The fifth evidence session of the Education Select Committee inquiry into Services for Young People will take place on Wednesday 4 May 2011. The first panel will discuss volunteering opportunities for young people with representatives from NCVYS member v, the National Young Volunteers' Service. The second panel will seek to explore some of the key questions raised during the inquiry with the Government Ministers responsible for youth policy and volunteering, Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd and Minister for Children and Families Tim Loughton.

Shelter Scotland have published a research report Running away and future homelessness – the missing link? They have found that more than 8 out of 10 young homeless people in Scotland had run away at least once before they reached 16. A survey of around 150 residents from 11 projects that provide accommodation to homeless young people under the age of 25 also revealed that 20 per cent had run away before they reached 11 years old.

Ofsted have published Girls’ Career Aspirations which has found that girls are receiving weak information about careers making it difficult for them to make informed choices about courses.

A new tool to help communities make better use of existing statistics to make critical choices and improve emotional wellbeing and resilience.

The Cabinet Office has published Opening Doors, Breaking Barriers: A strategy for social mobility.

Deloitte has published Emerging partnership models between business and the third sector. The report argues that charities that develop sophisticated partnerships with business stand to reap far more significant benefits than through traditional models of corporate community investment. It says that new types of partnership are emerging as corporate responsibility programmes shift away from financial donations to the provision of resources, assets and business expertise.

The SALTO Inclusion Resource Centre has published Inclusion Through Employability: Youth work approaches to employment. The report presents the key findings from a review of literature and research on youth employment and social exclusion in Europe, and highlights some successful approaches to addressing unemployment among excluded youth. Visit: www.salto-youth.net to download a copy of this report.

The Scout Association has launched a campaign, Don't raise our rents! The campaign, supported by Girlguiding UK, calls on local authorities to ensure any rent increases are "fair and affordable" and to continue to provide scouts with discretionary rate relief for scout-owned properties. The Scout Association has said that at least 2,000 groups had been warned of rises that could lead them to cut activities, increase subscriptions or close down. Visit: www.scouts.org.uk

The think tank Demos has published The Forgotten Half. The report says that secondary schools are failing the half of all pupils who do not go on to higher education, because they are too focused on supporting the 50 per cent that go on to university and are not doing enough to help the rest gain necessary skills for work or training. The report calls for schools to forge better links with local business communities and for Ofsted to put a greater emphasis on inspecting schools' ability to help pupils enter the labour market.

Skills - Third Sector, in collaboration with practitioners and employers, has developed new apprenticeship frameworks (descriptions of what an apprentice should learn while training) specifically for key roles in charities, social enterprises, community and voluntary organisations and other not for profit organisations.