What is career guidance? Career education in which students learn about the world of work and develop career management skills through classroom teaching, and through other activities. Career information on courses and careers, progression routes and choices. Individual career counselling on a one-to-one basis, providing specific advice on career decisions. Direct contact with the world of work to give young people first-hand insights into, and experiences of, the labour market in order to raise, broaden and inform career aspirations.

1. CAREER GUIDANCE
AND EMPLOYER
ENGAGEMENT
July 2018
Pauline Musset (OECD) and Lucia Mýtna Kureková (Slovak
Governance Institute)

2. • What is career guidance?
Career education in which students learn about the world of work and develop career
management skills through classroom teaching, and through other activities.
Career information on courses and careers, progression routes and choices.
Individual career counselling on a one-to-one basis, providing specific advice on career
decisions.
Direct contact with the world of work to give young people first-hand insights into, and
experiences of, the labour market in order to raise, broaden and inform career
aspirations.
• In which ways can the contact with the world of work help students make
decisions about their future?
What is the focus of this working paper?

3. • Young people face difficulties transitioning from education into the labour
market.
• Education decisions are important : career choices are closely tied in with
education choices, which can block progression into careers of choice.
Attainment and field-of-study affect labour market outcomes.
• Some education and training options are poorly understood: this may be the case
for apprenticeships, for example.
• There are economic, education and social benefits to career guidance and these
are likely to be optimised if career guidance is effectively delivered.
The case for career guidance

4. Figure 1. Young people (15-24) face higher unemployment than prime-age adults (25-54) across the OECD
Percentage of unemployment in the labour force, 2016
Young people face difficulties in the
labour market
Source: OECD (2017), “Unemployment Rates by Age Group”, https://data.oecd.org/, (accessed on 8 August 2017).
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
%
prime age adults young people

5. Figure 2. What students want to be as adults
Percentage of students who expected to work in the different occupational categories, among students who
responded
Students may not have realistic job
expectations
•Notes: Approximately 540 000 students completed the PISA test in 2015, representing about 29 million 15-year-olds in the schools of the
72 participating countries and economies.
•Category “medical doctors” formed by combining medical doctor, specialist medical practitioner and generalist medical practitioner. “Teaching
professionals” category created by combining all International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) 23. “Police officers, detectives and
inspectors” created by combining ISCO categories 5412, 3355, 3411.
Source: OECD, PISA 2015 Database, www.oecd.org/pisa/data/2015database/.
0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10%
General office clerks
Athletes and sports players
Veterinarians
Building architects
Psychologists
Nursing professionals
Police officers, detectives and inspectors
Lawyers
Teaching professionals
Medical doctors

6. Figure 3. Advantaged students are more likely to want to go to university than
disadvantaged students
Percentage of students who want to study in higher education
Social and personal circumstances shape
career thinking
Notes: No data are available for the Slovak Republic. Additional analysis shows that this is the case even when they have the same
levels of proficiency.
Source: OECD, PISA 2015 Database, www.oecd.org/pisa/data/2015database/.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Disadvantaged students Advantaged students

7. • Start early in schools, and intensify at key transition points.
• Ensure that students can talk to career counsellors who are well-trained, independent and impartial.
• Complete these approaches with the opportunities given by ICT technologies and labour market
information.
• Address information asymmetries about specific professions and challenge gender and ethnic
stereotyping.
• Allow students to consider the breadth of the labour market and particularly occupations which are of
strategic economic importance, newly emerging and/or likely to be misunderstood (such as the skilled
trades).
• Target young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds for the greatest levels of intervention.
• Enrich career guidance with plentiful employer engagement activities (such as career fairs and job
shadowing)
• Continue to develop evidence in this policy field, using robust methodologies, including longitudinal data,
to provide better evidence for the outcomes of policy interventions.
Career guidance can help. How to design
effective career guidance services

8. Figure 4. Fewer students participate in career guidance activities in which employers are engaged across the
OECD
Percentage of students having participated in the different activities
Bringing together the classroom and the
workplace can be challenging
Note: Employed-led activities include internship, job shadowing, career fairs. School-based activities include speaking to an adviser in school, filling
in a questionnaire about preferences and interests.
Source: OECD, PISA 2012 Database, www.oecd.org/pisa/data/pisa2012database-downloadabledata.htm.

9. Where countries are new to employer engagement, it is best to begin where
logistics are easiest.
• Job talks and career fairs are a relatively easy and effective tool.
• ICT can provide many new ways of facilitating the interactions between
schools and employers.
Bridging schools and the world of work

10. Musset, P. and L. Mýtna Kureková (2018), “Working it out: Career guidance and employer engagement”, OECD
Education Working Papers, No. 175, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/51c9d18d-en.
Blog post: Students need good career guidance and here’s how schools can give it
For more information:
Pauline.Musset@oecd.org
To learn more about the OECD’s work on apprenticeship, vocational education and training, and adult learning,
go to: http://www.oecd.org/education/vet, or follow the team on Twitter at @AnthonyMannOECD.
Paulineusset@oecd.org