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I visited the capital last week to discuss the recommendations of the National Careers Council’s report – ‘An aspirational nation’ which challenges the government to frame a more coherent careers offer for young people.

As you know, the National Careers Service face to face service is currently available for adults. This report states that the service should be expanded significantly to support schools, colleges and young people. It is proposed that a strategic body comprising senior representatives from education, employers and the careers profession help guide the work of the service to ensure it meets the needs of young people, adult and employers.

This is especially pertinent as schools now have a statutory duty to provide impartial and independent careers advice to their students. However recent figures show that many schools have actually reduced their provision, as they have been given no extra budget to deal with the new responsibilities. The report suggests that all students from year eight should have access to qualified careers guidance advisers.

You can read the full report, which includes all of the recommendations to government, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creating-a-culture-change-in-careers-provision-an-aspirational-nation

Another week has nearly passed without the call that we are expecting from Ofsted and many of the team are getting worried about the upcoming inspection. However, I feel we are in a good place in terms of receiving a ‘good’ grade.

Of course, I do not want to blow our own trumpet, but we have more qualified advisers, an improved internal assessment process and stronger customer feedback which is evidence based. All in all, we are improving outcomes in increasingly difficult times – something we have always been strong at.

Sometimes, it doesn’t always feel this way – people can get caught up in certain elements without stopping to look at the big picture. But the evidence is there – we continue to grow from strength to strength as a company. This is something which we can and should all take credit for. I hope that when the call does come, we will be sufficiently prepared and ready to show off our strengths.

Hello everyone, I’ve not blogged for a while as we’ve been preparing for our imminent Ofsted visit. However the release of the Labour Market Information figures yesterday prompted me to share my views. There have been many comments on the figures, however mine is that many of them are misleading and should be interpreted carefully.

For example, it is true that during the last three months the unemployment level has risen, but it has also declined since the previous month and is generally on a downward trend. It is also encouraging that the number of people claiming benefits has decreased, as has the number of unemployed young people.

I’m not saying that things are massively improving – it is still difficult to get a job with around five unemployed people per vacancy. However we must look forward to the growth industries in our area. Companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and Ocado investing will result not only in jobs but hopefully encourage more big names to invest. For more information about local developments visit your Local Enterprise Partnership’s website – for Coventry and Warwickshire this can be accessed at www.cwlep.com. 

Hi everyone, hope you had a good Easter (winter) break! I want to share with you the revised statutory guidance on careers guidance for schools which has now been published by the DfE.

You may remember that this guidance was first published in March 2012 to underpin the statutory duty on schools to secure independent and impartial careers guidance on the full range of 16-18 education or training options, including Apprenticeships for pupils in years 9-11 (13-16 year olds). This new statutory duty was introduced in September 2012.

This planned update to the statutory guidance helps schools to prepare for the extension of the duty down to year 8 (12-13 year olds) and up to years 12 and 13 (16-18 year olds) from September 2013.  

An equivalent requirement will be included in college funding agreements to extend access to independent and impartial careers guidance to young people up to the age of 18 in FE Colleges and Sixth Form Colleges. New guidance for colleges will be published after the Easter break.

Read about the new statutory guidance here: http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/youngpeople/participation/g00205755/statutory-careers-guidance-for-young-people

Its good news for Coventry and Warwickshire’s future after it has been successful in moving forward to the next stage of its ‘City Deal’.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) led the City Deal bid called ‘Re-engineering Engineering: Raising our Game’.

City Deal is a Government initiative which plans to give cities and areas the powers they need to drive local economic growth and boost their economies through partnership working.

 Coventry and Warwickshire’s growth strategy as part of City Deal aims to:

• Provide 5,000 new engineers over the next two years
• Eliminate the area’s engineering skills shortage by 2020
• Encourage 25 per cent of Advanced Manufacturing Enterprise (AME) businesses to invest in research and development
• Eliminate the productivity gap by 2020 through investment and support for advanced manufacturing with an aspiration for 20 per cent growth
• Increasing the net number of jobs in the area by 30,000 and raise the proportion of workforce employed in key sectors to 25 per cent by 2020.

I back Cllr John Mutton’s statement that ‘the hard work starts now’. The Government has given the go ahead but we need to make the plans a reality in order to make the most of this brilliant opportunity to boost our region.