#TheWeekInCareers - Episode 30
Chris Webb
Career Development Professional (RCDP) / Careers Writer / Podcaster / AI x Careers Trainer, Presenter and Consultant
Welcome to #TheWeekinCareers! If you are a first-time reader (and congratulations if so, you are now part of a 2000+ strong community!), this newsletter is my attempt at summarising some of the key #Careers-related news from across the #Careersphere each week, along with some of the talking points I feel are worthy of further debate amongst the #Careers community! So, without further ado, on to the news!
The Past, Present and (possible) Future of the CEIAG Landscape in England 🔮
This week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the latest network meeting of Linking London IAG Network - Linking London is a partnership of educational organisations in the capital that work collectively to support recruitment, retention and progression on to and through higher education, with an emphasis on widening participation, student engagement and success, social mobility and the pursuit of social justice through education. The Linking London IAG Network had asked me to present on the current CEIAG landscape in England and what the future might hold, and while the content is fresh in my mind, I thought what better an item to kick off our latest newsletter! Read on for my take on the past, present and (possible) future of the CEIAG policy landscape in England…
The Past – I certainly can’t claim to be any sort of expert on the full history of the careers sector in England but thankfully, the careers community has knowledgeable folk like Anthony Barnes , who has provided a helpful breakdown in the latest Career Matters (see below for more) of some of the key stages in the professionalisation of the career development sector that have been brought about by different policy initiatives:
1973 – Careers goes local (and free for all!) – This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Employment and Training Act, which placed a duty on Local Education Authorities in England and Wales (and Education Authorities in Scotland) to provide a careers service that was free for all young people. As Anthony Barnes writes in his excellent piece for Career Matters this month (referenced in our second newsletter item), this legislation marked the beginning of schools and colleges working more closely together to provide careers education and guidance, rather than just moving young people into employment.
1993 – Careers goes private – Another anniversary this year is the 30th for the 1993 Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act, which saw the duty for providing CEIAG removed from local government and placed with the Secretary of State for Employment in England, and the respective offices in Wales and Scotland. As Anthony Barnes notes, this paved the way for privatisation of careers services, with the various Pathfinder areas all put out to tender by the government by 1996. This led to the formation of a range of new career guidance companies, with an increased emphasis on areas like marketing and the creation of high-quality resources, training and development. From 1997 onward, there was a further shift in the priorities of career guidance companies, following the creation of the 47 Connexions Partnerships, which had their own targets and priority groups.
2011 – Careers goes back to school (but where is the money?) – The Education Act 2011 arguably saw the break up of the CEIAG model, with the (unfunded) statutory requirement for securing independent career guidance for pupils put back on schools, alongside the removal of the statutory duty to provide careers education and work-related learning, the impact of which we are still feeling today. The end of Connexions also meant the end of £100 million+ per year for the careers ecosystem (although experienced careers professionals always remind me that the ringfenced funding for CEIAG was removed long before Connexions was even created) and although the National Careers Service was created in 2012, the promised all-age service never materialised. Against this backdrop, the Career Development Institute was born in 2013, with four of the main professional bodies for the sector coming together to form a single organisation, that is still lobbying to improve the standards of CEIAG in England and the other Home Nations as we speak!
2017 - A new strategy is born - 2017 saw the launch of the government's Careers strategy: making the most of everyone’s skills and talents, which saw the rise of The Careers & Enterprise Company and led to the prevalence of now-household names like the Gatsby Benchmarks, Baker Clause and Career Leaders in schools and colleges. Since then, we've seen Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledge a limited £32m to the National Careers Service and plenty of mood music from Robert Halfon MP and others regarding the possibility of a new careers strategy (the 2017 version expired in 2020), but nothing concrete as of yet...
The Present – I'm usually loathe to use the expression VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) but based on the current CEIAG landscape in England, it feels at least somewhat appropriate. Careers professionals in England currently have a raft of policy proposals and 'new stuff' to keep on top of, including:
✨ Forthcoming changes to the UCAS application process, including the addition of apprenticeships on the platform from 2024
✨ A potentially seismic change to student finance and lifelong learning through the launch of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement from 2025, which will provide a flexible loan of £37,000 (or up to four years of funding) for adult learners to spend as they see fit on a variety of courses, qualifications and modules.
✨ The ongoing Primary Careers pilot, which is due to run until 2025
✨ The creation of the new Unit for Future Skills, which is set to (hopefully) improve the way we access national, regional and sectoral LMI, alongside the possible creation of a new one-stop LMI hub from the government (estimated completion date: see HS2...)
✨ An upcoming thematic review of career guidance from Ofsted (due to be published this Autumn), which will focus on the quality of careers guidance in schools/FE (not sure where the expertise in HMI is coming from there...), the strengths and weaknesses in school/FE careers provision and identify developments for the inspection framework for Ofsted, where CEIAG is concerned.
✨ The Office for Students (OfS) new B3 conditions (evaluating universities on students' Continuation, Completion and Progression from their degrees), which have the potential to not only hugely influence the courses that universities offer but IMO could also pose a more existential question about what we believe the purpose of education (and in particular HE) is in our society today and what responsibilities education providers should have when it comes to the clients (or customers, in the case of HE) they serve.
✨ Recruitment and retention issues across the careers sector, with many schools, colleges and career guidance providers struggling to find suitably qualified careers professionals, while an already aging workforce means that turnover within the sector over the next 5 years is likely to be extremely high.
✨ And of course, the hotly anticipated release of the findings from the Education Select Committee hearings into CEIAG in England, which I've written about at length in this newsletter! Catch up (if you can stomach it) via the link below:
The (possible) Future - I've deliberately kept the caveat 'possible' in this subheading, as frankly there is an awful lot that could change over the next year, particularly if the forthcoming General Election (which could take place this year or in 2024 - predict at your peril!) results in a significant change of government. Both Labour (1000 new careers advisers for schools!) and the Liberal Democrats (Skills Wallets! Devolved funding for careers delivery!) have released reports outlining their vision for parts of the CEIAG ecosystem (which you can read here and here) but how much of this will survive when final manifestos are published is too early to say. But what do we know now? Well, the much-hyped follow-up to the 2017 Careers Strategy does appear to be at least taking shape, with Robert Halfon MP identifying his 'Three Pillars' (not be confused with his '5-Runged Ladder of Opportunity') for the future of the careers space in England at a recent Education Select Committee hearing:
As I discussed in a previous issue of the newsletter, there is a lot to unpack here and what this will look like in practice is anyone's guess. As I've bored readers with numerous times over the last few months, most disappointing of all (in regard to the Education Select Committee hearings) has been the almost non-existent mention of career development professionals and the understanding of how career guidance is delivered, in spite of the fact this is one of the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks that the government is so keen for all schools and colleges to meet. Coupled with this, we also have the uncertainty over the Lifelong Loan Entitlement and what adult guidance will look like moving forward, as well as the current consultation into what the next 10 years of the Gatsby Benchmarks could look like, which is still open for submissions as we speak:
Against this backdrop, the careers profession itself is struggling with the recruitment/retention issues mentioned above, a lack of diversity in the sector and ongoing challenges with pay and recognition, both from employers and the wider public. All that said, the recent #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs campaign (led by Katherine Jennick RCDP and Bella Doswell CCDP, RCDP ) showed that careers professionals can be a resilient bunch and it's vital that all of us in the careers community channel this spirit as we continue to operate in a predictably unpredictable CEIAG landscape (in England, at least...):
What are your thoughts on the CEIAG landscape in England, both in terms of what's happening right now and what could be coming down the track in 2023 and beyond? Is there anything major I've missed above or any particular issues you feel are going to be more pressing moving forward? Answers, as always, on a #TheWeekInCareers postcard! 📫
Career Matters in Review – April 2023 Edition! 🔎
It’s April, which can only mean one thing for Career Development Institute members – we’ve just received our latest copy of the CDI’s quarterly Career Matters magazine, which as always contains a veritable cornucopia of thoughtful articles, occupational insights and diverse perspectives from a range of careers professionals. As usual, #TheWeekInCareers has spotlighted our three favourite pieces from the latest Career Matters, along with a breakdown of what else you’ll find in the publication this time around…
Up first, Joanne Saward shares findings from her MA dissertation research on the subject of TikTok, and how different careers practitioners are leveraging the platform to support their careers practice. Although use of TikTok amongst careers professionals is becoming more common (from individual practitioners through to HE careers services), it is still a relatively unexplored space and Joanne's breakdown of her research data into 4 key themes - Credibility, Conciseness, Engagement and Authenticity - is a really helpful way to frame some of the benefits and potential drawbacks of using this platform for CEIAG purposes. The overriding message is that TikTok is absolutely not a one-size-fits-all tool for careers professionals - while some practitioners have leaned into popular trends like the use of contemporary music/dance as a hook, others have focused on distilling their usual careers messages into a much shorter format, as both a point of professional development and to increase the potential for engagement with their client group, by 'going where they are'. A cracking read!
Next up, a really important piece from the inimitable Sarfraz Ahmed , regarding his experiences as one of the first ethnic minority careers advisers in the UK. Candid as ever, Sarfraz Ahmed details his journey from a trainee careers adviser at Nottingham Trent University to a storied career with the team at Leicester College, reflecting on the challenges he experienced entering the profession due to his race, religion and gender, and the importance of role models for individuals from minoritised groups in helping people feel they have a place within a profession or industry. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is a hot topic for many sectors and organisations and often runs the risk of being a tick-box exercise when not considered carefully, so examples of lived experiences like Sarfraz's and the recommendations he puts forward for helping to increase the diversity of professionals in the sector (from rethinking the make-up of interview panels to actively trying to recruit careers professionals from BAME backgrounds) are extremely important, and build on the vital consultancy work already taking place in this space via Ifza Shakoor , David Morgan and the Career Development Institute .
For our final highlight, Julia Yates writes on a topic that is close to the heart of many careers professionals - career development theories and why, where and how we use them to enhance our practice. In her article, Julia Yates identifies some of the core challenges with career theories (for a start, there are LOADS, and they aren't always clearly explained in a way that allows them to be practically applied when working with clients) and then breaks down some positive examples of when career theories do benefit practitioners, highlighting instances where theories help lead clients to deeper understanding of themselves, enhance the confidence and credibility of practitioners and act as a valuable tool for reflection on professional practice. A really helpful read for any careers professionals who love a good career theory but aren't always sure how to leverage these within their practice!
That's just a flavour of what is in this issue of Career Matters, as April's edition also includes the following:
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✨ Updates from the Home Nations via Claire O'Reilly (Northern Ireland), Carolyn Parry (Wales), Pete Robertson (Scotland) and David Morgan (England)!
✨ A nice piece on the language we use to describe careers interventions with clients from Nikki S. and Jo-Anne Rampling
✨ Anthony Barnes raids the CDI archives for a journey down memory lane, highlighting three key dates that represent an important stage in the professionalisation of the career development sector (while also inadvertently supporting the prep for my Linking London presentation!)
✨ Caroline Green (RCDP, MCDI, Assoc. CIPD) reflects on the fantastic #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs campaign in February, spearheaded by the fab Katherine Jennick RCDP and Bella Doswell CCDP, RCDP !
✨ There are three excellent LMI-focused pieces for your reading pleasure - Claire Sosienski Smith tells all about the work of the recently established Unit for Future Skills, Charlie Ball dissects the goings on in the Graduate Labour Market over the past couple of years, and Helen Janota challenges careers professionals to consider how we can make the best use of LMI with our clients in challenging times!
✨ As always, there are some valuable occupational articles for careers professionals to sink their teeth into - Rachel Clark lifts the lid on careers in Town Planning, while Liz Booth and Andy Potts explain more about the alternative careers available in the Allied Health professions!
✨ Once again, the Careers Writers' Association is out in force, with articles from Chris Targett RCDP (regarding a new model/tool for reflective practice), Liz Painter (exploring how teachers can include young people's part-time work as learning opportunities in the classroom) and Gill Sharp (who provides an obituary for Miss Catherine Avent OBE, one of the founding members of our profession).
✨ Professional development is well covered in this issue, with Claire Johnson celebrating the history of the Qualification in Career Development (QCD), David Morgan providing an overview of the latest CDI #BigListen survey and Avril Hannon reflecting on 10 years of the CDI.
✨ In a unique piece, Mark Grant and Toby Grant take on the university application process through a father-and-son lens, considering the perspective of admissions teams, careers professionals and applicants!
✨ As always, there are some excellent book and website reviews provided by members of the careers community, including Hilary Nickell , Michelle Stewart , Helen Watts and Sue Holly , including a peek at Charlotte Housden (Sheridan) 's fantastic Swim, Jump, Fly - A Guide for Changing Your Life!
✨ The Last Word in April's Career Matters goes to Ajaz Hussain , who provides a fascinating insight into the development of the careers ecosystem in Saudi Arabia!
Kudos as always to Dr Oliver Jenkin PGCE RCDP MNCPS (Acc.) FNICEC and the Career Matters Editorial Board for putting together another fantastic edition of the magazine, which continues to be a vital read for the membership!
CDI members can read the full Career Matters magazine at their leisure by heading to the CDI website and logging in to the members area – if you are not yet a CDI member and are potentially interested in joining the professional body, all the relevant information on how to do this can be found below! 👇
AGCAS Phoenix in Review – Supporting Taught Postgraduate Students 📰
Continuing this week’s theme of shamelessly recycling the excellent work of other careers professionals, our final newsletter item sees us focus on another careers-related publication, the AGCAS Phoenix Journal, the most recent version of which featured a spotlight on how HE careers services are supporting taught postgraduate students at their respective institutions. If this sounds a tad niche, think again – universities have seen a substantial increase in the number of students taking up postgraduate study over the past few years, both in terms of UK and international students, and considering how to tailor CEIAG to the specific needs of PGT students is very much still a hot topic in the sector!
With this in mind, #TheWeekInCareers has picked out three tasty morsels from the latest edition of AGCAS Phoenix for your reading pleasure (along with a link to the full journal below) – well worth taking a peek if you have even a passing interest in HE careers and some of the innovative approaches careers professionals are adopting to best support taught postgraduate students with their career development…
Navigating Careers Support for International Postgraduates – In an issue with a number of great articles outlining how careers services are supporting international postgrads in different ways (including a really nice piece from my colleagues Claire Aydogan and Julie Bhagat at The University of Huddersfield ), it was tough to spotlight just one but this write-up by Suzanne Agnew and Kay Barbour , Career Consultants at the University of Edinburgh, particularly caught my eye. In their article, Suzanne and Kay detail the asynchronous 6-week transition course that masters students engage with at the university before commencing their taught postgraduate studies, which then leads directly into the synchronous Masters Careers programme that launches in Welcome Week and takes place over the course of Semesters 1 and 2. What’s really nice about this approach is that it incorporates reflective practice, peer discussion and a holistic approach to career development (including academic skills) that helps students consider how postgraduate study fits with their career goals and feel more confident about making the transition from UG to PG. With many universities seeking to balance the challenges of scaling-up careers delivery to their PGTs while simultaneously ensuring this content is as relevant as possible, this is a very timely and useful read!
Goldilocks and the Postgraduate Taught Students: Enhancing Employability Through Social Impact Initiatives – Up next, Emma Blackstone and Lucy Wildig , Joint Heads of Pro-Bono at BPP , provide a fascinating overview of the work of the BPP Employability Service's partnership with the Pro-Bono Centre (or just 'the Centre', as it's known), which provides postgraduate taught students with a combination of CIAG and work-based learning/volunteering opportunities during their studies. Branded as 'not your typical work experience', the Centre offers students the chance to get involved in voluntary projects they might not otherwise have come across, including the Streetlaw initiative and the Goldilocks trial activity, a workshop aimed at introducing the criminal justice system and the concept of crime and punishment to 9-11 year-olds. The Employability Service then support students to understand how participating in these projects has enhanced their knowledge in areas like ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), that are so important to businesses everywhere, and also reflect on the skills they have developed through participating, from Public Speaking to Emotional Intelligence. A really interesting approach to work-based learning for PGTs!
Projects, Placements and Embedded Career Development for PGTs – My final pick takes us to the University of Nottingham, where Postgraduate Career Consultants Teresa Corcoran and Sally Cleere reflect on how they address common barriers experienced by postgraduate taught students, including access to placement opportunities and how to embed employability and career development learning for students who already have a significant amount of content to cover in a one-year programme. There are some really innovative examples in here of how the careers team have adapted their offer to cater for the PGT cohort (including the specific needs of international PGTs), including working with colleagues in employer engagement/placements to create 100-200 hour paid project opportunities that comply with international student working hours restrictions, and partnering with a range of external organisations to create valuable consultancy projects in cases where a lack of work experience for PGTs could be a barrier to progression.
Cracking work as always from the AGCAS Phoenix editorial board and all of the contributors to the latest edition of the journal – if you’d like to check out the full journal and read more about how HE careers services are supporting the career development of postgraduate students, you can do so via the link below! 👇
The Best of the Rest: My Hot Picks from the wider #Careersphere
Are you emoji-literate? – Up first this week, we have an excellent piece from Mark Saunders posing the question; Are emojis an untapped career language? In his article, Mark notes that emojis (or Unicode) are an area of communication used by approximately 92% of the population and therefore, it behoves us as careers professionals to understand how we might be able to leverage emojis (or even create our own career development versions!) in the work we do with our clients. Well worth checking out, along with the comment thread on Mark’s LinkedIn post, which includes some innovative suggestions from other careers professionals in terms of how they have used emojis in their careers practice previously!
Youth Friendly Digital Content on Careers: A Survey – Next up, an opportunity for the careers sector to gain valuable insights from young people about what digital careers content is most impactful to them, via a new survey that has been produced by The Careers & Enterprise Company Youth Advisory Group, featuring (amongst others) the fab Jake Richings ! If you work with clients aged 13-25, please consider sharing this 15-minute survey with them to gauge their thoughts on youth-friendly digital and social media content!
Want to define your Super Power? Ask ChatGPT! – Eagle-eyed careers professionals will have no doubt spotted the significant increase in AI-themed articles and blog posts from careers folk over the past few weeks (hardly surprising, given the context!) and this offering from Anne Wilson SFHEA is well worth your time if you have to choose just one. In her LinkedIn blog, Anne uses a clear question/prompt – “If these are my qualities: Directness, Connector, Rapport Builder, Innovation and Impact, what is my Super Power? Please express in the first person”- and follow-up instructions to help illustrate the applications of ChatGPT that careers professionals may want to leverage and where there are gaps that only qualified CDPs can fill.
IfATE Occupational Maps: An LMI Gem! – For those who have not recently checked out the IfATE (Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education) website, they have recently updated their occupational maps section with a natty interface made up of colourful logos connected to the 15 sector areas that break down into the different apprenticeship standards/roles available, each of which leads to the various roles and standards that exist in that sector at each qualification level. It’s a handy tool for any LMI presentations you might be creating and a great potential discussion piece for individual or group careers delivery!
Bolster adult careers advice now to improve the skills of the UK’s future workforce – We finish this week’s newsletter with a welcome piece in FE News on the recent ReWAGE report, Adult career guidance and its role in skills development, which explores how other countries have made adult career guidance the focus of their skills system and makes recommendations for what the UK could do to improve its own offer. Gratifyingly, these include an emphasis on government joining up the careers system to support both unemployed and in-work individuals to explore their career options, return to education/reskill and gain sustainable work, a call for organisations like the CDI to provide guidance for employers to support their employees’ career development, and a plea for the Unit for Future Skills (mentioned earlier in the newsletter) to invest further in the provision of LMI on a sectoral level, so that a greater understanding of occupational skills and opportunities can be developed across the board.
I'm always keen to hear what people think of this weekly newsletter format (e.g. Is it helpful? Does it add value to what is already out there on LinkedIn? What might make it better/more digestible?) so please do drop me a DM if you have any thoughts!
See you all in the #Careersphere next week for Episode 31! 👋
👉 Career Alchemist: From Sunday Blues to Career Breakthroughs🚀 🏆 Award-Winning Career and Life Coach | TEDx Speaker | Author of 'Change Your Story'
1yThanks for writing this every week, Chris. Really helpful now and a great archive for the future too!
Internationally certified careers consultant | senior career counselor | enabling students, graduates, and experienced professionals with knowledge, skills, and tools to achieve successful career outcomes.
1yThank you Chris, for your service to the community, and for sharing. This was my first article in #thecdi's Career Matters, and appeciation to Dr Oliver Jenkin PGCE RCDP for the encouragement. Hope to be working with Ifza Shakoor on a potential #BAME related article, soon.
Thank you for the honourable mention of #SoMuchMoreThanTalkingAboutJobs - it is sincerely appreciated. Another great edition, Chris Webb - thanks for all you do! 😀
🧩 West Midlands advocate for young people’s careers education! Working with schools, colleges, councils, providers and employers to inform & inspire the future workforce, especially those facing barriers to transition!
1yAmazing round up and selection each week thann you Chris! I’m running to open my magazine now to learn about TikTok Jo 👀 Joanne Saward Sounds interesting MA research 👏