International Perspectives on Career Guidance Tony Watts

Policy Reviews  OECD: 14 countries  World Bank: 7 middle-income countries  ETF: 11 EU candidate countries  EC: all existing EU member-states  ETF: West Balkans; Middle East  Plus others  In total, 55 countries

European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN)  Career management skills  Access  Quality and impact evidence  Co-operation and co-ordination  Resource Kit for Policy-Makers  Focus for : implementation at member-country level

All-Age Services  Strong arguments in favour: - cost-effectiveness; - cost-effectiveness; - enables young people to be familiarised with services they can continue to use; - enables young people to be familiarised with services they can continue to use; - avoids rigid and artificial cut-off points, in midst of prolonged transitions - avoids rigid and artificial cut-off points, in midst of prolonged transitions  Professional spine for lifelong career guidance system, working in close partnership with other providers: mix of service delivery and capacity building  Main exemplars: New Zealand; Scotland; Wales

National Careers Service  Designed to build on the best of Connexions and Next Step  Half-baked implementation: - Face-to-face services only for adults (NCS providers able to market face-to-face services for young people, but not as the NCS) - Face-to-face services only for adults (NCS providers able to market face-to-face services for young people, but not as the NCS) - Telephone helplines still separate, if with same call number - Telephone helplines still separate, if with same call number - Website still adult-oriented - Website still adult-oriented - Limited channel integration and service redesign - Limited channel integration and service redesign - Limited marketing - Limited marketing

Careers Provision for Young People  Move from partnership model to school- based model  Minimal statutory duty  Where external services are used, contractor-supplier relationship, within an open market  Connexions career guidance funding (£196m) not transferred to schools: effectively removed (without any public statement to this effect)

Systemic Weaknesses of School- Based Systems (OECD)  Weak links to labour market; tend to view subject/course choices as educational choices, without attending to their career implications  Partial: where funding is linked to student retention, tend to place institutional needs before student needs  Uneven: extent and quality of provision determined by school management priorities  Cf. strengths of partnership model

Move to School-Based Model  Two precedents: Netherlands; New Zealand  In both cases, resulted in significant reductions in extent and quality of careers provision  But in both cases, the previous funding for the external service was transferred to schools (if without strong ring-fencing); not the case in England  So reductions likely to be greater here

Netherlands  Particularly relevant to England: linked to marketisation  OECD (2002): position of Government ‘widely seen as representing not delegation but abdication’  Previously one of the leading countries in Europe for career guidance provision: now one of the weakest

Ireland  School-based system: guidance counsellors covering personal/social counselling as well as career guidance  Ex-quota formula: one guidance counsellor for every 500 students  Formula now withdrawn: left to school to decide

Possible Future Directions  Enforce the three-pronged quality framework: - professional standards (CDI) - professional standards (CDI) - service standards (Matrix) - service standards (Matrix) - organisational standards (QiCS; IiP) - organisational standards (QiCS; IiP)  Make schools accountable

Possible Directions for the NCS  Resource for innovation, knowledge support (LMI) and capacity building within schools and colleges, and other organisations, alongside its distance guidance services and more limited face- to-face services (cf. New Zealand)  Extend to cover all quality-assured career development support provision, with a common brand as basis for marketing and public visibility/recognition

Career Support Market: Roles of Government (OECD)  Premise: career support a public good as well as a private good  To grow the market  To quality-assure the market  To compensate for market failure