Young people and education

A study published by online forum The Student Room asked 6,000 school and college leavers and existing university students about post-Level three options and the information and influences that affects them. Key points included that:

  • Many students receive poor guidance on what to take at A Level in order to gain a degree place;
  • 32 percent of those who took part in the study rated their school's careers advice as "weak";
  • 23 percent said they did not have enough information to make informed choices about their future careers or the subjects they should study to achieve their ambitions; and
  • Among less affluent students, 39 percent said they had received poor information on subject choices.

CBI and Pearson Education have published their annual education and skills survey 2014, which surveyed 291 companies about the education and skills they need. Key points include that:

  • 61 percent of employers surveyed are concerned about the resilience and self-management of school leavers;
  • 33 percent of employers are worried about attitudes to work in school leavers; and
  • 48 percent of employers prefer graduates with STEM degrees, but 46 percent have concerns about the quantity of these graduates and 48 percent are worried about the quality.

To download the report visit www.cbi.org.uk/media/2809181/embargo_00.01_4_july_cbi_pearson_education_and_skills_survey_2014.pdf.

An evaluation report published by the Department for Education has found that parents of children and young people with special educational needs are largely positive about changes being introduced by the government to give them greater choice over the support they receive. For further information visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-pathways-programme-evaluation.

The provisional GCSE results show that the overall pass rate for GCSEs fell by 0.3 percent to 98.5 percent, there was a 0.7 percent rise in A* to C grades, 73 percent of girls achieved A* to C grades compared to 64 percent of boys, English results saw the sharpest fall with 61.7 percent of pupils achieving A* to C, a fall of 1.9% on the previous year, and Maths saw a 4.8 percent rise to 62.4 percent of grades achieving A* to C. For further information visit www.gov.uk/government/news/higher-standards-as-thousands-more-take-gcses-at-the-right-time.