New report finds career guidance system is failing young people

A report has been published on young people’s views on finding out about jobs and careers. The report is based on the findings of an online survey with over 500 young people aged 12–26 conducted by the British Youth Council, NCB and Young NCB, to find out about what influences their career decisions, what advice they have access to and their perceptions of the available advice.

Key findings from the report include that young people are most influenced by parents, websites, teachers and friends, and over 80 percent of respondents who had received formal careers advice found it to be ‘a little bit’ or ‘not at all’ helpful. A young person who took part in the survey said, “Absolutely useless, very little knowledge of what is out there and even less about practical steps needed to get there”.

Speaking during a discussion on Radio 5 Live’s breakfast show, Rajay Naik, BYC Chair, aged 22, said, “Young people who contributed least to the economic situation, are those suffering most from the recession we now find ourselves in. We must invest in developing the potential of our younger generation if we are to sustainably grow our economy out of recession, and part of that depends on providing personalised career guidance”.

Based on the findings the report recommends that future approaches to careers advice and guidance should include measures to broaden the knowledge and understanding of the job market among all those who have real influence on young people’s decisions and that consideration should be given to the development of more self-accessed web-based solutions for informing and guiding young people, including tools that can be used by young people and their parents together. The report also recommends that the role of private and public sector employers, including the provision of work-based learning, should be exploited further.

Fri, 23/10/2009 - 10:49