The LMI Learning Blog

2 Career guidance: how bad can it get?

A 'News Briefing' which appeared on the BBC website in April, 2006, reported that a recent survey carried out by constructionskills had found that:

Many girls are put off working in the construction industry due to biased careers advice.

Unfortunately, the research report from which these findings are taken appears not to be in the public domain. So it is not possible to see what methodology was used to collect this data. All we're told is that 2,400 girls, aged eleven to eighteen completed the survey. There is no breakdown of respondents by age, social class, ethnic origin or country (England, Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland). Any one of these variables could provide us with deeper insights and understanding of the responses given. For example, if the majority of the sample was aged 11-12, it could be argued that it is a little premature to conclude that this particular cohort been 'put off working in construction'. Neither are we permitted examination of the survey instrument, so cannot scrutinize the nature of the questions included (were any closed and leading?). Perhaps even more relevant would be contextual information about the particular circumstances in which these girls and young women had received their career guidance and from whom. Were they recipients of career guidance from qualified practitioners? Was the career guidance given in a group or individual setting? Was this guidance timely? Overall, on the basis of information available, it is impossible to make any reasoned judgement about the validity, reliability or relevance of the particular research findings upon which this criticism is based. The credibility of these survey findings should, therefore, be questioned.

Notwithstanding the questionable quality of this particular study, criticism of the biased nature of career guidance, together with its contribution to occupational segregation is, regrettably, not new. A recent example is the Women and Work Commission's publication 'Shaping a Fair Future', published in February, 2006. The Commission identified how the negative bias in career guidance available did not encourage girls to consider occupational areas like construction, engineering, science and technology - where, the argument goes, potential opportunities are greater and pay is higher. If careers guidance would just get it right, the problem of occupational segregation in the UK labour market could be solved!

At best, this is a naive interpretation of the wide and varied influences that affect individual individual's career decision-making. Nor does it take into account how the resource base for the provision of high-quality, impartial career guidance has (at least in England) been eroded and fragmented over the past decade.

Yet even if the resources were available to provide high quality, impartial and timely career guidance, would it actually be in the interests of girls to be 'encouraged', by the guidance process, into occupations that may have a seriously harmful, even corrosive effect on them. There is a substantial body of research evidence that helps us understand the extent and depth of sexual harassment in the workplace (especially in non-traditional areas like construction). The corrosive impact this has on its (largely female) targets should give all career guidance practitioners 'pause for thought' before encouraging girls into these areas. The code of ethical practice to which all career guidance practitioners should operate to ensure that considered judgements are made about the resilience of any clients they support in making transitions to non-traditional jobs and the support they are likely to receive once employed. Perhaps the energies of Sector Skills Councils would be better directed at challenging the employment practices of its employers - for it is their occupational environments that fail to present an attractive prospect to half the population.