A SOCIAL enterprise group has welcomed the Labour' Party’s commitment to funding better careers advice in schools.

Aspire-Igen, which is based in Bradford and Leeds, said a funding boost would give parents and young people better information in a n increasingly competitive labour market.

The announcement was made by Tristram Hunt, shadow Education Secretary, who promised more investment in schools’ capacity to provide careers information and a dedicated group of independent careers advisers working to help young people make decisions about the future.

Nick Whiteside of Aspire-Igen director of employment and skills at the firm, said careers education has been underfunded for some time.

He said: “It’s a shocking statistic that we spend more time in this country choosing a second-hand car than we do on making informed decisions about which career to follow and which qualifications to take.

“Most of us have had that experience of a 15-minute careers appointment at school which told us something we already knew, or worse, dissuaded us from a lifetime ambition. That’s a symptom of the lack of investment in careers support.”