David Andrews, Honorary Life Member
31 October 2011
We know that the Education Bill, which is soon to receive Royal Assent, introduces a new statutory duty on schools to secure independent careers guidance for their pupils. The Bill was published back in January and over recent months schools have started to think about what arrangements to put in place from 2012.
The Bill defines ‘independent’ careers guidance as guidance provided by persons other than those employed at the school. This is a well-intentioned attempt to help ensure that pupils receive information, advice and guidance that is impartial, i.e. in the best interests of the individual young person to progress onto what is right for them, not of the school to recruit, retain or, in a few cases, remove. It remains open to question whether defining who employs the person providing careers guidance is the best way of ensuring impartiality. With reference to the ability of a school to influence what a careers adviser says to a young person, there is very little difference in practice between the situation where the careers adviser is on the payroll and that where she or he is brought into the school under a contract commissioned by the school. It might have been better to have drafted the legislation to say that the persons providing careers guidance must be appropriately qualified to provide careers guidance and must work within a professional code of ethics.
Because schools will not be given any additional funding to purchase the careers guidance services that they have to date received free of charge, it is not surprising that some are exploring the option of their own staff providing careers guidance, particularly as the guidance published by the DfE on its website in April gives schools permission to do this (Click here) This will raise all the questions about impartiality, but that is not the only issue.
Personal advisers and careers advisers currently work in organisations, alongside other colleagues to whom they can refer when they encounter questions that have not previously experienced themselves. The local authorities, Connexions services and careers companies have arrangements in place to cover careers advisers’ work in schools should individuals be off sick or on maternity/paternity leave, and to make sure that careers advisers keep up to date with developments in the labour markets, both local and national, in further education and training and in higher education. Where schools opt to make their own ‘in house’ arrangements how will they ensure that the persons providing careers guidance have access to professional support and continuing professional development, and what arrangements will there be to cover periods when the member of staff is not at work?
There is one further, critically important question. Will the person providing careers guidance be professionally qualified to provide careers guidance? The answer would be ‘yes’ if the school were to employ a qualified careers adviser or were to arrange for a teacher or member of the support staff to complete a Qualification in Careers Guidance or an NVQ Level 4 in Advice & Guidance, but ‘no’ if the job were to be given to someone with no professional training in careers guidance. Schools would not expect the curriculum to be taught by unqualified teachers; they should not expect careers guidance to be provided by unqualified advisers.
The Association for Careers Education and Guidance has always had a strong commitment to professional training for teachers and others involved in leading, managing and delivering careers education in schools: we must not let schools erode the professionalism of colleagues with whom we work in partnership to provide careers guidance.
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