CAREER EDUCATION: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

The decisions that young people make at school have a big impact on their lives--- affecting not
just their further education, training or employment, but also their social lives, finances, and health
outcomes.

A key function of secondary schools is to prepare students to transition successfully toward a

future career path. This involves providing curriculum opportunities to build students’ general
capabilities, support students’ interests and aspirations, and support them to make to make informed
decisions about their subject choices and pathways.

Students are more engaged in education and highly motivated about their future when they
have a clear understanding of themselves and how they might live and work when they leave school.
High-quality career education and guidance is an essential part of schooling in preparing young people
for their future.

Careers are now increasingly seen not as being ‘chosen’, but as being constructed through the
series of choices about learning and work that people make throughout their lives. Career education, in
this sense, need not be confined to the few, it can, and must, be made accessible to all.

Career education involves developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes through a planned
program of learning experiences in education and training settings which will assist all students to make
informed decisions about their study and/or work options, and enable effective participation in their
working life.

Career guidance, on the other hand, involves assisting individuals to make educational, training,
and occupational choices, and to manage their careers, and from a general understanding of life and
work to a specific understanding of the realistic learning and work options that are open to them.

Supporting students in making well informed choices about subjects can lead them to have a
more optimistic outlook on life, sense of purpose, and greater level of contribution that they make to
their families and society.

There are economic and social benefits when students are supported to make effective
transitions from secondary school to further education, training, or employment.

Career education and guidance play an important role in curriculum that supports:

 Students’ interests, strengths, and aspirations

 Students’ achievements
 Students at risk of poor outcomes
 Students making informed decisions about their subject choices and pathways

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 MODULE 1

WHAT IS CAREER GUIDANCE?

Throughout their professional lives, people encounter many situations where they could benefit
from unbiased advice. They may be in the process of choosing a stream or a career, deciding whether or
not they should change careers or jobs, re-entering the workforce, or may be wanting to learn more
about career guidance in general --- a complete knowledge always helps. A good foundation begins with
the basics. They come to the realization that it is an overwhelming process, and they need to learn all
about the what, how, and why of the career guidance process.

Learning Objectives

After completing this module, the reader is expected to:

1. Define career guidance;

2. Determine how career guidance support career development;
3. Identify and discuss the advantages of career guidance;

This module covers the following topics:

A. What is Career Guidance?

B. How does Career Guidance Support Career Development?
C. Advantages of Career Guidance

A. What is Career Guidance?

The word ‘guidance’ originated back in the 1530s, and is defined as the process of directing conduct.
Career guidance can be defined as a comprehensive, developmental program designed to assist
individuals in making and implementing informed educational and occupational choices. In simple
words, it is a journey on which people develop to make mature and informed decisions. It is the act
of guiding or showing the way; it is the act of seeking advice.

Career guidance is the guidance given to individuals to help them acquire the knowledge,
information, skills, and experience necessary to identify career options, and narrow them down to
make one career decision. This career decision then results in their social, financial, and emotional
well-being throughout.

In an age where career queries are not uncommon, it is important to answer questions related to
career guidance or career in general.

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 1.A.1 Who can Benefit from Career Guidance?

 Students of Class 9th-10th --- Setting the basics right solves a lot of confusions that might arise
later. Whether it is choosing the correct stream to the correct board, and mapping career
goals, a right start at the right time makes all the difference.

 Students of Class 11th-12th --- One chooses one’s stream out of the possible options (non-
medical, medical, humanities, commerce). However, the career options possible for
students for a student to choose from are more than hundreds. To make sure that the entire
process from choosing the right career options to achieving those goals goes smoothly, it is
important that one seeks career guidance from an informed (and experienced) mentor.

 College-going Students/Working Professionals --- For people who already have made a
career decision need to work towards it, to attain the maximum results. A guide informs
them of the best career opportunities and ways to do the best in the field they have chosen
for themselves. Generally, people end up taking the wrong paths in order to achieve their
goals. Either they realize that the career option they have chosen is not meant for them, or
it dawns upon them that the option they have chosen is not strong enough to keep them
motivated or excited throughout their professional lives. As a result, they tend to rely on an
expert’s advice, and that is where a guide steps in.

1.A.2 Do I need Career Guidance?

More often than not, people find themselves in a state of dilemma before making important decisions in
their lives. Generally, everyone seeks advice from parents and friends before deciding on what to wear.
Being rational individuals, people always want to get what is best for them. Should not the same logic be
applied while choosing a career, or changing career paths, which is supposedly a bog decision one makes
in one’s life?

One must definitely go for career guidance if one’s thoughts align with any of the following:

a. Choosing the right career --- For people who find it difficult to realize the right career meant for
them; a career guide helps them sort this confusion. There are infinite career options available
to choose from, and without an expert’s proper guidance, one might stick to a few that his/her
friends or relatives ask him to pursue. An informed career guide makes one aware about the
scope of every career option in detail, which widens the horizon for the student. For people who
think they are clear on their career paths and have attained enough clarity to work towards a
chosen career option, career guides ensure that they achieve their goals without any
distractions.

b. Realization of Making a Wrong Career Decision --- Making the right career decision at the right
time makes a lot of difference. For instance, one might realize that engineering is not the best-fit
career option for them, after having worked as an engineer for ten years, or one might realize
the same quite early in life. Either way, the person has the option of realizing where his/her true
passion lies and working towards the same, or continuing working on the current one. Since
changing streams and discovering something completely afresh requires a lot of planning and

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 discussions on the scope of the new career option, it is always advisable to take guidance on
choosing the right career, right from the beginning.

Career routes can be changed at any point of time and an informed choice can be made with the
help of a good career guide. Many career problems are preventable with regular attention to
the career path, and a time of crisis is not the best time to seek professional help. It should be
an ongoing process, and guidance from a mentor is required at every step of the journey of
one’s professional life.

c. Focused Career Route --- A risk-averse student generally keeps a few career options available for
him/herself. While it is not a bad route to follow, many students fall prey to career confusion.
Their focus gets shifted, and as a result, they find themselves not performing up to their
potential. A career guide not only helps the student decide the career route, he/she also guides
the student about the path, maps his/her career, helps him/her clear the confusion and
distractions coming along the way.

1.A.3 Elements of Career Guidance

In order to understand career guidance a little better, let us look at its most important elements:

1. Qualified Career Counselor --- The first and foremost element of any career guidance process is
the presence of a qualified guide. A guidance counselor is a great source of help for both
students and parents alike; a person who can help you understand educational goals and meet
them. It is not uncommon to be struggling with school, mental health, or life in general. Many
feel isolated, especially young people who are still developing their voice and their place in the
world. Guidance counselors may not teach a class directly, but they have as much impact on the
students as teachers, and offer help that sometimes teachers cannot provide.

2. Secure Environment --- The process of career counseling entails creating a safe and secure
environment, where the counselee feels at ease and is able to discuss the issues bothering
him/her.

3. Agreement of Trust and Confidence --- in a general scenario, the only career guidance one has is
the opinion of one’s parents, teachers’ judgment based on marks, and the comments of friends
and neighbors. While they might be rational and unbiased in their opinions, relying on them is
not sufficient to base the foundation of one’s entire career.

1.A.4 The Process of Modern-Age

Career Guidance

An advanced and trusted online assessment does not let one choose just between the few tried-and-
tested-career options. Psychometric assessments developed by researchers and psychologists ensure
that career queries and problems are dealt with sincerity and backed by experience, knowledge, and
research. They are modern, and reveal the best-fit career matches on multiple parameters, such as
interest, personality, emotional quotient (EQ), aptitude, and orientation style. With such research
backed by the expertise of leading psychologists, the chances of falling into the wrong career decision
trap are minimized. Being successful in a career takes extensive efforts, and with an experienced
coach/mentor, your career development efforts can find the right direction.

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 B. How does Career Guidance Support
Career Development?

Career guidance consists of services that help people successfully manage their career development.
Career development, an aspect of human development, is the process through which an individual’s
work identity emerges. Although it will occur on its own as you mature, you may benefit from getting
assistance as you navigate through this process, which can be quite confusing at times.

Many people seek out assistance from career development professionals only when they are trying to
choose a career for the first time, or perhaps when they are going through a transition. The intent of
career guidance, however, is to provide support to individuals throughout their entire lives.

Let us take a look at when, during your career, you should get help.

Far too many people are dissatisfied with what they do for a living. Why is that? They make mistakes
when choosing a career and end up in an occupation that is not a good fit. That is not surprising since
going through the career planning process, including the steps one should take when choosing a career,
is difficult. It may seem like it would just be easier to pick an occupation out of a hat.

While making a random choice may be simpler, it is certainly not wise. Given the amount of time you
spend at work, you should do everything possible to make a well-informed decision. Getting help from a
professional who provides career guidance can be the difference between ending up in a satisfying
career or one that makes you miserable.

A career development professional, such as a career counselor, may use self-assessment instruments to
help you learn about your interests, values, skills, and personality type. After coming up with a list of
occupations that seem suitable for you based on the results, he/she can show you how to explore them
and then weed out the ones that are not as good a fit as others. Then, the counselor can help you create
a career action plan that will allow you to pursue the occupation you chose.

 Get Help with Your Job Search

What is the point of choosing a vocation if you do not know how to find a job? Career guidance
also consists of providing job search assistance when you are looking for your first job or any
subsequent ones. How we look for work has changed significantly over the last decades, and it
continues to change. Career guidance professionals keep up-to-date on the best methods to use
when searching jobs.

A career counselor will show you what resources to use to locate job announcements. He/she
will help you write an effective resume and will teach you how to network. When it comes time
to go on job interviews, you can also get advice on how to best answer questions and negotiate
a job offer.

 Get Mid-Career Advice

In addition to getting help with matters that involve beginning your career, such as choosing a
vocation or securing your first job, you can also get direction about things that occur later. For
example, career guidance services also include helping individuals advance their careers and
deal with workplace issues.

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 A career development professional can answer your questions about career advancement.
He/she can tell you what to do to be promoted or get a raise, or even help you decide whether
to quit your job. You can get advice about getting along with co-workers and your boss,
preparing for and responding to performance reviews, and managing job stress and burnout.

 Get Advice if You Lose Your Job

Job loss is devastating, both financially and emotionally. When you lose your job, a piece of your
identity is also taken away. The most tangible result, however, is the loss of income. Assisting
those who are dealing with this devastating life change is a component of career guidance. Since
you probably do not want to spend extra money when you are already feeling distressed about
your finances, you should look into free or low-cost career guidance services.

A career counselor or other advisor can assist newly unemployed clients to cope with practical
issues like applying for unemployment benefits and continuing health insurance. Eventually,
he/she can help the client begin the job search process. They can also get encouragement and
advice from professionals and, through support groups, from others who are in the same
situation.

 Get Advice about Making a Career Change

Since most people do not stay in the same occupation for their entire working lives --- some
individuals even switch careers multiple times --- there will probably come a time when you will
want to make a change. A career guidance professional can give you advice when you are taking
on this kind of transition.

Meet with a career development specialist who can help you assess your transferrable skills.
With their assistance, you can discover what skills you can bring to your new occupation and
which ones you will need to acquire before you can begin a new career.

 Get Motivation
When you are engaged in the day-to-day activities of making a living, searching for a new job, or
making another change, sometimes you need an unbiased cheerleader by your side. Your
partner, friends, and family have a stake in your future and may have difficulty being impartial.
For example, if you need encouragement to make a big career change, but your partner is
worried about how it will affect your finances, a professional advisor who does not have any skin
in the game can be just what you need.

A career guidance professional can motivate you when things are not going the way you would
like. He/she will encourage you not to give up whether you are stuck in an unsuccessful job
search campaign or having trouble making a decision about leaving you a realistic look at what
to expect, tell you whether you are making a wise decision, and cheer you on when you feel like
giving up.

C. Advantages of Career Guidance

There are times when students are clueless about their ambition and academic interests. Sometimes
they wish to be an astronaut, a doctor, join the army, or become an engineer --- the list seems endless.

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But this is when career counseling plays a vital role in shaping their future, when everything seems so
doubtful and confusing.

Career counseling helps the students to be more sure about their career option, interests, ability, or
personality. It is really essential for students to have complete knowledge and understanding of the
available courses and their interests as it is a matter of life. This also helps the student feel more
responsible and act as an effective part of the decision-making process.

So, to make an informed career decision, career counseling is an indispensable means, and the following
are its advantages.

1. Determine strengths and weaknesses

When you participate in career counseling, you will undoubtedly be working with a trained
expert who can give you different career assessment tests. These tests are intended to
coordinate your regular aptitudes, qualities, and capacities with key components of specific
careers. You will likewise have the capacity to figure out what shortcomings you may have with
the goal that you can abstain from working towards a profession that will just prompt
disappointment. Having these data early can be priceless while picking what career path to take.

2. Set Objective for Greater Results

A substantial piece of the career advisor’s job is to direct you through the procedure of goal
setting in your career endeavors. The professional advisor can enable you to recognize the
means expected to achieve vital objectives en route as you investigate new alternatives or roll
out improvements in the profession you as of now have.

3. Discards Confusion

With the help of career guidance, the confusion of taking up the right subject decreases and
students are able to choose their piece of interests, pick the appropriate subjects, and make the
right choice in their career. Career guidance helps the students to make better decisions and
have a clear idea about their desired studies and move forward in life. It is really important to be
clear in terms of career because once you made your decision, it will stay along with you
throughout your life.

4. Get to Know the Availabilities

There are times when we are aware of many career options that are available these days; which
is why career guidance broadens their career options and helps students come across many
desired career opportunities like available colleges, admission eligibilities, college insights, and
others.

5. Support and Motivation

As you start working with a career counselor, you may encounter many careers that require
specific training or education. This process of counseling will enable you to gain the special skills
set which is required to fill in for the career of your choice. In addition, career advisors always

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 ensure support and lift the morale of the individual by getting to know what they desire to
achieve in the future, and offer guidance in accordance to that.

6. Job Search Support

For individuals who are on the lookout for new job or opting out of a career to choose another
one, career advisors can help them in such research. They encourage and support the
individuals by providing them with interviewing services, cover letter, resume, along with
advisory services. They offer feedback tools as well as the resources that are required for the
right job hunt and help you land the best dream job ever.

Summary

Career guidance is the guidance given to individuals to help them acquire the knowledge, information,
skills, and experience necessary to identify career options, and narrow them down to make one career
decision. This career decision then results in their social, financial, and emotional well-being throughout
life. Who can benefit from career guidance? --- 9th-10th grade students, 11th-12th grade students, college-
going students and working professionals.

Career guidance consists of services that help people successfully manage their career development.
Career development, an aspect of human development, is the process through which an individual’s
work identity emerges. The intent of career guidance is to provide support to individuals throughout
their entire lives. During one’s career, there are times that one should get help --- get help with job
search, get mid-career advice, get help during job loss, get advice about making a career change, get
motivation.

Career counseling plays a vital role in shaping one’s future, when everything seems so doubtful and
confusing. Career counseling helps the students to be more sure of their career option, interests,
abilities, and personality. To make informed decisions, career counseling is an indispensable means
which has several advantages including --- determines strengths and weaknesses, sets objectives for
greater results, discards confusion, gets to know the availabilities, supports and motivates, and supports
job search.

Task to Do/Test Yourself

1. In one or two paragraphs, define career guidance.

What could be the reasons why one should go for career guidance? Explain.

2. In one or two paragraphs, define career development.

When should one seek out assistance from career development professionals? Explain.

3. In one or two paragraphs, define career counseling.

Being an indispensable means in making informed career decisions, explain the
advantages of career counseling.

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References

McKay, D. R. (2019 Jun 10). How does career guidance support career development?

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-career-guidance-525498

Mindler. (2020 Jan 15). What is career guidance?

https://www.mindler.com/career-guidance-meaning-benefits-importance#

Stoodnt. (2018 Jul 3). Advantages of career guidance.

https://medium.com/@stoodnt/6-advantages-of-career-guidance-e086cf49a741

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 MODULE 2

WHAT IS A GUIDANCE COUNSELOR?

Brief History

In the western world, counseling in schools began in the early 20th century, focused mainly on preparing
students for the workforce. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, guidance counselors became more
prevalent. In the beginning, many teachers doubled as guidance counselors; however, this is no longer
the case. In the 1960s, counseling in public schools was afforded more funding, allowing the vocation to
flourish. The profession expanded beyond the focus on academic and career achievement.

Originally, some teachers opposed the idea, believing that schools should be limited to more traditional
educational concerns rather than personal and social development. But its popularity continued, and by
the 1970s, counseling was being implemented in schools from kindergarten to high school. In the 1980s
and early 1990s, new concerns were raised. Many questioned the effectiveness of school counselors.

As a response to these concerns, in 2003 the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) released a
national framework for school counseling. In 2004, that model underwent revision to close opportunity
and achievement gaps, and ensure all students from kindergarten to grade 12 had access to a counselor.
In 2012, the ASCA released another final revised version, and this is the system at present.

Learning Objectives

After completing this module, the reader is expected to:

1. Define a guidance counselor and determine what does a guidance counselor do;
2. Identify and understand the differences between a guidance counselor and a school
psychologist;
3. Determine and clarify the economic benefits and impacts of career guidance;
4. Identify and understand the social benefits of career guidance;
5. Describe and understand how career guidance fare during unstable times.

This module covers the following topics:

A. What is a Guidance Counselor and What does he/she Do?

B. How does a Guidance Counselor differ from a School Psychologist?
C. The Economic Benefits and Impacts of Career Guidance
D. The Social Benefits of Career Guidance
E. Career Guidance in Unstable Times

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 A. What is a Guidance Counselor?

A guidance counselor is a great source of help for both parents and students alike, a person who can
help you understand educational goals and meet them. It is not uncommon to be struggling with school,
mental health, or life in general. Many feel isolated, especially young people who are still developing
their voice and their place in the world.

Today, guidance counselors offer a range of services and are a crucial part of the education system.
Guidance counselors can help develop the coping, organizational, and communication skills, as well as
supply students with the tools to attain a sense of self-acceptance. They sometimes provide students
with psychological counseling. They lead students on the track to becoming resourceful, adjusted
members of society.

The responsibilities of a guidance counselor differ slightly depending on what branch of education they
are involved in. of course, with different ages and levels of development, the problems students face will
change and evolve. These differences are most noticeably seen between different levels of schooling.

At the elementary level, there will often be one guidance counselor assigned to the entire school. They
generally deal with students ranging from kindergarten to grade six. Elementary guidance counselors
often keep an eye out for troubled students, such as those suffering abuse, neglect, depression, mental
disabilities, and self-harm. They also deal with typical school difficulties and help students overcome
bullying, gossip, and disagreements with teachers and friends.

At the middle school level, guidance counselors deal with many of these same student issues. This group
typically includes students from grades six to eight. The onset of puberty during this stage of
development often brings along a host of new concerns. This can include relationship issues, body
image, sexual troubles, more extreme self-harm, as well as substance use.

For grades nine through 12, counseling tends to be more based on academics --- counselors aid students
in making choices regarding their future career and their academic goals. High school guidance
counselors are focused on preparing students for their life beyond school. They of course still assist with
personal issues; however, most students at this level go to counselors for career advice and academic
guidance.

The reach of guidance counselors may go beyond students. In the creation of productive and caring
environment for students, some counselors may work with the parents. Guidance counselors can
explain and strategize about student academics and provide support for families in difficult phases in
their life, such as coping with the loss of a loved one, or a divorce.

Parents can reach out to the school to request academic evaluations for their children, to better
understand their child’s grades. They can also express any other concerns regarding their child, such as
worries of bullying, mental illness, and so on. Parents can and should communicate with the guidance
counselor about any outside help the student may be receiving.

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 B. How does a Guidance Counselor Differ from
a School Psychologist?

Many people are unsure of the differences between school counselors and school psychologists. The
first difference is the schooling each receives. While the education prerequisite of guidance counselors
may vary, they are often preferred to hold a master’s degree. Typically, they will have studied
counseling, life planning, and how to stop a crisis. In most cases, they will go on to an internship before
finding a solid workplace.

School psychologists are usually required to hold a master’s degree or even a doctorate. In their training,
they will usually focus more on child and cognitive development, prevention and intervention tactic, as
well as being trained in the assessment of children and youth. These programs also require students to
participate in clinical training, research, and assessment.

There tends to be a difference in the way counselors and psychologists function within the school.
Guidance counselors meet with and focus on the success of every student. They provide academic
assistance, as well as career and personal advice, to optimize the potential of the students.

School psychologists, on the other hand, meet with each student to assess their needs. The psychologist
usually works closely with specific students, namely those with developmental or learning abilities, or
those who are being held back by stressors outside of the school. This could include counseling students
and parents, developing educational plans, and working with teachers to implement the academic aid
each student requires. They may also work closely with the school administration and outside entities,
recommending programs to improve student achievement, and consult with teachers to ensure the
school community is emotionally and academically optimized.

Guidance counselors are there to assist students in any way possible. Counselors are there to help, even
when you may feel there’s no one else or you are beyond help. They can help to guide you in the
direction you want to go with your life inside and outside of school.

They are someone you can confide in and trust. If you are having troubles at home, at work, or even in
your circle of friends, a guidance counselor can be a listening ear. More than that, they can often offer
helpful advice on how to deal with your situation. They can help you achieve academic goals, deal with
bullying, improve self-esteem, and can even help those in extreme circumstances, such as
homelessness.

C. The Economic Benefits and Impacts

of Career Guidance

Career guidance is primarily concerned with realizing the aspirations and potential of the individual.
However, it also offers considerable social and economic benefits for a society. It enhances individual’s
human and social capital and explore the way in which these work through the economy to impact on
macro-economic outcomes. This focus on the economic outcomes should not be seen as diminishing the
wider benefits that career guidance can deliver in terms of self-actualization, job satisfaction, social
equity, and a range of other personal and social outcomes.

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

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their careers. The activities may take place on an individual or group basis, and may be face-to-face or at
a distance (including helplines and web-based services. This definition encompasses a range of activities
including the provision of career education, information, advice, and guidance.

Today, traditional forms of work are declining in many communities and technological change and
globalization are creating new economic contexts within which people live and work. These changes
have made it increasingly difficult for some to navigate their careers through these larger social forces.
Investing in career guidance is an important way to support young people and adults through
transitions, to help them to internalize the need to take responsibility for their career and education,
and to enhance their employability. By supporting individuals to understand current labor market needs
and the progression pathways between learning and work it can help address social inequities that
persist through lack of information and access.

2.C.1 The economic impacts of career guidance

Career guidance can act on individual decision making about participation in learning and labor markets;
that it can reduce the likelihood of individuals dropping out, increase their likelihood of re-engaging and
support wider institutional reform. Moreover, career guidance has the potential to lead to benefits
through increasing skills utilization, improving the efficiency of education funding, the reduction of
benefits, lowering crime rates, improving health, increasing tax receipts, and improving workplace
efficiency. By hypothesizing a small level of financial benefit from each of these, Hughes (2004) is able to
theorize the scale of the overall financial benefits to the treasury of having a functioning career guidance
system.

Mayston’s (2002) research provide a useful approach for quantifying the economic value of career
guidance. Mayston begins from a presumption of a rational, knowable world and builds the argument
for the value of ‘perfect’ careers guidance where careers guidance is able to correctly and
comprehensively express abilities, skills, and attributes in order to accurately advice individuals for or
against a potential ‘career move.’ Mayston recognizes that this “perfect” world is unlikely to be realized
for a variety of reasons, but still uses it as a base assumption with the recognition that imperfections
might reduce the impact.

Behavioral economics challenges the kind of conceptualization that Mayston advances. For example,
behavioral economists note that individuals do not weigh up future costs and benefits consistently or
rationally, and that they tend to place greater weight on events which will happen sooner. This
hyperbolic discounting may lead to regretful decision making when costs are near in the future and
benefits are further away. Such a perspective suggests that the framing of career decisions may be as
important as the “factual” advice that is given and consequently may lead to different kinds of modeling
of the economic benefits of career guidance. One component of career education is to provide
individuals with an understanding of themselves and their potential choices (i.e., a non-directive or
“nudging” intervention) improving their overall ability to make informed career decisions rather
delivering a straightforward match between individual and labor market (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008).

Career guidance can support an individual to increase their knowledge, skills, and capacity to manage
engagement in the labor market. It does not simply provide expert advice about a difficult decision, but
rather leaves its participants with enhanced human capital which delivers various economic benefits,
including aiding labor market flexibility and enhancing the skill base of the country. The Mayston article

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is important: positive outcomes occur at both the individual and societal level when an individual can
make improved career choices and access high quality careers guidance.
2.C.2 Individual Outcomes of Guidance

Individual outcomes of guidance are well documented in the literature at the immediate, intermediate,
and long-term levels (Maguire & Killeen, 2003). A meta-analysis of 47 studies identified statistically
significant impacts across a range of career guidance interventions (Whiston, et al., 1998). Many of the
frequently measured outcomes in the literature on career guidance are “learning outcomes” whereby
evaluators assess a change in knowledge, skills, and attitudes immediately following a career guidance
intervention. These impacts are fairly straight-forward to operationalize into measurable indicators; but
they are only one kind of outcome of career guidance. The individual outcomes of career guidance are
discussed under three main categories: (1) how career guidance can increase human capital (including
the kinds of learning outcomes), (2) how career guidance can increase social capital, and (3) how career
guidance can support individuals to make smooth and purposeful transitions. These three outcomes
influence an individual’s overall capability to earn and contribute economically over the life course.

2.C.2.1 Human Capital

Human capital has been theorized as a correlate of economic growth since the mid-20 th century. At the
individual level, human capital refers to the stock of knowledge, skill, and abilities of the individual
(Kwon, 2009). The acquisition of qualifications is often used as a way of measuring human capital; but
this can be misleading for two main reasons --- first, qualifications are; but this can be misleading for
two main reasons --- first, qualifications are imperfect, insensitive, and inaccurate measure of an
individual’s total human capital, and second, human capital can be acquired in other ways which do not
lead to qualifications (e.g., on the job experience).

There is considerable evidence suggesting that career guidance can support the acquisition of both skills
and qualifications by encouraging individuals to commit to and complete formal and informal learning
opportunities. In addition, career guidance can support individuals to increase their awareness of the
skills that they have acquired informally and to consider how these skills can best be deployed.

While the acquisition of human capital is central to the economic value of career guidance, it is
important to unpack some of the assumptions about a direct relationship between human capital
acquisition and economic growth. Simply increasing individuals’ skills is unlikely to offer economic
benefits if those skills do not align with the needs of the labor market. For example, there are limited
benefits in endlessly increasing the numbers of graduates, but greater benefits increasing the number of
graduates with skills which the economy lacks, such as science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM) skills. Addressing skills mismatches, improving labor market signaling and discussing effective
deployment of qualifications and skills are core functions of career guidance. So, career guidance can
both support individuals to increase their human capital in general, and support them to consider the
best way to increase their human capital in the context of the labor market.

Career guidance can enhance the development of human capital in general by encouraging participation
and success in the education and training system as well as through the direct development of career
management skills (CMS). For example, Graversen and van Ours (2008) found that the skills developed
through guidance increased success in job hunting by 30 percent. There is also evidence that suggests
that the development of human capital through career guidance interventions can lead to broader
personal and economic impacts. The Gatsby report Good Career Guidance (2014) suggests that there are

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important economic benefits when career guidance professionals encourage investments in human
capital. The evidence therefore suggests that career guidance can deliver human capital gains for
individuals and that these in turn can contribute to wider economic gains.

2.C.2.2 Social Capital

Social capital is another important piece of the puzzle in conceptualizing the economic benefits of career
guidance. Social capital refers to an individual’s “ability to secure benefits through membership in
networks and other social structures” (Portes, 1998). Social capital therefore combines a number of
different concepts together including the size of your social network (whether you know a lot of people),
the relative social and economic power of your network (whether you know rich and powerful people),
and your ability to extract personal and career benefits from this network (whether you are willing and
able to persuade people to help you). There is clear research evidence which links social capital to both
successful transitions to work (Hardie, 2015) and to longer term career success (Seibert, et al., 2001).
Social capital also helps individuals cope and remain resilient during periods of unemployment (McArdie
et al., 2007). Inevitably, social capital offers advantages to those who come from families and
communities which are powerful and well-networked. However, social capital is something that it is
possible for an individual to develop both through increasing their networking skills and through
brokerage into new and more powerful social groups.

Career guidance can play an important role in providing individuals with access to information and
intelligence that is outside of their immediate social network, offsetting some of the disadvantages
offered by inequalities in social capital (Bryan et al., 2011). It can also support the acquisition of social
capital by brokering access to networks (e.g., potential employers) and providing access to mentoring
and insights about how to penetrate important career networks (Hooley, et al., 2014). Career guidance
is also well placed to articulate the importance of networking to job and progression opportunities to
individuals. Forms of career guidance which bring people together and allow them to share ideas and
provide mutual aid have been found to be effective in both enhancing individuals’ social capital and in
helping them to find work (Trutko et al., 2014).

2.C.2.3 Supported Transitions

A final area in which career guidance can offer economically relevant benefits for individuals is by
supporting smooth and rapid transitions to further learning and work. Transitions from education to
work and from unemployment to work are fraught with challenges. Career guidance can help to smooth
these transitions. When assisting with transitions, interventions work best when they are targeted and
provided quickly after an individual drops out of learning or work; and when they focus on developing
positive attitudes such as increased self-confidence and increased self-efficacy alongside practical
support with recruitment processes (Neary et al., 2015). In addition, career guidance prioritizes
proactive behaviors such as goal setting and active job searching which help smooth career transitions.

Career guidance can also support other kinds of life transitions including return to work following illness
or child or elder care responsibilities (Houston & Marks, 2003). Another important area where career
guidance can contribute is in helping older people to think through work transitions in later life, the
transition to retirement, and how to remain economically active for longer (Research New Zealand,
2006).

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2.C.3 Primary Economic Outcomes

The individual outcomes have obvious benefits to the individual who increases their human or social
capital or makes a transition to further learning or work. However, when aggregated together, these
individual outcomes also bring social and economic outcomes that are of interest to public policy. In
particular, supporting career guidance activities lead to the following primary economic outcomes: (1)
increased labor market participation, (2) decreased unemployment, (3) an enhanced skill and knowledge
base, and (4) flexible and mobile labor market.

2.C.3.1 Increased Labor Market Participation

Good career guidance decreases shocks to the labor market which may arise from inadequate job
matching and poor job signaling. This supports individuals to move into the most appropriate job for
them. In addition, participant in guidance programmes are more likely to progress to employment. For
example, graduates who had participated in career guidance programmes reported higher rates of both
employment and (higher skill) graduate-level employment (Taylor & Hooley, 2014).

2.C.3.2 Decreased Unemployment

Decreasing unemployment is strongly related to an increase in employment; but it is not simply a

negative restatement of it. In a dynamic economy, it is very likely that individuals will experience periods
when they are unable to find employment. Unemployment is only one response to the situation.
Alternatives include the establishment of enterprises and re-engaging in education and training. Clearly
individuals’ capacity to choose alternatives to unemployment is strongly bound up with their knowledge
of these alternatives, their personal access to financial, social, and human capital, and their entitlement
to support from the state or other bodies. However, career guidance can contribute to enhancing an
individual’s human and social capital, increasing their awareness of the options available, and supporting
them to make faster transitions out of employment.

2.C.3.3 Enhanced Skills and Knowledge Base

At the macro level, human capital is the stock of skills and knowledge that allow workers to engage in
productive labor within economies (Kwon, 2009). There is clear evidence that career guidance can
support individuals to increase their human capital and contribute to the development of the national
skills base. However, in order to have this kind of national impact, it is necessary for there to be wide
levels of access to career guidance across the population.

2.C.3.4 Flexible and Mobile Labor Market.

Flexible and mobile labor market policies facilitate the movement of labor into the most productive
sectors in the economy. Such flexibility relates to both sectors and to geographies. In a dynamic labor
market, both what kind of work is available and where this work is located are both likely to change over
time. When labor can be supported to become mobile, it can help to ease regional skills shortages and
allows the labor market to be more productive. The promotion of flexible labor markets typically
translates to relaxed regulation. However, the reduction of employment regulation is only one strategy
that can support flexibility and one which can also have some downsides for workers. Career guidance
enhances flexibility through supporting individuals to develop their capacity to read and respond to

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labor market change, by prioritizing the importance of lifelong learning, and by helping individuals to
remain resilient in the face of change and positive about adapting to the demands of shifts in the labor
market.

2.C.4 Secondary Economic Outcomes

Given the direct benefits to the economy, there are a number of secondary consequences. The literature
point to several secondary economic benefits to career guidance which include (1) improved health, (2)
decreased crime, (3) increased tax revenue, and (4) decreased cost of benefits.

2.C.4.1 Improved Health

Societies that perform well on key health indicators enjoy higher productivity and greater levels of
happiness. The literature on satisfaction with life, including job satisfaction, finds correlation with higher
quality of life and wider health outcomes (Faragher et al., 2005). There is strong evidence that highlights
the interdependence of work, career, and mental health (Waddell & Burton, 2006), and which
demonstrates the impacts that career guidance can have on positive mental health (Vuori et al., 2012).
Career guidance can facilitate an individual to reduce stress by effectively managing their life and work
and to maintain positive mental health by cultivating resilience during times of unemployment.

2.C.4.2 Decreased Crime

High rates of unemployment for both individuals and communities correspond to higher levels of crime
(Mayston, 2002). Additional correlates of crime such as low job status and a lack of skills and training are
also areas into which career guidance seeks to intervene (Watts, 2001). There is also a more direct
tradition of using career guidance as an intervention with offenders and ex-offenders to try and prevent
recidivism (Rakis, 2005). The availability of career guidance, particularly for groups at risk of engagement
in crime can therefore be a valuable strategy to prevent crime and re-engage those within the criminal
economy in the mainstream labor market.

2.C.4.3 Increased Tax revenue

There is a case that investment in career guidance leads to increased tax revenue. Increased
employment, better skills deployment, higher levels of workplace engagement and many of the other
observed benefits of career guidance have the potential to lead to increases in the tax revenue. For
example, Hughes (2004) notes that one percent increase of the population in regular work could
generate over a billion of revenue.

Estimating the impacts of career guidance on taxation is a complex undertaking and one which
inevitably requires the use of some assumptions which are open to challenge. Perhaps the most rigorous
attempt to trace this relationship can be found in a report which used a mixed methods approach to
estimate the economic value of the education guidance for adults.

2.C.4.4 Decreased Cost Benefits

The linking of benefit reduction with the transition to work and learning highlights the central role that
career guidance can play. Career guidance can help to reduce benefits in several ways. First, individuals
that have high quality guidance may engage in productive labor for longer. In addition, career guidance’s

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role in supporting transitions decreases the amount of time people spend drawing from the public purse
as long as people are able to move from worklessness to sufficiently well-paid work to take them out of
benefits. Many unemployed people live “precarious” lives whereby they cycle between low-paid work
and periods of worklessness. Career guidance can support both the re-engagement with the labor
market and an increase in skills which can enable individuals to progress out of precarity.

2.C.5 Macro-Economic Benefits

Much of the literature on career guidance policy emphasizes the need for systemic approaches to the
delivery of career guidance. The activity is transversal, lifelong and cross-sectoral, and its benefits are
consequently diverse and spread across a range of policy concerns. It is at the macro-economic level
that we should ultimately hope to find the impacts of career guidance. It is here that we might hope to
see the value of high-skilled individuals and better aligned education and employment systems.

2.C.5.1 Deficit Reduction

The government stresses that deficit reduction is key to “put the public finances on a sustainable path
again and help achieve balanced economic growth --- helping keep interest payments lower for families,
businesses and the taxpayer --- meaning more jobs and greater prosperity” (HM Treasury, 2013). In
essence, deficit reduction is concerned with reducing government spending while increasing revenue
from taxation. Career guidance can offer support for people to increase their incomes as well as support
for those at risk of becoming unemployed. The economic benefits, such as increased taxation and
benefit reduction, all have the potential to contribute to this policy aim.

2.C.5.2 Productivity

Productivity describes the relative amount produced by a defined input such as a day’s work (Harari,
2015). Several theories have been put forth to explain why slow productivity growth perpetuates. Two
possible explanations for low levels of productivity growth relevant to career guidance include: (1)
employees within firms being moved to less productive roles and (2) slowing rates of innovation and
discovery (Harari, 2015). In the current economic climate, it is not enough that increased labor market
participation leads to a more productive economy. It is an organization’s ability to deploy and support an
individual in areas where they will be most efficacious as well as an individual’s ability to determine and
use their agency to deploy themselves for more productive functions. Career guidance is concerned with
both the raising of human capital and its effective deployment. It encourages individuals to actively seek
out opportunities where their human capital is more effectively utilized. Hughes (2004) theorizes that
every one percentage point increase in productivity through improved matching supply and demand in
the labor market has the ability to generate as much as 10.6 billion annually in increased production.

2.C.5.3 Living Standards

Living standards are most commonly measured through average household income. As such, there is a
strong relationship between economic growth, productivity, human capital, and living standards. Since
the 2008 recession, living standards have dropped as real earnings have declined (Belfield et al., 2014).
This has disproportionately affected young adults and has resulted in young people unable to find
appropriate work, housing, and to make other relevant and timely transitions into adulthood. Although
young people are more likely to be unemployed, they increasingly participate in education. As a result,
there is an increasingly educated cohort of young people. As mentioned, career guidance can support

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both the development of human capital and its effective deployment. This can support young people to
maximize their incomes within the opportunities offered by the labor market.

Living standards are influenced by both the overall amount of wealth and by its distribution. While on its
own, career guidance cannot be expected to undo broader social and economic inequality, through the
provision of information, inspiration, and opportunity it can contribute in important ways to social
inclusion and social mobility.

2.C.5.4 Economic Growth

Mayston (2002) hypothesizes that the aggregated benefits of career guidance increase economic output
as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). While focusing on business-led innovation is important
for job growth, it bypasses the importance of career guidance which has the capacity to influence an
individual to innovate or take other entrepreneurial risks when they otherwise would not do so.

D. The Social Benefits of Career Guidance

Much attention in recent years has been given to the economic benefits of career guidance. Career
guidance also, however, has social benefits. With the government’s current concern to avoid social
exclusion, these benefits assume greater policy significance (Killeen et al., 1999).

The direct beneficiary of career guidance is the individual. Indirect beneficiaries include: the family,
networks and informal groups such as peer groups, schools, colleges, and other education and training
providers, employers, the local community, and the nation as a whole.

2.D.1 The Nature of Social Benefits

Social benefits can be thought of as aggregates of individual benefits, though with possible additional
“snowball” effects (e.g., transmitted from parents to children, or vice-versa; or along peer networks).
Social benefits cannot be wholly separated from educational, psychological, and economic effects. The
concept of social benefits, nonetheless, provides a distinctive perspective from which to consider the
potential of career guidance. In these terms, career guidance serves both the general population and
also special (sometimes explicitly targeted) groups. In relation to the latter, career guidance may be:

 A remedial intervention for people who have special needs (e.g., physical and mental disabilities,
emotional and behavioral problems) that can pose difficulties in relation to entry/re-entry to the
labor market.

 A rescue intervention for people who, in part as a result of their own actions, are not yet
connected to or have become disconnected from the labor market, and who are trying to
escape the situation they are in (e.g., recently-arrived refugees, isolated young single mothers,
ex-offenders).

 A compensatory intervention for groups, such as ethnic minorities, which suffer systemic
disadvantage in education or the labor market due to active or passive discrimination.

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  A crisis intervention for people in temporary difficulty of a kind which could happen to most
people (e.g., unexpected redundancy).

It is however important that the universal applicability of career guidance provision is not obscured:
career guidance is a service to the generality of people in the course of their learning and working lives,
within which it is necessary to give special consideration to particular at-risk groups.

The potential social benefits of career guidance thus fall into two main categories:

 Reducing social exclusion

 Enhancing social development

In the latter terms, career guidance can be seen as a way of making the structure of society work, by
linking individual needs to societal needs on a voluntaristic basis. In this sense, it is a significant lubricant
of social development.

2.D.2 Reducing Social Exclusion

In relation to social exclusion, career guidance has both:

 A preventive role, helping young people to avoid such exclusion.

 A reintegrative role, supporting those who are currently excluded to gain access to
education/training and the labor market.

Social exclusion occurs at three levels:

 At the individual level, homelessness, drug abuse, juvenile criminality, negative retreat into
single parenthood, and other ways in which individuals are separated from full participation in
the life of the community, are all intimately associated with failure and non-participation in
education and with chronic separation from the labor market.

 At the family level, the transmission of such exclusion commonly occurs between generations.

 At the community level, the dynamics of the housing market and of the provision of social
housing, coupled with the uneven geographical dispersion of appropriate employment
opportunities, are such that high local concentrations of multiple disadvantages occur, adversely
affecting the quality of life of all who live in such localities. This general depression of the quality
of life is often characterized in terms of exposure to crime and vandalism, and the difficulties
parents have in protecting their children from immersion in disaffected sub-cultures.

Career guidance can contribute to the reduction of social exclusion at all three levels. Career guidance
services can:

 Operate directly to support educational participation and to incorporate individuals into the
labor market.

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  Operate collaboratively with other agencies to address multiple disadvantages, contributing ---
and sometimes providing a focal point for --- holistic multi-agency approaches to such issues.

 Have a distinctive role to play in local initiatives to address high concentrations of multiple
disadvantages and attendant social decay. In particular, career guidance agencies can play an
important linking role between the development of employment opportunities and local labor
supply (without it, substantial economic development can have very limited effects on local
employment).

2.D.3 Educational Motivation and Performance

An important role of career guidance in combating social exclusion is to enhance educational

participation and achievement. Truancy amounting to effective drop-out occurs as early as the middle
school and is increasingly likely during the final years of compulsory education. In many cases, strong
domestic and peer forces, or histories of emotional and behavioral disturbance, lie behind this problem.
But there are other factors including:

 Accumulated experience of educational failure.

 Within the horizons of the individuals concerned, the belief that job opportunities and earnings
are unconnected to educational participation and attainment.

 The belief that the content of the school curriculum is irrelevant to working life.

Experience of past failure and/or erroneous beliefs about the connection between education and work
can persist into adult life, depressing the educational participation and achievement of large numbers of
people. In particular, individuals may:

 Lack confidence relative to their abilities;

 Lack knowledge of opportunities at levels of attainment of which they are capable;

 Feel discouraged by the expectation of discriminatory treatment.

Career guidance can ameliorate these negative factors by:

 Demonstrating the relevance of formal learning to working life;

 Clarifying the links between education and the achievement of vocational goals;

 Broadening perceptions of the educational routes available;

 Countering disillusionment and expectations of future failure which are over-generalizations

from past lack of success;

 Countering undue and unrealistic inhibitions on expected attainment and aspiration which may
be conservatively related to restricted family ‘horizons;’

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  Challenging self- and socially-imposed stereotypes systematically related to class, gender, and
ethnicity;

 Counteracting peer pressures towards educational non-participation and under-attainment

including, at the peer group and school levels, working against anti-educational sub-cultures;

 Preventing ‘false moves’ into forms of education and training which are unrelated to vocational
interests and objectives and which make unanticipated demands, such that educational failure
occurs --- which is then, in itself, an inhibition on future participation;

 Acting as an advocate for individuals who are discriminated against or who are otherwise unable
to obtain entry to opportunities within their capacities;

 Providing a feedback mechanism to educational providers on learners’ unmet needs.

2.D.4 Employment and Unemployment

Another important part of the claim that career guidance delivers social benefits rests upon its ability to
reduce the incidence of long-term unemployment among ‘at-risk’ groups, and to improve the access of
these groups to opportunities commensurate with their abilities and aspirations. These social benefits
can be characterized as:

 The self-esteem, sense of purpose, involvement in meaningful activity and social incorporation
associated with an occupational role;

 Reduction of the disaffection, alienation, and despair associated with long-term unemployment;

 Reduction of the likelihood of adaptation to unemployment as a permanent way of life, with its
consequent social damage;

 Enhancement of the probability of entry into challenging opportunities in which further personal
development and achievement can occur.

2.D.5 Career Guidance and Ethnic Minorities

Career guidance has an especially important role in relation to ethnic minorities. These differ in their
degree of spatial dispersion or concentration, ownership of businesses, unemployment rates, mean
academic achievement, rates of intergenerational social mobility, and others. However, members of
ethnic minorities are commonly exposed to discriminatory employment practices and are often doubly
disadvantaged by spatial concentration in areas of reduced employment opportunity. Career guidance
may:

 Help to challenge discrimination in the labor market;

 Raise individuals’ aspirations to levels commensurate with their abilities;

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  Provide a gateway into education and work;

 Through these means, the provision of career guidance services may reduce disaffection by
symbolizing or demonstrating to members of ethnic minorities and to others that the wider
community has not ‘turned its back’ upon them.

2.D.6 Career Guidance and Labor Market Flexibility

Currently, career guidance has an especially important role to play in avoiding the potential social fall-
out of greater labor market flexibility. Such flexibility is viewed by government as a necessary facilitator
of economic growth. Its social fall-out may include:

 Raising the probability of unemployment spells;

 Shortening active working life to the point that people are unable to make adequate provision
for retirement;

 Confining some groups to under-employment;

 Making it difficult for many families to take on or sustain long-term investments (e.g., house
purchase, provision for old age).

The increased stress associated with uncertainty, and the well-documented reduction of psychological
well-being brought about by redundancy and unemployment, can contribute to mental and physical ill-
health.

Lack of understanding of the new realities can lead to false expectations, lack of preparation, excessive
feelings of personal rejection or failure, and forms of fatalism which inflate or exaggerate these adverse
consequences. Career guidance can:

 Communicate the realities of changing flexible labor markets, preparing people for the
challenges they present;

 Help people to manage their own careers in uncertain conditions by enhancing their sense of
‘control’ or ‘ownership’ and by supporting them in adopting an active approach to self-
development and to sustaining employability;

 Help people to cope with redundancy, to perceive the skills they have to offer, and to recognize
the possibility of skill transfer;

 Introduce people of all ages to possibilities for education and training which can facilitate labor-
market mobility as well as directly improving psychological well-being;

 Help people to forge ‘portfolio careers’;

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  Help adults to balance the demands of employment and domestic responsibilities by raising
awareness of flexible employment options, by promoting them to employers, and by advocacy
on the part of particular individuals.

In a capsule, it can be hypothesized that career guidance helps both individuals in general, and
categories of individuals at particular risk of social exclusion, by exerting a positive effect upon:

 Educational motivation;

 Motivation to train;

 Participation in education and training;

 Effort and persistence in education and training (including school attendance at the compulsory-
schooling stage);

 Attainment levels;

 Labor market attachment;

 Employment chances;

 Job quality.

The social analysis broadens the range of relevant outcomes beyond the narrow economic, to include:

 The hope and renewed sense of purpose that people say they experience as a result of career
guidance;

 The sense of ‘control’ or ‘ownership’ that career guidance may help to develop or re-establish;

 The renewed self-esteem and psychological well-being which may result.

Career guidance may also enable people to find their way to forms of purposeful activity and social
involvement other than those which involve income generation. Where people find the means to bring
about a better balance between the demands of work and family life, effects on earned income may be
negative, but the effects measured by a broader social analysis are more likely to be positive.

At the communal level, it can be hypothesized that career guidance has the effects not only in general,
but also in economically and socially deprived communities in particular.

E. Career Guidance in Unstable Times

The economic crisis that peaked in 2009 sent shockwaves that will be felt for years to come. It affected
businesses, increased social risk for many destablilized job and career prospects.

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Young people, particularly, have been badly affected. They are suffering the highest unemployment
rates and their prospects have been damaged most. But, despite high unemployment rates in many
countries, skills shortages are reported in science, technology. Engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
occupations.

In response, almost all countries have devised several education, training, and labor market policies. In
all of them, career guidance and counseling increasingly play a central role due to their effectiveness in
developing the right skills and attitudes people need for successful careers.

Although centered on individuals, benefits of career guidance and counseling go much wider. Career
guidance and counseling, by their nature, link individuals’ agenda, enterprises, and government’s
economic and social goals. Being flexible, career guidance and counseling can help individuals realize
their aspirations, while giving them a better understanding of their career prospects and learning needs.
They can be used in enterprises, local communities or schools to improve learning outcomes, knowledge
transmission, productivity and innovation. In short, career guidance and counseling help people and
organizations to adapt and be productive under new and atypical economic and social conditions.

2.E.1 Responding to the Economic Challenge

All citizens are provided access to lifelong guidance to develop career management skills, such as
professional communication, budget management, critical thinking, and project development. Such skills
help people adapt to career contexts, including workplaces or learning environments. Career
management skills concern how workers use key competencies in enterprises to learn, manage work,
communicate, and identify and solve problems effectively and autonomously. They also enable people
to make more structured and informed career decisions. By developing career management skills,
career guidance and counseling help improve economic outcomes for enterprises and career outcomes
for individuals.

As the workforce ages, enterprises need to ensure that skills of retiring workers are replaced and their
knowledge passed on to younger workers. Career guidance can also balance business strategies for
older workers between preparing them for retirement and transferring their knowledge in the
enterprise.

Older workers’ contributions to the enterprise can be maximized by assessing their skills, attitudes and
preferences, and devising an end-of-career strategy that adapts their functions, or provides skills they
need, such as ICT skills. This increases workers’ motivation and productivity, and supports longer
working lives. Career guidance can also support mentoring and tutoring activities, enabling older more
experienced workers to act as mentors/tutors to monitor and steer new workers’ progress.

Similarly, career guidance supports social and labor integration of migrant workers into the enterprises,
allowing for quick leveling of productivity with established workers. Several types of assessment,
advisory and counseling methods and tools are available to assist various levels of management,
including senior management, to integrate migrant workers better.

Career guidance is not only for people in particular circumstances. Importantly, it allows for developing
workers’ skills in a lifelong perspective, which can be carefully planned to combine personal with
enterprise needs. Integrating this approach into human resource management can reduce skill
mismatch in enterprises and increase productivity and work satisfaction.

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2.E.2 Responding to Challenges of Social Exclusion

The economic crisis increased social risk for young people and mid-career workers in sectors particularly
affected. Despite more highly qualified young people having better labor market outcomes and
sustained demand in certain occupations, many young people are disengaging early from education.
Shares of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) are near or above 20% in third
world countries. NEETs have a higher risk of long-term unemployment, irregular career pathways,
poverty, and social exclusion. Economic inactivity at a young age can have deep and persistent
consequences, damaging career outcomes and identities, the so called ‘scarring effect’. Migrant young
people are particularly affected by early leaving from education and tend to have worse learning and
labor market outcomes.

Governments have responded to this challenge through the youth guarantee to ensure employability for
people under 25 years old. The youth guarantee attributes an important role to career guidance. It is
seen as a tool to prevent young people leaving school early, help reintegrate disengaged young people
into the labor market and support their transition from training to work. Being flexible and embedded in
public services and local communities, career guidance reaches groups at risk of exclusion, such as
young people disengaged from education, migrants and unemployed people. By doing so, it also
supports social integration objectives, such as reducing unemployment and poverty and increasing
qualification levels.

Career guidance and counseling can help prevent young people from becoming NEETs by assessing
students’ level of risk of educational disengagement and by clarifying their career options, all in close
cooperation with family and teachers. For young migrant workers and severe social exclusion, career
guidance is frequently provided in close cooperation between local communities, employment services,
schools, and training providers.

This type of public service outreach can also bring young people back into the labor market. Young
people who left education and training early can be identified, contacted, and re-engaged through
training with help of community leaders and families. Mentoring involving local community members
with successful careers is effective in both prevention and recovery strategies. Other effective ways to
re-engage young people in training and education include providing comprehensive information about
all qualifications and occupation choices the system offers. Career guidance and counseling can highlight
flexible pathways to qualifications, including validation of non-formal learning, which is especially
important for young people outside education for a prolonged period.

Career guidance also reaches cases where people feel excluded from participation in learning and in the
labor market. A combination of targeted information, careful assessment and validation of skills and
support for career planning can bring positive change for individuals and communities.

2.E.3 Responding to Individual Needs

Frequent periods of unemployment and irregular careers are increasing, particularly for individuals in
mid-career. Cedefop’s 2014 study analyzed careers and stories of middle-aged individuals. It identified
many cases of instability and difficulty in establishing coherent career paths that often arise due to lack
of access to quality career information and career management skills.

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Best practices in career guidance report positive results with tailored approaches, where skills, attitudes,
and preferences of people are assessed and discussed. A thorough initial assessment followed by a
structured discussion of next steps in learning and searching for work also have lasting effects on
people’s careers. Preferably this approach is supported by networks that include enterprise managers
and professional associations and by systematic follow-up of individuals.

Two fundamental advantages of these approaches are their adaptability to highly irregular career paths
and a favorable long-term cost-benefit relationship. For example, people who receive this type of career
development support provided by public employment services are less likely to return to the service
under social benefit regimes.

Lighter approaches to career information and advice can be implemented with greater tailoring of
provision to individual needs, as long as initial profiling of clients is sufficiently detailed. In these cases,
information about the labor market, education, training, and validation must be reliable and
competently delivered by counselors who can adapt it to a client’s profile.

Summary

A guidance counselor is a great source of help for both parents and students alike; someone who can
help you understand educational goals and meet them; someone who can help develop the coping,
organizational, communication skills; someone who can supply students with the tools to attain a sense
of self-acceptance; someone who can provide students with psychological counseling; someone who
leads students on the track to becoming resourceful, adjusted members of the society.

The responsibilities of a guidance counselor differ slightly depending on what branch of education they
are involved in. With different ages and levels of development, the problems students face will change
and evolve. These differences are most noticeably seen between different levels of schooling.

Many people are unsure of the differences between school career guidance counselors and school
psychologists. Generally, the first difference lies in the schooling each receives. However, both can work
closely with the school administration and outside of school entities, recommending programs to
improve student achievement, and consult with teachers to ensure the school community is emotionally
and academically optimized.

This module traced the economic benefits of career guidance through a conceptual model which
illustrates how they work through the economy from individual benefits to macro-economic benefits.
The synthesis suggests that the government should re-examine current career guidance policy and
consider how it can best maximize the economic benefits of the activity. Career guidance is primarily
concerned with realizing the aspirations and potential of the individual. It has sought to demonstrate
that where these are maximized a wide range of social and economic benefits follow.

Social benefits can be thought of as aggregates of individual benefits, though with possible ‘snowball’
effects. Potential social benefits of career guidance fall into two main categories: reducing social
exclusion and enhancing social development. Career guidance is a way of making the structure of society
work, by linking individual needs to societal needs on a voluntary basis. In relation to social exclusion,
career guidance has both a preventive role --- helping young people to avoid exclusion --- and a
reintegrative role of supporting those currently excluded to gain access to education and training and

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the labor market. Hypothetically, career guidance helps both individuals in general and categories of
individuals at particular risk of social exclusion by exerting a positive effect upon educational and
training motivation, participation, effort, and persistence; attainment levels; employment changes; and
job quality. Career guidance delivers social benefits by enhancing educational participation and
achievement; reducing the incidence of long-term unemployment among at-risk groups and improving
their access to opportunities commensurate with their abilities and aspirations; providing a gateway to
education and work for ethnic minorities exposed to discriminatory employment practices and
disadvantaged by spatial concentration in areas of reduced employment opportunity; and avoiding the
potential social fall-out of greater labor market flexibility.

Lifelong career guidance activities provide an effective response to issues affecting individuals, groups,
and enterprises. They improve success of learning activities at all stages and are among the most
effective labor market provisions to ensuring long-term career outcomes. They support policy strategies
In lifelong learning and employment while translating them into direct support to citizens. A well-
coordinated lifelong career guidance system generates coherence of education, training, and
employability support, and most importantly, clarifies available options for citizens. Career guidance is a
positive response to social and economic instability: science and practice of adaptability.

Tasks to Do/Test Yourself

1. In one or two paragraphs, define a guidance counselor.

What does a guidance counselor do? Describe his/her responsibilities.

2. In one or two paragraphs, differentiate a guidance counselor from a school psychologist.

Explain.

3. What are the economic benefits/impacts of career guidance? Clarify/describe them.

4. What are the social benefits of career guidance? Clarify/describe them.

5. What are the challenges that career guidance/counselors face during unstable times?
Describe each concisely.

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