less likely to be able to access information and opportunities outside school. For example, their families and friends may have less knowledge of, and contacts within, particular sectors and less understanding of the best paths to take and subjects to study; they are less likely to have access to technology, and less likely to access extra-curricular activities.²⁵⁰ Aspirations among this group are likely to be lower: Nick Chambers, CEO of Education and Employers, told us that “children from more disadvantaged backgrounds have a narrower range of aspirations, often based on who they see and who is around them”²⁵¹ and Paul Warner, Director of Strategy and Business Development at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said that “the biggest single barrier […] is a lack of aspiration or a lack of belief in the ability of those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve anything”.²⁵²

118. Witnesses spoke of the importance of role models for this group, in particular through schools bringing in alumni to speak to pupils about their career paths, as well as access to work experience. Richard Hamer, Education and Skills Director at BAE Systems, told us:

One of the most powerful things […] is when young disadvantaged people themselves go back into schools […] Often it is about confidence. I have heard people saying that they could not get a job at BAE Systems. Then they see someone from a similar background—it might be a friend, a friend’s friend or whatever—who has got a job. They think, “If she has done it, I can do it”. It is about getting them, when they do work experience, to be with people who are similar to them. Building that trust and using role models is very important.²⁵³

119. The Department’s written evidence stated that “disadvantaged areas now rank amongst the highest performing in the country for careers provision” and highlighted that the link between Gatsby benchmark achievement and improved outcomes for students is particularly strong in disadvantaged areas; however, they acknowledged that “there is much further to go”.²⁵⁴ CEC data shows that schools with higher numbers of pupils eligible for free schools meals achieve a slightly higher number of Gatsby benchmarks on average, with the most disadvantaged quartile of schools achieving an average of 5.0 benchmarks compared to 4.7 in the least disadvantaged quartile.²⁵⁵ The CEC’s written evidence highlighted that schools with higher proportions of disadvantaged students are more likely to be in a Careers Hub, engage in Careers Leader training, and use the Compass tool.²⁵⁶

120. We did not receive as much evidence on the experience of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds, but there were some suggestions that these pupils face similar challenges in accessing careers provision. The Department’s submission stated that “students from minority ethnic backgrounds have been shown to be some of the least likely to receive careers advice”²⁵⁷ and Speakers for Schools research has found that 56% of Black and Ethnic Minority students received “a lot of support” in making education and careers choices, compared to 63% of White students.²⁵⁸ However, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority stated that their partners “do not see significant evidence to support ethnicity as a barrier to accessing appropriate CEIAG […] Those in mainstream education tend to have very supportive families and are driven to look for academic success”.²⁵⁹ Witnesses again highlighted the importance of role models and schools’ use of alumni to raise aspirations and ensure that pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds are exposed to a wide range of opportunities that they may not otherwise have considered, on the basis that “if you can see it, you have a chance to be it.”²⁶⁰

121. We asked the CEC about ethnic minority representation among Careers Leaders.²⁶¹ They told us that they “hold limited information on Careers Leader characteristics […] schools are responsible for recruiting and employing Careers Leaders, as well as recording individual level data via their workforce census” but stated that they were reviewing their approach and “actively considering how we positively advocate for diverse recruitment of Careers Leaders”.²⁶²

Piloting approaches: CEC projects delivered in local areas

122. The CEC and Department set out a number of programmes, past and present, delivered in local areas targeting different groups of pupils. In the 2017 Careers Strategy, the Department granted £5 million to the CEC for an investment fund to support the most disadvantaged pupils,²⁶³ and also allocated a further £1.7m to test interventions for specific cohorts of young people.²⁶⁴ The CEC provided us with details on how this had been spent and its impact:

• £2.5 million on support for schools and colleges with the greatest disadvantage indicators, which aimed to “scale up many of the existing proven provider programmes to ensure that young people received multiple opportunities to learn from employers through the course of their education”. The programme reached 186,747 young people.
• £2.5 million on the Personal Guidance Fund, which aimed to support the development of “innovative, cost-effective models for delivering personal careers guidance in schools and colleges”. 39,908 students received one-to-one support through the fund.
• The £1.7 million fund aimed to “test innovative approaches to understand how to effectively support young people from disadvantaged groups”, including those with SEND, looked after children and care leavers, and those from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. The programme reached 1,535 young people.²⁶⁵

123. The CEC’s current projects targeting disadvantaged groups of pupils are delivered through the Inclusion Hub and the Effective Transitions Fund. The Inclusion Hub is funded by the Department and delivered through the CEC to “undertake cohort specific activity through Career Hubs such as supporting Looked After Children, young people in Alternative Provision and initiatives focused on English as an additional language (EAL) learners”.²⁶⁶ They state that some projects include micro targeting to support pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds, providing an example of a pilot project in the Black Country which worked with 60 year 10 pupils in four schools, targeting schools with a high prevalence of minority ethnic groups.²⁶⁷

124. The Effective Transitions Fund is delivered by the CEC in partnership with JP Morgan Chase and delivered interventions through Careers Hubs which are “targeted at young people eligible for FSM [free school meals] at points of transition”. The CEC told us that more than 16% of participants belong to a minority ethnic group, and gave us the example of a project in London supporting 62 young Black men who have been excluded from mainstream school, connecting them with role models and exposing them to different career and education pathways.²⁶⁸

125. The Minister also highlighted a number of projects delivered through the CEC in local areas which target pupils in disadvantaged groups, including NEET prevention projects in Luton, employment and skills pathfinder trials in Walsall, Dagenham and Barking, and projects in Leicester supporting pupils with SEND.²⁶⁹ The Minister described these as “pilot projects, so that we can see what works […] we have to do the pilots to work out what is succeeding and what is not”.²⁷⁰

126. It is essential that disadvantaged pupils and those from minority ethnic backgrounds receive high-quality CEIAG provision and have access to the full range of opportunities available to their peers. While the Department and the CEC’s approach of trialling programmes in local areas is a sensible way of testing policy proposals and prioritising disadvantage, this risks creating a postcode lottery of support and is not a long-term solution to reducing the disadvantage gap in CEIAG provision.

127. The Department must evaluate the impact of its pilot programmes targeting disadvantaged pupils and those from minority ethnic groups and set out a timeline for when it expects the programmes to be rolled out nationally, where they are proven to be effective.

Pupils with special educational needs and disabilities

128. The duty on schools and colleges to provide CEIAG includes all pupils up to the age of 25 with an education, health and care plan (EHCP)²⁷¹ and is referenced in the SEND Code of Practice.²⁷² However, much of the written and oral evidence we received suggested that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were not receiving adequate careers advice and guidance, and highlighted that these pupils face additional barriers and may need extra support to access the same level of careers education and opportunities as their peers. 2021 research from the Department found that young people with a statement of SEN (now known as EHCPs) were more than twice as likely as those without to say they had received no careers guidance in the past 12 months (14% compared with 6%).²⁷³

129. Written evidence submissions raised concerns about the lack of specialist careers advisers²⁷⁴ and lack of accessible work experience placements and extra-curricular opportunities,²⁷⁵ and suggested that careers advice for these young people tended to focus on a narrow range of pathways, with lower expectation and aspirations.²⁷⁶ The problem of low aspirations for pupils with SEND was also raised by several witnesses: Alice Barnard, CEO of Edge Foundation, suggested that there is “some element of deciding early on that there is a lack of ability to enter certain professions” for children with SEND.²⁷⁷ Anthony Barnes, Professional Adviser to the Quality in Careers Consortium, said that careers work for this group is “about not depressing expectations”; rather, its purpose is “building resilience, cultivating optimism and hope”.²⁷⁸

130. We heard that a key way of improving careers advice for pupils with SEND would be through improved training for special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOs), as “careers has never properly been up there as a priority” for them.²⁷⁹ We also heard that SENCOs should work more closely together with Careers Leaders in schools.²⁸⁰ Witnesses also highlighted the importance of flexible and accessible work placements in opening up opportunities to pupils with SEND.²⁸¹

131. Two written evidence submissions called for Supported Internships to be extended to pupils without an EHCP, stating that 97% of pupils with SEND currently miss out,²⁸² an issue that our predecessor Committee highlighted in its 2019 report into the SEND system.²⁸³ In the Spring Budget this year, the Government announced that it would pilot an expansion of the Supported Internships programme to young people entitled to SEN support who do not have an EHCP, investing £3 million over the next two years.²⁸⁴ Claire Coutinho, Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, confirmed this in an oral evidence session on 23 May and said that she would write to us with further details of the pilot.²⁸⁵

132. The CEC set out a number of activities it is undertaking to support young people with SEND, including SEND training for Careers Hub teams; local and national Communities of Practice; and tailored resources.²⁸⁶ The Department also highlighted the My Skills, My Future programme, launched in 2021, which provides resources and guides for Careers Leaders to support young people with SEND.²⁸⁷ The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education told us that the CEC provides training to SENCOs and Careers Leaders, and that the Department “make[s] sure that careers leaders work with the SEND co-ordinators, the inclusion teams and the careers advisers to put in place personalised support”.²⁸⁸ He also highlighted that 76% of SEND institutions are in a Careers Hub.²⁸⁹

133. The Department published its SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan in March 2023, which sets out some measures to support transitions to employment for young people with SEND. These include investing £18 million between 2022 and 2025 to double the capacity of the Supported Internships Programme, publishing good practice guidance to support transitions, and working with the DWP to pilot an Adjustments Passport to support young people’s transition into employment.²⁹⁰ However, this does not include any specific measures to improve CEIAG provision.

134. It is clear that pupils with SEND have particular need of high-quality, tailored CEIAG provision, and worrying that these young people are more than twice as likely as their peers to have received no careers guidance at all. It is positive that the Department is piloting extending Supported Internships to pupils without an EHCP, but the SEND Improvement Plan was a missed opportunity to further improve CEIAG provision for this group.

135. The Department should work with the CEC to collect and publish data on the proportion of SENCOs who have undertaken careers training, and set out the steps it intends to take to ensure that all SENCOs are fully trained and working with Careers Leaders with a school or college.

136. Four years ago, our predecessor Committee highlighted the gaps in access to Supported Internships for pupils with SEND without an EHCP. We welcome the Department’s pilot to extend the programme as announced in the Spring Budget and recommend that this should be rolled out to cover all areas of the country if the pilot is proved to be successful.

Pupils known to the care system and young carers

137. We did not receive much evidence on the situation for pupils in care, but several submissions highlighted the increased likelihood of these young people to be not in education, employment or training (NEET):²⁹¹ 38% of care leavers aged 19–21 are NEET compared with 11% of young people in the general population.²⁹² 2021 research from the Department shows that 18–19 year olds who had been in care before the age of 14 were more than twice as likely to have received no careers advice in the last year compared to their peers (14% compared to 6%)²⁹³ and the Shaw Trust highlighted that “delivery of CEIAG in residential care settings is particularly difficult”.²⁹⁴ Jo Sykes told us that providing one-to-one support was particularly important for these pupils, as they had a greater need for bespoke provision and mentoring.²⁹⁵

138. Our recent inquiry into the educational outcomes of children in residential care found that these children often do not receive the careers support they need, hearing that “many children in residential care do not receive any career guidance support from an appropriately qualified career practitioner”.²⁹⁶ We recommended that the Department extend Pupil Premium Plus funding beyond the age of 16 and use this to ensure that every Virtual School has a designated careers lead who commissions bespoke careers mentoring and support for looked-after children. In its response, the Department stated that they had launched a £3 million pilot to test extending Pupil Premium Plus-style funding support to looked-after children and care leavers in further education in 30 local authorities;²⁹⁷ this has subsequently been expanded to cover a further 28 local authorities.²⁹⁸ However, careers provision was not an explicit part of this pilot, although the evaluation showed that some local authorities used the funding to provide CEIAG activities, among other things.²⁹⁹

139. The Department’s statutory guidance states that Careers Leaders should engage with the designated teacher for looked-after children to understand their support needs, and that careers advisers should engage with the relevant Virtual School Head or personal adviser.³⁰⁰ The Department’s submission to this inquiry also pointed to the statutory requirement for Personal Education Plans to cover the full range of educational and developmental needs, including careers advice and guidance.³⁰¹ The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education highlighted that the Department had increased the bursary available for care leavers to undertake apprenticeships from £1,000 to £3,000, and said that he had had discussions with the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing about Careers Hubs working with Virtual School Heads and personal advisers.³⁰²

140. Some written evidence submissions also highlighted the challenges faced by young carers in accessing careers support.³⁰³ The Learning and Work Institute stated that “having to split their time between caring and education and employment” created barriers for young carers in being able to access the labour market, and they may lack qualifications and work experience as a result. They suggested that careers advisers should “help young people consider the valuable transferable skills they have gained from caring, how these can be applied in the world of work, and how these skills can be presented in an attractive way to employers.”³⁰⁴

141. The Department told us that, since January 2023, schools have been asked to provide information through the schools census on pupils’ caring responsibilities, which will “increase young carers visibility in the school system”. They also pointed to the requirement for local authorities to carry out an assessment where they consider a young carer to have support needs, and stated that the CEC is developing materials aimed at “reaching vulnerable young people, including young people outside of mainstream education, for example some young carers”.³⁰⁵

142. Pupils in care and young carers are likely to face additional barriers to accessing CEIAG and moving into employment, but there appears to be limited understanding of how these groups access and navigate the CEIAG system, and little targeted support in place for this group. It is positive that the Department has expanded its pilot of extending Pupil Premium Plus funding to young people in further education, but we would like to see more of an explicit focus on careers advice and guidance in the funding criteria.

143. The Department must scale up its programme of expanded Pupil Premium Plus funding to cover all areas of the country and ensure that, as a condition of receiving the funding, local authorities are providing young people with access to careers advice.

144. The Department should conduct research into the experience of CEIAG among young carers and the barriers they face. Following this, it should use its learning from its existing pilot programmes for disadvantaged groups to put in place targeted support for this group.

Pupils not in mainstream education

145. Several written evidence submissions expressed concerns that the transfer of responsibility for CEIAG to schools and colleges had created a gap in provision for young people outside of mainstream education, in particular home-educated pupils and those who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), who have no entitlement to career guidance.³⁰⁶ Professor Tristram Hooley described the lack of provision for this group as “one of the biggest casualties of the closure of Connexions”³⁰⁷ and Complete Careers LLP said that “we are failing thousands of learners every day”.³⁰⁸

146. The number of pupils being home educated is on the rise, with an estimated 86,200 children being home educated in the spring term of 2023, compared with 80,900 in autumn 2022.³⁰⁹ The Centre for Social Justice has estimated that the number of children being home educated at some point in 2020/21 was 34% higher than before the pandemic.³¹⁰ In our 2021 inquiry into home education, we called for the introduction of a statutory register of children not in school,³¹¹ which the Government has committed to introducing but which has not yet been delivered.³¹² This, along with a proposed duty on local authorities to offer support to home educating families, was included in the draft Schools Bill.³¹³ In December the Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP, Secretary of State for Education, told us that the legislation would not be progressing in this session, but that the Government was still committed to introducing a register of children not in school; however, she could not confirm a timeframe for when it will be introduced.³¹⁴ This was the subject of a Ten-Minute Rule Bill, the Children not in school (register) Bill, presented by Mrs Flick Drummond, which is currently awaiting its second reading.³¹⁵

147. Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education at the Department, acknowledged that the Department does not have “the same level of evidence on those who are home-educated” in terms of careers provision, but that they “want to make sure that parents can access that support so that they are able to think about careers as part of doing that home education” and that the Department had provided some funding to the CEC to look at how to support home educated pupils.³¹⁶ The Minister told us that the Department was working with Youth Employment UK to develop careers resources for young people who are electively home educated.³¹⁷

148. There is a clear need for support enabling pupils outside mainstream education to access careers advice and guidance. The rising number of pupils being educated at home risks more and more young people being locked out of access to CEIAG provision, and the much-awaited register of pupils not in school is still lacking, with no clear timeframe for this to be delivered.

149. The Department must develop a system of support for young people outside of mainstream education to access CEIAG, either through improvements to the National Careers Service or through the Careers and Enterprise Company. This should be clearly advertised and proactively targeted to ensure that young people and their families are aware of and able to access the support.

150. The Department must deliver on its commitment to introduce a register of pupils not in school by the end of the year, and should use this to gather more data on the characteristics of these pupils and how best to target support. The proposed duty on local authorities to provide support to home educating families, as set out in the draft Schools Bill, should be implemented alongside this and used to ensure that local authorities and/or Local Enterprise Partnerships can support CEIAG provision for home educated pupils.

Conclusions and recommendations

The system of CEIAG

1. The system of careers education, information, advice and guidance has undergone many changes over the past decade. It appears that the right framework is broadly in place, but there is a lack of a clear overarching strategy and stated outcomes. Progress towards meeting the Gatsby benchmarks has been slow, with schools and colleges only meeting just over half of them on average. Furthermore, the system of self-reporting means that we do not have a full picture of how many are being achieved. (Paragraph 14)

2. The Department should publish an updated Careers Strategy, developed in consultation with other Departments and relevant stakeholders, by the end of 2024. This should include clear, measurable outcomes and dates by which these should be achieved, including targets for increasing the number of schools achieving the Gatsby benchmarks in full. (Paragraph 15)

3. High-quality CEIAG provision is an essential part of pupils’ personal development and should be a core part of the Ofsted framework. The Department must ensure that Ofsted is upholding a strong focus on CEIAG provision when inspecting schools, in particular looking at schools’ achievement of the Gatsby benchmarks. (Paragraph 16)

4. The Department should update its statutory guidance to make reporting through the Compass tool compulsory for all secondary schools and colleges, and work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that they are providing the support and resources needed to do this. (Paragraph 17)

The organisations delivering CEIAG

5. The Careers and Enterprise Company appears to have made improvements over the past few years and is achieving positive results, particularly through the expansion of Careers Hubs. 90% of schools and colleges are now part of a Careers Hub: we would like to see this expanded to all schools and colleges as soon as possible to ensure consistency of provision across the country. (Paragraph 27)

6. Careers Leaders are much needed in schools and colleges, but many are struggling to fulfil their responsibilities effectively due to lack of time amid competing pressures, and almost half have less than a day per week allocated to their role. This is a crucial role that must be given the appropriate time and resource. (Paragraph 28)

7. The Department should set an objective for the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that 100% of schools and colleges are part of Careers Hubs by the end of 2024, and must provide the CEC with the appropriate resources and funding to achieve this. (Paragraph 29)

8. The Department should update its statutory guidance to suggest an appropriate proportion of time that Careers Leaders should be given to fulfil their role and should require schools and colleges to publish information on the time they have allocated to the role on their website. It should ensure that the Careers and Enterprise Company is collecting and publishing data from schools and colleges on the proportion of time that Careers Leaders have to fulfil their role and whether Careers Leaders feel this is sufficient. (Paragraph 30)

9. The National Careers Service website is theoretically available to young people from the age of 13, but in practice is not targeted at or being used by them. Fewer than 10% of 18–19-year-olds had used it in 2018 and none of the young people we spoke to had heard of it. While we accept that schools and colleges have the main responsibility for CEIAG provision a high-quality, accessible website offering information and guidance is essential to complement their work and offer an alternative to young people outside of school or college. (Paragraph 37)

10. The Department should either work with DWP to ensure that the National Careers Service website has content appropriate and accessible to young people under 18 or create an alternative to the National Careers Service website which is accessible to and useful to young people. In the meantime, it should update the National Careers Service website to provide links to suggested websites which are more appropriate for those aged under 18. (Paragraph 38)

11. There is a broad consensus that the current structure of CEIAG provision is fragmented, causes confusion, and creates gaps and overlaps. We do not believe that creating a single, all-age body is necessary at this stage, but agree with Professor Sir John Holman and others that there needs to be more alignment between the existing organisations and that areas of overlap should be removed. (Paragraph 43)

12. The Department should follow the recommendation set by Professor Sir John Holman to bring the existing delivery bodies under a single strategic umbrella function, sharing a common strategic framework and coordinating local services. We ask the Minister to update us on his planned reforms in this area and provide us with a timeline for implementing them. We recommend that these should go further than simply bringing together websites: the Department should take an in-depth look at the governance and functions of the different bodies to ensure that their work is fully aligned and that any areas of overlap are addressed, coordinating with other Government Departments such as the Department for Work and Pensions. (Paragraph 44)

13. The Department’s expenditure on CEIAG provision is around £5,000 per school—falling far short of the estimated £38,000 to £76,000 needed to achieve the Gatsby benchmarks. The expectation on schools and colleges to pay for CEIAG out of their already stretched budgets is causing significant disparities in provision, and we have heard that schools are only spending £2 per pupil on careers. This has led to gaps in support for certain activities, in particular access to independent careers advisers and for schools to achieve the Quality in Careers Standard. (Paragraph 53)

14. The Department should pilot a programme of funding careers advisers directly through the CEC, rather than requiring schools and colleges to buy in this support from their existing budgets. (Paragraph 54)

15. To target those most in need of improvement, we recommend that the Department should make one-off developmental funding available to schools and colleges who have the lowest record of achieving the Gatsby benchmarks to support them to improve their CEIAG provision, setting out clear objectives and conditions of receiving this funding. (Paragraph 55)

16. The Department should include support for CEIAG provision in the package available to education investment areas and priority education investment areas and use this to develop pilots in these areas to explore what works best. (Paragraph 56)

CEIAG in primary schools

17. Starting careers education early is essential to broadening children’s horizons and showing them the full range of opportunities in the world of work. The Department has so far been taking an approach of relatively small-scale pilot programmes to test approaches, which appear to have been making a positive start, but support should be scaled up as soon as possible to ensure that the whole country can benefit. (Paragraph 65)

18. The Department should evaluate the success of its careers programme for primary schools after its first year, and if it has been shown to have a positive impact, scale it up to cover all areas of England. In doing so the Department should consider working with the full range of providers who have demonstrated their ability to provide effective programmes in this space. (Paragraph 66)

19. Additionally, the Department should work with the Gatsby Foundation to develop a tailored set of benchmarks for careers education in primary schools and provide guidance and resources through the Careers and Enterprise Company to support schools to meet them. (Paragraph 67)

Embedding careers into the curriculum

20. We have heard some strong examples of careers being successfully embedded into the curriculum and the situation is improving, with 70% of schools and colleges fully achieving the relevant Gatsby benchmark, up from 38% in 2018. However, more support and guidance must be put in place to enable this: currently, teachers lack the training and support they need to be able to do this effectively, and the curriculum itself does not provide explicit links to relevant careers. (Paragraph 79)

21. The Department should launch a consultation on how best to incorporate careers education into different levels of teacher training, including for primary school teachers, looking at every level including initial teacher training and Early Career Frameworks, National Professional Qualifications and CPD. (Paragraph 80)

22. There is a clear need to explore ways in which teachers can gain familiarity with the world of work in sectors relevant to the subjects they teach, in order to be able to pass this knowledge on to their pupils. We look forward to hearing more details of the Department’s upcoming pilot to connect teachers with businesses: the Department should use this opportunity to provide more teachers with experience of modern workplaces across a range of sectors. (Paragraph 81)

23. In the Department’s work to develop model curricula, it must engage with CEIAG professionals and employer representatives to ensure that links to relevant career paths and examples from the world of work are incorporated. (Paragraph 82)

Connecting employers with schools

24. Too many young people are missing out on high-quality work experience placements, particularly the most disadvantaged and those living outside large cities. Increasing access is crucial to opening up opportunities for young people across the country: virtual and hybrid placements can play a key role here, but should not be prioritised at the expense of in-person experiences. (Paragraph 98)

25. We have heard that administrative requirements, particularly concerns around safeguarding, may form a barrier to schools being able to arrange work experience placements. Safeguarding is an essential aspect of every school and college’s work. The opportunity for young people to experience the workplace and access the benefits that such placements offer is also crucial. We welcome the Minister’s agreement that access should be as easy as possible and his commitment to help schools overcome any barriers. (Paragraph 99)

26. The Department should consult on the administrative requirements for schools and employers to provide work experience and consider whether any requirements can be removed or lightened without compromising the safety and wellbeing of pupils. It must work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that these requirements are communicated clearly to schools and employers, along with clarity on what is not required. (Paragraph 100)

27. The goals set out in the Gatsby benchmark of experiences of the workplace provide a useful framework for schools to follow, but schools must ensure that opportunities are of high quality and tailored to pupils’ individual needs and aspirations rather than following a ‘tick-box’ approach to organising placements. The Department should work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to develop a toolkit setting out what constitutes meaningful work experience to count towards the Gatsby benchmark objectives and ensure that this is shared with Careers Leaders in schools and colleges. (Paragraph 101)

28. The Department should develop a national platform for work experience placements, which includes virtual opportunities, allowing schools and employers to collaborate over finding and organising placements. It should work with the Careers and Enterprise Company to ensure that Careers Hubs are promoting work experience opportunities and offering the right support to schools. (Paragraph 102)

29. The new provider access legislation is an important step in the right direction to ensure that pupils are hearing about the full range of post-16 options available. We look forward to seeing the impact of these reforms, but we are concerned that there currently does not seem to be a robust system of monitoring compliance. (Paragraph 112)

30. Simply informing pupils of the options available is not enough to tackle the fundamental bias towards academic routes still seen in many schools. As long as schools are incentivised to steer pupils towards academic paths and to celebrate university admissions over apprenticeship or work outcomes, this problem is likely to remain. (Paragraph 113)

31. The Department should directly track compliance with the new provider access legislation and ensure that the appropriate action, as set out in the statutory guidance, is taken when schools are failing to comply. We recognise that Ofsted is not awarding “outstanding” grades to schools not complying with the Baker Clause—it must now ensure that this is being applied consistently across all schools to the new provider access legislation. (Paragraph 114)

32. The Department should develop potential solutions to the problem of schools being incentivised to encourage pupils to follow academic routes. As a first step, it must ensure that Ofsted are giving appropriate weight to employment and vocational routes when looking at destinations data and pupils’ preparedness for their next steps, and that schools are actively promoting apprenticeships as a positive destination alongside universities. (Paragraph 115)

“Cultivating optimism and hope”: Improving CEIAG provision for specific groups of pupils

33. It is essential that disadvantaged pupils and those from minority ethnic backgrounds receive high-quality CEIAG provision and have access to the full range of opportunities available to their peers. While the Department and the CEC’s approach of trialling programmes in local areas is a sensible way of testing policy proposals and prioritising disadvantage, this risks creating a postcode lottery of support and is not a long-term solution to reducing the disadvantage gap in CEIAG provision. (Paragraph 126)

34. The Department must evaluate the impact of its pilot programmes targeting disadvantaged pupils and those from minority ethnic groups and set out a timeline for when it expects the programmes to be rolled out nationally, where they are proven to be effective. (Paragraph 127)

35. It is clear that pupils with SEND have particular need of high-quality, tailored CEIAG provision, and worrying that these young people are more than twice as likely as their peers to have received no careers guidance at all. It is positive that the Department is piloting extending Supported Internships to pupils without an EHCP, but the SEND Improvement Plan was a missed opportunity to further improve CEIAG provision for this group. (Paragraph 134)

36. The Department should work with the CEC to collect and publish data on the proportion of SENCOs who have undertaken careers training, and set out the steps it intends to take to ensure that all SENCOs are fully trained and working with Careers Leaders with a school or college. (Paragraph 135)

37. Four years ago, our predecessor Committee highlighted the gaps in access to Supported Internships for pupils with SEND without an EHCP. We welcome the Department’s pilot to extend the programme as announced in the Spring Budget and recommend that this should be rolled out to cover all areas of the country if the pilot is proved to be successful. (Paragraph 136)

38. Pupils in care and young carers are likely to face additional barriers to accessing CEIAG and moving into employment, but there appears to be limited understanding of how these groups access and navigate the CEIAG system, and little targeted support in place for this group. It is positive that the Department has expanded its pilot of extending Pupil Premium Plus funding to young people in further education, but we would like to see more of an explicit focus on careers advice and guidance in the funding criteria. (Paragraph 142)

39. The Department must scale up its programme of expanded Pupil Premium Plus funding to cover all areas of the country and ensure that, as a condition of receiving the funding, local authorities are providing young people with access to careers advice. (Paragraph 143)

40. The Department should conduct research into the experience of CEIAG among young carers and the barriers they face. Following this, it should use its learning from its existing pilot programmes for disadvantaged groups to put in place targeted support for this group. (Paragraph 144)

41. There is a clear need for support enabling pupils outside mainstream education to access careers advice and guidance. The rising number of pupils being educated at home risks more and more young people being locked out of access to CEIAG provision, and the much-awaited register of pupils not in school is still lacking, with no clear timeframe for this to be delivered. (Paragraph 148)

42. The Department must develop a system of support for young people outside of mainstream education to access CEIAG, either through improvements to the National Careers Service or through the Careers and Enterprise Company. This should be clearly advertised and proactively targeted to ensure that young people and their families are aware of and able to access the support. (Paragraph 149)

43. The Department must deliver on its commitment to introduce a register of pupils not in school by the end of the year, and should use this to gather more data on the characteristics of these pupils and how best to target support. The proposed duty on local authorities to provide support to home educating families, as set out in the draft Schools Bill, should be implemented alongside this and used to ensure that local authorities and/or Local Enterprise Partnerships can support CEIAG provision for home educated pupils. (Paragraph 150)

Formal minutes

Monday 19 June 2023

Members present:

Robin Walker, in the Chair

Kim Johnson

Ian Mearns

Report consideration

Draft Report (Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance), proposed by the Chair, brought up and read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.

Paragraphs 1 to 150 read and agreed to.

Summary agreed to.

Resolved, That the Report be the Fourth Report of the Committee to the House.

Ordered, That the Chair make the Report to the House.

Ordered, That embargoed copies of the Report be made available (Standing Order No. 134).

Adjournment

[Adjourned till 20 June 2023 at 9.30 am.

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Witnesses

The following witnesses gave evidence. Transcripts can be viewed on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website.

Tuesday 6 September 2022

Dr Rebecca Montacute, Senior Research and Policy Manager, The Sutton Trust; Alice Barnard, CEO, Edge Foundation; Chris Percy, Independent Quantitative Researcher and Consultant; Professor Tristram Hooley, Professor, University of DerbyQ1–65

Tuesday 25 October 2022

Chris Jeffries, CEO, DevClever; Paul Warner, Director of Strategy and Business Development, Association of Employment and Learning Providers; Katharine Horler, Chair, Careers England; Philip Le Feuvre, Chief Strategy Officer, NCFEQ66–110

Tuesday 15 November 2022

Oli de Botton, Chief Executive, Careers and Enterprise Company; Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education, Department for EducationQ111–166

Tuesday 29 November 2022

Harley; Hayley; Hollie; Holly; Maddelin; Mariam; JamesQ167–213

Tuesday 10 January 2023

Nick Chambers, CEO, Education and Employers; Joe Pardoe, Head of CPD, Big Education Academy Trust; Jo Sykes, Director of CEIAG, Co-op Academy Trust; Anthony Barnes, Professional Adviser: Quality in Careers Standard, The Quality in Careers ConsortiumQ214–272

Tuesday 24 January 2023

Robert Peston, Founder of Speakers for Schools and Political Editor, ITV News; Mr Richard Hamer, Education and Skills Director, BAE Systems; Graeme Napier, Director of Improvement, Academies Enterprise Trust; John Snell, Headteacher, Welton Primary SchoolQ273–320

Tuesday 14 March 2023

Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, Department for Education; Roger Cotes, Director of Careers and Further Education, Department for EducationQ321–372

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Published written evidence

The following written evidence was received and can be viewed on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website.

AEIAG numbers are generated by the evidence processing system and so may not be complete.

1 AET Schools (AEIAG0100)

2 Adviza (AEIAG0024)

3 Andrews, Mr David (Independent CEG Consultant, David Andrews, CEG Consultant) (AEIAG0017)

4 Anonymised (AEIAG0064)

5 Anonymised (AEIAG0004)

6 Anonymised (AEIAG0098)

7 Association of Colleges (AEIAG0091)

8 Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021)

9 Association of School and College Leaders (AEIAG0052)

10 Aycliffe Secure Centre (AEIAG0122)

11 BAE Systems (AEIAG0142)

12 BECOME Education (AEIAG0055)

13 Benenden School, Kent (AEIAG0105)

14 Bill, Mr Ashley (AEIAG0011)

15 C+K Careers (AEIAG0108)

16 CIPD (AEIAG0086)

17 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (AEIAG0095)

18 Capital City College Group (AEIAG0127)

19 Career Development Policy Group; and Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) (AEIAG0051)

20 Careers England (AEIAG0138)

21 Careers England (AEIAG0028)

22 Chowney, Deborah (AEIAG0003)

23 Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034)

24 Construction Industry Training Board (AEIAG0119)

25 Derbyshire, Dr Val (Impact Officer, University of Derby); and Mountford, Mrs Kathryn (Careers Consultant (Retired), University of Derby) (AEIAG0008)

26 DEV CLEVER PLC (AEIAG0030)

27 DMH Associates, Exeter (AEIAG0022)

28 Department for Education (AEIAG0145)

29 Department for Education (AEIAG0139)

30 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

31 Disability Rights UK (AEIAG0131)

32 East Riding of Yorkshire Council (AEIAG0071)

33 Education Development Trust (AEIAG0109)

34 Education and Employers Charity (AEIAG0112)

35 Education and Employers Charity (AEIAG0113)

36 Ellis, Mr Martin (Executive Search Consultant, Recruitment South East Ltd) (AEIAG0012)

37 EngineeringUK (AEIAG0068)

38 Form the Future (AEIAG0118)

39 GFirst LEP (AEIAG0082)

40 Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0141)

41 Gloucester and Forest Alternative Provision School; and The Peak Academy (AEIAG0016)

42 Greater London Authority (AEIAG0125)

43 Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) (AEIAG0123)

44 Hartpury University & College (AEIAG0029)

45 Heart of the South West Careers Hub (AEIAG0046)

46 Hooley, Professor Tristram (Professor of Career Education, University of Derby) (AEIAG0014)

47 Hull City Council (AEIAG0053)

48 Hull and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0047)

49 Hutchinson, Ms Janet (Self employed Career Education and Quality Assurance Professional , Complete-Careers LLP) (AEIAG0101)

50 Inspira (AEIAG0087)

51 Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (AEIAG0121)

52 Institute of Student Employers (AEIAG0038)

53 International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056)

54 JISC (AEIAG0041)

55 Jenkins, Frances (Careers and Industry Lead, Kingston Maurward College) (AEIAG0026)

56 Jenkins, Fred (Retired Careers Adviser and current special school governor, Co chair of governors at Longcause Community Special School) (AEIAG0010)

57 Kingston University (AEIAG0079)

58 LEP Network (AEIAG0032)

59 Lantra (AEIAG0005)

60 Learning and Work Institute (AEIAG0120)

61 Lewis, Mr Gordon (Independent Careers Advisor, Self employed) (AEIAG0009)

62 Linking London (AEIAG0033)

63 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (AEIAG0081)

64 London Councils (AEIAG0075)

65 Longley Park Sixth Form College (AEIAG0094)

66 Melville, Lewis Rees; Woodhead, Alex; and Demmatteis, Alessandro (AEIAG0043)

67 Miles, Mr Jason (Enterprise Advisor (Volunteer) Quality Assurance , Wadham School) (AEIAG0015)

68 NACRO (AEIAG0102)

69 NAHT (AEIAG0023)

70 NASUWT (AEIAG0077)

71 NCFE (AEIAG0066)

72 NFRC (National Federation of Roofing Contractors) (AEIAG0031)

73 NUSTEM, Northumbria University (AEIAG0057)

74 National Centre for Universities and Business (AEIAG0126)

75 National Deaf Children’s Society (AEIAG0044)

76 National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083)

77 National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC) (AEIAG0048)

78 Next Steps South West (AEIAG0036)

79 North East Learning Providers (AEIAG0084)

80 North East Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0074)

81 Nottingham Trent University (AEIAG0110)

82 Ofsted (AEIAG0039)

83 Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Group Education and Employment Sub-Committee (AEIAG0089)

84 Pearson (AEIAG0069)

85 Percy, Chris (AEIAG0134)

86 Percy, Christian (AEIAG0037)

87 Phelps, Mr John (AEIAG0042)

88 Policy Connect (AEIAG0070)

89 Poppleton, Mrs Julie (Director of Careers , Chase Terrace Academy) (AEIAG0007)

90 Potter, Mr Ellis (AEIAG0006)

91 Qdos Education (AEIAG0040)

92 RGG Associates Ltd (AEIAG0061)

93 Rayner, Mr Peter (Enterprise Coordinator, SEMLEP) (AEIAG0001)

94 Reece, Liz (Career Development Consultant, Self employed) (AEIAG0049)

95 Rich, Johnny (Chief Executive , Engineering Professors’ Council | Push) (AEIAG0114)

96 Rosen, Emma (Careers Education Specialist, 25before25) (AEIAG0097)

97 Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) (AEIAG0025)

98 Royal Society of Chemistry (AEIAG0096)

99 Shaw Trust (AEIAG0117)

100 Shaw Trust (AEIAG0088)

101 Skills Builder Partnership (AEIAG0063)

102 Social Market Foundation (AEIAG0058)

103 Social Mobility Foundation (AEIAG0093)

104 South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (AEIAG0020)

105 Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115)

106 STEM (AEIAG0067)

107 Suffolk County Council (AEIAG0092)

108 Sussex Learning Network (University of Brighton); University of Sussex; University of Chichester; Chichester College Group; GBMET; East Sussex College Group; Plumpton College; and East Surrey College (AEIAG0099)

109 Sutton, Ms Kate Elizabeth (AEIAG0111)

110 Talentino (AEIAG0106)

111 Teach First (AEIAG0059)

112 Teach First (AEIAG0060)

113 Tees Valley Combined Authority (AEIAG0090)

114 The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) (AEIAG0076)

115 The Bell Foundation (AEIAG0019)

116 The Career Development Institute (AEIAG0045)

117 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

118 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0103)

119 The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050)

120 The Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0072)

121 The Growth Company (AEIAG0035)

122 The Open University (AEIAG0080)

123 The Prince’s Trust (AEIAG0085)

124 The Quality in Careers Consortium (AEIAG0013)

125 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

126 Thomas Dudley Group (AEIAG0144)

127 UCAS (AEIAG0137)

128 Unite Students (AEIAG0107)

129 University and College Union (UCU) (AEIAG0116)

130 West Midlands Combined Authority (AEIAG0128)

131 West Yorkshire Combined Authority (AEIAG0065)

132 West of England Combined Authority (AEIAG0054)

133 WorldSkills UK (AEIAG0073)

134 Yarm School (AEIAG0002)

135 Young Enterprise (AEIAG0124)

136 Youth Futures Foundation (AEIAG0062)

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List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament

All publications from the Committee are available on the publications page of the Committee’s website.

Session 2022–23

Number	Title	Reference
1st Report	Not just another brick in the wall: why prisoners need an education to climb the ladder of opportunity	HC 56
2nd Report	Educational poverty: how children in residential care have been let down and what to do about it	HC 57
3rd Report	The future of post-16 qualifications	HC 55
1st Special	Is the Catch-up Programme fit for purpose?: Government response to the Committee’s Fourth Report of Session 2021–22	HC 273
2nd Special	Not just another brick in the wall: why prisoners need an education to climb the ladder of opportunity: Government response to the Committee’s First Report	HC 645
3rd Special	Educational poverty: how children in residential care have been let down and what to do about it: Government response to the Committee’s Second Report	HC 854

Session 2021–22

Number	Title	Reference
1st Report	The forgotten: how White working-class pupils have been let down, and how to change it	HC 85
2nd Report	Appointment of the Chief Regulator of Ofqual	HC 512
3rd Report	Strengthening Home Education	HC 84
4th Report	Is the Catch-up Programme fit for purpose?	HC 940
1st Special Report	Strengthening Home Education: Government Response to the Committee’s Third Report	HC 823

Session 2019–21

Number	Title	Reference
1st Report	Getting the grades they’ve earned: Covid-19: the cancellation of exams and ‘calculated’ grades	HC 617
2nd Report	Appointment of the Children’s Commissioner for England	HC 1030
3rd Report	A plan for an adult skills and lifelong learning revolution	HC 278
4th Report	Appointment of the Chair of the Office for Students	HC 1143
1st Special Report	Special Educational Needs and Disabilities: Government Response to the Committee’s First Report of Session 2019	HC 668
2nd Special Report	Getting the grades they’ve earned: COVID-19: the cancellation of exams and ‘calculated’ grades: Response to the Committee’s First Report	HC 812
3rd Special Report	A plan for an adult skills and lifelong learning revolution: Government Response to the Committee’s Third Report	HC 1310

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Footnotes

1 The Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP resigned as Chair of the Committee in October 2022 upon his appointment as Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education.

2 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

3 Department for Education and Skills, Connexions Service: Advice and guidance for all young people, March 2004

4 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

5 Department for Education, Careers strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, December 2017

6 Department for Education, Careers strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, December 2017

7 Department for Education (AEIAG0145)

8 The Quality in Careers Consortium (AEIAG0013); Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Adviza (AEIAG0024); Careers England (AEIAG0028); Linking London (AEIAG0033); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040)

9 Q13

10 Q83

11 Qq327–329

12 Department for Education, Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth, January 2021

13 Gatsby Foundation, Good Career Guidance, April 2014

14 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

15 Department for Education, Careers strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, December 2017

16 Oral evidence taken on 21 November 2018, HC 341, Q1502

17 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

18 Association of Colleges (AEIAG0091); Sussex Learning Network (AEIAG0099); AET Schools (AEIAG0100); Q215 [Nick Chambers]; Q216 [Jo Sykes]; Q2 [Professor Tristram Hooley]

19 Sussex Learning Network (AEIAG0099); AET Schools (AEIAG0100); Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115); Q286 [Robert Peston]

20 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

21 Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0141)

22 Q122

23 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

24 Q19

25 Qdos Education (AEIAG0040)

26 Q8

27 Q215 [Anthony Barnes; Nick Chambers]

28 Q323

29 Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0141)

30 Q326

31 Careers and Enterprise Company, Annual Report and Financial Statements, 2022

32 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

33 Careers and Enterprise Company, Grant Offer Letter for The Careers & Enterprise Company, March 2023

34 Oral evidence taken on 16 May 2018, HC 341, Qq804–817; Qq825–827; Qq842–851; Oral evidence taken on 21 November 2018, HC 341

35 Q330

36 Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034)

37 Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021)

38 Q14 [Alice Barnard]

39 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (AEIAG0020); LEP Network (AEIAG0032); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); Q259 [Jo Sykes]; Q260 [Joe Pardoe]; Q50 [Dr Rebecca Montacute]

40 Q259 [Jo Sykes]; Q260 [Joe Pardoe]; Q283 [Robert Peston]; Q284 [Graeme Napier]; South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (AEIAG0020); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); Longley Park Sixth Form College (AEIAG0094)

41 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Education Development Trust (AEIAG0109); Q68 [Chris Jeffries];

42 Q69

43 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

44 Department for Education, Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth, January 2021

45 Careers and Enterprise Company, Ready for the Future: A review of Careers Education in England 2021/22, March 2023

46 Careers and Enterprise Company, Grant Offer Letter for The Careers & Enterprise Company, March 2023

47 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); The Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0072)

48 West Yorkshire Combined Authority (AEIAG0065); North East Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0074); Thomas Dudley Group (AEIAG0144); Q261 [Jo Sykes]

49 Hull and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0047); West of England Combined Authority (AEIAG0054);

50 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

51 Careers and Enterprise Company, Ready for the Future: A review of Careers Education in England 2021/22, March 2023

52 Careers and Enterprise Company, Rewrite the Story: Becoming an Enterprise Adviser, accessed 30 March 2023

53 Careers and Enterprise Company, EA Survey 2022 Insight Briefing, September 2022

54 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014)

55 The Growth Company (AEIAG0035); The Career Development Institute (AEIAG0045); West Yorkshire Combined Authority (AEIAG0065); Mr Martin Ellis (Executive Search Consultant at Recruitment South East Ltd) (AEIAG0012)

56 Mr Gordon Lewis (Independent Careers Advisor at Self employed) (AEIAG0009); Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (AEIAG0081); Suffolk County Council (AEIAG0092)

57 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

58 Careers and Enterprise Company, Grant Offer Letter for The Careers & Enterprise Company, April 2022

59 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

60 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

61 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Adviza (AEIAG0024); Q84 [Philip Le Feuvre];

62 Q71

63 Q14

64 Adviza (AEIAG0024); Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); GFirst LEP (AEIAG0082); Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014)

65 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

66 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

67 Department for Education, National Careers Service, accessed 5 April 2023

68 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

69 Department for Education, Young people’s experiences of careers information, advice and guidance, September 2021

70 Q38

71 Q270

72 Qq202–204

73 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

74 Oral evidence taken on 7 December 2022, HC 58, Q301

75 Q337

76 Q336

77 Q270

78 Q219

79 Q202 [Mariam; Harley]

80 Q202

81 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

82 Q157

83 Department for Education, Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth, January 2021

84 Department for Education (AEIAG0133); Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014)

85 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Adviza (AEIAG0024); Careers England (AEIAG0028); Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040)

86 The Quality in Careers Consortium (AEIAG0013); Careers England (AEIAG0028); DEV CLEVER PLC (AEIAG0030); Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034); The Growth Company (AEIAG0035); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); NCFE (AEIAG0066); Q96 [Katharine Horler]

87 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021); London Councils (AEIAG0075); Association of Colleges (AEIAG0091); Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115);

88 Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) (AEIAG0025); DEV CLEVER PLC (AEIAG0030); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040); Social Market Foundation (AEIAG0058); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); The Prince’s Trust (AEIAG0085); Association of Colleges (AEIAG0091)

89 Department for Education, Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth, January 2021

90 Department for Education, Letter from Sir John Holman to DfE and DWP Ministers re: Careers Guidance System in England, June 2022

91 Q321

92 Q332

93 Qq332–334

94 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

95 Careers and Enterprise Company, Grant Offer Letter for The Careers & Enterprise Company, March 2023

96 Careers and Enterprise Company, Grant Offer Letter for The Careers & Enterprise Company, April 2022

97 Q76

98 Qq14–15

99 South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (AEIAG0020); Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021); NAHT (AEIAG0023); Careers England (AEIAG0028); Hartpury University & College (AEIAG0029); Linking London (AEIAG0033); Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040); The Career Development Institute (AEIAG0045); Hull and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0047); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); Association of School and College Leaders (AEIAG0052); International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056); Social Market Foundation (AEIAG0058); North East Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0074); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083); The Prince’s Trust (AEIAG0085); CIPD (AEIAG0086); Association of Colleges (AEIAG0091); Education Development Trust (AEIAG0109); Capital City College Group (AEIAG0127)

100 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014)

101 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

102 Q25

103 Q15

104 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); NAHT (AEIAG0023); Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040)

105 Q331

106 Mr David Andrews (Independent CEG Consultant at David Andrews, CEG Consultant) (AEIAG0017); Linking London (AEIAG0033); International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056)

107 LEP Network (AEIAG0032); National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC) (AEIAG0048); National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083)

108 Q76

109 Gatsby Foundation, Good Career Guidance, April 2014

110 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

111 NAHT (AEIAG0023); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); Adviza (AEIAG0024); International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056); National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083); Association of Colleges (AEIAG0091); Education Development Trust (AEIAG0109); Greater London Authority (AEIAG0125)

112 The Quality in Careers Consortium (AEIAG0013); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); Q271 [Anthony Barnes]; Q34 [Professor Tristram Hooley]

113 Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034); National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC) (AEIAG0048); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); North East Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0074); Education Development Trust (AEIAG0109); Capital City College Group (AEIAG0127)

114 Q36 [Alice Barnard]; Q76 [Katharine Horler]

115 Q36

116 Q331

117 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Mr David Andrews (Independent CEG Consultant at David Andrews, CEG Consultant) (AEIAG0017)

118 LEP Network (AEIAG0032); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); Education Development Trust (AEIAG0109)

119 The Quality in Careers Consortium (AEIAG0013); Association of School and College Leaders (AEIAG0052); Education Development Trust (AEIAG0109)

120 Department for Education, Education investment areas, accessed 8 June 2023

121 Department for Education, Priority education investment areas, accessed 8 June 2023

122 Department for Education, Education investment areas, accessed 8 June 2023; Department for Education, Priority education investment areas, accessed 8 June 2023

123 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

124 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

125 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056); Teach First (AEIAG0060); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); Education and Employers Charity (AEIAG0113)

126 Q237

127 Q51

128 BECOME Education (AEIAG0055); Teach First (AEIAG0060); NCFE (AEIAG0066); NASUWT (AEIAG0077); Education and Employers Charity (AEIAG0113); Q237 [Nick Chambers]

129 Q239 [Jo Sykes]

130 Q238 [Anthony Barnes]

131 Q239

132 Q285

133 Department for Education, Careers strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, December 2017

134 Education and Employers, Starting Early: Building the foundations for success, March 2021

135 Department for Education, Careers boost for young people, January 2023

136 Q241 [Joe Pardoe; Jo Sykes]; Q297 [John Snell]

137 Q297 [John Snell; Graeme Napier]; Q241 [Anthony Barnes]

138 Q298

139 Q284

140 Q237

141 Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034); International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056); Suffolk County Council (AEIAG0092); Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (AEIAG0095); AET Schools (AEIAG0100)

142 Linking London (AEIAG0033); The Career Development Institute (AEIAG0045); The Quality in Careers Consortium (AEIAG0013)

143 Q239 [Jo Sykes]; Q242 [Nick Chambers]; Q296 [Graeme Napier]

144 Q242

145 Teach First (AEIAG0060); North East Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0074); NUSTEM, Northumbria University (AEIAG0057); International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056)

146 Gatsby Foundation, Good Career Guidance, April 2014

147 The Career Development Institute (AEIAG0045); Social Market Foundation (AEIAG0058); The Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0072); The Open University (AEIAG0080); National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083); Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115); Qq47–48 [Dr Rebecca Montacute; Chris Percy; Professor Tristram Hooley]

148 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); Q230 [Joe Pardoe]

149 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

150 AET Schools (AEIAG0100)

151 Q305

152 Q44

153 Q64

154 Youth Employment UK, Youth Voice Census 2022, September 2022; Sutton Trust, Paving the Way: Careers guidance in secondary schools, March 2022

155 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

156 Q207

157 Q207

158 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

159 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

160 Q207 [Hayley; Hollie]

161 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

162 Qq207–208 [Holly; Mariam; Hollie; Harley]

163 Q300

164 Q19 [Alice Barnard]; Q218 [Anthony Barnes; Joe Pardoe]; Q219 [Jo Sykes]

165 Qdos Education (AEIAG0040)

166 Q218

167 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Social Market Foundation (AEIAG0058); The Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0072); Teach First (AEIAG0060)

168 Q89

169 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

170 The Gatsby Foundation (AEIAG0072); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby (AEIAG0056); AET Schools (AEIAG0100)

171 Teach First (AEIAG0060)

172 Thomas Dudley Group (AEIAG0144)

173 Qq340–341

174 National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC) (AEIAG0048)

175 Q44

176 The Quality in Careers Consortium (AEIAG0013); Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (AEIAG0020); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

177 Q218

178 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

179 Q48

180 Department for Education, Model history curriculum terms of reference, July 2022; Department for Education, Model music curriculum, March 2021

181 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014); Pearson (AEIAG0069); Young Enterprise (AEIAG0124)

182 LEP Network (AEIAG0032); Construction Industry Training Board (AEIAG0119); Q282 [Richard Hamer]

183 National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083); The Prince’s Trust (AEIAG0085)

184 Careers and Enterprise Company, Become a Cornerstone Employer, date unknown

185 Q346

186 DEV CLEVER PLC (AEIAG0030); Institute of Student Employers (AEIAG0038); Construction Industry Training Board (AEIAG0119)

187 Q275

188 Pearson (AEIAG0069); Tees Valley Combined Authority (AEIAG0090)

189 Gatsby Foundation, Good Career Guidance, April 2014

190 Gatsby Foundation, Good Career Guidance, April 2014

191 Speakers for Schools, Learning from experience: How to make high quality work experience for all a reality, March 2023

192 Qdos Education (AEIAG0040); Hull City Council (AEIAG0053); Teach First (AEIAG0060); Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115); Q244 [Jo Sykes]

193 Hull City Council (AEIAG0053); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); The Prince’s Trust (AEIAG0085)

194 Q282

195 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

196 Speakers for Schools, Learning from experience: How to make high quality work experience for all a reality, March 2023

197 Sutton Trust, Paving the Way: Careers guidance in secondary schools, March 2022

198 Q180 [Holly]; Q198 [Mariam]

199 Qq189–190 [Hollie]

200 Q198

201 Q280

202 Q277

203 Speakers for Schools, Learning from experience: How to make high quality work experience for all a reality, March 2023

204 Teach First (AEIAG0060); Q251 [Nick Chambers]; Q278 [Robert Peston]

205 Q109

206 Q213

207 Q198

208 Teach First (AEIAG0060); Emma Rosen (Careers Education Specialist at 25before25) (AEIAG0097); Q109 [Philip Le Feuvre]

209 Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115)

210 Speakers for Schools, Proving the Value of Virtual Work Experience: An Analysis of the Post-placement Video Feedback from Young People, June 2022

211 Q180 [Holly]; Q177 [Harley]

212 Q247

213 Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115)

214 Qq280–281

215 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

216 Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115); Speakers for Schools, Learning from experience: How to make high quality work experience for all a reality, March 2023

217 Q21

218 Q252

219 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

220 Health and Safety Executive, Young workers – Advice for schools and colleges, accessed 4 April 2023

221 Careers and Enterprise Company, Safeguarding for Employers, 2021

222 Qdos Education (AEIAG0040)

223 Qq244–247

224 Q109 [Philip Le Feuvre]; Q18 [Chris Percy]

225 Q19

226 Q345

227 National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083)

228 Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021); Institute of Student Employers (AEIAG0038); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); NCFE (AEIAG0066); GFirst LEP (AEIAG0082); CIPD (AEIAG0086)

229 Q178 [Holly]

230 Q191

231 Technical and Further Education Act 2017, section 2

232 Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021); Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) (AEIAG0025); Frances Jenkins (Careers and Industry Lead at Kingston Maurward College) (AEIAG0026); Careers England (AEIAG0028); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); Social Market Foundation (AEIAG0058); North East Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0074); National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083); Capital City College Group (AEIAG0127); Q11 [Alice Barnard; Chris Percy]

233 Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, section 14

234 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

235 Q226

236 Q349

237 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

238 Education Committee, First Report of Session 2021–22, The forgotten: how White working-class pupils have been let down, and how to change it, HC 85

239 Ofsted (AEIAG0039)

240 Q117

241 Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) (AEIAG0021); Frances Jenkins (Careers and Industry Lead at Kingston Maurward College) (AEIAG0026); The Education People/Kent County Council (AEIAG0050); NCFE (AEIAG0066

242 Q11

243 Q357

244 Q357

245 Department for Education (AEIAG0145)

246 Department for Education, Young people’s experience of careers education, information, advice and guidance, September 2021

247 The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078)

248 Teach First (AEIAG0060)

249 Q16

250 DEV CLEVER PLC (AEIAG0030); Linking London (AEIAG0033); Teach First (AEIAG0060); The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) (AEIAG0076); The Sutton Trust (AEIAG0078); GFirst LEP (AEIAG0082); The Prince’s Trust (AEIAG0085)

251 Q228

252 Q72

253 Q311

254 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

255 Careers and Enterprise Company, Insight briefing - Gatsby Benchmark results 2021/2022, October 2022

256 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0103)

257 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

258 Speakers for Schools (AEIAG0115)

259 Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (AEIAG0081)

260 Qq233–234 [Jo Sykes; Anthony Barnes; Nick Chambers]

261 Q141 [Apsana Begum]

262 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

263 Department for Education, Careers strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, December 2017

264 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

265 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

266 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

267 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

268 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0140)

269 Q321; Q360

270 Q367

271 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

272 Department for Education and Department of Health, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years, January 2015

273 Department for Education, Young people’s experience of careers education, information, advice and guidance, September 2021

274 Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) (AEIAG0025); The Career Development Institute (AEIAG0045); AET Schools (AEIAG0100); Talentino (AEIAG0106); Form the Future (AEIAG0118); Disability Rights UK (AEIAG0131)

275 Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) (AEIAG0025); National Deaf Children’s Society (AEIAG0044); West of England Combined Authority (AEIAG0054)

276 Adviza (AEIAG0024); Policy Connect (AEIAG0070); Form the Future (AEIAG0118); Disability Rights UK (AEIAG0131);

277 Q59

278 Q232

279 Q232 [Jo Sykes]

280 Q232 [Anthony Barnes]

281 Q287 [Graeme Napier]; Q312 [Richard Hamer]

282 Talentino (AEIAG0106); Shaw Trust (AEIAG0117)

283 Education Committee, First Report of Session 2019, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, HC 20

284 HM Treasury, Spring Budget 2023, March 2023

285 Reference to be added

286 The Careers & Enterprise Company (AEIAG0103)

287 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

288 Q360

289 Q321

290 Department for Education, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, March 2023

291 Hull City Council (AEIAG0053); NCFE (AEIAG0066); National Foundation for Educational Research (AEIAG0083); Shaw Trust (AEIAG0117)

292 Department for Education, Children looked after in England including adoptions, November 2022

293 Department for Education, Young people’s experience of careers education, information, advice and guidance, September 2021

294 Shaw Trust (AEIAG0117)

295 Q235

296 Education Committee, Second Report of Session 2022–23, Educational poverty: how children in residential care have been let down and what to do about it, HC 57

297 Education Committee, Third Special Report of Session 2022–23, Educational poverty: how children in residential care have been let down and what to do about it: Government response to the Committee’s Second Report, HC 854

298 Department for Education, Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) post-16: section 31 grant determination letter 2022 to 2023, September 2022

299 Department for Education, Phase one evaluation of the virtual school head’s extension of duties to children with a social worker and the post-16 pupil premium plus pilot, December 2022

300 Department for Education, Careers guidance and access for education and training providers, January 2023

301 Department for Education (AEIAG0133)

302 Q362

303 Shaw Trust (AEIAG0117); Careers England (AEIAG0028)

304 Learning and Work Institute (AEIAG0120)

305 Department for Education (AEIAG0145)

306 The Career Development Institute (AEIAG0045); LEP Network (AEIAG0032); Qdos Education (AEIAG0040); National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC) (AEIAG0048); North East Local Enterprise Partnership (AEIAG0074); GFirst LEP (AEIAG0082);

307 Professor Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education at University of Derby) (AEIAG0014)

308 Complete Careers LLP (AEIAG0034)

309 Department for Education, Elective Home Education, May 2023

310 Centre for Social Justice, Out of Sight and Out of Mind: Shining a spotlight on home education in England, November 2022

311 Education Committee, Third Report of Session 2021–22, Strengthening Home Education, HC 84

312 Education Committee, First Special Report of Session 2021–22, Strengthening Home Education: Government Response to the Committee’s Third Report, HC 823

313 Department for Education, Children not in school: Schools Bill Factsheet, May 2022

314 Oral evidence taken on 7 December 2022, HC 58, Q237; Q246

315 Children not in school (register) Bill. Ten-Minute Rule Bills are unlikely to become law, but are a way of drawing attention to an issue that requires a change in the law and speaking about it in the Chamber.

316 Qq134–135

317 Q366