Call for Career Guidance Guarantee for young people

The Career Development Institute (CDI) along with more than one thousand organisations, Lords and MPs have signed an open letter to government calling for a Career Guidance Guarantee for young people and unemployed adults.

Sent to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, the letter calls for a Career Guidance Guarantee through a £26 million fund that would be channeled immediately through existing agencies until the end of 2020.

The Guarantee would ensure that everyone aged 16-19 in education, all education leavers, those who are already NEET, and adults who are unemployed, would have access to quality personal career guidance to help them move on to further education, employment or to additional training and apprenticeships.

Over 250 organisations and almost 900 individuals including MPs, the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Members of the House of Lords, and key opinion formers signed the letter.
 
It is supported by An emergency career development plan to maintain employment, productivity and progression post-Covid-19. As well as short-term investment, the plan calls for a new careers strategy to be published in January 2021 and a review of the current career guidance system.
 
Jan Ellis, Chief Executive at the CDI commented: “This has been an unsettling time for young people and their ideas about their next steps will be changing. They will be seeking reassurance and up-to-date information on the opportunities available yet once schools and colleges close for the holidays, there is nowhere for them to get personal careers guidance.  Meanwhile those not in education have very limited access to guidance and services for adults are increasingly stretched.

“We need to act now to reach those most in need of support. A Career Guidance Guarantee is a critical step in a much needed, more joined-up approach. It will help young people and adults make sense of the labour market and find the best education, training and employment opportunities for them. Providing enhanced personal guidance makes economic sense too, because it will contribute to a high skills and high productivity recovery.”  
 
Lord Jim Knight of Weymouth said: “This is a hugely uncertain time for job prospects.  There has never been a greater need for an all age professional careers service.  I hope the government is listening and will deliver the funding such a service so desperately needs.”