Seven-year-olds offered career advice.

Children in England will be offered careers advice from the age of seven under a new Government scheme in a bid to fulfil the potential of children from deprived backgrounds.

The scheme is to be piloted in 38 primary schools across seven areas in York, Coventry, Manchester, Reading, Gateshead, Plymouth and Bristol. If successful, children will be offered careers advice until they are 18, giving them ten years worth of guidance if they need it.

As part of the scheme, universities and businesses will open their doors to the primary school children and show them what it’s like to work in an adult environment either at a job or receiving higher education at university.
 
The aim is to show children that no career or university is unavailable to them, regardless of background or if nobody in their family has gone to university before.
It is hoped it will help children make the right subject choices when they get to secondary school and give them a goal to aim for.

But it’s not just children that are being asked to start thinking about their future career. The Department for Children, Schools and Families wants parents to start thinking about their child’s future and the possibility of higher education.

However, The Department stresses it’s not about making children decide a job at an early stage in life, but to show them the possibilities so they can fulfil their potential better.

The scheme will also give more help for disadvantaged or disabled children in accessing work experience, and every child is to gain a careers mentor to help them along the way.

But the help will not stop with the school’s careers advisor. Children can soon expect to get guidance online from popular networking sites like Facebook and YouTube.

The scheme follows new research that indicated that many children think about higher education at a young age, with 75% of 11 year olds saying they want to go to university.

What do you think of the new scheme to get children thinking about careers early? What do you think your child wants to be? Discuss here.