Careers Guidance

If people are to live satisfying and productive lives, and the economy is to thrive, it is important that individuals make wise decisions about work and learning.  This is even more important in a rapidly changing world, and when today’s twenty year olds can look forward to 60 years of active adult life. Careers and educational guidance services exist to help with this, but most people have traditionally got at best a few hours of advice in their teens, and nothing thereafter.

I have been interested in this field since 1984, when I was appointed to head the new Government funded Unit for the Development of Adult Education (UDACE). Our first remit was to produce recommendations on the development of educational guidance for adults, which we did in 1986.

Since then on I have continued to be involved in educational and careers guidance for adults, as a member of the National Guidance Council, President of the National Association of Educational Guidance for Adults (NAEGA), a founding Director of the Career Development Institute, and a Fellow of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling   (NICEC).

Significant work has included:

  • Head of the Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education (UDACE), which was commissioned by Government to make recommendations on the development of adult guidance,and which then oversaw the National Guidance Initiative
  • Fellow and Director of the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling (NICEC), the “learned society” for those studying careers education and guidance
  • Evaluator of the ReGrow Project, which tested demand for career review at 50 in the South East, involved 1000 people working in SMEs
  • Partner in The Mid-life Career Review Project, which built on ReGrow, testing demand nationally for a mid-life review.

Relevant publications include:

Mid-Life Career Review Project Report (2015) – the final report of the Mid-life career review project.

Adult Guidance: where from? where to? (2015) – article reviewing adult guidance sine the 1970s for the 50th Anniversary edition of the  Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling

An Aspiration Nation: whither adult guidance (2013) – article for Adults Learning

Ashes or Phoenix : where now for adult guidance? (2012) – presentation to a joint conference of the National Institute of Educational Guidance for Adults (NAEGA) and the Institute of Careers Guidance (ICG)

An Adult Careers Service at Last (2012) – article for Adults Learning on establishment of the National Careers Service

Career Support for Migrants: transformation or adaptation (2011) – joint article with Jenny Bimrose for the Journal of Vocational Behaviour

NAEGA Presidential address (2011) – slides from my final Presidential address to the National Association of Educational Guidance for Adults (NAEGA) prior to its merger into the new professional body, the Career Development Institute

Learning and Work in Later Life in the UK: the guidance needs of an ageing workforce (2010) – paper presented to a CEDEFOP workshop on guidance and demography in Europe.

The ReGrow Project : a final evaluation (2008) – evaluation report on the ReGrow project, which provided careers guidance interviews and training to 1000 older people working in SMEs in the South East

Helping older workers: the impact of an ageing population on career guidance (2007) a paper for the Government review of information, advice and guidance for adults (IAG), produced jointly by NIACE, the Age and Employment Network (TAEN), and the International Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby (iCeGS)

Careers at 48: a human resource perspective (2007) – article for the Journal of the Career Research Advisory Centre (CRAC)

Learner Advice and Guidance in HE (1997) – a report about the range of services which help learners in higher education to relate their learning to their lives – called “guidance”, “careers”, “tutoring” etc. Based on a programme of institutional projects funded by the Departments of Employment.

New maps for old (1992) – an article for the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling reviewed the issues raised by the implementation of the National Vocational Qualification model to advanced professional qualifications, using careers guidance qualifications as an illustration.

The Challenge of Change (2nd edition) (1986)  – this was the first publication of the Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education. It was commissioned by Government and  developed with an expert group, It led directly to the creation of the National Educational Guidance Initiative (NEGI) and set an agenda which helped shape adult guidance development into the 21st century (full version is not available electronically)