As the education secretary's critics unite against the devastating impact his policy on careers advice is having, schools are left in limbo, awaiting delayed guidance
It was a textbook gaffe: the business secretary Vince Cable, discussing the failings of careers guidance in schools, confided to a manufacturers' conference that teachers lay at the heart of the problem. They might know lots about A-levels and Ucas forms, he said, but most know "absolutely nothing about the world of work".
Teachers, he subsequently discovered, know all about how to give as good as they get: National Union of Teachers general secretary, Christine Blower, swiftly punched back, branding the comments "crass and insulting".
As Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg scrambled to save Cable's skin, it remains clear that the business secretary's intervention was in fact only the latest in a litany of criticism of current coalition policy on careers advice.
Education secretary Michael Gove is well used to attracting criticism – some might argue he feels he isn't doing his job otherwise – but his decision to marginalise careers professionals and hand legal responsibility for careers guidance to schools, with no extra resources to back it up, has united a diverse array of voices in opposition.
But while the hornet's nest has been stirred again, the issue remains in limbo as schools await delayed revised statutory guidance on exactly what careers support they should be offering young people.
The promised guidance could be almost six months away, it has emerged. A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: "We have set out plans to improve the National Careers Service and strengthen statutory guidance. This will be done before the new school year starts in September."
Strengthened DfE guidance is due in response to what the chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, called a "damning" report on careers education published by Ofsted last September. The report found that three quarters of schools visited by inspectors were providing inadequate guidance to students. Promising "much more emphasis" on the issue in inspections and toughened guidance for schools, Wilshaw told a meeting of the Commons education select committee last month that careers education was "absolutely vital to school performance and to the performance of children", particularly the less able.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Westminster corridor, the Lords EU internal market sub-committee, inquiring into youth unemployment, has been hearing fresh tales of failings in careers guidance, with poorer young people – lacking the parental contacts available to better-off students – at a particular disadvantage. The committee, its chairman Baroness O'Cathain told the Guardian, is particularly concerned that Gove's reforms have left disadvantaged young people dependent on paid-for telephone helplines and websites for careers support, when they more than anyone need face-to-face advice and guidance.
Outside of Westminster, frustration is mounting at delays in the DfE response to Ofsted's criticisms, which had been expected before Christmas. Paul Chubb, executive director of the careers advisers' representative body Careers England, says the failure to provide more detailed guidance to schools means many will now set budgets for the new financial year without dedicating adequate funds for careers advice. The delay is not the fault of department officials but ministerial lack of will, Chubb argues. "To me this is wilful negligence. It can't be anything else."
The row over careers guidance has its roots back in the 2011 Education Act, which shifted responsibility from local authorities to schools, obliging them to provide "access to independent and impartial guidance" for students in years nine to 11, with no additional funding. Coming into force in 2012, that duty was extended in September last year to include students in years eight, 12 and 13.
Under the reforms, the often-criticised government funded Connexions service was dismantled at national level (though some authorities have maintained it locally), and the new National Careers Service was launched in April 2012 to offer guidance – including face-to-face support – for adults, but only web and phone-based advice for under 19s.
Gove has been unembarrassed over expressing his distaste for the careers "industry". Shortly before Christmas, he told the Commons education select committee that the "self interested" careers lobby was composed of people who lacked intellectual rigour and talked "garbage". Far better, he believes, to cut out the middle man and have employers work directly with schools to offer information and inspiration.
The problem for Gove is that almost no one – employer bodies included – appears to agree with his thesis. Throughout last year, as his reforms began to take effect, a steady flow of surveys, studies and influential reports argued that careers advice in England is in crisis, with little prospect of improvement and the most vulnerable young people at most risk.
Among the first to raise concerns was the cross-party education select committee, whose report published in January 2013 warned of a "worrying deterioration" in the overall standard of careers advice. Government reforms had had an immediate and significant impact, MPs said, leading to concerns over the "consistency, quality, independence and impartiality of careers guidance now being offered to young people". They called for the National Careers Service to do more to help schools and plug the gap caused by the axing of Connexions.
In the wake of the committee's study came a report from Barnardo's, which reinforced concerns over the substitution of face-to-face advice with remote websites and phone advice lines. Almost no young people had heard of these "ghost" services anyway, the charity said, warning that young futures were being "squandered".
Barnardo's was not alone: in June last year the National Careers Council, a government advisory body, called for a significant expansion in the remit of the National Careers Service to support schools and ensure one-to-one advice for pupils. The employer body the CBI found that 93% of 2,000 young people it surveyed felt they had not been provided with all the information they needed, and argued that careers advice in England was in "severe crisis" and even "on life support" in some areas. The British Chambers of Commerce also called for more investment in quality careers education, while the Association of Colleges raised concerns that schools, anxious to maintain sixth form numbers and their accompanying funding, were steering young people away from vocational options, only to see them drop out of academic courses for which they were unsuited.
School heads, meanwhile, complained of feeling abandoned and unable, without funds, to provide adequate advice. The National Association of Headteachers argued schools were "stranded" and unable to be impartial about options at age 16-19.
Amid the chorus of criticism, Ofsted's assault proved most damaging of all. Three quarters of 60 schools it surveyed were failing in their duty to provide impartial careers advice; few knew how to provide a comprehensive service; vocational training and apprenticeships barely got a look in and the National Careers Service and its services were hardly promoted and underused. Lead author of the report, Karen Adriaanse, told the Lords committee last month that, while a minority of schools gave funding and backing to careers support, in most "we are concerned that the advice is not broad enough and that young people do not understand the full options available to them".
And if this almost unparalleled chorus of criticism wasn't enough, the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission – while praising the decision to abolish Connexions and devolve its duties to schools – argued in its State of the Nation 2013 report that the failure to grant schools the cash to act was leading to huge disadvantage for the poorest.
With the Lords EU sub-committee report due later this month likely to reiterate such concerns, the ball is in Gove's court to answer his critics. Sources close to the debate have told the Guardian that beefed up statutory guidance to schools was drawn up in the DfE last autumn and put before ministers, but has not appeared. Contracts for the running of the National Careers Service are understood to have been extended from March to October, with the implication that its remit will be changed or extended. A spokesperson for the service said it was more accessible than ever before, with a new Career Advice app, Facebook and Twitter accounts and a phone helpline open each evening.
A DfE spokesperson said: "Ofsted's review of careers guidance confirms there is more to do, and the government has published plans to better equip schools to take on their responsibilities by improving National Careers Service resources and strengthening statutory guidance."
Chubb, calling for a £100m cash injection for careers advice in schools, dismissed the sentiment as "weasel words" and urged faster action. "What we are seeing is a criminal waste of talent and public money."
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Lucy Ward
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