CUTTING EDUCATION SLACK-POLICY DECISIONS
Key points: summary
-The evidence base for career guidance in schools, gained from Dept of Education
and Skills’ evaluation reports and from other (ESRI, FORFAS, NGF) public
surveys in Ireland, suggests that more time and not less should be provided for
career guidance in schools
-Studies undertaken by economists of the cost-benefit effects of career guidance
suggest that school career guidance provision contributes significant returns to the
economy across a range of outcomes, and, at a minimum, pays for itself
-Career guidance provision in schools contributes to the achievement of a range of
public policy economic and social goals including educational and labour market
efficiency and social equity
-The Budget 2012 cut to career guidance services in schools will obstruct the
requirement for schools to implement the relevant section of the Education Act
-The governments decision to cut career guidance services to schools runs
completely contrary to international principles/values/positions (EU Council of
Education Resolutions, European Social Charter, ILO Recommendation on Human
Resource Development, OECD’s policy review findings) which Ireland is party to
-Evidence from countries (New Zealand, Netherlands, England) where schools are
given responsibility for the provision of career guidance at their discretion shows
hugely negative results
-Evidence from countries with high performing education systems (Finland,
Singapore) shows career guidance as an integral part of education provision, well
resourced and with qualified staff
-In addition to the economic, educational, employment and social consequences of
the cuts alluded to above, direct consequences will be the end of free public career
guidance services, the development of private sector guidance for those who can
afford to pay, inequality of opportunity and of progression, inequality of access to
comparable services.
Introduction
Governments make policy decisions. Citizens’ lives are affected. How can we know
whether those decisions are good ones or not? Six characteristics of good policy
development stand out: consultation with stakeholders, consideration of evidence –
particularly economic cost-benefit, political/social ideology, legal obligations,
international references and international comparative evidence. Let us consider the
recent Budget 2012 decision to eliminate the ex-quota career guidance1 posts in secondlevel schools against each of those good policy development characteristics.
1
School career guidance provision in this article refers to a range of career learning activities that assist
young people (and their parents) to make informed and meaningful educational and occupational decisions
and transitions/transfers. Such activities include career counseling, career classes, work experience, work
shadowing, work simulation, workplace visits, careers talks, parental consultation, consultation with
teaching colleagues, aptitude and occupational preference testing, and where appropriate, counseling on
personal issues that may affect educational performance and educational and career choices.
1. Consultation with stakeholders
The major stakeholders in the education/career guidance field are students and
parents who are the direct beneficiaries and users of publicly funded education and
career services. They were not consulted either formally or informally on the Budget
2012 decision.
Indirect beneficiaries are other teaching colleagues, school managements, further and
higher education and training institutes and organisations, employers, and taxpayers.
They were not consulted.
2. Evidence base
School inspection and public consultation evidence
The evidence base for policy decisions for career guidance in schools available to the
Department and the Minister comes from several sources, none of which point to
eliminating career guidance: the Department’s own Inspectorate of Guidance, opinion
research undertaken by the ESRI and others, and opinion research from other public
consultation exercises undertaken for the National Guidance Forum and for the
Expert Group on Future Skill Needs (FORFAS).
The report of the Department’s Inspectorate, Looking at Guidance2 based on 55
school inspection reports and on discussions with all school partners in those schools,
concluded that a high quality of career teaching and learning took place through a
range of educational experiences managed by the guidance counselor. It noted that
more attention should be paid to Junior Cycle students and that some schools did not
use the full guidance allocation for the purpose of guidance and that a few used
unqualified/untrained staff.
In the ESRI’s longitudinal study From Leaving Cert to Leaving School3, students
expressed positive perceptions about career learning experiences in school but were
critical of the limited time available for individual career discussions due to the
guidance counsellor’s dual role of subject teaching and career guidance. The report
highlighted the need to target career activities to Junior Cycle as decisions made there
had significant impact for Senior Cycle and post Leaving Cert learning and work
opportunities.
Perceptions of the General Public on Guidance Services4 was a study undertaken on
behalf of the National Guidance Forum. The majority of people who participated in
the study reported their experience of career guidance in school as being very helpful
or helpful, again stressing the importance of targeting Junior Cycle.
2
Department of Education and Science Looking at guidance-teaching and learning in post-primary schools
Dublin: DES, 2009
3
Education and Social Research Institute From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School Dublin: ESRI, 2011
4
National Guidance Forum Perceptions of the general public on guidance and guidance servicesconsultative process report Dublin: NGF, 2007
Respondents to Careers and Labour Market Information in Ireland5, a study
commissioned by the Expert Group on Future Skill Needs (FORFAS), stated that
guidance counselors were the most helpful source of careers information and the
easiest way to access such information. Respondents also expressed a preference for
individual career counseling. The report concluded that given the key role of parents
in young people’s career choices, the best way to reach parents with careers and
labour market information was through the schools network.
Conclusion: The evidence base available to the Department and to the Minister at the
time of the Budget cut shows that more and not less ex-quota school time is required
to provide career guidance in schools, and in particular at Junior Cycle.
Evidence studies of the economic value of career guidance6
Two studies on the economic value of career guidance have recently been undertaken
by economists in Northern Ireland and in Scotland.
In 2008 the Educational Guidance Service for Adults (EGSA) had the economic value
and impact of its work examined by Regional Forecasts, a division of Oxford
Economics Ltd. The findings showed the employment outcomes attained through
career guidance provision to adults produced net additional tax revenue of 9.02 GBP
for every 1 GBP of public money invested in the service7.
Careers Scotland (2007) used DTZ Consultants to address the question: does career
guidance make a difference? It examined this from the perspectives of both outcome
measurement (learning, economic and social) and the impact of its work with young
people and adults. The findings8 show that someone who has received career
guidance is more likely to:
- gain a qualification, have stronger educational ambitions and expectations, and more
likely to have achieved an advanced qualification (learning outcomes)
- be in a job, stay in the workplace and be financially successful (economic outcomes)
- experience higher confidence levels, especially young people from a lower socioeconomic background (social outcomes).
The combined impact of those outcomes was estimated at 250 million GBP per
annum in Scotland, a country with a population of 5.2 million.
Conclusion: While no similar study has taken place in Ireland and while there are
some differences in terms of inputs, data from neighboring countries suggest
significant economic benefits from the provision of career guidance. One can safely
5
FORFAS-Expert Group on Future Skill Needs Careers and labour market information in Ireland Dublin:
FORFAS, 2006
6
In the context of the government’s new approach to allowing schools the discretion to decide what they
wish to provide to students as core curricular learning experiences, such as career learning, it is important
for government to be able to show the value to the economy (cost-benefit ratios) of each area of the core
curriculum, particularly in a tight Budget situation
7
EGSA Examining the impact and value of EGSA to the NI economy Belfast: EGSA, 2008
8
Careers Scotland Demonstrating Impact-Final Report Edinburgh: Careers Scotland, 2007
hypothesize that the careers guidance service currently provided in schools in Ireland
at a minimum pays for itself. Taking into account the economic value and impact of
the broader learning, employment and social outcomes of career guidance as
illustrated in these studies, it is very difficult to understand the decision of Budget
2012 to cut career guidance.
3. Political values: the contribution of career guidance to public policy goals
Career guidance in schools is not just about helping individuals and their parents. It is
a socio-political activity that plays a significant role in achieving some of the public
policy goals espoused by present and past governments.
Career guidance in schools contributes to learning goals/benefits by improving the
efficiency of education systems. It contributes to increased educational access, school
achievement and course completion rates at second level education. But such
investment of a preventive nature at second level has a critical economic value for
participation, motivation, and course completion at further and higher education and
training levels where only ten years ago the annual costs to the taxpayer of noncompletion and early drop-out (without counting the cost to individuals and their
families) dwarfed the 32 m. euro spent annually on career guidance provision9.
Labour economists have long recognized the role that career guidance can play in
labour market efficiency. Career guidance can improve the match between supply
and demand by helping young people to search for a better fit between their interests,
abilities and qualifications, and the available work opportunities. It also helps them to
consider learning new skills for new/emerging occupations. As educational and
labour market pathways become increasingly complex in nature and increasingly
involve local, regional, national and international dimensions, career guidance is
more critical than ever.
Career guidance contributes to social equity goals. It helps to ensure that education
and employment opportunities are distributed equitably, and that people make
maximum use of their talents regardless of their gender, social background or ethnic
origin. Certain sections of the population are likely to be less familiar with
educational and labour market information than others, and need more help in
overcoming barriers to accessing these opportunities.
Conclusion: The Budget decision to cut career guidance services to schools runs
completely contrary to stated Irish government public policy goals in the education,
employment, and social spheres, and will ultimately hurt its knowledge economy
aspirations.
9
We tend to forget that one of the functions of career guidance at second level is to produce efficiency of
transfers to further and higher education and efficiency of student performance once they get there. View:
NCGE Staying power: colloquium on increasing retention rates in higher education Dublin: NCGE, 2000
4. Legal obligations
Schools are required by Section 9 (c) of the Education Act to “ensure that students
have access to appropriate guidance”. What this looks like in reality is spelled out in
the Department’s Guidelines on the implications of the Act10. The Guidelines cover
(i) the aims and importance of guidance and counseling provision, (ii) the planning of
a school guidance programme, (iii) elements of the school guidance programme, and
(iv) resources and supports for guidance. Given the Budget decision to withdraw the
ex-quota staff resource for guidance in schools, the Guidelines are now just
aspirational. It leaves schools with no way to turn the Education Act guidance
requirement into a reality for students and parents. The Budget cut in fact makes a
mockery of the Act and of the Guidelines.
5. International reference points: review findings and common principles
In developing policies for education, employment and social equity, governments
take as reference points international review findings, policy indicators, and
commonly agreed principles and values, particularly as a Member State of the
European Union. The following is a brief summary available to the Department of
Education and the Minister, all of which require that particular attention be paid to the
provision of career guidance for the achievement of public policy goals.
OECD
The OECD is often used by Education ministers in Ireland as a stimulus for reform of
social (includes education) and economic policy areas. The OECD undertook its last
review of policies for career guidance in 2001-3, covering 14 countries that included
a country review of Ireland at the invitation of the Department. In its conclusions on
Ireland, the OECD referred to the strengths of career guidance provision:
-a solid legislative base
-a climate that favours initiation and experimentation
-a committed profession, and
-a service well received among the population11.
The OECD’s final report12 highlighted the importance of career guidance provision in
schools: “…career services are necessary for effective transition systems…. career
management skills are an essential literacy alongside other literacies for successful
transitions into, within, and from education, training and work”.
World Bank
In its review of policies for career guidance in developing and transition economies,13
the World Bank suggested that as such economies develop and restructure, the
provision of career guidance can be an important ingredient in supporting social and
economic development.
10
Dept. of Education and Science (2005): Guidelines for Second Level Schools on the implications of
Section 9(c) of the Education Act (1998), relating to students’ access to appropriate guidance.
11
OECD Review of Career Guidance Policies-Ireland Country Note Paris: OECD, 2002
12
OECD Career Guidance and Public Policy-Bridging the Gap Paris: OECD, 2004
13
World Bank Policies for Career Development Washington DC: World Bank, 2004
International Labour Organisation
Member states (including Ireland) agreed the Human Resources Development
Recommendation of 200414 to assure and facilitate citizens’ access to career guidance
and information throughout their lives including through ICT, to involve a range of
stakeholders in such provision, and to promote the role of enterprise in increasing
growth and decent jobs.
European Social Charter (revised 1996)
Article 9 of the European Social Charter refers to European citizens’ right to
vocational guidance. Signatories to the Charter including Ireland undertook to
provide a service to assist persons to solve problems related to occupational choice
and progress, and that such a service should be free of charge to young people,
including school children15.
The EU Council of Education Ministers
The provision of career guidance in a lifelong learning context has been the subject of
two EU Council Resolutions, the first proposed under the Irish Presidency in 2004
and the second under the French Presidency of 2008.
The 2004 Resolution16 noted the importance of career guidance in schools: “Guidance
provision within the education and training system, and especially in schools or at
school level, has an essential role to play in ensuring that individuals’ educational and
career decisions are firmly based, and in assisting them to develop effective selfmanagement of their learning and career paths. It is also a key instrument for
education and training institutions to improve the quality and provision of learning”.
The 2008 Resolution17 confirmed the importance of career guidance in assisting
citizens through multiple transitions, particularly from school to vocational education
and training, higher education, or employment. Other Resolutions of the Council: Key
Competences for Lifelong Learning (2006)18, New Skills for New Jobs (2007)19, and
the Joint Progress Report of the Council and the European Commission on delivering
lifelong learning for knowledge, creativity and innovation (2008)20 all noted that
particular attention must be given to lifelong/career guidance.
Conclusion: It is very clear that the Budget cut on career services in schools runs
completely contrary to European social policy values and education positions to
which it is a party and to international knowledge and experience.
14
http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?R195
Council of Europe European Social Charter Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 1996
16
http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/doc/resolution2004_en.pdf
17
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/educ/104236.pdf
15
18
OJ L 394, 30.12.2006, p.10
OJ C 290, 4.12.2007, p. 1
20
Doc. 5723/08.
19
6. International comparisons: evidence from experiences on devolving
responsibility for career guidance provision to schools
We already have evidence from the Department’s Inspectorate’s report (see Section 2
above) that under existing devolution arrangements, some schools do not use all of the
ex-quota guidance allocation for guidance purposes – they divert it into subject teaching,
and that some schools use unqualified/untrained staff to provide a service. With the
Budget cut, one can expect that schools will quite quickly have to use existing guidance
counselors for subject teaching part-time or full-time, and that, within a year or two, all
existing guidance counselors will be full-time subject teaching. This will be an
unsurprising consequence of schools no longer having a separate staff resource allocation
for career guidance. As the recent Department circular nicely put it “schools will have
discretion to balance guidance needs with the pressures to provide subject choice.”
(emphasis added).
In that context it is worth examining how this discretion, through devolved decisionmaking to school management on career guidance provision, has operated/operates in
other countries. Here are some examples.
6.1 New Zealand
In New Zealand, a country of comparable size to Ireland, schools are legally required to
provide careers education to all students. How they do it is at their discretion. School
principals tend to appoint long-serving subject teachers to the position of Careers Advisor
on a part-time basis for which they are awarded a management allowance in addition to
their teacher’s pay. Nearly all of the teachers appointed to the position are untrained and
unqualified21. The public perception (students, parents in particular) of the service
provided is generally negative22. Successful completion rate at upper secondary education
is significantly less than in Ireland23. While participation in tertiary education (VET and
further education) is high by OECD standards, completion is low and there is concern
about tertiary course drop out. There is general public concern that young New
Zealanders do not have the knowledge and skills sets for a knowledge based economy.
21
A New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) national survey of careers staff in schools
found that just 15% of respondents had a careers qualification in addition to their teaching qualification (a
further 6% were studying towards a careers qualification). It also found that two-thirds of careers staff had
been teaching for more than 16 years, making them longer-serving than their teacher counterparts when
compared with findings from the 2006 NZCER National Survey of Secondary Schools (See Vaughan and
Gardiner (2007) Careers Education in New Zealand Schools. Wellington: NZCER).
22
Education Review Office The Quality of Career Education and Guidance in Schools.
Wellington: ERO, 2006. The ERO reported that only 12% of schools provided high quality careers
education and guidance to their students. All schools are given a Careers Information Grant to cover
internal staff costs, resources, and travel for careers staff. Many schools use it for unrelated purposes.
23
OECD Education at a Glance 2011 Paris: OECD, 2011
6.2 Netherlands24
Career guidance provision in schools in the Netherlands developed historically as extra
paid duties for any subject teacher for hours in addition to his/her teaching load. There
was no requirement for the teacher to have a qualification. Since the 1990s this approach
has been replaced by giving schools a grant to use as they wish to provide career
guidance in schools. As in New Zealand, this discretion has led to schools purchasing
services from outside the school or not at all. There is no quality assurance of provision.
Student perception of career guidance in schools is very negative. Participation,
completion, and achievement rates at all levels of education and vocational training are
major public concerns. Significant numbers of students change courses after the first year
of higher education.
6.3 England
Schools in England have statutory responsibility for the provision of career guidance. But
schools must pay for this from their existing budget-they receive no specific allocation
for guidance provision. They are required by the Department to purchase it from an
independent impartial source and this may include unqualified sources. Equally schools
can refer pupils to online resources and that will meet their statutory responsibility. The
net impact is that there is huge variability among the career learning experiences of
students according to the school he/she attends. This is evident from the following results
of the FutureTrack longitudinal study where in response to questions about access to
careers guidance and information prior to applying to higher education, first year higher
education students reported25 that they did not have enough or none at all of:
-individualized career guidance: 48%
-classroom guidance: 54%
-information on alternatives to HE: 52%
-information on the relationships between courses and jobs: 60%
-information on the range of HE courses: 58%
-information on the implications of subject choices post age 16: 74%.
6.4 Conclusions on the discretionary approach
It is very clear that a discretionary approach that includes giving resources to schools to
provide career guidance to students produces a hit and miss result. A young person (and
their parents) may be lucky or not, depending on the school he/she attends. There may be
a service or not, from a qualified person or not. The service may be quality assured or
not. In essence the discretionary approach promotes inequality of access to services for
school students (and parents) and inequality in obtaining comparable career learning
experiences and quality assured experiences. The effects of such inequities will be more
marked in schools in Ireland where no separate staff resource allocation for career
guidance will be given to schools from next August.
24
McCarthy, J. Het Ontwikkelen van het personeel van morgen:een reflectie op de huidige stand van zaken
rondom loopbaanbegeleiding in Nederland’s (trans. Developing the workforce of today and preparing the
workforce of tomorrow – a reflection note on career guidance provision in the Netherlands)-Hertogenbosch
: Euroguidance Nederland, 2008
25
Higher Education Careers Service Unit and Warwick Institute for Employment Studies Applying for
Higher Education – Career Choices and Plans Manchester: HECSU, 2007
7. Evidence from high performing countries (OECD education indicators)
When making policy decisions in education, it is prudent to examine evidence from high
performing countries as per the OECD indicators of the performance of education
systems. Here are two examples.
Finland26
In Finland, guidance is a compulsory subject within the curriculum, and each school
must produce a plan indicating how the relevant goals are to be reached both by all
teachers and by the school counsellors. All comprehensive schools have at least one fulltime-equivalent counsellor, who has normally had a five-year training as a teacher, plus
teaching experience, followed by a one-year specialist training; alternatively, guidance
can be selected as an option within the five-year initial teacher training. Their role
includes individual career counselling, and running guidance classes focusing on careers
education and study skills. In addition, most pupils have at least two one-week workexperience placements. Alongside this, pupils have access to career guidance provided by
vocational psychologists within the Ministry of Labour: they have had six years’ training
as psychologists, plus a 55-day specialist vocational training. There are clear guidelines
for comprehensive and upper secondary schools, specifying the minimum level of
guidance services permissible, together with a web-based service to support institutional
self-evaluation of guidance services. Steps have also been taken to embed guidance
policy issues in national in-service training programmes for school principals.
Singapore
In Singapore, the career guidance counsellor’s role tends to be a co-ordinator of a more
broadly based careers programme. There is strong emphasis on individualised guidance,
as part of a policy of implementing an ‘ability-driven’ education that seeks to develop the
full spectrum of talents and abilities in every child in school. More recently, a
developmental programme of Education and Career Guidance (ECG) has been
introduced, with primary schools focusing on career awareness, secondary schools on
career exploration, and upper secondary schools on career planning. This is delivered
through a variety of means, including career education lessons, counselling, talks,
workshops, visits, work experience/shadowing, projects, e-resources and career
portfolios. In addition, each school has a school counsellor plus teacher-counsellors, who
may provide some career counselling to pupils.
Conclusion: In countries with high performing education systems, well developed career
learning provision forms an integral part. Schools are well resourced with specific staff
allocations for career guidance provision and well qualified staff. Career learning is part
of core curriculum learning.
26
For more details on Finland and Singapore, see Watts, A.G. The Emerging Policy Model for Career
Guidance in England: Some Lessons from International Examples Journal of the National Institute for
Career Education and Counselling, No.27, November 2011, pp.32-39
8. Summary and conclusions
In making major policy decisions in a western democracy, good government requires that
consideration is given to the target group for whom the decision is intended and to the
consequences for this group. The economic costs and benefits are weighed up and
normally the economic benefits, immediate, short-term and long-term, should well
outweigh the costs. Joined up government thinking, a good practice in any government,
requires other types of benefits such as social outcomes to be considered. This is
particularly true in social policy areas where the cost of remediation is always hugely
more expensive than the cost of prevention. As a means of increasing the PTR (pupil
teacher ratio), the Budget 2012 decision to cut the career guidance allocation to schools
does not pass any criteria of good government and makes no economic or social sense.
There is not a shred of national or international evidence, or any principles or values that
support this move.
The cut places the Irish education system back to the 1960s when no career guidance
service was provided in schools. It is as if time has marched on in respect of the
complexity of education and labour market pathways but the Government has not. The
government response to a problem (increasing the PTR to improve public finances) for
which it has other optional solutions looks like a Dark Ages response in light of the
knowledge and information society in which we now live. It is back to a time of trial and
error in making education and employment choices. With schools unable to provide what
students have received as a free public service up till now, parents will have to look to the
private sector for career guidance and to pay for it, at a time when those who are lucky
enough to be employed find diminished pay packets with additional taxes to pay for the
failed banks and poor bank regulation. Equality of opportunity, equality of access and
progress in education and employment have slid off the political table with one stroke of
the Minister’s pen. Was it a decision to cut slack in education or just a slack political
decision? I leave the reader to decide.
Dr John McCarthy, Director
International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy
c/o Careers NZ
4th Floor
CMC Building
Courtenay Place
Wellington
New Zealand
Email: jmc@iccdpp.org
www.iccdpp.org
Tel: 006449770367
Mobile: 0064211342397
25 January 2012