the impact of career guidance Tristram Hooley Seminar for guidance counsellors from Studievalg and eGuidance, DGI-byen, Copenhagen, 22 September 2017

Defining career guidance Hooley, Sultana & Thompson (2017) Career guidance supports individuals and groups to discover more about work, leisure and learning and to consider their place in the world and plan for their futures… Career guidance can take a wide range of forms and draws on diverse theoretical traditions. But at its heart it is a purposeful learning opportunity which supports individuals and groups to consider and reconsider work, leisure and learning in the light of new information and experiences and to take both individual and collective action as a result of this.

Why? What does it actually achieve?

Evidence-based practice Overview Does it work? How do we judge impact? Evidence-based practice Further research

Evidence-based practice Overview Does it work? How do we judge impact? Evidence-based practice Further research

About the evidence base There is a considerable evidence base on career guidance. It demonstrates repeatedly that career guidance has a range of individual and social impacts. The evidence is multi-disciplinary, international and based on a wide range of research methods. There are also a number of literature reviews, systematic literature reviews and statistical meta-analyses. In summary we know that it works (for some things) and we know quite a lot about how it works.

Impacts for individuals Improves engagement with education Enhances performance in the education system (increases motivation) Support transitions between education and work (and other life stages) Contributes to lifelong wellbeing and success

Public policy rationales Active ageing. European mobility for learning and work. Active labour markets. Labour market efficiency. Addressing youth transitions and unemployment. Labour market flexibility/flexicurity. Economic development. Lifelong learning. Social inclusion. Effective skills utilisation. Participation in vocational and higher education. Efficient investment in education and training. Reducing early school-leaving. Employee engagement. Social equity.

A wide range of impacts

Economic benefits

Evidence-based practice Overview Does it work? How do we judge impact? Evidence-based practice Further research

Levels of impact Return on investment Results Behaviour change Learning Reaction Take-up Investment All of these levels of impact matter! But as you move up the levels they get more difficult to measure?

Evidence-based practice Overview Does it work? How do we judge impact? Evidence-based practice Further research

Making use of evidence Think about what you are trying to find out? What question are you trying to answer? What skills, time and authority do you have? What evidence exists already? What data exists already? What could you easily collect without disrupting what you are doing? What could you collect if you were willing to disrupt what you are doing? Think about what you are trying to find out? Don’t research/evaluate for the sake of it. Make use of what other people have done. Make sure you have the time and skills. Don’t collect data you won’t analyse. Don’t waste people’s time.

What we know – Career guidance should be… Lifelong and progressive. Holistic and well-integrated into other services. Connected to wider experience. Ensuring professionalism. Recognising the diversity of individuals and their needs. Making use of career information. Involving employers and working people, and providing active experiences of workplaces. Assuring quality and evaluating provision. Not designed as a one-off or single type of intervention, but as many, varied activities. Developing career management skills.

Evidence-based practice Overview Does it work? How do we judge impact? Evidence-based practice Further research

A work in progress – We need… A broader disciplinary base for research in career guidance. Deeper analysis of administrative data, the greater use of longitudinal studies, randomisation and controls and an exploration of what online data sources might offer. More statistical meta-analyses. Policy makers to view evidence as part of the cycle of policy development and invest in improving the evidence as well as using what is there. To make better use of evidence in practice. Commit to more regular and more robust evaluation.

In summary We know a lot. Please make use of it, but keep asking questions and checking what we know. Always have research to hand when you are talking to policy makers.

References Dent et al. (2014). Higher Education Outreach To Widen Participation. Toolkits for Practitioners: Evaluation. Bristol: HEFCE. Hooley, T. (2014). The Evidence Base on Lifelong Guidance. Jyväskylä, Finland: European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN). Hooley, T. (2017). Moving beyond ‘what works’: Using the evidence base in lifelong guidance to inform policy making. In Schroder, K. and Langer, J. Wirksamkeit der Beratung in Bildung, Beruf und Beschäftigung (The Effectiveness of Counselling in Education and Employment) (pp.25-35). Bielefeld: WBV. Hooley, T. and Dodd, V. (2015). The Economic Benefits of Career Guidance. Careers England. Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. and Thomsen, R. (2017). The neoliberal challenge to career guidance - mobilising research, policy and practice around social justice. In Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. and Thomsen, R. (Eds.) Career guidance for social justice: Contesting neoliberalism. London: Routledge.

Tristram Hooley Director of Research, The Careers & Enterprise Company/ Professor of Career Education, University of Derby/ Professor II, Inland Norway University of Applied Science thooley@careersandenterprise.co.uk @pigironjoe Blog at http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.wordpress.com