1. Providing effective Career guidance
Annual Career Development Services Stakeholders Conference
7-8 April 2016, Benoni, South Africa
Providing effective Career guidance
Mark Keese
Head of Employment Analysis and Policy Division
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
OECD

2. High unemployment persists together with significant skills shortages
Unemployment rate, 2015 (%)
% of firms reporting difficulties in filling jobs, 2015
Across the OECD, 6.9% of individuals
in the labour force were unemployed mid-2015.
In South Africa, this was 24.9%
Worldwide, 38% of firms said they were experiencing difficulties filling jobs in 2015.
In South Africa, this was 31%.
Source: Unemployment rate, OECD Short-Term Labour Market Statistics Database; recruitment difficulties, ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey 2015.

3. Some megatrends are rapidly changing the demand for skills
Digital revolution
Globalisation
Environmental challenges
Demographic change

4. This highlights the importance of providing effective career guidance
Skills mismatch and shortages have important economic costs:
At the individual level, skills mismatch has a negative impact on job satisfaction and wages
At the firm level, mismatch reduces productivity and increases on-the- job search and turnover, while shortages increase the cost of hiring and hinder the adoption of new technologies
At the macroeconomic level, mismatch increases equilibrium unemployment and reduces GDP growth via misallocation of human capital and/or the reduction in productivity it generates, while skills shortages have equally adverse effects on labour productivity and growth
Career guidance services can also promote social inclusion by avoiding drop-out from school and helping those with the greatest difficulties in finding employment

5. A paradigm shift in career guidance I
In the past: matching people to jobs (making expert recommendations about what people should do)
Today: helping people make their own decisions, based on a true understanding of their abilities, skills, interests and values, and of the options open to them
=>universal lifelong guidance system capable of supporting a lifelong learning strategy
=> assist people of any age and at any point in their lives, to make education, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers

6. A paradigm shift in career guidance II
In the past: helping young people make immediate choices
Today: assist people of any age and at any point in their lives, to make education, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers

7. Some key challenges Widening access Flexible delivery Demand- driven
Involving
employers
Involving
PES
Frag-
mentation
Profession-
alisation
Resources
Impartiality
Good
information
Evaluation
Quality

8. Good practice Start early Part of the curriculum
Experience of workplaces
Provide lifelong guidance supporting lifelong learning
Teach individuals learning and career management skills
Involve the appropriate key players
Encourage coordination and cooperation
Put in place quality-assurance mechanisms
Develop a separate profession of career advisors
Preserve the independence of guidance professionals from the institutions
Regularly update information sources
Provide adequate resources for guidance services

9. Some interesting examples
Korea Job World
Ontario Individual Pathways Plan (Canada)
Benin Careers Saturday
Korea Job World
An interactive vocational experience centre providing career guidance to the public in general, and young people in particular. It consists of an square metre, six-story building, offering visitors a unique opportunity to explore and experience various occupations and career opportunities in an interactive way. It is designed to help people obtain a realistic view about possible professional choices and prospects, and to give career advice based on individual interests and aptitude.
Ontario Individual Pathways Plan (Canada)
A web-based tool aimed at students in grades 7-12 which helps them develop an Individual Pathways Plan that they review and revise twice a year. The plan helps students: to identify their interests and strengths; explore opportunities; make meaningful decisions; and set goals for the future. Typically, the tool provides access to a bank of career profiles and an interest-matching facility, as well as a host of optional modules including opportunities to interact online with employers.
Benin Careers Saturday
Since 2012, Benins’s public employment service (ANPE) has been organising the Careers Saturday which aims to provide youth with guidance and information to obtain a job that is connected to a career interest by brining together government, employers, training providers, education institutions and the community. A series of activities seek to provide youth at an early age with meaningful information about the occupations and career options linked to dynamic economic sectors or with the potential for job creation.

10. New opportunities Innovative and more diverse delivery
methods can be used to widen
access to career guidance on a
more cost-effective basis:
Group guidance
Self-help techniques
Use of community members to deliver parts of programmes
Creation of open access resource centres
Wider use of support staff
Outreach methods
ICT can play a potentially important role in widening access, and can be used for purposes that range from the provision of information to raising people’s self-awareness and improving their decision-making

11. Effective career guidance requires good intelligence about labour market needs
Systems and tools for assessing and anticipating skills needs exist in all countries, but approaches vary significantly:
How skills are measured
Time span
Methods
National/regional/sectoral scope
The most common approaches include medium-term occupational forecasts or assessments of current skill needs inferred from labour market information or vacancy surveys
Good quality career information is essential for good quality career guidance

12. A key challenge is how to use such information effectively for policy
Information on skill needs has the potential to inform various policy dimensions
Employment policy
Education policy
Migration policy
Findings from new OECD work shows that
Linking these exercises to more specific policies may help to overcome some of these challenges, but at the risk of losing wider relevance
Information about skills needs is most effectively used in policy making when there is good co- ordination across ministries and strong stakeholders’ involvement

13. Providing effective careers guidance: Specific challenges for South Africa
Career guidance provision remains patchy
Lack of data on the outcomes of training
The lack of clear negotiated roles and responsibilities for the various stakeholders
Sharing of experiences
Standardisation of services
Role of the new public employment service

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