Career websites: expectations and
limitations
Cathy Howieson
Sheila Semple
Evidence on the impact of career websites?
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Substantial body of evidence on ‘traditional’ CIAG shows that:
(i) CIAG can help individuals develop career management &
decision-making skills
(ii) higher levels of these skills are the necessary precursors of
positive education, training and labour market outcomes

Can career websites also help users develop these skills?

Evaluations but lack of evidence on impact of career websites
Evidence – based policy

Currently policy decisions are being based on as yet
unproven assumptions about what career websites can do

Our perspective: positive about role of ICT and of websites
but need to establish evidence base
The study

Use and impact of careers self-help services; commissioned by
Careers Scotland in 2009

Focus on career website element: Careers Scotland and
PlanITPlus ie publicly funded ‘integrated’ websites

Two surveys of S4/Y11 pupils in three schools (n = 250 & 182)

Group work with S4/Y11 pupils (n = 60)

Interviews with five careers advisers & seven teachers
Before and after survey

Ist q’aire (n= 250):
- career intentions; career focus;
- career management skills;
- use of CS and PlanITPlus websites and careers library;
- contact with and inputs from careers adviser, teachers and family ;
- individual and family background information

Prompted to use websites and careers library over three week period

2nd q’aire: same questions on career management skills; use of websites and other
careers related activities over the three weeks. 182 pupils completed both
questionnaires.
Sources of CIAG pupils expected to use
Family
Website
Careers Sc.d
Guidance tchr
decide right
career
research jobs &
courses
CVs &
applications
If expect to use websites, what else?
Guidance tchr
Careers Scotland
Family
Friends
decide career
research jobs &
courses
Cvs &
applications
Pupils’ use of CS and PlanITplus websites

36% used CS website; 61% PlanITplus (1st q’aire)

Pupils with more negative attitude to school less likely to use either
website

CS website: truancy and leaving date

PlanITPlus: gender; attainment and mother’s and father’s level of
education

But attainment; attitude to school; truancy did not affect direct
contact with a CA
Personal contact

Pupils use of websites was alongside other provision and they wanted
personal contact with CA.

Website use frequently prompted interview request - to build on what
learned but also difficulty of interpreting the volume of information
“You get so much information, you don’t know which bits are right for
you, would apply to you. It needs someone to make sense of it for you.
What do you do?” (S4/year 11 pupil)

Pupils from minority ethnic background more likely to respond by
seeking direct contact with CA and teachers than use websites
The impact of career websites

Positives:
- access to range of information
- within pupils’ control
- broadening ideas and
- enabling more experimental thinking
Some pupils get tongue-tied, can speak to a computer and be more
experimental in their ideas, it’s safer, you won’t be laughed at.” (Teacher).
●
But what impact on career management skills?
Impact on career management (CM) skills
Questionnaires included 32 items covering five aspects of CM
skills:
- awareness of strengths, weaknesses and values;
- opportunity awareness;
- career planning readiness;
- support and advice awareness;
- application skills and knowledge.

Significant tho’ modest change in pupils’ score on four
aspects in the time between the two surveys
Modelling the impact of career websites on career
management skills (linear regression)
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score in the relevant CM skill in 1st
q’aire;
experience in the three weeks re:
-
CS website;
PlanItPlus;
careers library;
careers convention
discussion of career ideas with a
teacher;
discussion of careers ideas with
family;
group talk from CA;
drop-in session with CA;
interview with CA
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careers focus;
intended school leaving stage;
planned post school destination;
gender;
expected attainment level;
ethnicity;
school attended;
mother’s and father’s level of
education;
living arrangements;
how enterprising they assessed
themselves to be;
level of self-efficacy (self
assessed);
truancy
What made a difference to pupils’ career management
skills? (1)

Use of CS website had no impact on any of the four CM skills

Use of PlanITPlus had a positive impact on ‘support advice and
awareness’ aspect

Talking career ideas over with teacher also increased pupils’ score
on ‘support advice and awareness’ aspect

Discussion of career ideas with family improved score on ‘’career
planning readiness’
What made a difference to pupils’ career
management skills? (2)

Interview with a CA improved pupils’ score on
‘opportunity awareness’

Group talk with CA had an impact - but negative decreased score on ‘career planning readiness’

Pupils who used careers library had improved their score
on ‘application skills and knowledge’
Implications

Pupils did value and use websites but
- also wanted personal contact and advice
- continued use and value of school careers libraries

Variation in use by different pupil groups especially those potentially NEET - risk
of further disadvantage if over-reliance on career websites esp in post-school
context

This small study found very limited impact of career websites: benefits less than
policy assumes?
 urgent need for more extensive research eg sample of individuals in
different contexts; include full range of websites and online resources;
interaction with other types of CIAG provision
Implications (2)

Digital literacy: assumptions about ‘digital natives’/’Google generation’

Context: ‘fit’ of skills via recreational use of Web 2 tools is problematic in other contexts
including CIAG

Need to support individuals in their use of career websites:
- develop digital literacy skills specific to the career context
- support as part of PSE/careers education in schools
- careers advisers: support about website use in context of individual’s own
decision-making processes

Information and knowledge but complex process of transforming this into decisions timely to focus again on the guidance in CIAG