On 28th March 2022 the Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi published ‘Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child’ White paper for schools.
The paper outlines ambitious plans to raise standards of education in England including:
- Targets introduced for better grades – average GCSE to increase to grade 5 by 2030
- All schools to be part of a Multi-Academy Trust by 2030
- Schools to be open for a minimum of 32.5 hours per week
- ‘Parent Pledge’ – support assured for children falling behind in English and Maths.
Most pleasing for career professionals is to discover beyond the headlines a commitment to develop career learning in a primary setting. Paragraph 65 on page 30 reads
‘We want all children to be inspired by the options available to them when they leave
school or college. We will launch a new careers programme for primary schools in areas of
disadvantage and are extending the legal requirement to provide independent careers
guidance to all secondary school children, as well as increasing the opportunities for them
to meet providers of apprenticeships and technical education. We will also improve
professional development for teachers and leaders on careers education, including
strengthening understanding of apprenticeships and technical routes.’
Extending career learning in secondary schools to include year 7 has been long anticipated, but it is great to see a commitment to ‘launch a new careers programme for primary schools in areas of
Disadvantage’ and we look forward to discovering more.
Please see here for the white paper in full: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1063601/Opportunity_for_all_strong_schools_with_great_teachers_for_your_child__web__-_accessible.pdf
At Complete-Careers LLP we have been supporting committed primary schools to develop their careers programmes since 2017 through our Career Mark Primary Award. We are therefore delighted to see the need for such developments to be recognised at policy level. To find out more about Career Mark Primary please see: https://complete-careers.com/career-mark/about-us/ or contact janet.hutchinson@complete-careers.com