Careers education, information advice and guidance for young people: developing and sustaining professional capacity19 January 2010

Event overview

 A key issue lies at the heart of the DCSF's new strategy for young people's IAG: as the strategy re-asserts the importance of professional specialisms such as careers work, how can we ensure that both elements of the schools-Connexions partnership have sufficient and sustainable capacity to deliver high-quality CEIAG?  This event presents relevant findings from two recently completed, complementary research projects, one on schools' careers coordinators, and one on careers advisers in Connexions.  The presentations and discussion informed current debates and consultations about professional qualifications, and related issues, such as learning through workplace practice, CPD, and appropriate infrastructures to ensure that professional capacity is not only adequate, but can be sustained and enhanced for the future.

Careers Co-ordinators in schools: roles and professional qualifications

In August 2008 the DCSF commissioned NFER and NICEC to research the role of careers co-ordinators in schools with a view to informing the development of professional qualifications for such postholders. The report and other papers were published in October 2009. The careers workforce is changing: we now know that in 1 in 4 schools in England the careers co-ordinator is not a qualified teacher and in 1 in 14 the position is held by a former careers adviser. As part of its recently published strategy for IAG, the DCSF is establishing a Task Force on the Careers Profession. In this session David Andrews, Senior Fellow of NICEC, presented an overview of the findings of the research and then led a discussion about the future development of professional qualifications for careers co-ordinators.  

Careers advisers in Connexions: the impact of policy on professional capacity

This session presented findings from a recently completed study, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The project focused on the professional roles, identities and practices of careers advisers who have worked as personal advisers in Connexions.  Against an initial background survey of the career guidance profession in this context, the research investigated the views of practitioners themselves, little heard in previous research on Connexions.  What has been the impact of working in Connexions on their career guidance expertise?  What are the emotional demands and ethical dilemmas they face, and how do these impact on their capacity?  Why have some decided to quit this sector of IAG altogether, and why do others stay?  Helen Colley, Professor of Lifelong Learning at Manchester Metropolitan University and Fellow of NICEC, and Dr Cathy Lewin, Senior Research Fellow at MMU, provided an overview of the project's findings, and led a discussion about their implications for the future development of the career guidance profession.

Please contact Allister McGowan for more information.