National Careers Week: Professional Careers Support Matters More Than Ever as the World of Work Changes

As National Careers Week focuses attention on careers support for young people and adults, the Career Development Institute (CDI) highlights the growing challenges facing individuals throughout their working lives and the increasingly important role career development professionals play in helping people navigate uncertainty. 

Careers have always involved uncertainty. But with rapid technological advances, changes to the employment landscape, and demographic and societal shifts, young people and adults need to increasingly invest in their careers to remain relevant. In this context, careers advice has moved from a nice-to-have to a form of essential support. 

National Careers Week is a fantastic opportunity to raise the visibility of the work of career development professionals, providing careers education, information, advice and guidance to people throughout the UK. This is much needed. The CDI’s Valuing Careers research highlighted that, despite 80% of the 5,000 UK adults surveyed facing one or more barriers to their career aspirations, only 15% had accessed careers support since leaving education. 

David Morgan, Chief Executive of the CDI, the UK’s professional body for the careers sector, said: 

“People need to invest in their careers more than ever before. Throughout their working lives they are going to need to adapt to rapid change, refresh and develop new skills, to remain fulfilled across much longer working lives. Career development professionals help people navigate that reality and we need to encourage everyone to seek the help that is available. It isn’t just about getting into and staying in employment, careers support can help people improve their wellbeing and satisfaction with life.” 

Evidence from the CDI’s Valuing Careers research shows just how closely careers are linked to wider wellbeing. Adults who feel positive about their careers are almost twice as likely to feel positive about their lives overall. Yet optimism declines sharply with age. While the majority of young adults feel hopeful about their prospects, confidence drops significantly through mid-career and later life, even as people are expected to remain economically active for longer. 

Young people are facing a major increase in mental health issues, a key driver of stubbornly high rates of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). Adult workers are increasingly at risk of technological change in their employers and across whole industries, and as people work until older age, they are dealing more with health issues or caring responsibilities. Professional careers support can help address these challenges, often working in tandem with other support services and agencies. Qualified careers advisers and coaches can help people make sense of their career in light of their personal situation, identify their strengths and career aspirations, explore the options to gain new skills and navigate towards a fulfilling career that recognises their needs. 

While the focus of career development professionals is always on the individual client, the cumulative effect of this action can be felt across the economy and society. Careers support can help people move into, return to and remain in work, increasing the available workforce and economic activity. It can cut the cost to the state as people make the right education choices first time and reduce their reliance on the benefits system. 

Professional careers advisers can advise clients of the trends in the local and national labour market, helping people develop the skills needed in the economy and move into growth areas. It also helps people develop the skills to manage their careers throughout their working life - planning their career, developing opportunities and being resilient when things go wrong. 

The need for a career literate population is ever growing. The CDI research shows that 80% of the UK adults with career aspirations barriers to achieving them. Yet only a small minority access professional careers guidance once they leave education, despite strong evidence that those who do benefit significantly through improved confidence and clearer decision-making. Most worryingly, those who could most benefit for careers support – those with low career confidence, low educational attainment, low pay or insecure jobs – are least likely to access support. 

There is amazing work being done by careers professionals every day across the UK, working from primary schools, throughout education, into work and through to retirement. This is recognised in so many policy discussions, from supporting young people with SEND, to getting and keeping people in work, improving social mobility and access to higher levels of education. But, as budgets have been under pressure in all areas, the careers profession remains under-invested in to deliver against the full promise and growing need of the population. 

The recognition of the key role of career development needs to be backed by increased funding that allows high quality careers support to be available to everyone who needs it. That means addressing areas of the profession where pay is below a fair level, leaving the careers workforce under-resourced. It means designing services to provide a higher level of support that goes beyond next-step decision-making, helping people develop lifelong career management skills. And it means resourcing those services to ensure engagement is tailored to meet the needs of the individual. 

And it means government, agencies and the profession doing more to raise the profile of career development with the public, so they are aware of the support available, understand how it can benefit them, and know how to access public, employer and private sector support. This National Careers Week offers an opportunity to showcase the power of careers and raise the challenge to invest more in the system to support people through increasingly complex working lives. 

As the world of work keeps changing, developing a career literate population is not a luxury – it's critical for individuals, communities and the economy to adapt and thrive.