Adults in England deserve a high-quality careers guidance system to help them navigate the ever-changing world of work. Our aim is to assist in improving and simplifying the guidance available to adults in this country, we recognise that in order for an adult to make better quality careers decisions they must have access to a trusted and effective career guidance infrastructure.
To date most of Gatsby’s work in careers has focused on young people, but of course career decisions do not stop once someone leaves education at 18. They are taken throughout our lives and are crucial not only to our own wellbeing and prosperity, but also to that of our local community and national economy. We see career guidance for adults as a key means of tackling unemployment, underemployment and addressing the skills misalignment in this country.
We have therefore launched a programme of research to better understand what good career guidance for adults looks like. This programme of research includes the development of a typology of adult career guidance needs, followed by an analysis of the current landscape of adult career guidance in England and an international study to identify examples of best practice globally.
To help us better understand the current context in England, we worked with an independent research organisation, Pye Tait, to launch a market research exercise. We were keen to hear from individuals, organisations or field experts that work with adults at any age, at any stage of their career, or in any situation. The exercise yielded a rich stream of information and feedback, which can be found in this summary.
To analyse the supply of career guidance for adults, it is necessary to understand the needs of the adult population, who form a very diverse group. To better understand this diversity, Gatsby commissioned Chris Percy to create a typology of adult career guidance needs to inform policymaking around career guidance infrastructure design and closely associated provision (such as training).
The typology consists of a list of groups that might benefit from career guidance and includes example descriptions of individuals who are representative of those groups (personas). The typology also gives an understanding of the number of people in each group and how those numbers are evolving over time. A high-level picture of the core elements of central government support currently provided by DWP and DFE completes the typology.
An executive summary can be found here.
The accompanying data pack can be found here.
In the summer of 2022, we commissioned SQW and the University of Derby’s International Centre for Guidance Studies to conduct an international research project designed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of international best practice in Adult Career Guidance and what lessons could be learnt for the system in England.
The project had two aims:
The project undertook research with individuals involved in adult career guidance in seven countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Denmark. In-depth case studies explored the whole adult career guidance system in four of those countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands.
The resulting report, published in March 2025, summarises the findings from this work identifies several features of successful adult career guidance systems, including:
· Vision and leadership
· National and local delivery
· Clearly understood and accessible services
· Labour market data
· Professionals
You can download the full report here and an annex with the full case studies from each country here.
If you would like any more information on any of the above please get in touch with us at careerguidance@gatsby.org.uk
Today (12th December 2022) the Government published a set of recommendations from Sir John Holman which sets out a vision for an ambitious and coherent future for career guidance for young people and adults.
Researcher Chris Percy writes about why there is a need to better understand the needs of those who would benefit most from adult careers guidance and how his recent work with the Gatsby Foundation supports this goal.
