Adults in work

Introduction

This section provides resources for "making the case" for careers, referring to both challenges that careers services can tackle and evidence that such services work.

Careers support for Adults-in-work has attracted less research attention than for other parts of the population. This is in part because careers support is often provided by private career coaches or employers,  so outside of the public systems where data can be captured and aggregated. That said, with the increasing likelihood of an ageing population, coupled with the increasing need to reskill or upskill more frequently, the topic of an ‘all age career service’ is being frequently discussed once more. 

As well as drivers emanating from the external environment, we know that there are changes in motivation through a working career, and the likelihood of individuals experiencing “career shocks”, that have been covered by career guidance intervention research. 

The case for careers

Explicit or implicit arguments for investment in careers services for adults has come from a range of sources. For example:

• Significant and growing numbers of the UK population are expressing job dissatisfaction and adopting transactional relationships with their work e.g. CIPD (2023).

• There is a prevalent experience amongst the population of feeling unable to develop one’s career within their current job e.g.  CIPD (2023).

• Low skilled adults require specific tailored and high quality support to overcome their unique challenges e.g. Barnes, S.A. et al (2016)

• Changing career motivations exist through the lifespan, suggesting a need for careers support to help adapt and maintain job and career satisfaction e.g. Van der Heijden et al (2020)  Individuals gain benefits from continuing to learn across the life course to physical and mental health e.g. Schiller, (2017). Careers support can be a catalyst to such learning e.g. McNair (2014). (The Government outlined a strategy to support careers across the lifecourse in 2021 in their Skills for Jobs white paper (Department of Education, 2021))

• Career shocks and events occur continually through a lifespan, so require continual management e.g. Cort (2008), Robinson (2013).

• Adults in the working population who are motivated to progress can still suffer from inaction, creating unrealised potential e.g. Verbruggen (2020)

• Adults can experience stress in their careers, particularly due to the external economic climate. However careers guidance can help clients gain the adaptability and resilience to cope e.g. Bimrose and Hearne (2012).

• There are high levels of career regret amongst the working adult population, but regret can be managed constructively leading to positive outcomes e.g. Budjanovcanin, A. (2022).

• Labour-market demands are creating the need for significant numbers of new skills and more career mobility amongst the present workforce, to address needs of the changing economy e.g. WEF (2023), Dickerson and Rossi (2023). Career guidance can be an enabler to creating career agility skills which help address labour market needs (Bimrose et al, 2011)

• Many more skilled people will be needed in the low carbon sector, requiring adult transition or up/re-skilling as well as new recruits to help contribute to carbon reduction targets e.g. European Training Foundation (2022).

• The Government introduced a lifelong loan entitlement (from 2025) as part of a lifelong learning strategy, creating opportunities for mid/later re-training (UK Government), 

CEIAG services have been demonstrated to offer positive impacts for individuals and wider society, as captured in several meta-reviews and specific larger-scale studies e.g.:

• 98% of adults who received career guidance found it useful immediately after the event, and 68% still found it useful four years later, showing the longevity of impact (Bimrose et al, 2008).

• Both national and International studies show that career guidance can be reliably impactful on the careers and lives of individuals, supporting adult transitions to education and in work. The effectiveness of support is increased when it is both timely and delivered by suitably qualified professionals (Neary et al, 2021).

• Careers guidance can provide, from the average of international studies, a cost:benefit ratio of 3:1 for adults (Hooley et al, 2023).

• Coaching in organisations can help employers to reduce churn (Carter and Hirchi, 2024).

NB: We cover Unemployment separately. We will also cover specific groups in separate pages in future such as: Women, Adult Ethnic Minorities, Adults with Disabilities and Self-Employment.