With rising youth unemployment, continuing recession, a bewildering range of career pathways and the introduction of FE loans there has never been a time when it has been more important for young people to have access to high quality, impartial careers information and guidance (CIAG). Yet the last two years have seen massive funding cuts and a period of great uncertainty as Connexions was dismantled.

The Government’s stated ambition for careers guidance is to ensure every young person has access to the independent and impartial support that they need. Its strategy to achieve this has been by legislating in the Education Act 2011 to place a new duty on schools to secure independent careers guidance for pupils in years 9-11 from this September, with a consultation currently underway on extending this duty to young people up to age 18.

ASCL, along with many other organisations, was hugely disappointed when it was announced that the replacement to Connexions, the new National Careers Service, would offer young people only a telephone service and a website.

This means that it is left to schools and colleges to procure face to face guidance from an open and largely unregulated market. The Careers Profession Alliance (an umbrella organisation of careers professionals) has worked hard to put in place standards and qualifications for all careers practitioners together with a national register. However, the fact of the matter is that there is a massive variability in the quality of provision.

With national policies that promote competition between institutions, it is easy to be drawn into unhelpful accusations of self-interest. However, it is in everyone’s interest, not least our young people’s, to get this right.

Improving CIAG is not going to happen through legislation, close inspection by Ofsted or the proposed new destination measure. The reality is that the key to a sustainable solution lies with the leaders of our schools and colleges.

We need to sit down together, learn from the best practice in each sector and engage in honest and frank debate about how we put the needs of the young people in our communities first. In doing so, some will have to face up to the elephants in the room, such as:

• A funding system in schools and colleges which encourages institutions to maximise their intake.
• The existence of competition between schools and colleges and between different FE institutions.
• The creation of additional provision such as UTCs, post 16 free schools and studio schools in areas where there are already surplus places.
• Cases where students in schools are not given access to full information about local provision.
• Aggressive marketing by some colleges.

ASCL and AoC have produced a briefing and statement of good practice which we hope will form the basis for discussion between schools and colleges (www.ascl.org.uk/resources/library/ascl_aoc_joint_paper).

We strongly believe that believe that schools and colleges have a responsibility to ensure that all pupils and students have access to timely, well-informed and impartial careers information, advice and guidance. Young people need to know about all pathways available to them and there are plenty of examples of best practice which can be emulated.

FE colleges have vast experience of providing CIAG. Too often communication between staff within the FE and school sectors is very limited. We would urge staff working in colleges and work-based learning providers to visit schools and host visits from school careers staff. In return we would expect schools to support their careers staff to attend these information sessions.

Likewise, schools should pass on information about students’ progress and attainment to date and any support needs they have. Colleges and work-based learning providers should share information with schools on the progress, achievements and subsequent destinations of their former pupils.

It is time for the leaders of schools and colleges to sit down together and learn from each other in the interests of all of our communities. For our young people, it is the right thing to do.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the
Association of School and College Leaders

The UK faces unprecedented demands for expert health and social care workers in every area from childcare to support for an aging population beset by problems such as poverty, isolation, immobility and dementia. From cradle to grave, we need skilled workers and managers fast, we need them trained on the job, and we need considerable support from further education colleges and other training providers.

Against a background of scandals in care homes, the government is looking at leadership across the variety of fields – raising quality and raising public trust in organisations that provide health and care. Leadership qualifications already exist in schools and children’s centres. By implication they are now needed more in health and care settings.

Leadership is not just about the person at the top; it is important to inspire leadership within teams and build that up into organisational leadership. While such skills may be transferable, you also need knowledge and understanding of the sector you are working in. Therefore, we must draw leaders from within the sector, nurture them, encourage them, train them – make sure they are qualified.

The issue was emphasised recently in Professor Cathy Nutbrown’s interim review of Early Years qualifications – the need is not only for new entrants but for the current workforce to take further qualifications to improve their skills and career prospects. Evidence, she says, shows that “well qualified, experienced leadership is key to driving up quality of provision, and also that less experienced staff will benefit from good, thorough support and supervision. It is also key in safeguarding children.”

 If they internalise concepts of quality, they don’t need such close supervision as they work more effectively and independently within an agreed standard of values”

I’m passionate about the fact that qualifications help people to reflect on their practice and to create measures for themselves regarding quality. If they internalise concepts of quality, they don’t need such close supervision as they work more effectively and independently within an agreed standard of values. At CACHE, with this approach in mind, we provide children and adult care sectors with a unique portfolio of qualifications ranging from Entry to Level 5 and last year we registered over 150,000 learners.

It is crucial that we send people into the workplace with qualifications that count. For the employer such investment shows you aspire to a high-quality workforce and you set higher expectations than the level 3 qualification. Level 5 shows you take very seriously the quality assurance issue. Qualifications are important as a badge of quality and if I was commissioning care services, that is one of the things I would look for. It is after all about putting customers first.

But, as local authorities and others struggle to find new savings of £1bn from social care budgets, and inspectors report a decline of 650 registered nurseries and childminders in the first quarter of this year alone, where are the people and the resources to be found? Only by raising the status of the profession and improving public trust in what we provide will we attract and retain a workforce committed to the necessary constant self improvement.

There’s been a long-stranding culture where people have always expected that the employer will fund key pieces of development. The world is very different now and we have to think about how we use the resources we have – whether it’s about buying things, articles, consumer goods or about buying “opportunities”.

In these days employers can’t afford to meet all the costs of qualifications. So individuals may need to look more to their own resources and maybe seek loans. People might fear this but it puts them in control of their own development. They don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do it; they are in a position to invest in their own future. Also the employers depend on having the edge about what they can offer and what they can show, so they will be looking for top quality staff and managers.

A survey by FE Week recently revealed considerable concern over the developing FE loans scheme, with two-thirds of those surveyed calling for it to be delayed or even abandoned.
We have long seen a joint commitment of employers and employees paying a share in therapeutic services. And we have seen that where people invest in their own well being, it gives them a commitment to succeed.

I hope people will really think about ways to invest in their own development. It’s a big challenge: if people are better qualified, they will expect better remuneration. And quite right too; we need jobs very well done, not just well done.

Vicki Lant , chair of the Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (CACHE)