#TheWeekInCareers - Episode 29

Welcome to?#TheWeekinCareers ! If you are a first-time reader (and congratulations if so, you are now part of a 1900+ strong community!), this newsletter is my attempt at summarising some of the key?#Careers -related news from across the?#Careersphere ?each week, along with some of the talking points I feel are worthy of further debate amongst the?#Careers ?community! So, without further ado, on to the news!

What are the ingredients for a great #Careers programme? ????

In a serendipitous coming together of newsletter items, I was in the process of working out earlier this week how I was going to approach discussing the recently released stakeholder survey inviting feedback regarding the future of the Gatsby Benchmarks in England , when I attended an excellent CPD session from Study Australia for international careers professionals, delivered by the fab Michael Healy , whose work I have been following with interest for some time now. In the session, entitled Critical Ingredients of Quality Career Education Programmes, Michael Healy summarised the research-informed process that Australian careers services have followed in determining the 8 key components for effective career education programmes, which were broken down as follows...??

?? Workbooks and Written Exercises - Research shows writing about their career development gets students thinking. Career exploration templates, lifelines and goal-setting templates are a great way to help people understand themselves and reflect on what they have been learning, as well as helping individuals to discover things they don’t know about themselves (or express the things they know but have never said out loud!). These can often be really creative - check out Ben Robertson 's recent session with Illustration students for a seriously innovative example of how to get students to visualise their career toolkits!

?? Counsellor or Educator Support - The relationship between careers professional/educator and the individual being supported has been found to be the most important aspect of the career education process - a working alliance between student and counsellor and collaborative goal setting is vital! Computer-based CEIAG can sometimes lack this impact, so even more important in current times to consider how we integrate digital careers information and AI so that it complements the human touch. As a side-note, Michael Healy mentioned that leaving students to work on websites by themselves has been found to be one of the lowest impact activities you can do in terms of career education, which yet again emphasises the vital role that careers professionals have to play in helping clients contextualise their career learning and experiences.

?? Individualised Interpretations and Feedback - Helping students understand and contextualise the results of career-related activities like careers assessments (such as the Prospects Planner or Buzz Quiz) is vital and this also applies to other careers activities students may have undertaken via career education sessions or within the curriculum itself. This also applies to providing the student with feedback on careers tasks they may have completed, rather than just being happy that they have been involved in these activities. This could involve feedback on the task itself (e.g. how they’ve performed), feedback on the process (thinking about they approached the problem from a career development learning perspective) or feedback on the person (how success from the task reflects on the individual as a person), although as Michael Healy noted, it's important to avoid this type of feedback (such as ‘This is not your strong suit’, ‘You are a natural at this’ etc.), as we ideally want to focus on providing feedback on how individuals have approached the task/process from a career learning perspective. It's also important to consider how we bring feedback in to career education sessions and provide time to cover individual feedback for students as part of group or 1:1 sessions. Peer feedback is a very valuable tool on this front, as we as careers professionals don’t always have to be the ones providing input or insights!

?? Values Clarification - Michael Healy noted that the Covid-19 pandemic has arguably led to even more reflection/introspection when it comes to values?and where work/career/life fits into this - helping students understand their skills, motivations, interests and values is an important reflective exercise but also helps to increase productivity by ensuring individuals are in roles/organisations that motivate them. Michael recommends the VIA Character Strengths assessment for this sort of exercise but as CDPs will know, other assessments are available! The value of helping students write about what different aspects of work/life mean to them and how these influence their understanding and approach to their career development should never be underestimated. Employers can teach employees many things but as Michael noted in the session, you can’t teach motivation!

?? Psychoeducation on Goal-Setting, Decision-Making, Mindset, Adaptability - Michael Healy argued that it is vital we get used to talking explicitly and directly to students about this stuff as careers professionals - not just why goal-setting, decision-making etc. is important but also how individuals can develop skills to adopt proactive mindsets and develop competence in these areas. Offering different tools to support them with this is helpful, such as SMART targets, GROW framework and other tools and techniques from the world of coaching, career development and psychology.?

?? Information About the World of Work - Michael Healy noted that this ingredient is particularly important with so much change taking place in the world of work (Ed: it's almost as if he knew what the second item in this week's newsletter would be...) - especially in terms of recognising the context that the student is placed within, where there is risk of disruption/change and what some emerging trends might be. Speaking generally about LMI, Australia seems to have a really decent range of resources to help individuals understand where workers are employed in different industries, where these are located in the country, what the entry routes are, key trends around growing/declining industries and emerging occupations (such as Sustainable Energy, Cybersecurity). Michael also mentioned the Australian equivalent of Graduate Outcomes and alluded to the spectre of information overload and the role of careers professionals in helping students critically engage with this information and consider how to combine it with their reflections, values, goal-setting etc. (looping this ingredient back into the other parts of an effective career education programme, so this feels like a holistic process rather than a series of stand-alone components).

?? Insights into the Personal Experiences of Role Models - It's important to help students recognise that we are all connected - people learn a lot from each other and Australia has seen a real trend in career education moving towards facilitating these relationships, particularly in terms of role models that may have similar backgrounds, industry interests or characteristics to the student (for example, via the formation of Career Mentoring programmes, which are also extremely popular in UK universities and amongst some employers). This can be especially important for international students in terms of helping them build their professional networks in a foreign country - not just for professional connections but also for the knowledge and insights they can gain from these individuals. There was also a nod to encouraging the use of LinkedIn for career exploration and not just self-promotion and prompting students to consider how people position themselves in the labour market or articulate their personal/professional identity.

??♀???♂? Support from Social Networks - Similar to the previous ingredient, this was more about the value of communities and groups themselves - Michael Healy noted that career development can sometimes focus too much on the individual and forget we exist in communities/families/organisations. Recognising the value of these networks, who is in our networks and what value they can add to our careers (and the value we can add to theirs!) is hugely important for students. Michael also argues that it is our role as career educators to teach students how to network, what platforms to use (e.g. LinkedIn, TikTok etc.) and how to get the most out of these networks. This also links back somewhat to the ingredient around LMI, in terms of the importance of developing a critical thinking mindset in students regarding how they interpret information from social media and integrate this into their career development. In a point that will feel very familiar to UK careers professionals working in HE, Michael Healy also stressed that it is important to think about how students leverage professional/personal networks and communities when making transitions out from their studies to the next stage of their careers. This can help with supporting students to establish both a professional identity for themselves and to consider communities they may want to be a part of as they leave the student community (from conversations I've had with both school/college students and university students/graduates, this is especially key when leaving an institution and peer support network that an individual may have relied on for a number of years!)

What I particularly enjoyed about Michael Healy 's session was that the focus on the 8 critical ingredients was highly interconnected - the different components were never treated as stand-alone (as we've sometimes seen in the UK with the focus on employer encounters via Gatsby) and Michael Healy regularly called back to other ingredients to emphasise how they linked in with the ingredient he was currently discussing (for example, encouraging students to consider how the work they might have done around values clarification could connect with interpreting information about the world of work, or the importance of educating individuals on how to build their networks, rather than just explaining that this is a useful thing to do).

For me, this holistic approach to not only how we put together career education programmes but how we approach career development conversations in general is something that will hopefully be a significant factor in the direction the Gatsby Benchmarks continue to take over the next 10+ years and is certainly something I'll be reflecting in my feedback to the survey over the next week! The ingredients and process for developing an effective career education programme also align nicely with the intention behind the Career Development Institute 's latest Career Development Framework, which focuses on six key learning areas (Grow Throughout Life, Explore Possibilities, Manage Career, Create Opportunities, Balance Life & Work and See the Big Picture)?and from my perspective, is exactly the sort of framework we should be using to inform a national career education curriculum in England as part of any future Gatsby-related developments:

What are your thoughts on the key ingredients needed to make an effective career education programme and do you think we currently have this licked within the existing framework provided by the Gatsby Benchmarks? If not, then there's still time to share your thoughts on this topic via the stakeholder survey below, which is open until Friday 28th April:

LMI Corner Returns! ??

With the recent buzz around generative AI stealing the majority of 'world of work' headlines over the past few weeks, busy careers professionals would be forgiven for missing some of the other interesting LMI-related drops that have been appearing on LinkedIn and other channels. Never fear though, as #LMICorner is back with a trio of helpful resources that careers professionals can use to enhance their understanding of the labour market and opportunities appearing in specific industries across the UK! ??

The Future of Jobs/Skills in the UK - Up first, research and analysis from the Skills Imperative 2035 research programme, led by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and co-funded by the Nuffield Foundation and Department for Education , who have produced a range of spreadsheets (and some helpful guidelines) breaking down the predicted growth in jobs and skills within the full range of industries across the UK, segmented by national, regional and Mayoral Combined Authority areas. The data is vast and requires some digging into but certainly contains some useful stats for stimulating career education sessions or 1:1 discussions, particularly in terms of growing and declining industries and what the reasons might be for these projected changes (for example, in Yorkshire and the Humber, Residential Care and Social Work are apparently both set to balloon in terms of demand in the next 12 years, while Financial Services are predicted to continue dropping down the charts):

For a glimpse into how this sort of data could be displayed in a more user-friendly way in the future, look no further than the Future Jobs Wales web pages from Careers Wales , which are currently being expanded (they presently only have Jobs in Construction and Jobs in Energy available to view) and provide some excellent visualisations of growth roles/sectors based on data from Lightcast , which can also be used to compare trends taking place across the rest of the UK:

The Space Industry continues to take off (*groans*) - Up next (and with thanks to LMI guru Helen Janota for the signpost), a really useful overview of the UK Space Industry that has been carried out by the consultancy know.space on behalf of the UK government. The key findings show a sector in good health despite recent economic turmoil, with strong levels of private investment in UK Space and particular growth in areas like Space Applications (for example, using satellite and signal data for purposes like GPS tracking, meteorology etc.) and Space Operations (services for the launch and/or operation of satellites and spacecrafts). The full report is nicely segmented and actually pretty easy to read, providing a clearer picture of just how important this industry is to the UK and where some of the current and future opportunities are likely to exist:

For something more suitable for career education sessions and 1:1 appointments, it's also worth checking out sites like Space Careers UK, which provide a nice launchpad (*groans...again*) for exploring the range of possible career pathways in the Space sector:

Careers in Cyber: Do they fly under the radar? - With thanks to Katherine Jennick RCDP for raising this in a recent LinkedIn chat thread, it occurred to me this week that there are a number of really valuable resources for helping individuals explore careers in Cybersecurity that seem to receive surprisingly little airtime, given the relative demand for these roles/skills in the labour market! With this in mind, careers professionals interested in finding out more in this space should check out the UK Cyber Security Council website, which has an excellent career pathway map showcasing the different areas of Cyber and how to get there, including Digital Forensics, Security Testing, Cryptography and more!

The National Cyber Security Centre also has some brilliant resources for young people seeking to explore a career in Cyber, including the excellent CyberFirst programme of activities , as outlined in the natty infographic below!

That's your lot for our latest #LMICorner - if there are any specific topics you'd like covering for the next edition later in the year, please get in touch with your suggested LMI resources or requested topics and we'll make it happen! ??

#CareersInCareers Returns! ??

With the Easter break approaching for many #Careers colleagues, what better time to take a pause and check out some of the fantastic job vacancies currently being advertised in the #Careersphere ! With that in mind, we welcome back our #CareersInCareers segment for another slate of enticing opportunities based in a number of different settings...??

? Careers Coach (FT and PT) at 英国诺丁汉特伦特大学 - First up, a really varied #Careers role in HE that stresses both the importance of a careers guidance/coaching qualification and offers applicants the opportunity to support students and graduates via delivering career development learning in the curriculum, the university's core central careers offer and through 1-1 coaching with students from a broad range of disciplines.?With lots of 1:1 and group delivery involved, this could be an excellent first careers role in HE for many careers professionals or a good move for any CDPs who are passionate about client-facing work! CLOSING DATE: Tuesday 11th April

? Careers Adviser (Angus - Tayside) at Skills Development Scotland - Another edition of #CareersInCareers , another Skills Development Scotland vacancy; but honestly, can you blame us? As always, this is an excellent example IMO of how to advertise a #Careers vacancy - clear information about the role, the values of the organisation and the benefits of living in the area the job is located, as well as details of a direct hiring contact you can reach out to in order to find out more about the role before applying. Kudos to SDS for consistently making our #CareersInCareers line-ups! CLOSING DATE: Sunday 16th April

? Area Managers (Devon and London) at FutureSmart Careers - A great example here of the type of role careers professionals might consider if they are looking to gain leadership/management experience while still utilising their career development expertise. This vacancy from FutureSmart Careers is looking for L6 qualified individuals with experience of supporting young people to take responsibility for either the organisation's London or Devon region, with duties including delivery in partner schools, business development, account management and some direct and indirect line management. CLOSING DATE: Friday 7th April

? Careers Coach (Matlock) at Derbyshire County Council - Up next, another careers coach role but this time with the Employment and Skills team at Derbyshire County Council , where the focus is providing impartial CIAG via both the local National Careers Service contract and also to support the development of a local youth hub (YES Derbyshire) in partnership with DWP. The role also comes with a decent remuneration package and the chance to live in the beautiful Peak District! (Ed: Showing your regional bias here, Chris...) CLOSING DATE: Sunday 9th April

? Careers Consultancy Manager (Cardiff) at Cardiff Metropolitan University - A great prospect for any HE-based careers professionals who are looking to move into management-level roles, this vacancy with Cardiff Metropolitan University involves both leading teams of Career Consultants and Employability Advisors at the university and also working with academic staff to identify ways in which the Careers Service can contribute to the development of careers and employability education within programmes, as well as supporting university-wide initiatives. An extremely varied role with a decent salary and an opportunity to work with a cracking careers service at Cardiff Met! CLOSING DATE: Friday 14th April

? PhD Studentship in Educating Young People in Deprived Communities (Derby) at University of Derby - Our final opportunity in this edition of #CareersInCareers is a unique funded MPhil/PhD Studentship with the University of Derby , focusing on areas designated as 'deprived' by government initiatives and centering on a particular school/educational setting, exploring how the area in which the school is located is understood by local stakeholders (eg young people, parents, teachers, teaching assistants, career guidance professionals, youth workers, educational welfare workers, employers and local policy makers). A fascinating route into PhD study for any careers professionals with an interest in research and an opportunity to work with Tristram Hooley , to boot! CLOSING DATE: Friday 21st April

#CareersInCareers will return for another round of the latest opportunities in the #Careers sector later in the year - in the meantime, don't forget to check out the Career Development Institute 's Careers in Careers platform to catch up on all the latest #Careers vacancies as they are released!

The Best of the Rest: My Hot Picks from the wider?#Careersphere

Designing Your Career: FREE online course! ?- We start this week's newsletter with a bonus for fans of both career development and design thinking, as edX are currently offering a FREE online course called Designing Your Career, which has been created by the brilliant Life Design Lab at 美国斯坦福大学 and features sections to help participants utilise design thinking to break into a new field of interest, understand different approaches to networking and more! The course is self-paced, non-linear and should take around 5 weeks to complete at an average of 2-5 hours work per week, so might be an excellent CPD opportunity to consider if you are interested in learning more about how design thinking can apply to #Careers work!

The Uni Guide Podcast ?- Regular readers of the newsletter will know that I love a good podcast and this offering from the team at UNI TASTER DAYS LTD looks like a valuable addition to the pod marketplace - the latest episode is all about the benefits of university events and features input from hosts ??Tim R. and Jon Cheek , along with a host of other guests, on how students and parents/guardians can make the most of university events to help inform their decisions when it comes to considering options in Higher Education!

A CERIC Media Relations Training Program for Career Development Professionals ?-?Up next, a fantastic CPD opportunity for careers professionals in Canada that has been advertised this week by CERIC , which focuses on how CDPs can build their skills in media relations in order to advocate on behalf of the profession and increase the visibility of career development work or the organisations they represent. Keka DasGupta , who is going to be delivering the training for CERIC , has mentioned that she is potentially open to delivering something similar for an international CDP audience, so a really topical and timely training session and wider conversation to keep an eye on!

Career change support service launched as three quarters of UK workers consider a change ?- Another Careers Wales initiative that is sure to draw covetous glances from careers professionals in England, the Working Wales campaign has recently launched to encourage adults in Wales looking to change careers to seek professional support. It's fantastic to see a campaign focusing specifically on career changers and is clearly timely, following hot on the heels of recent research which revealed that almost three-quarters of UK workers (71%) will be looking for a new role this year. Funded by the Welsh Government and delivered by Careers Wales , it will be interesting to see how this initiative, which provides anyone over the age of 16 with a package of employment support that is unique to their individual needs, progresses and whether any learning can be adopted when it comes to considering similar schemes in England or the other Home Nations.

The importance of not moving on too quickly in career guidance ?- We finish this week's newsletter with an excellent #CareersImpact story from Chris Targett RCDP regarding a recent appointment he undertook with a Year 11 student who stated that they were 'sorted' with their future career plans. What follows next in Chris' LinkedIn post wonderfully encapsulates the role that career development professionals play in gently challenging our clients to explore potential blind-spots, stress-test and rethink ideas in a safe space, in order to feel more comfortable and confident about moving forward. A useful post to share with any individuals who have misconceptions about what our work involves or underestimate just how transformative careers conversation can be!

I'm always keen to hear what people think of this weekly newsletter format (e.g. Is it helpful? Does it add value to what is already out there on LinkedIn? What might make it better/more digestible?) so please do drop me a DM if you have any thoughts!

#TheWeekInCareers is taking a short hiatus in lieu of the upcoming Easter break and some much-needed annual leave for its erstwhile editor but will be back on Friday 21st April for?Episode 30 - look forward to seeing you then! ??