The new government strategy on IAG will help unleash aspiration – no matter what a child’s background

By Ed Balls MP

Every young person should have the support and advice to help them make the most of their talents and fulfil their ambitions. And whether their strengths are practical, academic or both, Labour believes young people should have a range of options to get good qualifications, whether that’s Diplomas, GCSEs, A levels, apprenticeships or university.

That’s why this week, with the support of Sir Alex Ferguson, we launched a new strategy to improve information, advice and guidance for children and young people. The plans include careers advice to 18 as we take the historic step of raising the education and training age and more access to careers advice online.

We also want primary schools to start discussing careers and education routes with their older pupils and for all primary children to get to visit or find out more about universities.

This isn’t about children making firm choices about their future before they’re even at secondary school, but raising aspirations at an early enough age to make a difference. It is often too late for children to start thinking about this at 14 when they are influenced from when they are seven, eight and nine.

Every young person should also have access to a mentor – whether that’s a local businessperson or a network of former pupils at their school, as the successful Future First programme has done.

It will be no surprise to LabourList readers that the Tories didn’t have a word to say about our plans this week. For all the rhetoric about a supposedly progressive Conservative Party, the reality is that their education policy is increasingly narrow-focused.

Instead of breaking down the damaging old divide between academic and vocational learning, the Tories want to turn back the clock. Diplomas would be abolished, vocational qualifications excluded from comparisons of school performance, and education or training for all until the age of 18 scrapped. In other words they want to go back to a two-tier education system with opportunity and excellence for some, but a second class education for the rest.

That’s totally out of step with a world where everyone will need a skill to succeed. As Sir Alex and I say in the video below, our message to every young person – wherever they live, whatever their background – should be that if you believe in yourself and you work hard, you can do it.

Ed Balls is Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and Labour & Co-op MP for Normanton.