Careers services for young people in England need to be urgently improved, says a report from an advisory body set up by the government.
The National Careers Council, which has been investigating the current state of careers provision, highlights a lack of consistency and availability.
It warns too many youngsters do not get the advice they need about work.
Deirdre Hughes, who chaired the council, said a “culture change in careers provision was urgently needed”.
The report from the National Careers Council says there are “massive variations” in the advice available, depending on where young people live.
It says in one region there are 134 careers advisory services, and in another there is only one.
‘Slow progress’
There are also concerns that the National Careers Service has been structured to focus mainly on the needs of adults, leaving a gap in school-age advice services.
The service provides over a million face-to-face advice sessions for adults, but there is no provision for such individual advice for young people.
Instead young people are offered phone advice lines and online information.
The council says that it has been “disappointed with the slow progress” in improving careers services for young people.
It calls for the setting up of an employer-led advisory body to supervise creating a better careers advice system.
And it calls for the government to give all schools free or subsidised access to “independent and impartial career development”.
It suggests there should be a fund to invest in successful models of careers advice so that they can be spread more widely in other schools and regions.
There have been a series of critical reports about the quality of careers provision and doubts over the decision to transfer responsibility for careers advice to individual schools.
