Helping individuals succeed: Transforming career guidance

This report from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills starts with a five-page executive summary which does not appear to have been separately published.

Introduction [Note: the footnote numbers are entered as given but, no more than they do in the original, do they actually hyperlink.]

Extensive research and evaluation evidence demonstrates the benefits of effective career guidance – directly for individuals and also more widely for UK Plc. Good career guidance can raise aspirations, increase self-confidence and resilience and help people to make sound decisions about learning and work. In turn, employers gain better quality applicants and are able recruit people who can improve their business.

In order to realise these benefits, however, career guidance needs to be high quality. This report identifies the characteristics of effective career guidance, looks at how technologies, particularly new technologies, can transform delivery, and the role that government and other public bodies might play in securing greater quality and impact from public investment.

The UK Commission is not the only organisation working to bring about improvements in this area. In the last couple of years, governments across the UK have been focussing on how careers provision can be improved. The Scottish Government published a national framework for Careers Information Advice and Guidance¹ in March 2011. In England in November 2010, John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning announced the establishment of an all-age service for England². The Welsh Government has recently published the findings of a review into careers services in Wales³. In January 2009 the Northern Ireland Government launched ‘Preparing for Success’⁴

This report is not an isolated study but the culmination of a number of pieces of supporting work including expert papers on a range of topics related to career guidance and technology. These are available on the UK Commission’s website (details are attached at Annex 1). We also consulted widely by inviting responses to a consultation document and through a number of events. Taken together the expert papers, outcomes of events and wider consultation provide a robust evidence base for the conclusions drawn in this report. , a joint departmental strategy and implementation plan for Careers Information Advice and Guidance.

The report is divided into three sections. The first focuses on what we know already about career guidance and the career support market; the second outlines some areas that need to be improved, and the third describes an effective career support market and makes suggestions about what actions are needed to bring this about.

¹ A framework for service redesign and development improvement (2011) http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/03/11110615/0
² Speech given by John Hayes Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, 4 November (2010) http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/speeches/john-hayes-icg-conference
³‘Future ambitions: developing careers services in Wales’ (2010) http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/publications/researchandevaluation/evaluation/futureambitions/;jsessionid=4RYhNNHQLqV0hf8wyKW3vyLntPvBhyln0k9kVk4K27BJZ2L9CCyg!1989468226?lang=en
⁴ ‘Careers InformationInformation, Advice and Guidance Strategy’ (2009) http://www.deni.gov.uk/index/80-curriculum-and-assessment/116-careers-strategy.htm

Full report (PDF 33pp )

You may find it useful to read Tristram Hooley’s blog post on this publication

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