POLICY AND RESEARCH DEVELOPMENTS IN
THE FIELD OF CAREER GUIDANCE – BRIEF
INTERNATIONAL SCAN
Presentation for the National Research Symposium,
Ottawa, Canada, 13 March 2013 by Dr John McCarthy,
Director International Centre for Career Development
and Public Policy, Nice, France
Email: jmc@iccdpp.org
Policy development trends
• World region: European Union
• Initiator: European Lifelong Guidance Policy
Network
• Development of tools to compare the state of
lifelong guidance policy development across
countries
Policy development comparative tool
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Five areas of policy examined:
+Access to services
+Career management skills
+National coordination and cooperation
+Quality assurance
+Evidence base
Policy development comparative tool
• Progression continuum of policy
steps/features/reference points described
• Implications for six sectors (schools, VET,
higher education, adult education,
employment, and social inclusion)
drawn/deduced
Policy development comparative tool:
Evidence base
Undeveloped
Developed
No information held on costbenefits to government
Immediate, medium and longterm calculated savings to the
public purse in the form of
economic and/or social
returns on investment
Limited information on added
value returns as a result of
individuals participating in
careers services
Evidence of on-going
longitudinal tracking and
studies that measure the
impact of differing careers
interventions in different
settings
Policy development comparative tool:
Quality assurance
Under developed
Developed
Fragmented and/or one-off user
satisfaction surveys
Highly organised quality assurance and
evidence-based systems that involve users
in the design and development of services
Absence of a careers management skills
Total quality management system in place
framework, linked to access to services by that also captures data on career
key priority groups
management skills, levels of investment
and added-value returns
Policy development comparative tool: Career
management skills – monitoring and
verification of outcomes
Under-developed
Developed
No system in place to monitor and
evaluate CMS activities
System in place to monitor and evaluate
CMS activities; monitoring leads to
progressive quality and impact gains
CMS not explicitly set as a
learning/developmental outcome
CMS set explicitly as a
learning/developmental outcome either
separately or within relevant subjects or
interventions
No evidence of formal CMS assessment
Evidence of systematic and advanced
formative assessment of CMS; assessment
used as a didactic tool for self
development
No regular reporting
Education, training and Public Employment Services
institutional reports with documented evidence
collated in a national database and evaluated; annual
national report published with recommendations;
recommendations integrated into further policy
reforms and action plans
Policy development comparative tool:
Access to services-data collection
1. Underdeveloped
2
No infrastructure
in place to collect
data on existing
services
Some efforts in
place to collect
data from
different
sectors of the
No mapping or
profiling of future population
needs of
different target
groups
No data present
for different
groups and
sectors
Some reports
for policymaking drafted
with this data
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5. Developed
Some data
collected at
institutional
level and
collated at
national/region
al level and by
sector for
policy-making
purposes
Data on service
usage collected
at sector level
and collated at
national/region
al level
Data on service
usage and
potential
demand are
collected and
collated
systematically at
national/regional
level to profile
the services,
Collated data
used for
policies to
improve
service access
and used to
develop
evidence-based
responses to
target group
provision
Policy development comparative tool:
National coordination and cooperation
• Reference points for lifelong guidance policy:
• +Policy partnership: support, elaboration process,
monitoring and evaluation, exchange of practice,
connections to lifelong learning and employability
strategies
• +Establishing a national forum for lifelong guidance:
shared definitions and terminology, composition, tasks
and roles, relationship of forum to government, citizen
perspective
• +Operational modes of a forum: communication,
cooperation, coordination of policies, actors, and
service delivery
Example of policy reference point for national
coordination and cooperation: policy partnership
Under-developed
Developed
No structured co-operation exists
between government ministries, social
partners, and civil society on lifelong
guidance policies and systems
A national lifelong guidance policy
partnership/forum advises on a range of
national strategies (education,
employment, social inclusion) and action
plans, and coordinates programmes and
activities
Policy development measurementconcluding comments
• The concept of policy development
comparative measurement
• The concept of evidence-based policy-making
• Attention to evidence/data collection in the
policy comparative tool
• Limitations
Policy and research development
trends: world region Australasia
• Australia (2012)
• National Career Development Strategy
• Roles and responsibilities of national, states and territories
governments, and of other key actors
• Preparation:
• +literature review of national and international research;
• +identification of needs and wants of young people under
age 24 years and of their parents, teachers, communities;
• +an options paper for career development interventions
and for a national strategy; and
• +a cost-benefit analysis for each of the options
Australia: Green Paper for NCDS
• Areas where priority action needs to be
taken:
• Improving access
• Standards and quality assurance
• Leadership (including a national forum) and
priority setting
• Improving the knowledge base through a
research agenda
New Zealand – Developing benchmarks for
careers education provision in secondary and
tertiary education (2012)
• Secondary:
• Student learning outcomes (competent and highly competent
CMS when leaving compulsory education)
• -School leadership
• -Resources
• Tertiary:
• Student learning outcomes in CMS
• -Employer and industry engagement
• -Student engagement
• -Tertiary organisation engagement.
Policy and research development:
world region Africa
• South Africa (2012)
• The Framework for Cooperation in the Provision of
Career Development Services in South Africa
• Directions:
• Leadership and coordination – national and provincial
forums
• Partnerships and cooperation
• Careers and labour market information
• National career development service
• Standard setting and quality assurance
• Research and evaluation
Actual research on making a
difference!
• Target group: young disadvantaged people
• Mobility Manifesto by the Boston Consulting
Group (Sutton Trust 2010)
• Cost-effective schemes to improve social
mobility
• Independent careers and education advice
service: Every 1 GBP spent by government on
the service would generate 7 GBP in extra
lifetime earnings for the young person
Research on making a difference
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Next Step UK: National Careers Service
Intervention Outcome Exploratory Evaluation (2012)
Next Step customers vs “control/matched group”
Both groups: mix of employed and unemployed
Next Step customers: first intervention – 72% F2F; 27%
telephone helpline; 1% web
• Treatment group gain significantly more in employment
status post treatment (3 months, 6 months)
• Proportion of treatment group on Job Seekers Allowance
declines more significantly post treatment (3 months, 6
months)
Research on making a difference
• Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning: VOX
• Target group: adults in vulnerable social,
economic and work situations
• Users’ reflections on experiences of services of
Career Centres in some of 14 counties
• Users’ reflections on how career guidance
contributed to changes in their participation in
education and employment
NORWAY
• Results of user surveys: very satisfied with
provision; guidance had a positive effect
• Guidance received reported as a crucial factor
for the following changes:
• Over 50% started an education/training
programme, post intervention
• Over 50% have changed job situation:
unemployment to employment; job change;
change within present job e.g. promotion
Nordic Countries
• Voice of users: promoting the quality of guidance for
adults in Nordic Countries (2010-11)
• Funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers
• Adults frequenting guidance services in adult learning
centres
• Survey results: Overall, respondents rated statements
concerning the benefits of educational outcomes of
guidance more strongly than statements that
concerned vocational or personal outcomes
• Similarly, statements that concerned personal
outcomes were rated more strongly than statements
about vocational outcomes
REFERENCES
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Voice of users: promoting the quality of guidance for adults in Nordic Countries
(2010-11) http://www.nordvux.net/download/6821/voice_of_users.pdf
Career guidance for change (Norway) http://www.vox.no/no/globalmeny/English/Statistics-and-research/Publications/Career-Guidance-forChange/
An exploratory evaluation of the Next Step service
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-exploratory-evaluation-of-thenext-step-service
The Mobility Manifesto
http://www.suttontrust.com/public/documents/20100312_mobility_manifesto20
102.pdf
Lifelong guidance policy development: a European Resource Kit
http://ktl.jyu.fi/img/portal/23229/ELGPN_resource_kit_201112_web.pdf?cs=1350649791
Australia: National Career Development Strategy – Cost Benefit Analysis of
Rationale and Options http://foi.deewr.gov.au/node/16282