Nursery World - Workforce Strategy, Part 4: Careers

Careers advice has long been a Cinderella service in schools. But with a massive shortage of early years staff, a new careers advice drive and the early years workforce strategy, there is finally a path to change, finds Charlotte Goddard

Does anyone remember actually receiving useful careers advice at school? If any at all? The service wasn't mandatory until 2014, and there are now attempts to turn it from impersonal tick-box exercise to a constructive attempt to open up the world of work. For more disadvantaged pupils, good information can mean a foot on the ladder.

Careers provision for young people continues to be ‘patchy and inadequate’, according to the Government’s own statutory guidance on the issue. It is partially attributable for the country’s skills shortage, MPs have said. The long-awaited careers strategy, first scheduled for 2016 and now expected this autumn, is one in a long line of attempts to improve things.

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