“We fully agree with the importance of boosting careers advice and work experience opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged students, and are pleased that Labour in its General Election manifesto pledged to do so. At present, this can often be a struggle for schools and colleges to provide because of cuts to local careers advice services under the last government and because many employers are not willing to provide work experience placements. These are the challenges which will need to be overcome.
“We are also pleased that the new government has launched a child poverty taskforce because students in these circumstances often do not have a suitable space to study, access to the internet, or even basic requirements such as suitable food, clothing and heating. It is an absolute scandal that around 4.2 million children in the UK currently live in poverty.
“Schools and colleges strive every day of every week to give all their students the best opportunities they can, but they are doing so in the context of severe shortages of funding and teachers, and against a background of entrenched inequalities in wider society. All of this needs to be tackled together in order to improve the outcomes and life chances of these young people.”