Eight in 10 teachers believe their students are less ready for the world of work than they were before the Covid pandemic, according to a new study.
And there are fears that disadvantaged students have fallen further behind their peers when it comes to work-readiness.
In a poll of more than 1,500 teachers carried out by Teacher Tapp, with the findings released by the education charity Teach First, almost eight in 10 (79 per cent) said their students were not as ready to start work as they had been in previous years.
And in another poll commissioned for the same Teach First report, almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of businesses were concerned about school leavers’ lack of soft skills.
A YouGov poll of 500 human resources departments shows that nearly seven in 10 businesses (68 per cent) were worried about young people’s literacy and numeracy, while more than half (52 per cent) were concerned about their IT skills.
Teach First’s report says this does not “bode well” for disadvantaged young people, as the pandemic has widened the disadvantage gap, meaning that poorer pupils will be even less prepared for working life.
Appeal for more funding for careers education
Meanwhile, more than half (56 per cent) of businesses said they were worried that “lost learning” in the pandemic would exacerbate the skills shortage for young people.
And more than half of teachers in schools serving poorer communities said they felt the pandemic had had a negative impact on pupils’ views of their career prospects.
Recommendations for careers education
In its report, Teach First makes a number of recommendations, including that the Department for Education should develop a framework for primary careers education with sector experts, and that the government should use destinations data to target extra support for school leavers in poorer areas.
It adds that the government should provide £8.5 million of funding to support a mixture of online and in-person careers programmes for primary pupils in poorer areas, focused on the top 10 per cent most disadvantaged schools. Teach First says that all large businesses should offer blended work experience programmes to disadvantaged young people.
Careers education will ‘raise pupils’ aspirations’
In the survey of teachers, 69 per cent of respondents said that boosting careers education would decrease the number of young people who end up classified as NEET (not in education, employment or training).
Pupils on free school meals are currently twice as likely to be NEET by age 18 to 24 compared with those not on FSM (26 per cent compared with 13 per cent).
In total, 71 per cent of primary school teachers said they felt that careers education for their pupils would raise awareness of different jobs, while 66 per cent said it would raise pupils’ aspirations.
Teach First notes that the DfE has committed to a new careers programme for primary schools in poorer areas in the recent Schools White Paper, but adds that the government needs to publish a framework for primary careers learning based on the Gatsby benchmarks - eight benchmarks for careers provision - and provide new funding.
The report also calls for large businesses to collect and publish data on socioeconomic background to inform their recruitment policies and outreach work with schools.
Careers advice ‘a postcode lottery’
Russell Hobby, chief executive of Teach First, said the country’s “long-term prosperity” depended on the “next generation of young people”.
Mr Hobby added that careers education is an “essential part” of that prosperity and makes a “significant impact on a young person’s development at school, as well as their future employment opportunities”.
He said that while schools do their best to prepare pupils for the world of work, it is “not their core purpose” and this is why it is “essential” that employers are “involved in shaping the future of careers education”.
“For too long, securing high-quality careers advice and work experience has been a postcode lottery - that must change,” he added.
A Department for Education spokesperson said the “ambitious education recovery programme” was supporting pupils to “catch up on lost learning through tuition, world class teaching and extending time in schools” to help prepare them for the “world of work”.
The spokesperson added that more than 1.5 million tutoring courses had been started since the National Tutoring Programme began and the Nuffield Early Language Intervention scheme was “helping two thirds of primary schools in England with improved speech, language and communication skills”.
“Alongside this, we’re also investing in careers programmes for young people at all stages and are creating a new programme for supporting careers provision in primary schools.”
