Excellent careers information, advice and guidance are integral to helping young people achieve their ambitions and enabling businesses to recruit highly skilled and motivated workforces.

Ironically, at a time when youth unemployment was reaching unprecedented levels, severe cuts were made to the Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) service that was available to young people. The Connexions service has been dismantled and been replaced by a new National Careers Service.

Young people under the age of 19 cannot receive face to face guidance. There are areas in England with very little careers advice support and the online National Careers Service is no replacement for face to face guidance from a fully qualified, independent and impartial careers adviser.

A recent TUC questionnaire, which was completed by around 550 young people, reinforced our concerns that IAG provision for young people is inadequate:

• Nearly 50% of young people surveyed are unaware of the national careers service
• 75% of young people surveyed preferred face to face guidance
• 40% of young people are not receiving Information Advice and Guidance relating to apprenticeships

The statutory duty to provide IAG to young people now falls upon schools (and their staff who already have significant workloads). A recent OFSTED report found that three quarters of the schools visited for the survey were not implementing their duty to provide impartial careers advice effectively.

A UNISON survey showed that a staggering 83% of schools surveyed were no longer employing a careers adviser. Both of these findings are indicative that reforms are urgently needed.

The government has recently announced that it will provide £20m of funding to setup a new careers and enterprise company for schools to help schools, colleges, organisations and employers work together in partnership. This additional funding is welcomed, but further steps are needed. There are also key unanswered questions relating to the new initiative:

• Funding is only for a two year period. After that employers are expected to pick up the tab. Is that realistic?
• Will steps be taken to ensure that the careers company is truly representative of a range of employers across a sector, including SMEs?
• Will the company use qualified careers professionals to deliver face to face guidance?

The TUC, UNISON and NUS recently held a parliamentary event to highlight our concerns and put forward recommendations for an improved IAG service. Perhaps the most significant intervention came from one of the qualified careers professionals who emphasised how the nature of his work was literally life changing.

He pointed out that one hour of quality face-to-face guidance had an enormous positive impact on young people and was a vital step to help young people find secure employment.

Young people should be able to make informed choices before embarking on life changing pathways. The TUC is calling for the following key asks:

• A universal careers service delivering impartial information, advice and guidance for all
• A service staffed and delivered by qualified careers professionals
• Face to face support and guidance for young people
• Improving links between schools, college and learners by reinstating the statutory duty for schools to provide careers education
• Stability and coherence in funding for the careers service and services to young people