Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) careers guidance and (b) school-to-work transition programmes in the context of the UK’s above OECD average for youth unemployment.

Careers guidance is key to supporting young people into work and further study. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has reported that in England, over 98% of pupils are offered careers guidance at their school compared to an average of 74% across other OECD countries.

Gatsby Benchmark attainment continues to improve and in 2024/25, schools and colleges achieved 6.0 out of 8 Gatsby Benchmarks on average, up from 5.8 in 2023/24.

The government is committed to continuing to improve careers guidance and ensuring all young people complete two weeks’ worth of work experience which is shown to reduce the likelihood of a young person becoming ‘not in education, employment, or training’ (NEET).

In the Post-16 education and skills white paper, we committed to prevent young people becoming NEET by ensuring that those without a post-16 study plan are automatically allocated a place at a local college or further education provider.