Education, Employment and Training
If you are still in education your school or college should provide you with careers information, advice, and guidance.
Contact the on-site careers advisor for more information.
You will find lots of useful information around making education and careers choices, apprenticeships and finding work, on our Find Your Future Careers Portal.
If you are aged 16 to 19 years old and not in education, employment, or training (NEET) and need support, our Personal Guidance Advisors can provide careers advice, information and support to young people living in Central Bedfordshire.
Personal Guidance Advisors (Youth Support Service)
Personal Guidance Advisors provide support for young people who are NEET or at risk of becoming NEET aged 16 to 19 years old and up to 25 where they have an EHC plan or are care leavers. This support is delivered by qualified career advisors who provide information, advice and guidance to help overcome barriers to education, employment, or training. Support includes careers advice, CV writing, job searching advice and interview skills.
Contact and engagement
We have a statutory duty to assist, encourage and enable young people to participate in education, training or employment. This is also known as Raising the Participation Age. The Youth Support Service do this by working with schools to identify young people that may not progress into a positive destination (college, 6th Form, apprenticeship etc.) after Year 11. Through identifying and tracking young people, support can be offered, if appropriate, to help young people reengage and take steps towards a rewarding career. To ensure we can do this, it is important that young people give consent to their school or college to share their contact details with us. If young people do not consent, we will continue to identify those who may need support, however we will not use certain methods of communication to contact them.
Raising the Participation Age (RPA) is a government measure meaning that all young people have to participate in education or training until their 18th birthday. RPA provides the opportunity for all young people to access the provision and support they may need to learn after the age of 16.
When you leave Year 11, your options are:
- remain in full-time education (such as school, college or home education)
- go into work-based learning (such as an apprenticeship)
- be in full-time work alongside part-time learning leading to an accredited qualification
- take up volunteering for 20 hours or more and do this alongside part-time learning which leads to an accredited qualification
- be self-employed, combining this with part-time learning leading to an accredited qualification
Please read the following documents to find out more about why you should consent and RPA.
Contact
Telephone: 0300 300 8352
Email: youth.services@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk