THE?Careers and Employability Service run by Hampshire County Council has earned national recognition.

It has picked up the Matrix Standard – a unique quality accreditation awarded in recognition of the organisation’s high standards in providing education and careers advice and guidance for young people.

The accolade has also been awarded to the authority’s Education Participation Service, recognising that young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) are also receiving excellent support and guidance from the county council on their journey to find a career.

Peter Edgar, the county council’s executive member for education, said: “This is excellent news and further endorsement of the high standard of support that this local authority delivers across Hampshire. We place enormous importance on helping young people get into work or training.

“Some 32 of Hampshire’s schools and colleges choose to use our professional careers services, ensuring students can receive the most up-to-date advice, support and access to career-finding technology. This would be difficult and expensive for schools to provide on their own, and yet it is absolutely vital support for many youngsters, at a critical time in their lives. So it’s no surprise that the schools and young people that the assessor spoke to were full of praise for the service.”

Mr Edgar added: “We focus considerable resource on young people who are NEET. They can receive as much free support as they want from our advisers; and we don’t just wait for them to come to us. In fulfilling our statutory duty to keep track of what young people do when they leave school, our officers work really hard, countywide, to find those who need help, and go out and offer it to them.”

In their report, the matrix assessors note that “through the work of the team, the number of young people who remain NEET [in Hampshire] has reduced from 4.3 per cent in 2014/15 to 2.96 per cent in 2015/16’. This is a reduction of around 30 per cent, against a national average reduction of 10.6 per cent and a regional average reduction of 7.1 per cent across the South East.

The report lists particular strengths as being the ‘competence and confidence’ of advisers, leadership and management, and the collection and analysis of data by the Council’s Youth Analysis Service.

For schools and their students, the Careers and Employability Service includes specialists in careers guidance, work experience, curriculum support and special needs, who are trained to national standards and practice continual professional development.

Mr Edgar added: “Hampshire County Council has the resources to build considerable in-house expertise that enables us to really go the extra mile, and tailor support to each individual’s specific needs. Young people deserve every chance to succeed and I’m proud that we’ve built up the professional resources to respond to their needs.”