Last year I was involved in producing a number of literature reviews for the Skills Funding Agency. These are now being released and so I’ll be blogging about them.
First up we wrote a paper which looked at the role of brokerage within career guidance.
The review found that there were considerable benefits to the brokering of relationships between education and employment. For schools, colleges and pupils these included improved motivation and attainment; contextualisation of learning; reduction in NEET; greater understanding of industries and educational pathways; clarification of career aspirations; and improved transitions into further and higher education, training or the workplace. For employers this included the development of company personnel; the building of a positive reputation for organisations and the contribution to business recruitment strategies.
We also identified a range of features that needed to be in place for brokerage to be effective. These include:
- Identifying the right personnel to be involved in brokerage work.
- Creating the right mode of operation between schools and businesses.
- Identifying the appropriate driver for partnership.
- Clarity about what is required and what the commitments will be.
We argue that at the heart of effective brokerage is building a good understanding of both the educational organisation and the employer. We conceptualised the relationship between careers organisations and educational providers as follows.
We then conceptualised the relationship between careers organisations and employers as follows.
For further information see the paper.
Hallam, R., Morris, M., Hooley, T., Neary, S., and Mackay, S. (2015). The Role of Brokerage within Career Guidance: A Review of the Literature. London and Derby: SQW and International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
Adventures in Career Development 