WE all know young people who have made the wrong career choice at the start of their adult lives.
Whether it is finding themselves on an unsuitable course in further education or in a job for which they are fundamentally unsuited, the consequences for the individual and their family can be distressing – or worse.
Some of us may have been in that situation ourselves and taken varying amounts of time and energy to ultimately find our niche.
Good career education therefore is vital: I know it helped me greatly when I was plotting my route into the world of work. Careers advice is a topic I have previously discussed with Education and Skills Ministers and last week I was gratified to highlight an improvement in the quality of careers advice our young people receive.
I did so via the Parliamentary procedure of asking a Written Question which is a way of obtaining specific information about government policy and in doing so make it a matter of public record (all Written Questions and the answer are recorded in Hansard).
My question was about standards in careers education and followed the excellent work carried out by constituent Paul Chubb.
Paul is the chair of governors of the Dales School at Morton on Swale but also one of this country’s foremost experts in careers guidance (he was awarded an MBE for services to careers advice and guidance in 2016).
He has been working with Government education chiefs to simplify and rationalise the standards used to judge the quality of careers education in this country. Amazingly there are currently 12 different standards in use but agreement has been reached to unify them all into one – The Quality in Careers Standard – ensuring the same high standards are applied in secondary schools across the country for the benefit of all our young people.
The Minister’s speedy and positive reply to my Written Question about the issue publicly records this work on the agreement and what is now effectively Government policy. There will be a new, simpler, quality assurance for careers education, information, guidance and advice in England.
Granted, this is not particularly glamourous or eye-catching policy making but it is important for the future of effective careers guidance and typical of a lot of work in Westminster that is mostly unseen, mostly uncontroversial but what effective Government should be about.
I was very happy to highlight what Paul has been doing and I would congratulate him and his team for their work on this.
I am writing this week’s column before the arrival of Farming Minister George Eustice in Leyburn on Thursday night to answer farmers’ questions. I have been pushing the Minister to come to our area for a while and I am very grateful that he accepted my invitation and found time in his schedule to come and meet local farmers. I am looking forward to chairing and hearing the debate.
The Minister will be on his feet at Wensleydale Rugby Club as the issue of the D&S you are reading now goes to press. I’ll report back on what he has to say in next week’s column.