The Education Act 2011 places schools under a duty to secure access to independent careers advice guidance for their year 9-11pupils. This duty has been extended to year 8-13 as of September 2013.

Careers guidance secured under the new duty must be independent, include information on the full range of post 16 education or training options including apprenticeships and must promote the best interests of the pupil.

The statutory guidance relates to the Inspirational Vision Statement 2013 published by the Minister of state and talks about schools and employers doing more together. Linking school and colleges with employers will help students to navigate their options and provide more joined up destination data. This will also give employers a voice in the classroom whilst hoping to inspire young people.

The government wants all young people to be offered impartial advice, impartial as in no bias or favouritism towards a topic, that is up to date, easy to understand and accessible. These areas feature heavily in the employer training pilots currently being developed nationally and locally.

IAG staff must be trained to a minimum NVQ Level 4 to practise and be independent as in external to the school. Staff must be able to identify the service users needs and signpost or refer to alternative practitioners or provisions as necessary regardless of their own opinion or preference. Local knowledge of employment and training issues is imperative in order to be able to offer a high standard of IAG. This advice must be given regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, religion, ability or disability ensuring everyone has a fair chance to participate in society.

Advice should consciously work to prevent all forms of stereotyping in the guidance they provide to ensure boys and girls whatever background consider the widest possible range of careers including those that are often portrayed as primarily for one of the sexes.

Providers must when processing information ensure effective application of data protection. The Data protection Act 1998 requires companies and individuals to keep personal information to themselves as the act is in place to protect individuals and their personal data. Non compliance could lead to the information being made aware to other individuals without consent and could lead to inappropriate use of data possibly even for illegal gain.

IAG staff are expected to comply with the demand of keeping knowledge current and non compliance could lead to incorrect advise being offered. If out of date information is offered to a client this could potentially have a detrimental effect on a persons career path or chosen area of study. Potentially a very serious consequence of poor and out of date advice.

Health and safety standards must be met in the place of work. The area where advice is given within a school or college must be in a safe and clean environment. Failure to adhere to the rules regarding safety at work can lead to accidents and injury.

2.
Examples of situations that may require immediate action;

Student permanently excluded from education
Career change required due to results not achieved
Student application to FE with a deadline approaching or passed

Up to date local knowledge would enable a plan of action to be drawn up against the clients requirements with immediate effect. Networking to ensure the best back up plan can be offered with phone calls being made to other learning providers to arrange interviews for application, and possible support with an application process. General research carried out on behalf of the client pending the outcome would decide what other agencies would be contacted for involvement. Youth workers, Admissions, NEET team, parents, referral units and heads of year and school would be within the networking frame.

3.
An Action plan (AP) is a document that lists what steps must be taken in order to achieve a specific goal. The purpose of an AP is to clarify what resources are required to reach a goal, formulate a timeline for when specific tasks need to be completed and determine what resources if any are required.

Using the AP allows the client to see a route and with client involvement is designed to empower.

The school provide the AP forms to be completed by the IAG staff. During the session the form is completed by either the client or staff member and a copy is given to the student. The hard copy is left with the school and is filed in the appropriate place by the school staff. No access is given to the advisor to the schools filing system.

Individual AP are updated and edited as necessary by advice staff and if any further action is required this is documented in a school spreadsheet in relation to the individual year groups. Any no shows or if a follow up is required this is also referred back to the school to investigate and to action.

General personal data and AP's are the property of the school and are not to be copied or removed from the school premises unless permission has been given. Breach of this rule would be a breach of confidentiality.

4.
The advisor should not impose his or her beliefs or values on clients. Nor does this mean that the advisor should refuse to discuss such topics. There may be times when staff feels it necessary for the client to be aware of certain values. Being genuine and honest should improve communication but staff should be aware of the possibility of influencing decisions or values.

All effort is made to remain a blank screen with the intention of being a real person with good values and beliefs. Clients must be permitted to have opinions and if different or adverse to the advisor common ground must be found to communicate on. Communication is the key to good working relationships no matter how different the views and a professional approach must always be maintained and offered. Compromise, when a clash of interests or beliefs surface, is important for future working relationships, mutual respect and acknowledgment of roles.

Clients need to be made aware that the advice offered should enable them to explore options but they must still be responsible for their own decision making. Students should become more confident when equipped with knowledge and this needs to be imparted with a positive go get attitude. Positivity promotes well being and enthusiasm and working with such beliefs would hopefully aspire young people. Advisors would hope to engage young people during such sessions and should not be dismayed if the response isn't reciprocated.

Advisors I believe cannot create opportunities for people but can help to create and open new and exciting pathways. Advisors must be client focused.

5.
If no background is offered on a client prior to a session, information would need to be collected. Communication by asking open ended questions about the client would enable the advisor to start to form a basic opinion. Probing style questions - who, when, where and requesting clarification would also help to identify learning styles and the information required.

Self disclosure to a point enables the client to relate, but not too much information as this may hinder the process. Leading the session through use of appropriate silence, acceptance and approval paraphrasing encourages the client to input.

Effective listening and being aware of the eight barriers is essential to a good listener "knowing the answer" or "trying to be helpful" will hinder effective communication and listening. It is important that the advisor does not try to influence or impress the client, if the advisor felt the need during a session to influence in any way it is suggested that they should make a note mentally of the agenda whilst listening, but to let it go and concentrate on simply listening.

Being able to identify the clients learning style wether using the VAK or Honey and Mumford model should result in supporting the client in the most appropriate way therefore offering advice and guidance in a manner of which the client should understand.

For example If a client were to lean towards being a kinaesthetic learner I would perhaps suggest visiting a college or place of study in order to make a decision and also possibly to do a dry travel run if they were anxious as they may find actually doing the journey more helpful rather than reading a map. Offering information and communication in the correct format should encourage the student and give confidence as they understand the task and information given to them.