Poor careers advice and lack of understanding about the workplace mean young people are ill-prepared to enter the jobs market, warned the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
More than half (53%) of the employers surveyed by the CIPD believed youngsters careers advice was inadequate, while 63% said their young recruits lacked insight into the working world. These findings are part of the CIPD’s submission to the Education Select Committee into careers guidance for young people, published today.
The CIPD called on the Government to improve information and advice about jobs and career paths and to embed understanding the world of work into the education system.
Overly general careers advice meant young people had a startling lack of knowledge about different job sectors and career paths. As a result, they often failed to study the right subjects or dismissed whole sectors as a potential source of career due to lack of information.
This mismatch between jobs and young people’s skills were laying the seeds for a future skills shortage, warned the CIPD. One answer, the report suggested, was to forge better links between education providers and business. Almost two thirds of employers were willing to do this, according to the CIPD, but needed to be presented with opportunities to make it happen.
“The challenge for government is to work with schools and colleges to prioritise and make it easier for employers to make good on their desire to talk to their future workforce,” said Cheese.
