A new piece of research has just been released by the Department for Education that looks at careers work in schools.
Gibson, S., Oliver, L., Dennison-CooperGibson, M. (2015). Mapping Careers Provision in Schools and Colleges in England. London: DfE.
The report is based on a survey of 107 schools. The survey seems to have been an open response survey which was sent out to 500 schools and so is likely to have some non-response bias in it. Given our findings in Advancing Ambitions and other reports about the diversity of provision across England this is a serious limitation to this research.
Because the sample is likely to draw mainly from careers enthusiasts the picture that it paints of provision is pretty positive. Most schools provide career information, advice and guidance, career education and employer links. The biggest area of concern is the lack of work experience opportunities which seems to generally be left to students to organise for themselves.
This is a more positive picture of careers work in English schools than many of the other reports that have been done in recent year. Whether it represents a genuine improvement in the situation is more doubtful (although not impossible given recent changes in government policy).
Adventures in Career Development 