National Apprenticeship Week is always a humbling experience. As you speak to young apprentices across the country you can’t help but be inspired by stories of determination and skill.
These young people are often trailblazers, showing the next generation that excellence doesn’t have to mean the well-trodden path to university.
Notwithstanding the success stories, there are steps we can take to ensure young people transition onto apprenticeships and other skills pathways with more confidence and are set up to succeed. Modern careers education has an important role to play.
From interest to uptake
Awareness of apprenticeships and other technical routes has been steadily growing in recent years. By year 11, apprenticeship awareness is almost on a par with A Level – 80 per cent versus 84 per cent according to a survey of nearly a quarter of million secondary-aged learners.
However, interest doesn’t always lead to uptake. Our own study, conditions for transition, found this can be due to a variety of reasons, including interest in sectors with opportunities and availability of roles. Even so, when careers support puts technical pathways front and centre, it can help bridge the gap.
Perceptions of jobs and the labour market are formed remarkably early. By age seven, children are ruling options in and out – often based on gender or class stereotypes.
Evidence suggests that bringing employers into primary schools, and teachers showing how the curriculum links to the world of work, can broaden horizons.
Secondary school careers education can then build on broad early ambitions and support young people with more specific next steps, highlighting pathways to work like apprenticeships.
In fact, the better the quality of secondary careers support, the more likely young people are to have a specific and realistic industry interest and the more likely they are to take up an apprenticeship.
Skills development in schools
Employers often tell us they place a premium on generic skills when taking on young apprentices – such as initiative, problem solving and collaboration.
Young people sense this too, and report that they want more support on skills development. In particular, our data highlights that they can struggle with speaking and listening skills. Employers agree, highlighting presenting at interviews and in assessment centres as a skill they want but don’t always know how to develop.
Part of the solution lies with the government’s ambition for two weeks of work experience pre-16.
At its best, work experience is as much about learning new skills as developing job preferences.
For our part, we are working with partners to bring together multiple work experience opportunities for young people with a set of challenging learning objectives that help students secure tangible skills.
We are trailing aspects of this model across the country with combined authorities, academy trusts and employers.
Support through transition
Even when young people have been inspired by the world of work and have developed skills, at points of transition between education and work they can fall through the cracks.
Young people who face economic barriers are particularly at risk. However, in these circumstances emerging pilot evidence suggests that intensive careers support can help.
This looks different in different contexts, but some common features of success include young people having a trusted adult they can talk to, feeling listened to and the chance to meet relatable people from an industry they are interested in.
So, as we look ahead to changes in the skills landscape, including the introduction of Skills England and the growth and skills levy, we need to see high quality careers education as an important entry point to the system.
Once young people are aware of and excited about what’s possible, they can be the ones to power apprenticeship pathways forward.
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