Pupils at schools that provide all children with effective careers advice get better exam results and have better attendance rates, a study has found.
Sixth formers who attended schools with strong career services also had better progression rates to university.
The findings prompted calls for a guarantee of face-to-face careers advice for teenagers in all schools, as critics branded the current system of provision a “postcode lottery”.
The research, led by Professor Tristram Hooley, of the University of Derby, compared data from 820 schools and colleges that received awards for high quality careers advice with those of schools that had not.
Controlling for other factors, it found schools with awards for their careers guidance scored 2 percentage points higher in their proportion of teenagers achieving