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• There are skills gaps and shortages in existing and emerging sectors, damaging productivity. The Government must develop a long-term national plan for identifying, anticipating, measuring and addressing skills gaps and shortages with a focus on the needs of the digital and green economy. To ensure young people are equipped with essential knowledge and the technical, cultural and creative skills, the Government must recalibrate the compulsory components of the national curriculum and performance measures, putting skills development at the centre.
• Access to high quality careers education is improving but equal provision remains patchy. The Government must make CEIAG a compulsory element of the curriculum in all schools from Key Stage 1 to 4 alongside religious education, and sex and relationships education, as part of a Career Guidance Guarantee.
• Apprenticeships are in short supply, and current funding mechanisms tend to benefit older workers. The Government must require that any employer receiving funding from the apprenticeship levy must spend at least two thirds of that funding on people who begin apprenticeships at levels 2 and 3 before the age of 25.
• Groups including Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups, those disadvantaged by socio-economic background, and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) face significant barriers to work. The Government must launch an Education and Workplace Race Equality Strategy, focussing on removing barriers including mandating regular collection of data. It must ensure every disadvantaged young person has access to tailored careers guidance.

Education Select Committee inquiry:

• A cross-party Education Committee inquiry is exploring whether current careers advice provides young people with sufficient guidance about career choices, employment, training, and further and higher education opportunities.
• It will also look at how arrangements for Careers Education, Information Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) could better support disadvantaged or left-behind groups to access career opportunities that may otherwise not be available to them.
• The Committee will also examine proposals for CEIAG in the Government’s Skills for Jobs White Paper, and whether there is adequate funding to support effective CEIAG.
• Written evidence submissions to the inquiry closed on 17th March and these are now being considered.

Read more about the inquiry here.