How Career Guidance Can Improve Job Prospects for Young People

This will expose young people to job possibilities through job fairs, career talks, and so-called ‘taster’ work placement schemes.

In the absence of national career services, these training providers or agencies should be able to advertise and enroll young people into courses both off-line and online; guide young people toward potential careers; provide information on qualifications required for entry as well as on the courses leading to these qualifications, their location, length, content, mode of delivery, cost, among others.

The information should be able to show growth sectors and the types of skills employers look for.

In the United Kingdom, there are standards of performance, prescribed in the National Occupational Standards, for career development practitioners. The standards, which are available online, include modules on enabling individuals to use and apply information for career development, setting goals and career objectives, integrating career education within the curriculum, supporting learners’ transition and progression, among others.

In Turkey, work has been done to increase career counselors’ use of information and communication technology (ICT) in guidance services and to equip them with the competences to deliver such services. It includes an ICT skills map, a training needs analysis of guidance practitioners, and the development and delivery of a four-day training program and training materials.

New startups, which leverage on ICT to provide information on education and training opportunities and job-matching services, are on the rise. Edukasyon.ph in the Philippines is an example of a private enterprise which has taken an entrepreneurial approach in providing guidance and job-placement service for school and college leavers.
Microsoft, through an initiative called DigiGirlz, is encouraging young women to get involved in science, technology, engineering and math to entice them to pursue careers in technology.

A bank of short-term, unpaid, work placements allows Australian school students to participate in activities at a place of paid or voluntary work. The aim is to provide insights into the industry and the workplace in which they are located without extensive training.   

UK-based charity Education and Employers gives young people first-hand insight into potential careers through its project, Inspiring the Future. The project recruits volunteers—people from the world of work—and ask them to pledge an hour a year to speak about their career in state schools and colleges.

Students need access to potential employers with an interest in their skill-set.

Guided reflection on personal circumstances may impact the jobseeker’s decision, e.g. work experience, qualifications and specialized subjects, core skills, earning expectations, preferred working location and environment. Counselors can also help job-seekers search for jobs, draw up their curriculum vitae, and prepare for interviews and how to negotiate their salary package. They can also set up online job-matching services and job fairs.

In Singapore, students and workers have access to a network of career centers run by WorkForce Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Manpower tasked to help workers meet their career aspirations and secure good jobs. Its programs and initiatives include Adapt and Grow, which helps Singaporeans adapt to the changing job market, and online jobs search site, Jobsbank.

Keeping track of how graduates are faring is important so that those who follow in their footsteps will be better informed. Sri Lanka, with assistance from the Asian Developing Bank, tracks where TVET graduates end up by using interactive voice response surveys, computer-assisted telephone interviews and tablet- and cloud-based data collection.

Students and workers in the Republic of Korea can benefit from CareerNet, a career guidance-related research and development center set up at the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education & Training by the Ministry of Education. It offers psychometric testing, career counseling, job information, and career education materials, including videos and digital books. Services are provided through various media, including desktop and mobile web, and smartphone applications.

In Kerala, India, a project called Additional Skill Acquisition Program, focuses on helping job seekers improve their soft skills, as well as communications and IT skills. Employers also take part to ensure market relevance.

In Singapore, job matching platform JobKred helps workers link up quickly and easily with employers looking to hire new people. The service is designed to help both parties and aims to cut recruitment time for companies and filter suitable jobs for job-seekers. JobKred uses data from industries, the government, and other labor market sources.

Several job-hunting apps are now available, such as Switch, Jobr and Job Snap. Some, like the Levo app, even offer options allowing candidates and employers to upload 30-second videos to tell their story.  Also refer to: Swiping Right for the Job: How Technology Is Changing Matching in the Workforce (JPMorgan Chase, 2016).

Given the increasing number of people requiring help to navigate their way through the job market, it makes sense to leverage on ICT to help users self-manage their information gathering and decision making, with intervention from counselors only on as-needed basis.

These may come in the form of job-search tools which provide services to individual job-seekers and the recruiting employers, requiring both online and face-to-face support depending on the needs of the user.

Now, more than ever, employment services and career guidance systems need to help people in mid- and late-career as well as those starting out. Jobs are no longer for life given uncertainties in the global economy and their impact on jobs.

One of the big advantages of career guidance and job placement services is that, in countries where employers rely heavily on social contacts for staff recruitment, they can bring more equity of opportunity for people who lack social capital and generally have difficulty finding out about vacancies or presenting themselves credibly for interview.

Up-to-date labor market information is necessary so counselors can give informed advice to their clients. Information coming directly from employers themselves, in particular, offer valuable insights to both the counselor and his client. Only employers can really know what is required of workers in particular jobs, the prospects of career growth, and future job demand from within the sector. 

The aim is to create a coherent system, with multiple stakeholders developing different elements of service delivery. While government has a key role in the provision of career guidance services, it should not be regarded as the sole provider. An effective strategy will coordinate government and non-government services.

Scarce resources require priorities to be established which focus initially on improving career and educational information, followed by investing in self-help services, exploiting the use of ICT, improving staff training, and developing incentives to encourage the private and NGO sectors to develop and deliver services. The design of these services should not assume that everyone needs intensive personal guidance but allow for more diverse service delivery.

Service providers require a good understanding of who uses different services, for what purposes, how well suppliers are meeting demand, the cost-effectiveness of career guidance, and levels of client satisfaction. These will help them defend investments.

Providing career guidance and job placement services requires a high degree of gender sensitivity. Trained counsellors will need to dispel any self-imposed discrimination by learners and their parents at the same time as educating employers on the introduction of merit-based rather than gender-based recruitment practices.