Were @CommonsEd harsh on the Careers & Enterprise Company?

On Wednesday 16th May the Education Select Committee interviewed Claudia Harris, CEO of The Careers & Enterprise Company and its Chair, Christine Hodgson.

The Careers & Enterprise Company was set up in 2014 by the Department for Education as a Social Enterprise with a brief to “focus on young people aged 12 to 18, helping them access the best advice and inspiration about the world of work by encouraging greater collaboration between schools and colleges and employers”.

The creation of The Careers & Enterprise Company (The CEC) followed a large piece of work undertaken by DfE to respond to the gaps in careers provision that followed Gove’s unravelling of careers services, careers funding and the statutory duty upon schools at a time when youth unemployment had reached the highest levels on record.

It was decided by the Minister for Education, Nicky Morgan, that by improving the business links and connections between schools, young people across the country would benefit and leave school fully prepared for the world of work in modern Britain.

A tall order given that the DfE chose not to force schools to engage with The CEC, nor to fund the crucial school staff required to make the most of the opportunity. This has meant that The CEC has had to work cold in many areas.

Despite this challenge, Claudia Harris quoted some significant numbers in the interview (CEC reaching more than 2000 schools and is responsible for more than 380,000 employer encounters with students).

However I was surprised that she was not better prepared for some of the more challenging questions from the Committee which addressed the specific concerns many people working in the careers/youth employment space have repeatedly raised.

The CEC receives significant funding, with a £6m starting budget that has now risen to £19m, spending large amounts on research and creating a substantial and expensive staffing structure.

When the CEO argued that these salaries were inline with DfE budgets, I believe she missed the central point; that in the eyes of many, the existence and crucially the funding of The CEC replaces front line services, but still 3 years it has not scratched the surface of its own potential.

We know that the world of careers is complex and there has never been ‘a golden age’ of careers provision.

Good careers education, information advice and guidance (CEIAG) is what young people need, but this was not the brief of The CEC.

Now they are working to support the Gatsby Benchmarks perhaps that will change, but only if DfE communicate better the expectations upon schools and give the schools frontline funding to support delivery of the benchmarks so that busy teachers do not have the sole responsibility to get a school to the high standards that we know would really benefit all pupils.

Up until now The CEC’s remit has been to build stronger links between businesses, schools and colleges and that is what it has set out to do with its Enterprise Advisor Network and its investment portfolio.

As The CEC benefits so much from Government funding, I think the level of scrutiny we saw at the Committee hearing is important and that they should be subject to some clear and public accountability.

I also think now would be a good time for The CEC to reflect on its role and its approach to some of the challenges that came across at the evidence session. It has a lot of potential to do an incredible amount of good and perhaps needs to look outside itself for some fresher ideas that will allow it to achieve the impact it needs to show.

To the Select Committee, I would say that youth unemployment was never going to improve with the investment in The CEC alone.

The landscape for young people is complicated, young people need schools to better support their skill development, they need work experience, they need CEIAG, and they need better quality employment opportunities. And that is when they are not fighting additional barriers such as disadvantage.

The drive to solve youth unemployment must come from all stakeholders working together, which is why we have not solved it yet. We have got some great initiatives and opportunities across England but the lack of a joined up approach remains our biggest challenge. We have to have better coordination and improve collaboration.

The CEC is one part of the jigsaw and not the full picture.

The potential is within all of us in the space to work together to ensure our young people can progress. I am looking forward to strengthening relationships with The CEC as Youth Employment UK continues to work across the entire landscape of youth employment from education and training to employment.

Laura-Jane Rawlings, CEO, Youth Employment UK CIC

About Youth Employment UK: Youth Employment UK is an independent not-for-profit Membership organisation. Working with a growing network of more than 20,000 young people to support their skills and careers learning to empower them to be ready for the world of work. Youth Employment UK also works with a membership of more than 350 organisations who it supports to improve their engagement with young people and the quality of opportunities provided through the national kitemark the Talent Match Mark.