Contraception worth talking about - A new campaign will help young people to make more informed choices about contraception, look after their sexual health and avoid unwanted pregnancies. Find out more here.

 

 

Cancer Research UK is offering a number of internships to individuals wishing to gain work experience in the fields of fundraising, marketing, communications and campaigning. Applications close on 9th December 2009.

Brook London offers a specialist free and confidential sexual health service to all young people under 25 across London. Click here to view the service flyer and the counselling flyer.

Connexions Leaflet: take control of your future – Aimed at NEET young people aged 16-19. Click here to view and download the leaflet.

Realising young potential: supporting care leavers into education, employment and training – This report aims to support local authority Leaving Care Teams to assist young people who have left care to access education, employment and training.

Careers for School Leavers - An update of helpful snapshot into the careers and learning opportunities with some of the UK's largest employers.

Aiming High for young people - Antony Hughes wrote to directors of children’s services to introduce non-statutory guidance for two important and related data collection exercises around NI 110 (young people's participation in positive activities). Click here to view documents.

Unemployment Statistics - Figures show youth unemployment has risen. When published, statistics showed that the number of 16-24 year olds out of work had reached 943,000.

Development of new qualifications for the career guidance sector - four new qualifications made up of units that can also be used for continuous professional development (CPD) purposes, have been proposed.

Careers Education and IAG policy: What schools need to do – Briefing paper explaining what the new strategy for IAG and published statutory guidance on the principles of impartial careers education mean for schools and PRUs.

National Apprenticeship Week will take place in February 2010 and celebrates talents and skills of apprentices. Anyone involved with Apprenticeships is invited to take part. Contact Kay Greene for more information.

The Diploma Validator helps staff in centres to check quickly and easily that a Diploma learner is on a valid programme of study. Click here to view more information and the tool itself.

About the Diploma Employer Champions Network - To ensure that employers get a clear understanding of the Diploma, this network has been set up to encourage and support further long-term employer involvement.

Improving safety, reducing harm - Children, young people and domestic violence: A practical toolkit for front-line practitioners – This provides specific information about children, domestic violence and related issues.

Rights of passage: Supporting disabled young people through the transition to adulthood – Report from Nee Philanthropy Capital looks at how disabled teenagers can make a successful transition from childhood to adulthood.

Lengthening Ladders, Shortening Snakes- Embedding STEM Careers Awareness in Secondary Schools - CEI has published a report about the STEM careers awareness 'timeline' project.

Helping Learners to make choices about the Diploma in Retail Business – Leaflets for learners about the Retail diploma are available on the website.

Lessons from history: Increasing the number of 16 and 17 year olds in education and training – This report presents a review of historical projects aimed at increasing participation to explore lessons that can be learnt.

Skills for growth: The national skills strategy - This is a strategy to support economic growth and individual prosperity, opportunity and choice and it proposes new priorities or approaches in six key areas.

False starts: Restoring hope, dignity and opportunity to young people – Report by Reed, which examines the impact of the recession on young people in the UK.

Twelve outstanding special schools: Excelling through inclusion – Ofsted Report which is intended as a discussion document for those who work with young people who have special educational needs. 

The Characteristics of Bullying Victims in Schools - NatCen examined the characteristics of bullying victims in schools between ages 14-16. Topline findings of the report due to be released in 2010 can now be viewed.

Graduates are forced to pay for Internships or risk losing out to wealthier competitors. Job-hunting university leavers are being warned against paying for services to help get them internships. Read the full article.

Girls’ attitudes – Report includes results of a survey of the views and opinions of girls aged 7-21 by Girlguiding UK, looking at girls’ attitudes on five themes.

Ofsted Annual Report - This Report presents evidence from inspection and regulatory visits undertaken between September 2008 and August 2009.

Government publishes Skills Investment Strategy - The Government has set out how it plans to invest in skills critical to the recovery and long-term success of the UK economy. View the strategy here.

CWDC Safer recruitment resources - Guidance for the children and young people's workforce on safe recruitment practices, consistent with other safer recruitment guidance and training from DCSF.

The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act received Royal Assent on the 19th November. This has been the biggest overhaul of Apprenticeship legislation for 200 years. Read the full article.

Children, Schools and Families Bill - Queen's Speech can be viewed on the BBC website where there is an at-a-glance list of the bills outlined in the 2009 Queen's Speech programme.  The bill itself can also be viewed online. 

The High-Level Guide - The November Draft has been made available by React. The aim of the Guide is to provide a local authority overview of duties, powers and commissioning arrangements, with focus from April 2010.

National Council for Educational Excellence: Progress Report – The report includes updates of progress made on the business, higher education, partnership, and parental engagement strand recommendations, and case studies of each strand.

Achieving Better Outcomes: Commissioning in Children’s Services - This document is designed to help leaders, commissioners, providers and communities involved in children’s services to develop an understanding of commissioning and the components that make it work.

Constructing the Future: Career Guidance for Changing Contexts – The first online edition of the biennial research journal of the Institute of Career Guidance.

Careers guidance and participation in education - Findings from the YELLIS dataset - This report looks at the responses to a number of questions about the careers guidance year 10/11 pupils have received over the last 12 years.

Towards Ambition 2020: skills, jobs, growth - The UK Commission for Education and Skills has just published its vision for the future employment and skills system.

The right choice: Involving children and young people in recruitment and selection - This guide aims to provide an overview of the process, consider why it is important to involve children and young people, and provide the basic information and techniques to do this.

A new report from the British Youth Council (BYC) and NCB has found that formal careers advice and guidance is failing young people during a time of rising unemployment. Read more here.

Tackling Worklessness through Local Partnership 8th December - This conference combines national policy with local best practice gathered from across the UK. The NCN has secured ten free places for this event. Please e-mail Sarah Hope for more details.

Five Years On - What's Changed for Children and Young People? 8th December - The conference will identify what worked and what still needs to be done to ensure the views and opinions of young people help to shape policy and practice.

Government and charities – a civil partnership? 9th December - This free conference will look at how partnership working between government and charities can be further improved and is aimed at strategic managers and decision-makers.

Working More Effectively with Young People 13th January – This course gives ideas and activities to help understand and work effectively with challenging people young people. £150.

FPM Management Development Programme 24th January 2010 is fully-funded by the CWDC. It aims to enable front line managers to develop a core of management skills, behaviours and knowledge geared to the delivery of integrated youth support services at the frontline.

Understanding the Children's Social Care Workforce-Regional Research Events 27th January 2010 – This event will look at the current and future roles of graduates in the workforce and will give participants the opportunity to share their views and experiences.

The National Career Guidance Show 3rd-4th March 2010 – This event aims to offer professionals the chance to catch up with the latest information about career routes and opportunities.

Three quarter of a million more London jobs by 2031

GLA Economics has just published research looking at employment projections for London up to the year 2031.

Across London employment is predicted to grow by 277,000 by 2016, and 756,000 by 2031 based on 2007 levels. Looking at the overall employment for the Central London Connexions boroughs, only Wandsworth is projected not to have recovered to 2007 levels by 2011.

Westminster has the highest employment density of CLC boroughs, so not surprisingly it is projected to see 110,000 more jobs between 2007 and 2031. Camden, Islington and Southwark are also predicted to see a rise of between 48,000 and 71,000 by 2031. Employment in Wandsworth is projected to recover by 2016 and slowly increase by 9,000 by 2031.

Looking at employment by business sector manufacturing, construction, wholesale, transport and communications and public admin are projected to decline between 2007 and 2031. Considering the effects of the recession it is probably not surprising that finance employment is not expected to see large increases. Most other sectors are expected to see steady increases, particularly hospitality, business services and other services.

Trevor Bottomley
Employment & Labour Market Adviser
Central London Connexions
December 2009