The government-funded Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC), whose job it is to improve the quality of careers advice and education-employer engagement across the country, unveiled the funding this week.
A total of 39 organisations are to receive money under the Mentoring Investment Fund, with the CEC claiming that as many as 20,000 young people are to benefit.
The CEC says that the funds have been allocated so that every Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) region has at least one dedicated mentoring organisation to support activity.
The fund will focus on students who are about to begin their GCSEs but “risk underachieving and falling behind their peers”.
The 39 successful organisations had to bid for the money and prove how they would scale-up “tried and tested employer mentoring programmes”. The successful applicants include the Diana Award, which has received £403,134, the Prince’s Trust (£302,595), Young Enterprise (£231,379), the East London Business Alliance (£191,197), and RTC North (£173,401).
Claudia Harris, CEO of the CEC, said: “Too many young people across England are at risk of not achieving their full potential. This can have a lasting impact on their future and career later in life.
Employer mentoring is a powerful way to address this issue by helping young people get inspired about the world of work.
“Our fund will work to unlock this inspiration by scaling up proven mentoring programmes to help boost social mobility and give young people great life-changing experiences.
“I would encourage anyone who wants to get involved in mentoring to step forward and join this mentoring movement and make a real difference to the lives of young people in their local community.”
Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon added: “A good mentor can be instrumental in unlocking a young person’s potential and these grants will help more young people benefit from that, ensuring they are climbing the ladder of opportunity and that there is no limit on their ambition. Mentoring helps improve focus and attainment, raises aspirations and provides valuable support – especially for those who are underachieving or at risk of dropping out.”
The CEC has also announced that the next round of investment from its Careers and Enterprise Fund is now open for applications. This will see £5 million allocated to support pupils in secondary schools and colleges in areas where careers advice services are considered poor. This includes £1 million for schemes in the six new Opportunity Areas (West Somerset, Norwich, Blackpool, Scarborough, Oldham and Derby).
For more information on the CEC’s mentoring campaign visit www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/mentoring
Careers research fund launched
Elsewhere this week, a £1 million fund to find out which approaches to careers education most benefit disadvantaged students has been launched by the charity behind the Teaching and Learning Toolkit.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is to work with the Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the programme, which will include work experience schemes, CV clinics and online apps.
The fund is part of the wider £5 million CEC Careers and Enterprise Fund, which supports projects and organisations that have proven approaches to boosting social mobility for young people, especially those who are disadvantaged.
The decision to launch the evaluation fund comes after earlier research by the EEF found that teenagers who underestimate the education they need in order to get their chosen job are more likely to end up as NEET (not in education, employment or training).
The EEF says that many common approaches to careers education haven’t been “explored through research”. These include things like work experience or job shadowing, using digital technology to provide personalised information to pupils, and enterprise education to encourage young people to take risks and to manage them well.
Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of the EEF, said: “Schools and colleges are under more and more pressure to provide their pupils with a strong careers offering. But there is little evidence available on how to do this well. Teachers deserve a much clearer picture of what good careers education looks like.”
Claudia Harris, CEO of the CEC, added: “We know that encounters with the world of work and careers support at school improve earnings and employment prospects for young people. This research will help us understand which type of encounters and support, in particular, have the greatest impact.”