1. What works in careers and enterprise
What works in careers and enterprise? 20th March, Careers & Enterprise Research Seminar, Wellcome Trust, London
Tristram Hooley

3. OECD definition
Career guidance refers to services and activities intended to assist individuals, of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers… The activities may take place on an individual or group basis, and may be face-to-face or at a distance (including help lines and web-based services). (OECD, 2004)
Note: This activity can have many names. At the Company we usually talk about ‘careers and enterprise programmes’, but there are many other names.

4. Good career guidance (Gatsby)
A stable careers programme…
Learning from career and labour market information
Linking curriculum learning to careers
Encounters with employers and employees
Experienced of workplaces
Encounters with further and higher education
Addressing the needs of each pupil
Personal guidance

5. Career guidance is both
part of an effectively functioning education and employment system; and a safeguard against ineffective and imperfect systems.

6. Why care about the evidence?
Overview
What are we trying to do?
Why care about the evidence?
What works?
What do we still need to know?

7. Why care about the evidence?
Overview
What are we trying to do?
Why care about the evidence?
What works?
What do we still need to know?

8. What we are trying to bring about…
Work readiness
Employers report improvements in the work-readiness of young people ...
Employment
… and are more likely to hire them, resulting in reduced youth unemployment / NEETs.
Skills alignment
Employers report fewer skills gaps and shortages, particularly in relation to STEM …
Productivity
… which results in improved productivity ….
Earnings
… and increased earnings for young people.
Equity
The life chances created by the new system are available to all and lead to increased social mobility.

9. This requires changes from…
Young people
Schools
Careers providers
Employers
It also requires changes in the way that they relate to each other

10. Impacts on young people
Personal effectiveness
Educational engagement
Career readiness
Employability
Social capital
Career outcomes

11. Why care about the evidence?
Overview
What are we trying to do?
Why care about the evidence?
What works?
What do we still need to know?

16. An attempt to create a plausible account of reality.
What is research?
An attempt to create a plausible account of reality.

17. Strength of evidence

18. What can we do…? Find the best research available.
Work out what it tells us about policy and practice.
Make it into something useable.
Keep learning and questioning.
Develop policy and practice as you learn.

19. Lifelong guidance policy cycle

20. So…
The evidence base on career guidance isn’t complete. But it is sufficient to guide policy and practice. As long as we keep evaluating and keep learning.

21. Why care about the evidence?
Overview
What are we trying to do?
Why care about the evidence?
What works?
What do we still need to know?

22. EEF career education review (Hughes and colleagues)
Despite reservations about the evidence they conclude that career education should:
Be personalised and recognise the needs of different learners
Start at an early age
Involve employers
Provide experiences of work
Include professional guidance

23. Evidence base for lifelong guidance
Lifelong and progressive.
Connected to wider experience.
Recognising the diversity of individuals and their needs.
Focus on the individual
Involving employers and working people, and providing active experiences of workplaces.
Not one intervention, but many.
Developing career management skills.
Holistic and well-integrated into other services.
Support learning and progression
Ensuring professionalism.
Making use of career information.
Assuring quality and evaluating provision.
Ensure quality

24. Good career guidance (Gatsby)
A stable careers programme…
Learning from career and labour market information
Linking curriculum learning to careers
Encounters with employers and employees
Experienced of workplaces
Encounters with further and higher education
Addressing the needs of each pupil
Personal guidance

25. 4 or more…

27. Why care about the evidence?
Overview
What are we trying to do?
Why care about the evidence?
What works?
What do we still need to know?

28. Where we want to get to…

29. We need…
Studies to explore the optimum timing, duration and mode of delivery of career guidance interventions. Development and adoption of more standardised measurements. Increased use of controls and randomisation. Longitudinal work. More use of administrative datasets and (online) big data. More literature reviews and statistical meta-analyses.

30. Final note: We also need
To ensure the evidence base is clear, accessible and easy to use for policy makers and practitioners.

31. References
Gatsby Charitable Foundation. (2014). Good Career Guidance. London: Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Hooley, T. (2014). The Evidence Base on Lifelong Guidance. Jyväskylä, Finland: European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. 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). Bielefeld: WBV. Hooley, T., Neary, S., Morris, M and Mackay, S. (2015) Effective Policy Frameworks for the Organisation of Career Guidance Services A Review of the Literature. London and Derby: SQW and International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby. Hughes, D., Mann, A., Barnes, S-A., Baldauf, B. and McKeown, R. (2016). Careers Education: International Literature Review. London: Education Endowment Fund. Mann, A., and Kashefpakdel, E.T. (2014). The views of young Britons (aged 19—24) on their teenage experiences of school-mediated employer engagement’. In Mann, A., Stanley, J. and Archer, L. Understanding Employer Engagement in Education: Theories and Evidence. London: Routledge, Mann, A and Percy. C. (2013). Employer Engagement in British Secondary Education: Wage Earning Outcomes Experienced by Young Adults. Journal of Education and Work. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2004). Career Guidance and Public Policy: Bridging the Gap. Paris: OECD. The Careers & Enterprise Company. (2016). What Works in Careers and Enterprise? London: The Careers & Enterprise Company.

32. Contact details
Tristram Hooley Director of Research, The Careers & Enterprise Company Also at