iCeGS Visiting Fellow David Andrews has just published a really powerful new proposal for the future of career education, advice and guidance in England.
The paper argues that the government should be trying to connect up the various initiatives and projects that exist to build a coherent career development system. He highlights the Gatsby benchmarks of good practice, the quality awards which are nationally validated by the Quality in Careers Standard; the Teach First pilot programme of continuing professional development (CPD) for careers leaders in schools; and the framework for careers education published by the Career Development Institute (CDI) and well as the organisation’s Register of Career Development Professionals as being the components of this new approach.
He goes on to propose actions at four levels of implementation.
- Immediate. The Statutory Guidance should be re-structured around the Gatsby benchmarks and revised to: highlight the roles of careers leader and professionally qualified careers advisers; stress the importance of careers education; require schools to publish details of their provision to parents; and strengthen the recommendation to work towards a quality award.
- Short term. Schools should be allocated development funding to help build their capacity to take on their extended responsibilities for careers. This should be conditional on committing to work towards a quality award.
- Medium term. The DfE should invest in a national programme of CPD for careers leaders.
- Long term. It may be necessary to change policy by reinstating the statutory duty to provide careers education in the curriculum and extending it to age 18. But it may also be necessary to move away from the school-commissioning model if the current patchiness remains. We could re-establish a national career guidance service, delivered locally, but in a contemporary context or we could explore moving to a school-based model.
I think that David’s paper offers some really powerful food for thought and I hope that it will prove to be influential.
A new strategy to transform the quality of careers education, advice and guidance for young people
Adventures in Career Development 