Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Accepted
Paragraph: 79
Despite improvements, teacher training and curriculum links for careers education remain inadequate.
Conclusion
We have heard some strong examples of careers being successfully embedded into the curriculum and the situation is improving, with 70% of schools and colleges fully achieving the relevant Gatsby benchmark, up from 38% in 2018. However, more support and guidance must be put in place to enable this: currently, teachers lack the training and support they need to be able to do this effectively, and the curriculum itself does not provide explicit links to relevant careers.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and highlights existing initiatives like the Careers & Enterprise Company's resources, the Teacher Encounters programme, and investment in the FE workforce to provide the necessary support and training.
Paragraph Reference:
79
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government accepts this recommendation. We agree with the Committee that embedding careers into the curriculum is vitally important and we welcome the progress that has been made in this area, with 70% of schools and colleges fully achieving the relevant Gatsby benchmark, up from 38% in 2018. We recognise that more support and guidance must be put in place to enable this, and that teachers need the training and support to be able to do this effectively. We are committed to supporting teachers to develop their knowledge of career pathways and the labour market, and to embed careers into the curriculum. The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) provides a range of resources and training to support Careers Leaders and subject teachers to embed careers into the curriculum. This includes a toolkit for subject teachers, which provides practical guidance and resources to help them link their subject teaching to careers. The CEC also offers a Teacher Encounters programme, launched in January 2023, which aims to immerse 1,000 subject teachers in industry encounters, to give them insights into the different career pathways available locally and to provide inspiration to link their teaching to the world of work. Over 800 encounters had already taken place by summer 2023. This will help to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and understanding to embed careers into their teaching effectively. The Department is also investing in a package of direct support for the FE Workforce in 2023–24, to continue to support the FE sector with the recruitment, retention and development of teachers. This includes a national recruitment campaign and Teach in FE service to support prospective FE teachers into jobs. We continue to offer FE teacher training bursaries in priority subjects. Applications for the 2023/24 academic year opened on 7 March, with increased bursary values of up to £29,000 each, tax-free. The latest round of Taking Teaching Further is live, supporting FE providers to recruit and support those with relevant knowledge and industry experience to retrain as FE teachers.(...truncated...)