Better advice and guidance equals better participation

NFER research suggests that in order to increase participation, young people need better information, advice and guidance before leaving learning, or while in jobs without training (JWT), to increase their awareness of the learning options available to them and to enable them to make more informed choices.

The National Foundation for Educational research in a recent review of literature ‘Increasing participation understanding young people who do not participate in education or training at 16 and 17’ suggests that in order to increase participation, young people need better information, advice and guidance before leaving learning, or while in jobs without training (JWT), to increase their awareness of the learning options available to them and to enable them to make more informed choices. The study also identified a need for more flexible and appropriate post-16 provision suitable for all young people aged 16 and 17 in terms of content, delivery and timing.

Maguire and Rennison (2005) comment that NEET were less likely than young people who had entered post-16 learning to report having received formal advice or support, or to have attended a careers interview whilst at school. Similarly, only just under one quarter (24 per cent) of early leavers from NVQ programmes recalled having received any pre-entry IAG (Thornhill, 2001). It reports that early leavers from NVQ programmes had often received only very generalised careers education and guidance (CEG) before embarking upon their chosen occupations. This often meant that they had little, or no, understanding of what their training position might entail. Similarly, Simm, et al. (2007) reported that early leavers from FE and work-based learning cited one of the main reasons for leaving as being that the course was not what they had expected. MacDonald and Marsh (2005) believe that a generic approach to careers guidance, and a failure to listen to and consider the needs of individuals can explain why some young people fail to make sustained transitions. This is a recurrent theme. The importance to young people of good quality advice and guidance, early on, is unanswerable. It is also important throughout their lives as they up-skill, re-skill and change jobs. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RB072.pdf