Today YEUK held a parliamentary event to debate careers education policy and practice.  The event was really well attended and we had a great discussion with some fantastically challenging questions for our panel from young people in the audience.

As part of the event we launched a report on careers education which is now available for download here YEUK Careers Education Report 2015

Our report was based on a recent survey YEUK conducted with our young members to get a better understanding of their views and experiences of careers education.  The survey brought up some key findings and recommendations from young people:

Summary and key findings

Youth Employment UK CIC wanted to understand more about the current careers education experience of young people. A survey was conducted among 16-24 year olds who had a current or recent experience of careers education services (full results are in the Appendix).

The key findings of the survey of 131 young people are:

1. 58% were provided with an interview with a professional careers advisor whilst in school or college. However, only 1% received advice about all of their options.
2. Of those who had interviews, 22% disagreed that all options were covered, 24% strongly agreed that they were given sufficient information on university courses. 28% disagreed that the interviews were inspiring and of those 6% agreed that the interview helped them make decisions.
3. None of the young people who took part were advised about traineeships, 24% were given advice about university courses, 9% were advised on post-GCSE study placements outside their current institute. 11% were given CV and application advice, 7% were advised on apprenticeships, 2% were given labour market information.
4. Only one young person out of the 130 was undertaking an apprenticeship and that young person undertook A Levels first before seeking out their own apprenticeship.
5. 58% took part in careers events, 70% took part in work experience and 51% had visits from inspirational speakers in their college or school.
6. All 131 young people who took part in the survey felt that the education system needed to do more to support young people.
7. The recommendations from young people taking part in this survey include:

• Making careers education and work experience compulsory;
• Ensuring that all pathways are covered including apprenticeships and vocational learning;
• Including enterprise education;
• Providing more opportunities to meet with employers at school and in an employer setting.

These young people certainly feel the need for a greater understanding of the world of work and careers available, a realistic expectation of what to expect and job hunting skills.

The Youth Employment UK research indicates that young people are still not receiving adequate support despite the changes and revision to the statutory duty upon schools to provide careers education and inspiration.  It suggests the wide range of options available are not being discussed with young people and so critical decisions are being made without a full understanding of the options and labour market.

It is key to YEUK that we make sure the views of young people are heard.  It was fantastic to have the Department for Education on our panel and we look forward to working with them further to include #YouthVoice in their policies.

A full review of our parliament event, questions and responses from the panel will be online shortly.

This was a YEUK members event, if you would like to find out how your organisation can support future events please do get in touch – info@youthemployment.org.uk