Collective leadership for high-quality careers support

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What about jobs for the next generation?

BN13A CoverNever mind youth unemployment now, what about the next generation?

A new report on youth unemployment titled ‘Precarious Futures’ by the UKCES confirms our concerns about labour market opportunities for future generations. TUC Secretary General, Frances O’Grady said recently that job prospects for many young people have deteriorated alarmingly.

Although improving, we know that only one in four employers offer work experience placements to young people in education and just 15% of employers have or offer apprenticeships to young people.

Structural changes in the labour market mean that young people are competing with older and more experienced workers, who have been forced to trade down for the lower and mid level jobs that young people would normally take.

The Careers Alliance has launched a #futuretalent campaign backed by over 50 employers, professional bodies and education organisations, including Atkins, Capgemini, Deloitte, National Grid, Siemens, Wates, the ACCA, the Bar Council, the Chartered Management Institute, the ICAEW, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Federation for Industry Sector Skills & Standards, Creative & Cultural Skills, and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation amongst many others.

It is not enough for employers to just offer more work opportunities for young people now. The Royal Academy of Engineering’s report on “Jobs and Growth” forecasts that the UK economy will require 830,000 professional scientists, engineers and technologists over the next decade alone. There is a long term skills issue that must be addressed by bringing education and training and the labour market closer together.

This is why employers and the Careers Alliance are calling for collaborative action between professional careers advisers, employers and schools and colleges in providing careers advice and guidance to young people by:

  1. Highlighting the importance of careers education and guidance in schools and colleges.
  2. Framing employer contributions as part of professionally managed careers programmes and not as ad hoc initiatives.
  3. Affirming that, working together within a planned careers programme, employers and career professionals can provide far more effective help to young people than either could do on their own.

 

The #futuretalent campaign challenges current Government policies by highlighting the importance of collaborative action in career guidance. This contrasts with the Government’s latest Statutory Guidance to schools which has emphasised contributions from employers and people in jobs to inspire and motivate young people in schools and colleges about the world of work, but makes little reference to the role of careers advisers, nor explains how such links between employers and schools and colleges can best be brokered.

The Careers Alliance, which is made up of more than twenty of the country’s largest skills and education organisations, reports that the inputs from employers and careers advisers need to be integrated into well-planned careers programmes in schools.

Commenting on the campaign, Dame Ruth Silver, Chair of the Careers Alliance, said: ‘There remains a disconnect between education and the world of work. Our joint call with employers shows that collaborative action is the best solution; employers say they can’t do it all on their own. Employers endorse this call by the Careers Alliance for partnership working to get careers guidance in schools and colleges right.’

Toby Peyton-Jones, Director of Human Resources at Siemens plc said: ‘Siemens would like to fully endorse the call for collaborative action by the Careers Sector Stakeholders Alliance by adding our support for driving structured and sustained collaboration between schools and employers in preparing young people for the world of work.’

Steve Holliday, CEO at National Grid said: ‘We know employers can play a more active role educating school children about the world of work. We would like to add our support to the Careers Alliance statement about improving the links between employers, schools and career advisory services to lead to better informed young people considering their career options.’

 

CSSA BN13A Employer Support for CSSA Statement

What of jobs for the next generation? CSSA #futuretalent campaign Press Release 23-06-14


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CSSA Briefing Note 13A

Employers say partnership working the only way to get careers guidance in schools and colleges right

BN13A CoverA joint statement by the Careers Alliance is published today with the support of a wide range of employers and sector bodies, including Atkins, Capgemini, Deloitte, National Grid, Siemens, Wates, the ACCA, the Bar Council, the Chartered Management Institute, the ICAEW, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Federation for Industry Sector Skills & Standards, Creative & Cultural Skills, and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation amongst many others.

It calls for collaborative action between professional careers advisers, employers and schools and colleges in providing careers advice and guidance to young people by:

  1. Highlighting the importance of careers education and guidance in schools and colleges.
  2. Framing employer contributions as part of professionally managed careers programmes and not as ad hoc initiatives.
  3. Affirming that, working together within a planned careers programme, employers and career professionals can provide far more effective help to young people than either could do on their own.

Employers, professional bodies and Sector Skills Councils have challenged Government policies by supporting the Careers Alliance statement. This contrasts with the Government’s latest Statutory Guidance to schools which has emphasised contributions from employers and people in jobs to inspire and motivate young people in schools and colleges about the world of work, but makes little reference to the role of careers advisers, nor explains how such links between employers and schools and colleges can best be brokered.

Getting the balance right beyond inspiration
Commenting on the campaign, Dame Ruth Silver, Chair of the Careers Alliance, said: ‘There remains a disconnect between education and the world of work. Our joint call with employers shows that collaborative action is the best solution; employers say they can’t do it all on their own. Employers endorse this call by the Careers Alliance for partnership working to get careers guidance in schools and colleges right.’

Professor Tony Watts, a leading international expert on career guidance said: ‘If employer contributions are to be effective, they require logistical support, curriculum space, and receptive schools and young people. They also need to be an integral part of well-planned careers programmes.’

Commenting on the Careers Alliance statement, Dr Tessa Stone, CEO of Brightside and Chair of the Bridge Group, said: ‘The employers we work with are actively engaged in working with schools and colleges. They value the role of professional careers advisers in managing careers education and guidance programmes within schools which incorporate and support the contributions of employers and people at work, so enhancing their value and ensuring their effectiveness.’

The Careers Alliance report concludes that employers (and people at work) and careers advisers both have distinctive and complementary contributions to make to the career development and career planning of young people. Working together, within a planned programme of careers education and guidance, they can provide far more effective help to young people than either could do on their own.

CSSA BN13A Employer Support for CSSA Statement


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CSSA Briefing Note 5

Design Features for an All-age Careers Service in England

BN5 CoverThis Briefing Note by the UK Careers Sector Strategic Forum (now the Careers Alliance) welcomed the announcement by John Hayes, the then Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, of the Coalition Government’s commitment to establish an all-age careers service in England, subsequently confirmed in its newly launched Skills Strategy. The Forum also welcomed the Minister’s affirmation of the need to strengthen career guidance as a profession, reflected in the report of Dame Ruth Silver’s Task Force on the Careers Profession and in the Browne Review on higher education funding.

This Briefing Note outlined some of the core principles that ought to be incorporated in the design of an all-age national careers service, identified some of the key issues that need to be addressed in developing the service, and offered the help of the UK Careers Sector Strategic Forum in tackling these issues.

Core principles
The Careers Alliance suggested then that the all-age service needed to be viewed as a backbone for a world-class system of careers services in England. Principles that need to be adopted in developing such a system include:

  • Access: that all citizens should have access to careers services when they need them, at any stage through their lives.
  • Quality: that the quality of such services should be assured, both through the professional standards of careers practitioners, and through organisational quality standards.
  • Impartiality: that these quality standards should ensure that there is always access to impartial career guidance, free of institutional interests.
  • Balance between aspiration and realism: that careers services should focus on individual aspiration and potential, but should also ensure that career decisions are well-informed in terms of course progression and the needs of the labour market.
  • Career self-management: that careers services should be designed to help individuals to manage their own careers, knowing how to access support where it is needed.

Briefing Note 5 England All-age IAG Service Nov 2010