Young people still face unequal access to careers advice and work experience
Young people still face unequal access to careers advice and work experience
- 18-25 year olds turn to tech to fill the void in careers advice, with just one in three having access to career advisers
- Inequality in opportunities exposes ‘access gap’ for students from a lower socio-economic background
- BDO calls for mandatory career guidance and an employer-school ‘match maker’ programme to improve social mobility and access to meaningful work experience
New research has exposed stark disparities in access to careers advice and work experience for young people across the UK, fuelling calls for urgent action to ensure equal, high-quality support.
The Young Minds survey of 2,000 young people aged 18–25 carried out by accountancy and business advisory firm BDO, found that just one in three have or have had access to a dedicated careers adviser at school or college, making young people reliant on more informal career advice.
As a result, almost two thirds are turning to tech to fill the void. AI tools that provide career guidance, online searches and social media platforms are now one of the most influential factors on their career decisions for 62% of 18-25 year olds.
Work experience remains important, with opportunities to build relationships with local employers ranking as the single most important factor in shaping early career decisions.
However, those from intermediate or higher socio-economic backgrounds (SEB) ranked this higher (41%) than those from more disadvantaged backgrounds (29%), indicating a possible ‘access gap’ in business connections and work experience opportunities.
While more than two fifths (42%) of respondents believe access to their chosen career is equal, they say this is only the case if a person has relevant work experience. Given such access appears uneven, work experience becomes a gateway to opportunity for some but a significant barrier for others, allowing more well-connected students to more easily convert connections into paid opportunities.
In addition, those from a lower SEB are less likely to have taken part in structured career preparation such as CV workshops and mock interviews (41%). This compares to nearly half (49%) of their peers from more advantaged backgrounds. In relative terms, young people from a higher SEB are around 20% more likely to access this kind of formal careers support, says BDO.
In May last year, the Government outlined its vision of a guarantee of two weeks’ worth of work experience between Years 7-11 of school, but this remains guidance only. To ensure equal coverage of this programme, BDO recommends making it a statutory entitlement.
This initiative could be supported by the introduction of an online employer–school matching platform, which automatically matches schools with employers based on postcode, sector and capacity for placements.
Louise Sayers, Head of People & Culture at BDO, commented on the findings: “This research highlights a clear issue. Without structured employer engagement and guaranteed access to careers support, too many young people risk being locked out of opportunity before their careers even begin.
“There is appetite from young people to take part in high quality and relevant work experience. However, we are at risk of seeing those who don’t know the right people being at a disadvantage unless schools and colleges are able to facilitate and guarantee these opportunities more evenly across the board.
“We believe education providers should provide essential and mandated dedicated careers guidance for all young people, but they’ll need government funding and support to do that. Improving social mobility should be a priority therefore the focus should be on those from lower socio-economic backgrounds or living in areas of high social deprivation to ensure equal access to a meaningful career.”
ENDS
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