Too many young people face obstacles as they progress through education and into work, holding them back from achieving the skills and qualifications they need to prosper.
Our policy work in education aims to provide solutions to equip all young people with the skills they need to thrive and fulfil their potential. We focus particularly on removing the barriers for young people who have grown up with disadvantage so that every young person, regardless of their background, can forge a positive future.
Our policy and research areas in education are based on the needs of the young people we support:
On average young people from poorer and disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to achieve the same levels of qualifications as their better off peers. This gap continues to widen from the age of 16. We look at what causes this gap and develop policy solutions to help close it to give all young people the chance to achieve.
Currently, one in five young people do not achieve the equivalent of five good GCSEs (Level 2 attainment) by age 19, a number that has grown for six consecutive years. This is much higher for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Often overlooked for their importance, we aim to highlight how qualifications at Level 2 act as vital stepping stones for young people helping them build essential workplace skills as well as often being a springboard into further learning.
Traditional academic pathways do not suit all young people. We work to highlight the critical role vocational and technical learning play, and its role in tackling the skills gap, while enabling increased access to employment and higher level skills, including work-based learning.
Further Education remains an underfunded sector, with funding and resources often focussed on school age children and the early years. We highlight the challenges this brings and develop solutions to increase focus and funding to support young people in the final years of compulsory education.
The following are highlights from our policy work in Education
Too many young people are being held back from achieving their potential, unable to gain the skills that they need to achieve what they want with their lives.
Read Nacro’s response to the review of post-16 qualifications.
We submitted evidence to this inquiry due to our experience in successfully supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in further education.
Read Nacro’s response to the SEND review.
For all of our education policy and research publications, please see our publications library.
You will be able to review our reports, research, responses, and case studies.
Change happens when we work together. This is the approach we take with our Service Users, and with our partners.
We have a long history of collaborating with leading industry experts and organisations to drive meaningful change to the lives of the individuals we support. You can learn more about our previous research projects in Education on our previous research section.
Explore our previous research projects
We drive change through collaboration. We work with a wide range of organisations, in the public and private sector, who share our vision of ensuring all young people can achieve their potential.
We actively look to partner with universities, research centres, charities, government departments, statutory bodies, local and national enterprises, who can help us to drive change.
If you would like more information on how you can partner with us to support your research, or be part of making an impact through changing policy, email us at policy@nacro.org.uk.
You can search all of our publications in the publications library
