ISE is backing the Career Guidance Guarantee

Oct 6, 2021 | Sector & policy | 1 comment

ISE is backing a new call for government to provide a Career Guidance Guarantee, ISE’s Tristram Hooley explains why.

As part of last year’s Plan for Jobs, Chancellor Rishi Sunak gave strong support for career guidance.

‘Career guidance works’ he argued and so directed new funding into the area. In a period of labour market turbulence, providing young people and adults with help, information and advice about how to navigate the education system, find work and build a career seemed obvious.

But, as is often the case government’s rhetoric ran ahead of the reality. The funding announced by Sunak has been slow to make an impact and it remains difficult for many young people to access the career guidance they need.

This is also a problem for employers as careers leaders in schools and careers services in further and higher education are central to our ability to connect to the education system and recruit students.

Everyone agrees that career guidance is important, but we need a much clearer framework if young people and employers are really going to be able to make the best use of it.

 

Career Guidance Guarantee

ISE has joined with a range of other sector bodies to create the Career Development Policy Group (CDPG). This group campaigns for good quality career education and guidance to be available to the whole population, and particularly for young people.

With the CDPG we have developed a proposal for government which we call the Career Guidance Guarantee.

The Career Guidance Guarantee argues that career guidance helps people manage their life, learning and work. People’s careers develop over their lives, so they need lifelong access to career guidance.

There is extensive evidence which demonstrates that career guidance is an important part of the education and employment system. Where career guidance operates well, it supports the effective functioning of labour markets and skills alignment, bringing economic and social benefits.

The Career Guidance Guarantee then goes on to set out a Framework for what should be done in schools and colleges, universities, for unemployed workers and for those in the workplace.

It argues that the government needs to fund schools to finish the Gatsby revolution which has begun to transform career guidance in schools, to take action to challenge youth unemployment and ensure that graduates’ have the support that they need for their careers. It also argues that there is a need for better career support for adults and that all of this should be backed up by clear strategy and a professionalised workforce.

 

You are invited to the launch

If you are interested in finding out more about the work of the Career Development Policy Group you can attend the Career Guidance Guarantee Launch. This will be taking place on Wednesday 20 October from 2-3:30pm.

This virtual event is an opportunity to learn all about the Career Guidance Guarantee from key members of the CDPG, as well as hear how you can show your support. Tickets are free and can be booked now. 

Book your ticket to the Career Guidance Guarantee Launch

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  1. Ian

    This looks very promising (and long overdue), and will be interesting to see how it develops in reality. What with school and college budgets, etc, being as challenging as they are it will be interesting to see what state and private schools identify as ‘good quality career education and guidance’, and who actually delivers that. I recently attended a short CDI course on Careers Guidance in Education, and was surprised to see that I was the only Career Qualified and Practicing professional on it, the remainder being state school subject matter teachers (Geography, English, PE, Etc), who’s organisations had allocated some of their hours as the school Career ‘person’. Lets hope that this does not continue, and that funding is made available for the ‘right’ person to do the right job.

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