test header
Does the state-funded career service do what it says on the packet?
According to a recent survey (details below) of more than 500 young people who have received formal careers advice, 80% said it was either unhelpful or only “a little bit helpful”.
Is this a fair assessment, though?
You’d expect us to agree with it as teenagers and graduates unhappy with the public sector’s free educational and career advice services are important client groups for us. We don’t – at least, not entirely.
Unlike the young people, we’d say the state’s national online and telephone careers information provision services are “EXCELLENT”. Learndirect, Connexions and Prospects all provide superb, easily searchable online information about a huge range of careers.
There are web sites covering the whole range of university courses provided in the UK and providing detailed information about individual universities and courses at the click of a mouse.
The Careers Advice telephone service (providing information about qualification courses and other formal training programmes plus discussion-based advice) is available 8.00am – 10.00pm, 7 days a week.
So why are the young people deeply unimpressed by the state-funded careers services?
We think it’s because of the inadequate career guidance work. This activity is vastly more expensive “per head” than providing careers information.
The state seems unwilling to meet the costs of funding a service that is “fit for the purpose” and young people suffer accordingly.
The following survey quotes show their disappointment and frustration:-
- “Advisors were good at directing me towards the right resources but didn’t give me any particular ideas of careers based on my interests and aptitudes, which is what I was hoping for”.
- “I felt as though I was a bottle in a factory on a manufacturing line, through the careers guidance machine and subsequently given the ill-fitting job label of news reporter’”.
- “There was no real matching of ability and the job market; I had to draw my own conclusions”.
We’d argue effective careers guidance depends on each individual having a significant amount of one to one discussion time with a trained, experienced and well-supported careers specialist.
In every case where wrong career decisions would be costly (eg choosing your degree subject), worthwhile educational and careers guidance should include thorough psychometric assessment.
Going to university now may leave students with £30K debt to pay off and it seems morally wrong to expect them to make their study choices without adequate guidance.
** Young people’s views on finding out about jobs and careers – British Youth Council, NCB and Young NCB online survey. The HTML link to the report itself still works (the pdf one doesn’t) – it’s www.byc.org.uk/asset_store/documents/careers_advice_and_guidance-final_151009.pdf.