WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY....
FIXING THE CAREERS GAP IN SCHOOLS: INSIGHTS FROM AUSTRALIA
Comment by Steve Cole, CEO of Morrisby
R
ecent government reforms – from the updated Careers Education Framework to the national attendance drive and the consultation on SEND – are reshaping how schools prepare young people for life beyond the classroom. Careers guidance should be a key pillar of this, yet the practical help available to schools remains inconsistent. There’s an opportunity to shift the dial on careers education at a time when schools are being asked to do more on destinations, employer engagement and readiness for the world beyond school - long-standing issues that have been highlighted for decades but never fully addressed. King’s College London’s The Future of Careers Education in England report several years ago highlighted “widespread concern that careers education is relatively poorly resourced in schools”, echoing what many leaders experience on the ground.
We know the pressures schools face. A shortage of dedicated careers advisers, competing priorities, constrained resources, squeezed timetables, and the difficulty of carving out protected time for careers education. Any attempt to redesign or streamline careers provision has the potential to make a real difference to how pupils access guidance as they move towards post-16 education or employment. But the impact will depend on whether young people are genuinely placed at the centre of the system. Without early, curriculum-linked support that reflects the realities of school life, there’s a risk that structural changes simply repackage existing challenges rather than solve them.
We are not the only country facing these challenges. Australia is another good example. We had the opportunity there, however, to work with the government in Victoria when they asked us for a model to deliver targeted careers guidance at scale. What’s exciting is the blueprint this could provide for strengthening provision in UK schools.
The My Career Insights programme, delivered for the Department for Education in the State of Victoria combines personalised support with scale: more than 240,000 students completed a Morrisby Profile – a structured snapshot of their strengths, interests, and working style, designed to help them make informed decisions about subjects, pathways, and careers – and nearly 1,200 one-to-one careers meetings take place in Victorian government secondary schools every week.
The need for a blend of scale and personalisation speaks directly to the challenges facing schools as they support pupils through key transition points – GCSE choices, post-16 pathways, and early exposure to the world of work. It would cost the Victorian government over £300 million to replicate this level of support with existing teaching staff, making the programme highly cost-effective.
Learning from our work, there are some key principles that need to stay front and centre: Recognition. High-quality careers education needs to be treated as core infrastructure – just as essential as safeguarding, attendance or curriculum planning. It aligns with everything the current government says it wants for young people: raised aspirations, broadened horizons, and clarity about their future.
Sustained support. We know that careers provision isn’t ‘one and done’ – it requires ongoing support. Finding ways to embed advice and provide tools at critical junctures matters. And yet, according to the Careers & Enterprise
March 2026
www.education-today.co.uk 29
Company’s 2023/24 State of the Nation report, fewer than half of schools (47%) say they have the capacity to deliver one-to-one careers guidance at the scale pupils need (CEC, 2023).
In Victoria, after the initial one-to-one meeting with students, we provided structured resources for young people and their parents to help them apply their profile insights to real decision points, such as choosing options, finding work experience, or preparing for post-16 applications. A shared endeavour. Parental involvement is also crucial. In Victoria, parents are welcome to attend the one-to-one sessions that students have, and the overwhelming majority (85%) do. The programme takes this further. Students are encouraged to invite their parents to review their profiles, helping to frame and extend career conversations at home. As Carolyn Gregg, a career practitioner and programme co-ordinator, told us: “It’s powerful to see parents of students who’ve struggled at school attending a one-to-one and realising their child can have career aspirations and plan their future.” Linked advice. Yes, the world is changing faster than any of us can keep up with – but we need to try. Careers resources must be clearly linked to the labour market and regularly updated. Schools often tell us this is one of the hardest areas to maintain, particularly without specialist staff. Students and parents in Victoria could access impartial, current careers information within our platform. Tailored support. Combining a profiling tool with one-to-one support works for many, but it wasn’t always enough for young people who were struggling to engage with education, let alone careers advice. We trialled an increased number of one-to-one sessions (4–6 sessions over Years 9 and 10) for harder-to-reach priority cohorts, which saw increased engagement. At a time when the government is building its vision of a single, all- age service, we need to keep front and centre what a good system takes. Any new model must be designed with the realities of school and the life experiences of pupils in mind. We need consistent guidance, reliable labour- market information and support that aligns with curriculum and transition points.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
