Investing in careers: What is career guidance worth?

Career describes our pathway through life, learning and work. It is how we make a difference in the world and how we balance the competing demands on our time. When individuals make good choices about their education and training, access decent work, balance their various responsibilities and
develop and progress throughout life, we have well-functioning societies. We have done extensive costing work to estimate how much the government is currently spending on career guidance and to compare that to the level of spend in 2009. We estimate the figures as follows:

• We currently spend £68 per person, per year on the delivery of career guidance to young people. The equivalent figure
in 2009 (adjusted for inflation) was £159.

• We currently spend £26 per person, per year on the delivery of career guidance to adults. The equivalent figure in 2009
(adjusted for inflation) was £35.

The level of investment is one of the major issues that career guidance in England faces. However, it is not the only one. Funding is currently highly fragmented and dependent on a series of local decisions in schools, colleges, universities and local authorities. There is a desperate need to manage funding more strategically to ensure greater consistency. The career guidance workforce has also been depleted and the system has been de-professionalised. There is a need to take actions to improve quality and strengthen the professionalism of the system. The Career Guidance Guarantee represents is a thought through and costed plan to achieve the improvements that are needed. To implement it in full we would need to spend an additional £315m on youth careers services and an additional £235m on adult careers services. This equates to an average additional spend of £47 per person on career guidance for young people and an additional £6 per head on working age adults. This represents a very modest new investment, which when combined with the other reforms in the Career Guidance Guarantee would lead to a much more effective system. Career guidance is a powerful intervention that can make a substantial difference to the lives of those who are able to access it. Currently too few people in England are able to access career guidance or are
even aware that services are available and those that do get it often find that it is too poorly resourced. Government needs to take a more strategic approach, professionalise the system and ensure its quality and begin a programme of new investment. The Career Guidance Guarantee represents a clear and costed blueprint as to how this can be achieved.