The UK Commission for Employment and Skills have released a new report entitled Helping individuals succeed: Transforming career guidance. It is a thoughtful action orientated summary of a series of papers that the UK Commission has produced over the last year or so.
Key messages include:
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It is important to provide a diverse range of ways to access career guidance. Different technologies and different sources are likely to be important in ensuring that career guidance is available to all of those that need it.
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Technology is likely to be crucial in driving and enabling the development of career guidance in the future. It is important that individuals are digitally literate, but also that careers workers are able to use technologies to innovate.
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Giving people access to high quality career and labour market information is an essential underpinning of the career guidance system. New technologies make this easier and allow skilled individuals (or their intermediaries) to manipulate the information in ways that make it more relevant to them.
The paper then goes on to make the following proposals for government action. It argues that the government should
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help to broker new relationships between different parts of the sector
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work with key agencies and stakeholders to assure the quality of provision
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work with key agencies and stakeholders to support individuals to make good use of the career support market
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work with key stakeholders to make LMI available and accessible
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support the professionalisation of the careers practitioner workforce
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work with key stakeholders to review and evaluate the operation and efficiency of the career support market
The paper is based on the following papers – which are all also worth a look
Expert paper 1
‘Careering through the Web’. The potential of Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies for career development and career support services’ (iCeGS, June 2010)
http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/bispartners/ukces/docs/publications/careering-through-the-web.pdf
Expert paper 2
‘Labour Market Information (LMI), Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)’. The way forward?’ (Warwick Institute for Employment Research, June 2010)
http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/bispartners/ukces/docs/publications/lmi-ict-and-iag.pdf
Expert paper 3
‘Enhancing choice? The role of technology in the career support market’ (iCeGS, January 2011)
http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/bispartners/ukces/docs/publications/enhancing-choice-the-role-of-technology-in-the-career-support-market.pdf
Expert paper 4
‘The use of LMI in career direction and learning’ (GHK, January 2011)
http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/bispartners/ukces/docs/publications/the-use-of-lmi-in-online-career-direction-and-learning.pdf
Expert paper 5
‘Integrating new technologies into careers practice: Extending the knowledge base’ (IER, March 2011)
http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/bispartners/ukces/docs/publications/integrating-new-technololgies-into-careers-practice.pdf
Expert paper 6
‘Career Guidance. Understanding the behaviour of individuals’ (INON (summarised by UK Commission), July 2011)
http://www.ukces.org.uk/publications/career-guidance
Adventures in Career Development 