Bolster adult careers advice now to improve the skills of the UK’s future workforce

A University of Leicester academic has authored a new report advising the Government to do more to improve The UK's future workforce.

Dr Sally-Anne Barnes, Lecturer in Management at University of Leicester's School of Business, has advised that more needs to be done to bolster adult careers advice to meet employers' demand for skilled workers.

The report suggests that economic crises, technological change, the pandemic and the war in Europe have transformed national and international labour markets.

As a result, employers are looking for more skilled labour that can adapt to future changes.

Recent research on the labour market information system for careers in England found significant gaps in adult career guidance services, such as little detailed information on skills and sectoral information.

These gaps were emphasised during the pandemic when adults were looking to transfer their skills to new roles and advisers found that there was a lack of current information on the labour market and demands that could be used to help them.

In the new paper, authored for ReWAGE, an advisory group co-chaired by University of Leeds and University of Warwick, Dr Barnes references international evidence to demonstrate how other countries are achieving this through legislation, strategic leadership, coordination, collaboration and professional standards, and makes recommendations on how the UK could improve its offer.

Recommendations:

• The Government (working across departmental and other public bodies) should provide a transparent and stable career guidance system through legislation, strategic leadership, and better coordination and collaboration between stakeholders (i.e., local government, employers, education and training providers, public and private employment services, National Careers Service) that supports both those unemployed and those in work to explore career options, return to education, reskill and upskill, and gain sustainable work.
• There should be greater public investment in a system of lifelong guidance with a particular focus on supporting those adults in employment ensuring that they understand available job, education and career opportunities, but can also access support to make informed work and learning decisions across their life course.
• The Unit for Future Skills at the Department for Education should invest further in labour market information and data particularly at a sectoral level to improve intelligence for those developing and providing services to support adults looking to upskill, reskill and transfer their skills. Investment should also be focused on occupations classification and skills taxonomies used to collect data, which would enable better linking of data.
• A strategy and guidance on how employers can provide support and opportunities for employees with their career development whether this about developing skills or re-engaging with learning should be developed. This could be developed through a collaboration with employer bodies and associations supported by, for example, the Career Development Institute (CDI) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
• The Government should encourage and support employers to invest in careers support and development for employees to ensure a skilled and adaptable workforce which would benefit the individual, the employer and the economy. By supporting employers with the career development of their workforce, there is the potential to start thinking about how skills can be maximised and linked to good jobs.

Dr Sally-Anne Barnes said: “Bringing together international evidence and learning on adult guidance systems shows what extended career support for adults, not just those who are unemployed, could look like in England.

“One way in which we could extend support and provide a more coherent system is if we provided a stronger infrastructure to support coordination and collaboration between key stakeholders.

“In a number of European countries employers are active stakeholders supporting the career development of their employees. As a result, employees are better able to adapt to and navigate the labour market.

“One suggestion is that employers need a strategy and guidance, developed in collaboration with employer bodies and associations, on how they can provide career development support. Returns on this kind of support encompass skill changes and behavioural changes in terms of learning for those in work.”

Professor Irena Grugulis, co-chair of ReWAGE, said: “Good adult career guidance can benefit employees, employers and the economy and can help to ensure that the workforce of 2030 and beyond is ready and able to meet the challenges ahead.

“Workers are rightly anticipating the need to upskill, reskill and adapt to new roles, but they need a well-connected and established skills system with career guidance support at its heart to help them understand the skills required in the current labour market, as well as support in gaining and maintaining those needed to remain in the labour market and to meet future employer demands.

“There is overwhelming evidence to support the benefits of career guidance and when enriched by employer engagement and work experiences it enables people to better understand the work environment, as well as raise their aspirations.”

The paper was commissioned and funded by the Gatsby Foundation.

Beth Jones, Head of Careers at the Gatsby Foundation, said: “Careers guidance for adults is a critical part of our skills system and a vital means of tackling unemployment, underemployment and skills misalignment. This paper looks internationally at features of successful systems and will add valuable insight to the Gatsby Foundation’s ongoing research project exploring what good adult careers guidance looks like.”