Question 1

What is careers guidance in schools meant to do?

Accepted Answer

Help young people make **informed decisions** about education, training and work — and there is a statutory framework behind it that most parents and pupils have never heard of, which means entitlements go unclaimed.

**The statutory position.** Schools have a duty to secure **independent careers guidance** for pupils in specified year groups, which must be impartial, include information on the full range of options — including **apprenticeships and technical routes, not only academic ones** — and be in the pupil's best interests.

**The Gatsby Benchmarks**, which are the framework schools are measured against:

**A stable careers programme.**

**Learning from career and labour market information.**

**Addressing the needs of each pupil.**

**Linking curriculum learning to careers.**

**Encounters with employers and employees.**

**Experiences of workplaces.**

**Encounters with further and higher education.**

**Personal guidance** from a trained adviser.

**The provider access requirement**, which is the specific entitlement worth knowing: schools must allow **providers of technical education and apprenticeships** access to pupils to explain what they offer — a legal requirement introduced precisely because schools had an incentive to retain pupils in their own sixth forms.

**Where it falls short in practice:**

**Quality varies enormously** between schools, and inspection findings repeatedly identify careers provision as weak.

**Academic bias.** Schools are measured on academic outcomes and frequently staffed by graduates, and vocational routes are under-presented despite the legal duty.

**Timing.** Decisions at 14 about subject choices shape options at 16 and 18, and guidance frequently arrives after the choices are made.

**Limited labour market information**, so pupils choose based on visible jobs rather than on what actually exists.

**What parents and pupils can actually do:**

**Ask the school for its careers programme and policy**, which must be published.

**Ask who the independent adviser is** and how to get an appointment.

**Use national careers services**, which are free and independent.

**Look at labour market information** directly.

**Arrange encounters independently** — people are generally willing to talk about their jobs, and one conversation outperforms a great deal of formal provision.

Question 2

What is home education, and what are the rules in the UK?

Accepted Answer

Educating a child outside school, which is lawful in the UK — and the legal duty is frequently misunderstood, because it is not a duty to send a child to school. The actual legal duty. Parents must

Question 3

How do you become a teacher, and what routes exist?

Accepted Answer

Through one of several routes to qualified teacher status, which differ mainly in whether you train mostly at a university or mostly in a school, and in whether you are paid while training. The

Question 4

How much do subject choices at 14 actually matter?

Accepted Answer

More than they feel like at the time, and less than the anxiety around them suggests — they close some specific doors at 18 and very few permanently, which is the balance worth communicating to a

Question 5

What do apprenticeship levels actually mean?

Accepted Answer

In England, apprenticeships are labelled by a level number that maps onto the national qualifications framework — so the number tells you the academic equivalence, not the trade or the duration. The

Question 6

What is an Access course, and how do adults get into university?

Accepted Answer

An Access to Higher Education Diploma is a qualification designed specifically for adults without the usual entry qualifications, taken in a year full-time, and accepted by universities in place of

Question 7

What is the national curriculum, and who has to follow it?

Accepted Answer

A statutory framework setting out the subjects and content that must be taught — and the crucial point is that a large proportion of English schools are not required to follow it, which surprises

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