Looking back and looking
forward: what does the
future hold for careers
services?
Joining the dots – reframing the
careers landscape
Dr Deirdre Hughes, OBE
Chair, National Careers Council
& Commissioner, UKCES
30th October 2012
EU and International Context
• Political, economic and social changes:
– role of career education and guidance
• Lifelong guidance policy:
– part of integrated human capital, social and
economic policies
• Changing world:
– skills and competencies for lifelong
learning to exploit the potential of job-rich sectors
• Evidence-based practice and policies
Policy Goals
• Learning goals
• Labour market (economic) goals
• Social equity goals
Reframed to support policies linked to sustainable
skills and economic growth
Definition of ‘Lifelong Guidance’?
• What? Activities: e.g. information giving, advice, counselling,
assessment, teaching, advocacy
• For whom? All citizens
• When? Any age and point in their lives
• Focus? Making meaningful life choices on learning and work.
Empowerment to manage learning and career
• Career? Individual lifepaths in learning, work and in other
settings in which capacities and competences are learned
and/or used
• Where? Education, training, employment, community, private
EU Council of Ministries Resolution on Lifelong Guidance 2004
Supply and demand challenges
Source: ILO, 2010a, p.54
Youth Unemployment:
a crisis in our midst
Hughes, D. & Borbély-Pecze, T.B. (2012) Youth Unemployment: A Crisis In Our Midst, European Lifelong
Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN), Finland: University of Jyväskylä.
(i) What are the current trends and challenges facing young people and
policy-makers across Europe?
(ii) What policies, including good and interesting practices, are
emerging in differing European Union (EU) Member-States in
response to youth unemployment?
(iii) What more can be done to address youth unemployment, drawing
on lifelong guidance policies and practices?
(iv) How can policies for responsive lifelong guidance services make a
positive contribution to new and emerging government delivery
plans within and across Member-States?
(v) What are the key questions to inform the EU’s and Member-States’
education, training, employment and social inclusion priorities?
Priority Groups?
Source: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, September 2012
(http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2012/54/en/1/EF1254EN.pdf)
Public policies and careers practices
• New questions concerning the adaptation of public policies, as well
as the adaptability of citizens, particularly young people who are
among the most vulnerable groups
• Differing forms of public, private and voluntary/community sector
alliances are on the increase
• How best to harness new social partnerships?
• Examples of differing policy approaches e.g. work experience,
improving the relationships between education and work, youth
guarantees, job-search support, the promotion of entrepreneurship,
guidance/counselling programmes, apprenticeships, internships,
personal training records and active citizenship/volunteer activities.
Tensions impacting on
careers provision
• Practice-orientation
- New arrangements
- New tracking systems
- New partnerships
- New markets
- New players
• Policy decisions
– Stimulate?
– Regulate?
– Compensate for market
failure?
– Capacity build?
Governments attempting to strike the right
balance between:
[a] process measures (e.g. improving education, qualifications and
vocational training systems; strengthening industrial and environmental
policies; stimulating employer engagement and entrepreneurship;
activating community regeneration programmes; social
mobility/inclusion strategies; and investing in labour market intelligence
to provide better matches between supply and demand in the labour
market);
[b] outcome measures (e.g. linked to youth guarantees, increased
usage of public-private partnership in delivery of outcome-driven
results, and compacts with leading employers and/or chambers of
commerce; strengthening internships and apprenticeships, retention
and progression in learning and work).
Seeking to improve the conditions for doing business
Joining the dots: basic propositions
• Economic and fiscal policies should not underestimate the value of social policies
• Employability and inclusion targets should
accompany long-term financial sustainability
objectives
• Efforts should be made to create stronger careers
and employability services and to advance better
public employment services provided in an equitable
and accountable way
Is there a need for a new social,
psychological and economic
investment discourse?
Some basic questions
• In whose interest do careers services best serve?
– Individuals?
– Employers?
– Governments?
• What do we ‘know for sure’ about the career
transitions of individuals and returns on investment
from learning and/or work?
• How can the careers landscape be improved now
and in the future?
Testing out some early messages
• An important policy lever for Government to boost policy to
increase growth and understanding for new and potential labour
market entrants.
• Careers advice needs to be commissioned at strategic level.
• A mechanism to provide the overview of the system, what is
effective etc.
• A means to focus and speed up effective transitions and keep
cohorts moving.
• If positioned properly a way of driving forward both at individual
and population level.
• A market driver for the opportunity structure.
• A means of forecasting future opportunities aided by excellent
LMI and destination data, that can be verified.
• A preventative measure to reduce false starts and waste of
resource.
© Source: NCC Work Strand 2, October 2012
ELGPN New Products 24 October 2012:
-
LLG Policy Development European Resource Kit for Policy Makers
ELGPN Progress Report 2011-12
Concept Notes 1.Flexicurity, 2. Youth Unemployment 3. Career Management Skills
Connecting the pieces: your voice matters
For further information, please contact:
Deirdre Hughes
email: deirdre.hughes3@btinternet.com
telephone: 07533 545057
skype: deirdre.hughes3
National Careers Council
Visit: http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/further-education-skills/national-careers-council
UK Commission for Employment & Skills
Visit: http://www.ukces.org.uk/
European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network
Visit: http://ktl.jyu.fi/ktl/elgpn/policymakers/publications/2011-12_publications