The future of careers education advice and guidance in England for schools and for adults

The future of careers education advice and guidance in England for schools and for adults

Westminster Employment Forum Keynote Seminar

Thursday 3^rd December 2015

The focus of the forum was on the future of careers education advice and guidance for people of all ages. The first half of the morning concentrated on young people in schools. It began with a presentation by Professor Tristram Hooley (iCegs, University of Derby) who talked about the lifelong nature of career development: “it’s no longer about matching”. Somewhat ironically, the presentations that followed went on to describe online matching tools! By the mid-morning break, I felt completely out of touch and asked two experienced people from the sector this question: “When did UCAS take over the world?” To my relief they were also unaware that the UCAS website now holds details of courses in FE at all levels and apprenticeships.

More details of online resources followed – the notable exception was a clear and passionate rebuff by Virginia Isaacs, the new CDI President, who stated “we have enough websites!” She went on to make a plea for personal careers support for clients.

The morning finished with a speech by Sam Gyimah MP, responsible for taking the lead on careers work under the watch of Nicky Morgan. When he spoke enthusiastically about the £20 million given to the Careers and Enterprise Company to encourage best practice in employer engagement with schools, thankfully Baroness Sharp of Guildford who was chairing the session asked if that was in any way meant to replace the £300 million that was cut from careers advice and guidance in 2010 – thank you Baroness!

Dr Barbara Bassot

CCPD in Europe and the Gulf

Anne Chant – Assistant Director of the Centre for Career and Personal Development

 This has been a busy few months at CCPD. In March three tutors and one of our doctoral students travelled to an ESREA conference at the University of Milano Bicocca. The conference was the ‘Biography and Life History’ part of the European Society for Research into the Education of Adults which explores the use of narratives and life story as a research methodology. It attracts researchers from a wide range of disciplines and from all over Europe and beyond, including South Korea, South Africa, Australia, Canada and the US.

The theme of creative expression was evident throughout and we explored not only the content and meaning of life stories but also the range of ways in which they can be told. This included dance, collage, fiction and poetry. Papers by CCPD staff Alison Fielding, Hazel Reid, Rebecca Tee and myself included topics such as:

·         The Teller, the Tale and the Told: re-membering and re-writing the self

·         Generations of strong women: the impact of social class on the educational and learning experiences of four generations of women.

·         Beyond rhetoric: moving toward transformative research with young unemployed people in the UK.

·         Using auto/biographical narration to understand the role of political inheritance in applied civics.

Later in March I travelled to Abu Dhabi where I spoke to the Gulf Education Conference  about a new model for career learning and development.  Schools in the region are very keen on developing career learning in schools and in colleges and universities as their labour market changes and matures.

 

 

We hope to work with partners in the region to deliver professional and academic training in careers work for those based in schools, colleges, Higher Educaton and in the work place.

Then in May Hazel Reid and I, as active members of the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling in Europe, attended the NICE 2 conference in Bratislava. This brought to a conclusion the work of NICE 1 and NICE 2 that was presented at the summit in Canterbury last September and hosted by CCPD.

http://www.nice-network.eu/

The conference in Bratislava explored ways in which the work of NICE on the professionalization of the sector and the establishment of competence standards for the training of careers professionals can now be established with in-country professional bodies; in the UK this will of course be the Career Development Institute.