Career guidance policy

What it is and why it matters

Professor Tristram Hooley
Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences

Presentation in Lillehammer 09/03/2018

 My definition of career
Career is… the individual’s journey through life, learning and
work.

It is the place where the individual meets organisations and

institutions. It is where individual psychology and aspirations
meet social structure.

In this sense everyone has a career.

Career deals with
chaos and
complexity

We are always changing.

The world and the labour

market are always
changing.

Career guidance deals with

the relationship between the
two.
 OECD definition
Career guidance refers to services and activities intended
to assist individuals, of any age and at any point
throughout their lives, to make educational, training and
occupational choices and to manage their careers…
The activities may take place on an individual or group
basis, and may be face-to-face or at a distance (including
help lines and web-based services).
(OECD, 2004)
 Our definition
“Career guidance supports individuals and groups
to discover more about work, leisure and learning
and to consider their place in the world and plan
for their futures… Career guidance can take a
wide range of forms and draws on diverse
theoretical traditions. But at its heart it is a
purposeful learning opportunity which supports
individuals and groups to consider and reconsider
work, leisure and learning in the light of new
information and experiences and to take both
individual and collective action as a result of this.”
 Career guidance is a ‘global
travelling idea’

As it travels it carries with it assumptions about

what constitutes a career, how such a career
should be built and what would be appropriate and
useful career support.

It also encounters new circumstances that require

it to be adapted and retheorised.

It is different every where, but there is ‘community

of practice’ that provides us all with strength and
solidarity.
 International networks of collaboration
• International Association of Educational and Vocational Guidance
(IAEVG)
• International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy
(ICCDPP)
• Euroguidance
• Erasmus projects and exchanges
• Numerous international conferences and events
• SOCIAL MEDIA!
 What is…
• policy / politics (politikk)?

Where
• legislation (lovgivning)?
does this
come from
• regulation (regulering)? in Norway?

• advice or guidance (råd)?

 Discussion
• Who benefits from career guidance?

• Who pays for career guidance?

 An international policy area
• 55 national reviews of career guidance systems. Policy and practice exist in
many more countries.
• During the late 1990s and early 2000s there were a number of large scale
cross national studies conducted by OECD, EU, World Bank, ILO etc. which
drew out key themes in policy and practice.
 Key themes
Career guidance is strongest in Europe and the English speaking world.
It is weakest in the developing world and in countries with weak
democratic structures and large informal labour markets.
While a small private sector exists in many of these countries – the
majority of funding comes from the public sector.
Career guidance is best organised as a lifelong system, but in most places
it mainly exists in silos within the education system.
Responsibility for career guidance is typically spread across a range of
ministries. This weakens it as a policy area.
International
examples

• Career guidance
takes different
forms in different
countries.

• But a wide range of

countries are
investing in it to
achieve a range of
policy aims.
 European resolution
on integrating guidance (2008)
Rationales for the integration of guidance into lifelong
learning strategies
• Globalisation
• European mobility
• Multiple life transitions
• Skills mismatches
• Social inclusion and equal opportunities
 How does this work in Norway?
User group Government department Entitlement to career Main delivery
guidance mechanism
Young people in schools
Young people in college
Young people (NEET)
High education students
Working adults
Unemployed/not
working people
Prisoners
Other…?
 Career guidance is
both…
• part of an effectively
functioning education and
employment system; and

• a safeguard against ineffective

and imperfect systems.
Career guidance as a
‘nudging’ intervention
 Public policy rationales
Learning aims
• Participation in vocational
and higher education.
• Reducing early school-
leaving.
• Enabling learning mobility
• Efficient investment in
education and training.
• Lifelong learning
Labour market aims Social aims
•Labour market efficiency • Active ageing
•Flexibility/flexicurity. • Social equity.
•Supporting employment • Social inclusion
mobility
•Youth employment.
•Active labour markets
•Effective skills utilisation.
•Employee engagement.
What are the political drivers in Norway?
 Evidence base for lifelong guidance

Focus on the individual Support learning and Ensure quality

• Lifelong
Lifelong and
and progressive.
progressive. progression • Ensuring
Ensuring professionalism.
professionalism.
• Connected
Connected to to wider
wider experience.
experience. • Involving
Involving employers
employers and
and working
working • Making
Making use
use of
of career
career information.
information.
•• Recognising the diversity of individuals people,
people, and
and providing
providing active
active •• Assuring quality and evaluating
and
and their
their needs.
needs. experiences of workplaces. provision.
provision.
•• Not
Not one
one intervention,
intervention, but
but many.
many.
• Developing
Developing career management skills.
career management skills.
• Holistic
Holistic and
and well-integrated
well-integrated into
into other
other
services.
services.
 Recommendations from
ICCDPP 2017
• The International Centre for Career Development and
Public Policy (ICDDPP) is an international forum for
sharing policy and practice around career guidance/career
development.

• The 2017 meeting was held in Korea with 21 countries in

attendance.

• It produced a series of international recommendations for

governments across the world.
 The way that work is organised is changing,
so…
Build a national, cross-sectoral, career
development strategy.
Recognise that individuals’ careers
pass through the jurisdictions of a
range of government departments.
Involve employers in building career
development systems.
Widen access to career development
services.
Organise career development on a
lifelong basis.
To make sure that your careers programmes
are relevant and effective…
Involve key stakeholders (parents,
employers, educators and citizens) in the
design and delivery of career development
programmes and services.
Ensure individuals have access to work
experience and work-related learning.
Provide good quality labour market
information (LMI).
Make use of technology.
Support employers to provide career
development services for their staff.
Base policies and practice in evidence.
 Career development is dependent on
professionalism, so…
Involve stakeholders in the design and
delivery of career professional training
and development.
Actively support professionalism.
Develop approaches for effective inter-
professional working.
Ensure high quality initial training.
Support the development of
professional associations.
Recognise the need for ongoing
professional development.
 Build career development skills through engagement with
career guidance, so…

• Clearly define career development

skills.
• Create a common conversation
around career development skills.
• Integrate career development skills
into the education and employment
systems.
• Actively support advocacy by
career professionals for the use of
career development skills.
The next ICCDPP in 2019
Implementation – the example of England
 Good career guidance
• Summarises existing evidence
and frames them as eight
benchmarks.
• Presents it in a way that can be
understood by policy makers and
acted on by school leaders.
• Has achieved wide support
amongst policy actors and
practitioners alike.
 The Benchmarks
2. Learning from 4. Linking
1. A stable 3. Addressing the
career and curriculum
careers needs of each
labour market learning and
programme pupil
information careers

5. Encounters 7. Encounters
6. Experiences of 8. Personal
with employers with further and
workplaces guidance
and employees higher education
 COMPASS
(www.compass-careers.org.uk)
 Number of benchmarks
met by schools
30%
28.4%
% of schools who have completed Compass

25%

20.6% 20.9%
20%

15% 14.4%

10% 9.5%

5% 3.5%
1.6%
0.7% 0.5%
0%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Number of benchmarks achieved

What difference does all of this make to your practice?
 References
• Department for Education. (2017). Careers Strategy: Making the Most of Everyone’s Skills and Talents. London:
Department for Education.
• Czarniawska, B., and Sevón, G. (2006). Global ideas: How ideas, objects, and practices travel in the global
economy. Administrative Science Quarterly, 51(3), 512–514.
• Gatsby Charitable Foundation. (2014). Good Career Guidance. London: Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
• Hooley, T. (2014). The Evidence Base on Lifelong Guidance. Jyväskylä, Finland: European Lifelong Guidance Policy
Network.
• Hooley, T. and Barham, L. (Eds.). (2015). Career Development Policy and Practice: The Tony Watts Reader.
Stafford: Highflyers.
• Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. and Thomsen, R. (2017). The neoliberal challenge to career guidance - mobilising
research, policy and practice around social justice. In Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. and Thomsen, R. (Eds.) Career
guidance for social justice: Contesting neoliberalism. London: Routledge.
• International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy. (2017). Communique 2017. Seoul: Krivet.
• McCarthy, J. & Hooley, T. (2015). Integrated Policies: Creating Systems That Work . Adel, IA : Kuder.
• Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2004). Career Guidance and Public Policy:
Bridging the Gap. Paris: OECD.
• The Careers & Enterprise Company. (2017). State of the Nation 2017. London: The Careers & Enterprise Company.
• Watts, A.G. (2014). Cross-national reviews of career guidance systems: overview and reflections. Journal of the
National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 32, 4-14.
 So what?
• Career guidance is everywhere
• Policy and politics matter. Without it career guidance barely exists.
• Governments of all types, in a vast range of countries, identify reasons
to fund support and develop career guidance in their countries.
• There are also people like you all over the world. Reach out to them
for mutual learning and exchange.
• By working and learning together across national borders we are all
stronger.
 Tristram Hooley
Director of Research, The Careers & Enterprise Company /Professor of
Career Education, University of Derby / Professor II, Inland Norway
University of Applied Sciences

Email: thooley@careersandenterprise.co.uk
Twitter: @pigironjoe
Blog: http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.wordpress.com