This Gatsby Foundation paper will make for useful and interesting reading for school professionals with careers guidance in their remits, and policy makers concerned with how to help schools provide relevant and useful career advice for their pupils.
Good career guidance
Synopsis
Covering career guidance in English secondary schools and how it can be made better, this report from the Gatsby Foundation draws on established literature on career guidance in state schools and visits by the researchers to various schools to paint a picture of what good practice looks like.
Drawing on this evidence, the report suggests there are eight benchmarks that schools wanting to offer valuable careers guidance much reach:
- a stable careers programme
- a process for learning from career and labour market information
- a tailored approach to the needs of each pupil
- linking curriculum learning to careers
- working with employers and employees
- helping pupils to gain meaningful work experience
- good information and advice about further and higher education
- personal guidance.
The report goes on to recommend allowing schools more autonomy in producing the career guidance programme that works best for their pupils; and better incentives that encourage schools to prioritise career guidance amongst the many other demands on them.