The National Careers Council has challenged  employers, Government, education and the careers sectors to act boldly and decisively in framing a more coherent national and local careers offer for young people and adults.

The call for a major culture change in careers provision is based on the mismatch between high youth unemployment and employers who are struggling to recruit. The mismatch was corroborated by CIPD research that found more than half  of employers believe that young people receive inadequate careers advice.

Welcoming the report recommendations, Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the CIPD, said: “A recent CIPD report, ‘Employers are from Mars, young people are from Venus: Addressing the young people/jobs mismatch’, highlighted the lack of careers advice and guidance in schools as one of the core problems faced by our young people. Many of them are leaving education without an understanding of the world of work or how to access it – a worrying trend that has long term implications for young people and businesses.

“It is clear that careers provision in schools needs to be extended in response to the increasing complexities of the labour market and there is an obvious role for the National Careers Service in helping to facilitate this. Employer involvement is also key and I particularly welcome the creation of the Employer-led Advisory Board to help guide the work of the National Careers Service. There is also a critical role for all working professionals in terms of volunteering in schools and colleges, to help bring the world of work to life. The CIPD has recently collaborated with the Inspiring the Future initiative in order to encourage our members and others working in HR and recruitment to put their expertise to good use by delivering CV and interview workshops in schools.”

The CIPD is working with the Education and Employers Taskforce on Inspiring the Future, which is  an initiative to get HR professionals to volunteer to go into schools to help young people to become more work ready. The initiative matches HR professionals with local state secondary schools and colleges to help students with their CVs, conduct mock interviews and give them a greater understanding of how they can prepare for work. Inspiring the Future matches schools to volunteers via an easy to use online portal. Once signed up, volunteers will be contacted by participating state schools and colleges in order to deliver short interview and CV workshops or career insight talks.