To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail how the Careers Action Plan 2025-28 will promote a broader understanding of career options, including apprenticeships and vocational training.

My Department’s Careers Advisers are already required to offer impartial advice and guidance, and highlight relevant career options, to clients of all ages and abilities. This includes a wide range of Careers Bulletins that set out the wide range of pathways available to access jobs in sectors across our economy. However, the joint Careers Action Plan seeks to establish a much wider, inclusive careers ecosystem that connects people to learning and employment opportunities throughout their lives, including in apprenticeships and vocational training. The main aim of the joint Careers Action Plan is to establish a universally accessible, high quality service that supports people across all stages of life. The Plan also seeks to ensure that all providers of careers, including the Advisers of the Careers Service and teachers in schools, work more closely, share resources and knowledge, embrace new technologies, drive professionalism and collaborate to benefit all of our people. Key outcomes include ensuring shared quality standards across all settings; delivering a new Careers Portal; enhancing special educational needs provision; and developing careers from an earlier stage of the curriculum. One of the seven strategic outcomes of the Careers Action Plan is specifically focused on working with parents, carers and other community partners. This includes an action to provide a dedicated area on the new Careers Portal to support parents’ career conversations with their young people to understand skills in demand from employers and suggest ways to explore the different routes and pathways available, including in apprenticeships.