News
Plea for National Career Service funding reforms
27/10/2020
The Careers Research Advisory Centre (CRAC) has signed an open letter to the Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills, Gillian Keegan, with recommendations to help ensure that all adults have access to National Careers guidance, following concerns in the sector around funding arrangements and accessibility.
Following the proposed government funding of £32 million to the National Careers Service to increase the reach of the National Careers Service by more than half, concerns lie in the mechanisms in which funding can be accessed, which are inflexible and carry the potential danger of people missing opportunities whilst trying to navigate the system. Currently, those between 18 to 24 who are at risk of redundancy as well as those between 25-49 who are unemployed for less than a year are not considered a priority by the government, but priorities need to be re-aligned to include these groups of people now that we find ourselves in these unexpected times of Covid:19. Maximising peoples’ accessibility to career opportunities should be an essential element of helping the UK’s recovery in our current climate, and so the Career Development Institute (CDI) along with 92 other organisations including CRAC, have put forward the following two recommendations to the Minister:
- Ensure that all adults, from 18 until retirement, who are at risk of redundancy or currently unemployed, are identified as a priority for the National Careers Service. The Service’s funding principles need to be changed accordingly
- National Careers Service providers should be allocated a proportion of the new funding up front to allow them to recruit, train and develop staff to deliver quality services against the new level of demand
Dr Robin Mellors-Bourne, Director at CRAC quoted: “We believe that these two revisions to the current funding regime for the National Careers Service are critical for it to expand its capacity practically to support those who need it at the current time, which was the stated intention of the increase in funding”
The open letter was submitted to the Minister on 22 October and can be read in full here
