Advice on learning and work:

what is a disadvantage, and how do you overcome it?

The government's plans for a universal careers service for adults address the needs of people across more than one spectrum.

They aim to help the highly qualified and educated as well those with minimal or perhaps no qualifications – and all in between.

They aim to help old and young adults and all between, and achieve continuity with careers advice services for young people.

They aim to help those active and only slightly underachieving in the labour market as well as those who start far from it, perhaps having spent a long period out of work or never having worked – and all between.

They aim to offer the same service to people with physical, psychological or socio-economic difficulties as to those without them.

Thus the introduction to an article by Ruth Hawthorn and Judy Alloway in Career Research and Development: the NICEC Journal Number 22 (Winter 2009/2010).

Hazel’s comment:

Is it really possible for one service to provide all that?

If it's “watered down” for those with minimal education will the service be appropriate for the more highly educated?

Will every adviser need to be a specialist on “physical, psychological or socio-economic difficulties”?

Hazel’'s further comment:

It is unfortunate, to say the least, that one of the principal journals in the field of career research is so spasmodically available to researchers in the British Library. Number 23 is showing in the catalogue but is not yet available to be read by the likes of you and me.

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Reference Anxiety Disorder

is, Gary Archer from Solihull Libraries writing in Refer Volume 26 Number 2 (Summer 2010) tells us (based on the article referenced below):

the feeling an information specialist experiences when s/he can’t find the information they’re seeking

I'm not a reference librarian nor do I consider myself an information specialist except in the field of careers information (and since Opportunity has not been published for some years I'm even a bit out of touch with that field) but most have had their impossible questions – “ what does a shoemaker earn?” springs to mind.

Have you, as a careers information practitioner, had the impossible questions?

How do you deal with them?

It may be that Adam Bennington's article A practical Guide to Reference Anxiety Disorder will help you (but it will cost you $2.95) – and maybe, just maybe, asking me to look both online and in the British Library will bring you the peace of mind you need!

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Do not say sorry!

I read recently that bloggers should not apologise for breaks in blogging activity – it implies that blogging is not as important as other activities in your life. So, no apologies whatsoever from me! New Day Resolution made, and will be adhered to, that all interesting things I read will be blogged immediately and not, as previously, emailed to a draft and left to languish (brain seemed to register job done and moved on to the next bit of reading). This may, of course, mean that on the Thursdays that I spend in the British Library you could get more than one or two postings, likewise when I pick up on the Emerald journals list which comes in on a Monday morning.

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Estimating the life-time cost of NEET:

16-18-year-olds not in education, employment or training

Research undertaken by the University of York for the Audit Commission estimates the life-time costs of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) between 16 and 18 years of age, based on estimates of the size of the NEET group in 2008.

This updates research published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2002 and includes estimates of the size of the NEET group and its various sub-groups as well as some costed case studies to represent the diversity of young people within the NEET cohort including:

• young people with special educational needs or disabilities;
• teenage parents;
• young carers;
• young offenders;
• a female care leaver;
• male care leavers; and
• young people benefiting from pre-16 interventions.

The study uses the case studies to show the cost of preventative work and the impact this has on outcomes at the ages of 16-18 and beyond and provides guidance to help local authorities understand the cost of young people being NEET.

Read the full report (PDF 55pp) here

With grateful thanks to Skills Development Scotland for alerting me to this report.

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