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Supplementary written evidence submitted by Dr Deirdre Hughes OBE

Re: Oral Evidence presented on Monday 8 February 2016

Thank you for inviting me to give oral evidence to the Select Committee’s Inquiry into Careers Advice and Guidance. Following my input, I thought it might be helpful to briefly explain my response to two specific issues.

1. Firstly, I referred to evidence from the 7th International Symposium on Career Development and Public Policy held in Iowa (June 2015).[1] The Symposium was attended by 103 policy-makers, researchers, and leaders in the field of career development from 20 countries and 6 international organizations[2]. The Committee may wish to review the country papers, in particular the UK Country Report – visit: http://www.is2015.org/country-papers/

2. The brief reference made to Saudi Arabia was simply used to illustrate how quality standards have been developed by a country who has surveyed worldwide policies in careers provision for young people and incorporated best practice i.e. three key themes. The Ministry of Labour has developed:  

-          National Standards for Professional Career Practitioners

-          National Standards for Career Service Delivery

-          National Guidelines for Career Information Products.

Some key points from the overall Symposium findings

3. Career development policies, systems and services need to support young people to access work-related learning from an early age. Work-related learning should be a core part of the education system for all young people and include learning about entrepreneurship and social enterprise.

4. Strategies should aim to provide national co-ordination, benchmarks and evaluation, while respecting the need for regional/local tailoring.

5. Career development services need to be both widely available and able to contribute to a range of client needs from supported self-help through to intensive personalised support. This requires a diverse workforce, frequently operating through devolved and dispersed networks.

6. There is a need for a cadre of professional career guidance practitioners in every country who are able to guide, develop and support diversified delivery networks. There is also a need for some career specialists educated at the second and third levels of higher education, to deliver higher-level training courses, undertake research and evaluation nationally, and engage with the international academic community.

Some further selected examples

Austria – National Careers Strategic Forum[3]

http://www.is2015.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Austria1.pdf

7. There are two major developments designed to achieve greater coherence and dialogue between and across Government departments and allied organisations (i) the development of a Lifelong Guidance Strategy and (ii) the establishment of a National Lifelong Guidance Forum: http://www.lifelongguidance.at/qip/mm.nsf.

Canada – Varying levels of career education

8. There are 13 different provincial /territorial systems with varying levels of careers education. Four provinces have come together via the Council of the Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training (CAMET) to look collaboratively at careers education in their jurisdictions. A new careers strategy was released in 2015. Prince Edward Island (PEI) has developed a Careers Strategy for the province, including an expansion of work experience and every Year 9 & 10 teacher has been trained in career development. Nova Scotia has produced an ‘Action Plan 2015-2020’ including a Careers Education Framework for Grade 4-12 and 300 hours of experiential learning. New Brunswick has published 6 career development outcomes for the curriculum. In Ontario, an ‘Education and Career/Life Planning Program for Ontario Schools’[4] has made a significant positive impact on student outcomes.

Denmark – All-Age National Guidance Portal

http://www.is2015.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Denmark1.pdf

9. In Denmark, the Ministry of Children & Education oversees the management and delivery of an all-age National Guidance Portal ‘UddannelsesGuiden’.[5] This has been described as an electronic career index with a number of extra self-assessment and skills health check tools and simple interest inventory. Alongside this initiative, a Ministry led ‘e-guidance centre’ serves the needs of young people, adults, parents, schools, colleges, training providers and employers. The centre is managed directly by the Ministry for Children & Education. This work is also linked directly to the Youth Guidance and/or Regional Guidance Centres focusing mainly on targeted provision. A professional development section is available on the website for guidance practitioners working with young people and adults (eVejledning). eVejledning is a platform for webchat, telephone & email guidance. A systematic study by the Danish Clearinghouse for Educational Research[6] noted a number of features of effective provision, including the use of a range of interventions that are organised into a coherent whole and are well-connected to curriculum, the development of a strong personal connection between the career counsellor or career educator and the students, and the importance of well-trained and knowledgeable career professionals.

Finland – Online services and one-stop centres, guidance as a student entitlement and a highly professionalised careers workforce

http://www.is2015.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Finland1.pdf

10. In 2014, the Finnish National Board of Education launched a set of quality criteria for career education and guidance in basic and upper secondary level education. Careers guidance/Careers education is a compulsory subject in the student’s timetable – a specific 76 hours time slot allocated to career-related activities. The Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy monitors on a monthly basis the implementation of their policy targets which relate to transitions from school to work. Finland is developing an integrated multi-channelled information, advice and guidance system (2014-2020) with stand-alone online services and regional low-threshold one-stop centres. This new online service is being developed as a part of the national e-Governance program (SADE program / Service -portal for Citizens). There is a national recommendation of 250 students per counsellor – counsellors have a Masters qualification in school counselling or equivalent.

New Zealand – National Careers Service website and apps

http://www.is2015.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/New-Zealand.pdf

11. The Ministry of Education (MoE) provides funding to Careers New Zealand as the national provider of career expertise, to make available online information, tools and support for career seekers, parents and communities, career practitioners and employers (www.careers.govt.nz).  There is a drive for websites to be more mobile responsive with apps that appeal to young people. Platforms such as: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blogs. YouTube and other platforms are increasingly being used for presenting information to learners and job seekers. Support for job seekers is also provided through SMS and chat platforms.

USA – Experience of work

http://www.is2015.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/USA.pdf

12. Evidence collected from various youth training programs has identified several effective strategies to enhance program effectiveness. For youth, the evidence suggests that job-related training and opportunities that provide youth with work experience contributes to positive educational outcomes. In addition, earlier exposure to career and educational information has also been related to improved post-secondary outcomes.

Other relevant findings

The Netherlands – Use of portfolios or personal development plans

13. Research in the Netherlands[7] has examined the use of portfolios or personal development plans to support students’ career development. The study found that portfolios were perceived to be useful by teachers, career counsellors and students when they were used to complement and provide a focus for wider career conversations. Where they were not used as part of a broader career learning process, they were generally not seen as useful.

South Korea – 5000+ career counsellors and national standards

14. The South Korean Government, in partnership with major industries, has developed an incredible work experience theme park called ‘Job World’.[8] The aim of this facility is to help young people (and their parents) experience various jobs and encourage them to pursue various pathways to their future career. Job World is a 200 million-dollar building that receives 1.2 million visitors per year. It has a job exhibition hall describing the history of work; a career planning hall; and a range of fully developed rooms that replicate various occupations across all levels. There are 37 rooms for primary school aged children (and parents) that enable them to explore 44 different job roles in a range of work places such as a hair salon, operating room, construction site and a space centre.

15. In 2011, around 5000 career counsellors were placed in middle and high schools. Five years on, career counsellors will now be appointed in elementary schools. Every career counsellor will have completed 600 hours of training prior to commencement.

16. All levels of schools will have at least one specialised trained career counsellor to enhance the quality of school guidance services.  In 2015, the South Korean government introduced legislation for 'Career Education'. Since early 2016, all middle schools have one "Free Learning Semester" among 6 semesters. Students are given a chance to build their creativity and to explore career options through self-leading activities such as reading, sports and arts, or career exploration activities, and through an education that values experiential learning. In addition, national career education goals and achievement standards are made explicit by government.

17. Secondly, the Committee may find it helpful to draw upon research underway, on behalf of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to systematically review the evidence-base on how careers education makes a difference to young people’s outcomes from their schooling. The study by the University of Warwick, IER and Education Employer research (EER) is examining robust causal evidence on careers education impact assessment from a wide range of studies. The final report is due to be completed by the end of April 2016. We would be very happy to share key findings on models that could potentially be replicated in schools and colleges.

18. Thirdly, I highlighted the ‘LMI for All’ portal, commissioned by the UKCES to Warwick University’s Institute for Employment Research (IER) and its consortium partners, as a world-leader in the innovative use of labour market intelligence/information (LMI). For example, the Canadian federal government department of Employment and Social Development (www.esdc.gc.ca) is convening a one-day symposium on “Learning and Labour Market Information (LLMI)” on May 16, 2016.  The symposium will bring together domestic and foreign experts involved in the production and dissemination of LLMI to provide senior government officials with an overall picture and assessment of the status of LLMI data collection systems and dissemination tools being used in different Canadian jurisdictions. The “LMI For All” will feature as an international exemplar.

March 2016