Helping the inbetweeners: ensuring careers advice improves the options for all young people

During 2012 some significant changes were made to the way that careers guidance is provided to young people in England. Most notably the responsibility for delivering careers guidance was passed from local authorities to schools, and the National Careers Service - combination of predominantly web and helpline-based provision – was established to offer careers guidance to people of all ages, as well as Plotr, a government-supported website specifically targeted at young people. At the same time Connexions services – local authority-based provision which previously led the delivery of much careers guidance to young people – continue to decline as local authorities are forced to make tough choices to make savings in their budgets.

This report outlines these policy changes in more detail and then looks at the impact they are having on young people. It describes the views of young people that Barnardo's works with, as well as those of professionals working with them; young people who want to work, but many of whom seem more likely to end up trapped in low-paying jobs or even become classified as 'not in education, training or employment' (NEET).

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