The report on 16 to 18 year old participation in education and training published by the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts highlights some real concerns with the effects of changes.
A general overview of the findings of the report indicates that:
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Careers advice is patchy
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There are concerns over the impartiality of careers advice offered
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The RPA in combination with lack of funding support for travel costs disadvantages some 16 to 18 year olds
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The Youth Contract is not expected to support the number of young people not in employment, education or training originally predicted.
You can read the full report here
In 2010 the responsibility for providing impartial careers advice moved to schools. The loss of the Connexions service with no transfer of funds to schools has raised a number of issues. Ofsted findings report that only 12 in 60 schools are providing adequate careers advice and although it is a statutory duty, many question the impartiality of schools that have a vested interested in retaining pupils for funding purposes. In addition to this, there have been concerns raised about the knowledge of the breadth of educational routes that staff have, with many pointing to the fact that teaching staff will have travelled the academic route and may lack a full and correct understanding of alternative routes, such as vocational apprenticeships.
The participation age was raised by Government as a method of increasing engagement with education and training for young people and reducing the number of young people who are not in employment, education or training. However, this decision is not supported by enforcement provisions and instead the Government rely on persuasion and the introduction of initiatives, such as the Youth Contract, which although it has helped around 10,000 young people re-engage with education and training, will not recruit any more from March 2015 and which will end in 2016, at which time, it is anticipated that it will only have assisted 50 per cent of the originally predicted number of young people.
In addition to the above, the RPA creates a tension between local authority budgetary constraints and increased participation. This is because travel costs for under-16s are covered whilst many local authorities do not help 16 – 18 year olds with their travel costs resulting in a post code driven, brute luck lottery. There are bursaries available to young people and are intended to help with the purchase of resources, such as text books as well and travel costs. However, the average bursary is £445 per year and in some authorities’, the cost of travel is £500 per year, leaving nothing for other resources, which are arguably essential to academic success. Many young people aged 16 – 18 see this as unfair and would petition the government to provide adequate support for travel costs in line with the raised participation age and a wider issue revolves around the claim that the move, without adequate financial support could drive some low income families into poverty.
