The LMI Learning Blog

This discussion item is linked to Defining LMI

Do you think it's helpful to differentiate between labour market information and labour market intelligence?

How can advisers communicate 'bad news' about e.g. gender segregated industries in a way that is honest, but does not collude with inequality by deterring potential entrants?

Add your thoughts and comments by replying to this post.

This discussion item is linked to LMI and policy

LMI is of demonstrable interest to government - as the Leitch Review of 2006 makes clear. Leitch recommends the establishment of a new, universal careers service for England that places 'labour market focused' advice at its heart.

It recommends the formation in England of a new universal adult careers service, learning from those elsewhere in the UK, providing a universal source of labour market focused, accessible careers advice for adults.

(p.22) from The Stationery Office (2006) Leitch Review of Skills: Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills

Just how important is LMI to governments and why? Should those with an interest in guidance work celebrate this enthusiasm for LMI or view it with suspicion? What do you think?

This discussion item is linked to Case studies : Recognising and applying frameworks in practice

What do you make of the different approaches applied to Philip? Add your own ideas, reflections, comments and anecdotes here. How aware are you of your own 'framework for practice' when you are using LMI in IAG? What other things might influence how you use LMI?

NB - don't forget to also look at the related case studies under 'getting back to basics' case studies within the section on the nature of LMI. These consider what sorts of LMI clients and practitioners expect to access as part of an IAG process.

This discussion item is linked to Case studies - back to basics: what sort of LMI do clients find useful?

What do you make of Robin, Jo, Li Russell and Angelina's LMI requirements? Add your own ideas, reflections, comments and anecdotes by commenting on this post.

How much are you using LMI with clients in your work? What sort of LMI is most useful and how do you bring it into a guidance context?

NB - don't forget to also look at the related case studies under 'frameworks for practice'. These consider how practitioners use LMI will vary, according to their conscious or unconscious principles for practice.

This discussion item is linked to Glossaries of LMI Terms

What do you make of the jargon used in LMI? It isn't always easy to make sense of the language of GVA and SOC and NOMIS.

The glossaries in this on line learning resource give some great definitions that help to de-mystify the process, but have they done enough?

Why not add your comments on jargon here, you can include your own definitions too - serious or frivolous are equally welcome. Can you also share ideas on how you have made the language of LMI more accessible to your clients, or are you willing to own up to any corkers you've made in relation to LMI so we can all be made more aware of the pitfalls. Have your say by replying to this post.

This discussion item is linked to The Nature of LMI and its role in Career Guidance

LMI is a huge topic! The 'Nature of LMI' module of the LMI Learning Resource includes discussions relating to LMI jargon, LMI and policy and ideas from practitioners about what LMI they find useful in practice based on a series of case studies.

If you want to browse all the entries for these separate discussions in one place, you can do that by viewing items with the category "nature of LMI". You can add new comments to any of those items, and can also add your own new blog posts on related topics if you wish. Or add a comment to this topic by replying here.

On the 3rd April 2006 Construction Skills launched a press release that claimed research shows young women feel let down by the careers advice they receive. But how credible is this research?

This discussion item is linked to Dos and Don'ts when choosing between sources of LMI

Gender stereotyping is clearly a cause for huge concern, but if the problem is incorrectly attributed then it can't be tackled effectively.

Based on this press release, do you feel the claim is justified, if not, what else would you like to know?

Reply to this weblog post to have your say...

Using Labour Market Information Effectively within IAG
On-line module for practice

To give you a bit of context, the overall aim of the module is ‘To develop the ability to access, understand and manipulate Labour Market Information (LMI) as part of effective career guidance.'  It is planned that this module will address the following themes - though please note that the structure may evolve in response to your feedback:

1. The nature of LMI and its role in career guidance
2. The changing labour market: key issues for guidance
3. LMI for guidance: locating sources
4. LMI for guidance: choosing between sources
5. Different approaches to using LMI as part of the career guidance process

The example that you can link to here, The Practitioner's LMI Competency Audit is just one small part of the module.  It is intended to allow you to reflect on what you already know in relation to LMI and what you might need to know.  

Please remember this is work in progress! Ultimately a user will be able to save their responses to this 'audit' in their own personalised web-space, and reflect on what action needs to be taken to address any areas for development.  At the moment, your answers will not be saved, so you may wish to print out your work if you would like to keep it.

At this stage it would be really helpful if you could:

Go to this link

http://www.guidance-research.org/Members/lucymarris/competence_check

1. work through the screens as you see fit! 
2. How long (approximately) did you spend exploring and working on this audit?
3. First impressions (visually) - any ideas on how to improve the visual impact/ or suggestions for appropriate images are very welcome 
4. First impressions (content)
5. Scope of the competencies listed - any glaring omissions
6. Please indicate in what ways the exercise was interesting or useful
7. Please highlight any problems or frustrations
8. Please add any reflections on your use of LMI that came up as a result of the exercise
9. Any additional comments or thoughts

Your comments however brief or comprehensive will be of enormous value in creating what we hope will be a valuable resource for guidance practice.  You will need to join the site and log in to use the reply feature to respond.  Enjoy!

The Skills for Business Network (SfBn) is working to enhance the provision of sector-specific Information Advice and Guidance.  Twelve Sector Skills Councils have teamed up to plan, develop and deliver IAG services that will benefit careers advisors and individuals.  This project will also facilitate the use and interpretation by advisors of labour market intelligence.  This, in turn, will help clients raise their awareness of sectors and industries in order to make meaningful job and career choices. 

The Government Skills Strategy sets out proposals for reform for information, advice and guidance for adults in England.  This will include the development of an infrastructure to support adults that is universally available, highly respected and well used.  This Sector Skills Councils’ Information, Advice and Guidance Project links directly to the government review by providing an employer perspective through the SfBn.  Better sector intelligence will help employers to fill skills shortages and ensure they are recruiting people with a good skills ‘match’ to meet their requirements.

You can find out more about the project from the document attached, but you can also use this forum to give your reaction to the initiative.  Perhaps you've been to the workshops they have initiated under the scheme?

One of the representatives (thanks Jill!) supplied a list of useful websites that would be of interest to potential entrants to a media career linked to animation.  I thought it might be helpful to other careers advisers to share them here.  Enjoy!  You can link to them from the del.icio.us social bookmarking site under ft/audiovisual - and I will keep updating the link with other websites as I come across them.  Perhaps if anyone has other ideas they could also post them in this discussion so that we can build up a resource of useful websites as this is such a competitive industry to get into all contributions I'm sure are welcome!

Practical tools

This section contains the toolkit's tools. There are ideas for using LMI in work with individuals and groups and in different contexts, and for different ways of presenting LMI. Each tool is free-standing, and some consist of more than one page. In no particular order the sections cover:

• The tools and how to use them
• Checkpoints: identifying clients' needs
• Checkpoints: judging the quality of LMI
• Using local LMI in class
• LMI database: working with maths students
• A quick guide: making sense of LMI
• Guidelines: reading tables and charts
• Using local LMI: classroom careers education session
• Producing a regular LMI newsletter
• Careers adviser's LMI workshop for school staff
• Sample material: careers education in cross-curricular work
• Two sample LMI leaflets

I wonder if anyone out there has tried using any of these materials?  Also, given the current resurgence of interest in LMI, could these materials come into use again.   It seems to me there is a lot of LMI already out there, and it does inform my practice up to a point, but I could probably engage with the area much more effectively, perhaps the approach reflected in the materials on this website could be part of that process.

As a practitioner in a Higher Education context I've been amazed at how much use I've been able to make of the LMI section of this website.  It's helped me in providing a context for reports that consider destinations of graduates in terms of the broader labour market, provided an overview of occupational areas that fall outside my existing knowledge and caseload, and I've even given the website out to clients who are trying to research particular sectors to give them a sense of the existing opportunity structure.  It seems to me this area of the site is an important resource, helping me to develop my professional expertise, build my understanding of the labour market, produce more robustly supported reports as part of my role and assisted me in direct work with individuals!

This is a great resource, but it has made me reflect on the importance of LMI and I'm wondering how other users of this forum view LMI.  Do practitioners have enough time to keep up to date with LMI, how important is it in practice, for example does it fit with the Personal Adviser role within connexions or is it being pushed out by other priorities.  I'm not sure if individual practitioners have all that much say in deciding how much time to spend on this aspect of their work.  Any comments?