CAREER MOTION How can Web-based technologies improve the career choices and labour market of young people? From Research to Practice Symposium, Ottawa, March 2013

CareerMotion: the Experiment  A demonstration project conducted from February to September 2010 involving over 500 PSE graduates of British Columbia, aged 20 to 40, who felt they were underemployed or overqualified for the work they were doing  Participants were offered the opportunity to receive access to a custom-designed Career Development Services Web site for five weeks  Participants were randomly assigned to two research groups – program and control – with only the program group receiving access to the Web-based tool

Social Cognitive Theory of Vocational Behaviour Job search clarity Match between job and skills and aspirations Job search self-efficacy Contextualized LMI Career decision- making self- efficacy Job search intensity or intention Career planning and exploration Mediating factors: Attitudes, subjective norms, personal characteristics and circumstances, labour market demand, social networks

Profile of participants

Impact analysis: Lines of evidence  Baseline survey  5-week follow-up survey  One-year follow-up survey and focus groups Key outcomes of interest Socio-demographic characteristics: age, gender, education, household characteristics Employment: work schedule, wage, occupation, unemployment duration, expected wage Attitudes and subjective norms: over-qualification status, employment constraints, networking, job satisfaction, support from family and friends

Five-week impact on Career decision-making self-efficacy Job search self-efficacy Job search clarity

5-Week and One-year Impacts

Comparing CareerMotion’s effect sizes to other interventions Career decision-making self-efficacyJob search self-efficacy CareerMotionUndergraduate career course Two-week seminar for UI applicants CareerMotion

Participants’ suggestions for improvements  More information on employment opportunities (55%)  More coaching from a trained professional (45%)  More specific job search information (44%)

Conclusion  Web-based technologies can be quite efficient in improving people’s confidence and ability to make informed career decisions  Web tools can be quite cost-effective  Next step is to evaluate the efficiency of tools thato enable users to connect with advisors and with other users via online discussion groups and social networking tools