(Scunthorpe) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require schools in
England to provide access to their premises and pupils to
representatives from post-16 education establishments and
others providing guidance on careers, training and courses;
and for connected purposes.
Having a goal is hugely motivational, especially for young
people, and access to impartial guidance about what
opportunities are available, linked to labour market
information, should be a given for all young people so that
they can set their goals in an informed way.
When I stood down as principal of John Leggott College on
being elected to the House in 2010, careers education,
information, advice and guidance were not perfect in our
schools and colleges, but they were a lot better than they
are now. The deterioration of careers education over the last
six years is deeply concerning. The CBI was right to state in
its 2015 education and skills survey that careers guidance in
schools was “not good enough”: more than three quarters of
the businesses in the UK said that careers advice was not
good enough to ensure that young people made informed
decisions about their future career options. It therefore
does not surprise me that, having seen the Bill listed on
today’s Order Paper, a large number of individuals and
organisations have contacted me to provide encouragement.
For a long while the Government were in denial about the
impact that a plethora of changes, combined with significant
funding cuts, was having on the provision of careers
education in schools. To be fair, Ministers responsible for
careers education—from the right hon. Member for South
Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes) to the right hon. Member
for Harlow (Robert Halfon), the Minister for Apprenticeships
and Skills—did recognise the deficit, and I believe that they
advanced the arguments within the Government just as
employers and educationists, along with Her Majesty’s
Opposition, advanced compelling arguments from outside the
Government. However, for far too long there was no positive
response from the Government. Then the penny dropped. The
response was the establishment of the Careers &
Enterprise Company, which I have always seen as an expensive
and complicated way of fixing a fairly simple problem.
MyBigCareer is a charity that provides free advice in many
disadvantaged areas of the UK. Volunteer career advisers from
the independent sector and professions give up their time to
go into schools and give free impartial advice on
apprenticeships, university and work-related courses, and are
overwhelmed by the response. They say that not one school
with which they have worked has ever heard of the Careers
& Enterprise Company, despite millions being ploughed
into the organisation.
Back in 2012-13, when I led a commission on skills involving
the Humber local enterprise partnership, businesses and
schools were agreed on the need for better careers education,
and were keen to work together to make it happen. However, it
did not happen, because the pressures of the performance of
the bottom line of results make organisations look inward
rather than outward. What was missing was the capacity and
time for businesses, schools and colleges to co-ordinate
their efforts. That, in my opinion, is where the resources
should be simply and ruthlessly targeted, and the need
remains as strong today as it was then.
It is worth pausing to applaud the fantastic work that goes
on in many schools, despite the pressures and funding
challenges. Some amazing people with both business and
education backgrounds are working to provide young people
with impartial information and choice. Nevertheless, students
should be entitled to quality careers education that meets an
agreed standard, wherever they go to school.
The ambition of my Bill is not to transform the whole of
careers education, information, advice and guidance so that
all young people have a consistent entitlement to quality
advice, wherever they go to school. Would that I could do
that, but my Bill has a much more limited ambition. It seeks
to ensure that, at the very least, colleges and post-16
providers can talk directly to school students about the
opportunities that are available to them in their area.
Sadly, too many schools, especially some with their own sixth
forms, put obstacles in the way of students’ receiving this
crucial information.
In response to a question from me, the Minister for
Apprenticeships and Skills himself said:
“I recently visited degree apprentices at Gateshead College
whose own school refused them a visit in order to talk about
apprenticeships, skills and technical education.”—[Official
Report, 6 February 2017; Vol. 621, c. 13.]
He was rightly outraged by that, but it is not an isolated
case. Colleges all over the country report the placing of
similar barriers in school students’ way. That just is not
good enough. Even in my own area, where the situation is
generally good, the two excellent local colleges, North
Lindsey and John Leggott, report that things are becoming
more difficult than they used to be. When I met students and
staff at North Lindsey, staff reported that school student
access was becoming more difficult, and that was confirmed by
the students’ experience. John Leggott reports instances in
which students have been denied access to careers events
because their schools chose not to participate. The pressure
on schools to deliver results sometimes leads to an
understandable reluctance to provide time for careers
education that could otherwise be spent on mainstream
studies, but I would argue that once young people have a
personal goal, often linked to where they progress to next or
a career target, it can motivate them to achieve much more,
thereby transforming their performance in their academic
studies.
As a result of its inquiry into careers education in July
2016, the Sub-Committee on Education, Skills and the Economy
found that too many young people were leaving education
without having had a chance fully to consider their future
options, or how their skills and experiences would accord
with opportunities in the jobs market. It also judged that a
host of policy changes, initiatives and new bodies introduced
in recent years had failed to make serious improvements, and
had even been counterproductive in some cases. It welcomed
the Government’s intention to legislate, and recommended that
they set out robust mechanisms to ensure that the new law was
well publicised and properly enforced.
In their response, the Government said that they were
determined to tackle the patchy state of careers provision,
and to raise its importance and profile in schools. They said
that new legislation should be publicised and properly
enforced, and made a commitment to update existing careers
statutory guidance to ensure that schools were clear about
what they needed to do to comply with any new legal
requirements before they came into force. The Government made
clear their intention to
“publish a comprehensive careers strategy for all ages”.
The post-16 skills plan reiterated the Government’s intention
to develop an “overarching careers strategy” and last month
the Government’s industrial strategy Green Paper repeated the
pledge:
“we need to do more to empower students, parents and
employers to make confident and informed choices about their
education and careers options, whether they are in schools,
technical education or higher education.”
The previous Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for
Loughborough (Nicky Morgan), had plans for legislation
requiring schools to allow other providers of education and
training to talk to their pupils about opportunities post-16.
That was scheduled to be included in the now defunct
education for all Bill. A statement at the time said that
schools would
“be required by law to collaborate with colleges, university
technical colleges and other training providers”.
That seemed to have been shelved. However, there does now
appear to be a chink of light at the end of a very long
tunnel. Last week, Lord Baker proposed an amendment to the
Technical and Further Education Bill that the Government
accepted. It says that schools must ensure that there is an
opportunity for a range of education and training providers
to access pupils to inform them about technical education
qualifications or apprenticeships.
That is a positive move, but the Government can seize the
opportunity of my Bill to go that bit further, in line with
their earlier intention and ambition. My Bill will ensure
that school pupils have access to information from the
providers of post-16 pathways locally direct to them. It will
require schools in England to provide access to their
premises and pupils for post-16 education establishments and
other providers. That would significantly improve the quality
of information available to young people when they make
decisions about their future. As such it would be a great
step forward.
All my experience tells me that education delivers best when
it is focused on the interests of learners, not the interests
of providers. Learners, young people, deserve a careers
education, information, advice and guidance system that is
focused on them and that delivers information directly to
them. That is what this Bill will achieve.
Schools cannot deliver professional and independent careers
advice and guidance on their own. They are not best placed to
talk about the benefits of career pathways, courses post-16,
technical and professional education or apprenticeships:
colleges and training providers are. Colleges recognise the
critical nature of good careers education and are keen to
work with their local schools. These changes to access need
to happen; they can no longer be swept under the carpet. We
owe every young person this entitlement to information, so
that they can achieve their potential and find the best
routes into the right career. What will benefit our young
people will benefit our businesses and economy. It will
benefit us all.
Question put and agreed to.
Ordered,
That , , , , , , , , , , and present the Bill.
accordingly presented the
Bill.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday
24 March, and to be printed (Bill 148).
