Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has for the future of the Careers and Enterprise Company; and if he will make a statement.

The Careers & Enterprise Company has made excellent progress to date. It is building an Enterprise Adviser Network of business volunteers to work with schools and distributing funding so that more careers and enterprise activities reach young people in most need of support.

The company will have an important role delivering the government’s careers strategy, including:

• Working across all the Gatsby Benchmarks of good practice, instead of just those relating to employer engagement to test 20 Careers Hubs across England, backed by £5 million of government funding.

• Expanding its Enterprise Adviser Network so that all secondary schools and colleges have access to an Enterprise Adviser by the end of 2020. The network will help schools and colleges give every young person at least seven encounters with employers during their secondary education.

• Delivering a new £5 million Investment Fund to scale up careers and enterprise programmes for disadvantaged young people.

• Training for 500 careers leaders in secondary schools and colleges, backed by £4 million of government funding.

More information about The Careers & Enterprise Company’s activities can be found on their website: https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/.