Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
Paragraph: 65
Expand scaled-up support for primary school careers education to benefit all children nationally.
Conclusion
Starting careers education early is essential to broadening children’s horizons and showing them the full range of opportunities in the world of work. The Department has so far been taking an approach of relatively small-scale pilot programmes to test approaches, which appear to have been making a positive start, but support should be scaled up as soon as possible to ensure that the whole country can benefit.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, agreeing on the importance of early careers education. They are funding the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) to pilot careers programmes in 70 primary schools and developing a primary careers education framework, committing to evaluate these pilots and consider scaling up support for primary schools.
Paragraph Reference:
65
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government accepts this recommendation. We agree with the Committee on the importance of starting careers education early to broaden children’s horizons and show them the full range of opportunities in the world of work. We know that children begin to form ideas about their future careers from primary school, and it is important that they are exposed to a wide range of careers and role models from different backgrounds. We have introduced a careers statutory duty that applies to all secondary schools in England to provide independent and impartial careers guidance for pupils in years 7 to 13. While this duty does not extend to primary schools, we recognise the importance of high-quality careers education in primary schools. We are funding The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) to deliver careers activity in primary schools as part of a phased approach. The CEC is currently piloting careers programmes in 70 primary schools across 10 Careers Hubs in Education Investment Areas. This includes funding for a Primary Lead, training for staff, and resources to support the delivery of careers activities. The CEC is also developing a framework for primary careers education, working with primary schools to identify and share best practice. This will help to ensure that careers education in primary schools is consistent and of high quality. We will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of these pilots and consider how we can further scale up support for primary schools, building on the learning from these pilots.(...truncated...)