Tom Mursell

Yes you read it right, 7 year-olds are to receive career advice under new Gov’t proposals. You can just imagine it now; little 7 year-old Johnny updating his CV after sitting his Year 2 SATs! The report ‘Quality, Choice and Aspiration – A strategy for young people’s information, advice and guidance’ has flagged up the need for better careers information, advice & guidance (IAG) highlighting that it should be delivered within the Key Stage 2 curriculum. The reason? “…because decisions made at the point of transition from primary to secondary school can have a real impact on the direction young people take in their early years of secondary school”.

But should it really be delivered as young as 7?

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It seems figures just released show that less than half of all students who took GCSEs this year received “good passes” (a.k.a 5  A*-C grades), and now it’s all kicking off again between the business world & the Gov’t! Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, stated “Sadly, despite all the money that has been spent, standards are still woefully low in too many schools…Employers like us, and I suspect many of you, are often left to pick up the pieces.” Sir Terry by the way is an education advisor to the PM.

The schools minister Vernon Coaker has hit back saying “today is a day to celebrate. These are the best ever GCSE results with the biggest ever year-on-year improvement.”

So it all adds fuel to the fire in the argument of  whether the education system should provide young people with the skills they need in the world of work or a more rounded academic knowledge.

I think it’s fair to say the formal education system up until age 16 doesn’t provide much in the way of preparing young people for the challenge of the workplace, at least in my experiences anyway. In fact I even studied GCSE Business Studies and the most practical thing we were ever taught was where not to put a cup of coffee in an office (on top of the computer screen by the way)!

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Youth unemployment currently stands just shy of 950,000 and economists reckon it could hit 1 million very soon. The story has been covered by BBC Newsbeat all day with features from young unemployed people from the West Midlands (which has one of the highest youth unemployment rates). BBC interviews various young people who have been turned down from jobs on the basis they don’t have the necessary experience.

This isn’t a new problem; I’ve experienced before (pre-recession) as have plenty of other school leavers & graduates I know. The difference now is that there are far more people (older & more experienced people) chasing those same jobs that required experience in the first place. The result is a whole load of young people on the “scrapheap” (to quote the TUC).

Last month the Government & various employers launched the Backing Young Britain campaign along with the Future Jobs Fund offering up 150,000 for long-term youth unemployed, and it’d be interesting to see when these campaigns will have real impact on these figures.

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