It's only been the last 12 months or so that I have been lured into the murky world of social media, as an active 'practitioner' - the guys in the studio hassled me for a long time, so they won in the end which perhaps says more about my stubborn approach rather than their collective persuasive ;-)
This flight today may be bumpy - but its how you land i'm told that makes the difference.
April 2012 signifies an important date for many careers professionals around the UK. As an MICG (member of the Institute of Career Guidance) for the past 5 years, without being a practicing careers adviser, I have lived a charmed existence of interviewing some of our nation's finest careers professionals, politicians, quango execs etc..The careers professionals have long targetted an All Age Careers Service as a kind of holy grail of attainment during this time - and finally April 2012 has finally been selected by the current Government to be the magic date that this dream becomes reality, again.
Whether the AACS works and delivers as per the expectations of the careers professionals or not, is, quite frankly, of no importance to those young students that have started their options as early as last December and are currently in the process of deciding their futures.
I am trying to highlight the danger of the unthinkable - that thousands of young students across the UK may about to become victims of the careers void - whilst Government, academics, lobbyists, consultants, advisors and careers professionals meet and debate the make-up of the new AACS, students, parents, guardians and carers are left to pick up the pieces; take the example of the Hull Careers Service - a service that has recently contacted me to help in their plight to keep HullCS alive and serving young people. Over 600 job cuts to the Youth Services in Hull and Kingston spells absolute disaster for the young people there - they will not have a careers service (nor many other youth services for that matter) left soon if we don't highlight these dangers - we are genuinely sleep walking into the abyss for the next 18 months.
In my own region, Cambridgeshire, as a Board member of the Cambs EBP I have experienced at first hand the damage of the Local Authority cuts on the Connexions Youth Service. The Connexions teams up and down the UK are naturally demoralised and de-motivated - great!!
So, if we're all waiting for a miracle come April 2012 - ie the delivery of a Careers Service that achieves what no other careers service has achieved in the UK to date - such as contempary world of work experience and a service relevance for young people - let us all hope that the thousands of students that are about to go into the 'black hole' from now until April 2012, get a miracle of their own too....they will need it.
Let us not allow another generation of young people to become the disenfranchised, in what is fast becoming, a thoroughly modern UK with thoroughly Victorian thinking and values. But hey, that's what we all voted for, didn't we?
At last something which has no bias. It's good to see a rounded debate on something so important to uk growth. Perhaps this will help 'round' the barrage of square/one-sided POV's. Thank you for sharing I will watch with interest.
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