Too little progress is being made on a programme of government that was intended to create better links between colleges and schools and open up new routes into work for young people, according to a new report by a Scottish Parliament committee.
Holyrood’s education and skills committee concludes in the report, published today, that key targets for the delivery of the Scottish government’s flagship Developing the Young Workforce Programme are not being met.
The programme sought to build better relationships between businesses, schools and colleges - including ensuring that all post-school options were equally valued and available to young people.
An original report was published by the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, established in January 2013. Chaired by Sir Ian Wood, it published its report in June 2014. In December 2014, the Scottish government published its response, endorsing its recommendations and setting out its own targets, including aims to reduce youth unemployment levels by 40 per cent by 2021
Little or no improvement
However, according to the committee, performance indicators now show too little or no improvement in a number of areas, including positive destinations for care experienced young people, employment rates for disabled young people and the level of employment of young people straight from school. Insufficient progress has been made to encourage schools to provide vocational routes, such as foundation apprenticeships.
It concludes: “The pace of progress in implementing DYW is not presently sufficient to ensure the programme will be fully embedded by 2021. The committee highlights this risk to the Scottish government at this mid-way stage in the programme to enable it to look at ways for the programme to find a renewed emphasis in the next three years.”
It is calling for a range of actions to ensure that recommendations from Developing the Young Workforce are implemented by the government’s target date of 2021. This includes more time for one-to-one careers guidance, more opportunities for work experience, and more support for businesses seeking to engage with schools and provide apprenticeships.
Personalised guidance
Committee convener Clare Adamson said: “Leaving school is a major life event. While this brings many opportunities it can also be a daunting prospect. We want to make sure that young people get the appropriate information that they need and that they have confidence in the advice being given.
“It is positive that more young people than ever are going on to college or university. We recognise, however, that this isn’t the right choice for everyone so it is important that our young people are confident in making their own choice based on personalised guidance.
“We held this inquiry in response to what 900 young people told us in the Year of Young People. Today’s report makes it clear that action is needed to ensure that the ambition of the Developing the Young Workforce report is met. To do this, we need to make sure that the career support available meets the needs of our young people. Something which can only be done with more one-to-one support.”
Path to successful careers
Shona Struthers, chief executive of Colleges Scotland, said: “Colleges support young people to gain the technical, professional and vocational skills and training which sets them on the path to successful careers. Colleges work in partnership with schools, universities and employers to build pathways that enable individuals to access education at the right time, in the right way for them, providing a first choice and second chance for many.”
A Scottish government spokesman said: “We are committed to improving outcomes for schools leavers through the DYW programme. This includes the use of vocational learning to provide young people with skills for both the current and future labour markets.
“Through DYW, we are enabling young people to learn in a range of settings in their senior phase of school; embedding employer engagement in education; offering careers advice at an earlier point in school; and have introduced new standards for careers guidance and work experience.
“We will consider the committee’s report in detail, and in the year ahead we will build on existing equalities activity and focus on improving outcomes for those who face additional barriers when transitioning from education to employment, such as disabled and care-experienced young people.”
