Careers consultant should be a regulated professional title

Personal specifications of careers roles advertised in the HE careers sector vary. Some providers stipulate that careers advisors or consultants must be qualified, whereas others recruit unqualified staff.

While recruiting unqualified staff with relevant experience can bring fresh perspectives into the careers profession, it ought to give some cause for concern when new careers professionals are asked to provide career guidance to students without at least being in the process of studying a level 6 careers qualification or above. New careers professionals from related sectors such as recruitment are often unaware of career guidance principles and the impact utilising them can have on an individual and/or groups.

With a new government recently elected, now appears a good moment to think about careers information, advice and guidance (CIAG) roles and their purpose. The new government is pledging to boost careers advice with the recruitment of 1,000 new careers advisors in schools and colleges, and bringing about a merger between the National Careers Service and JobCentre Plus – to say nothing of its plans for a longer-term post-16 education and skills strategy, which could reshape the tertiary landscape significantly.

It is all very positive to create strategies and invest in careers services with the aim of increasing work readiness, improving social mobility, and contributing to economic growth. However, if the changes do not consider the quality of CIAG and how it is delivered, any investment may not achieve its purpose.

For this reason, there’s a clear argument to be made for regulating the careers profession, to better recognise the important part it plays within the process of education and achievement of government objectives.

Regulated professions

Before we consider the question of whether CIAG should become regulated and how this could benefit higher education, it is important to understand what a regulated profession is.

The term “regulated profession” is defined in the Professional Qualifications Act as a profession where there is a legal requirement to have certain qualifications or experience in order to undertake professional activities or use a protected title. Job titles that are unregulated can be used by anyone regardless of qualification and experience level. Despite the Career Development Institute developing a UK Register for Career Development Professionals in which members are subject to minimum professional standards, CIAG is an unregulated profession and joining the register is not mandatory.

Increasing importance

In HE, there is increasing importance placed on quality careers support, both inside and outside the curriculum. Recruitment pressures have led to some universities lowering entry tariffs. This, in turn, may increase the number of students from widening participation backgrounds at university, who are more likely to benefit from one-to-one CIAG to achieve positive graduate destinations.

Many HE providers have detailed in their access and participation plans how CIAG will support disadvantaged students, and academics are slowly starting to engage more with CIAG concepts than historically was the case, in part due to the Graduate Outcomes survey contributing to various performance measures.

Although CIAG is increasingly important in HE, there remain misconceptions as to what it actually is. Students and academics regularly describe careers advisors as someone who checks CVs and applications. Although this description explains a small part of the role, it fails to acknowledge the more complex aspects that are often completed as part of the role.

The issues at play

While I understand there is an overlap between providing advice and guidance, and the difference between both may appear subtle, herein lies one problem.

Effective guidance utilises multifaceted humanistic approaches and skills which are underpinned by evidence-based theory and research, with the aim of supporting lifelong learning processes and the ability to make autonomous career decisions – while careers advice in essence can be provided by anyone. The vast majority of the adult population has career experiences and it is instinctive to want to provide advice based upon personal perceptions.

While sharing experiences and opinions can be useful, there is always the temptation when providing advice to position yourself as the expert, telling others what they should do and focusing solely on the topic presented. Having the ability to guide a client so they come to their own independent choices is a skill which not everyone is capable of and needs to be developed through professional development and experience.

Another point that needs to be addressed as part of the question of whether CIAG should be professionally regulated is the rise of openly accessible online information and AI technology. Why should CIAG become regulated if individuals can find careers information themselves, thus making their own independent choices?

Although technology can certainly replace some careers information and advice, it is not currently capable of providing impartial information and it is difficult for users to consider contextual issues such as personal beliefs and values. Skilled careers practitioners can enhance the value of technology by utilising their knowledge, humanistic skills, and structured techniques to encourage clients to critically evaluate the information before applying learning to their unique circumstances and career plans.

So let’s regulate, then?

Considering the differences between “careers information and advice” and “careers guidance”, one possible solution to increase standards and consistency – as well as helping to increase awareness of the complexity of CIAG – could be to protect specific titles in the profession.

Regulating a title such as “careers consultant” – but not “careers advisor” – could enhance clarity as it differentiates roles and the complexity of skills required. From an HE perspective, the improved visibility that would come from HE careers services having qualified professionals who must meet regulated standards could improve careers service credibility amongst both student and academic communities, potentially leading to higher engagement with careers and employability as a whole.

Research from the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) in 2022 found the biggest challenge for increasing student engagement with careers services was difficulty engaging academic colleagues. My personal experience from open days also indicates that parents of potential students seem increasingly interested in the quality of university CIAG provision. Reassurance that professionally regulated CIAG is available could support student recruitment.

While this article is advocating that CIAG becomes at least a partially regulated profession, it is not suggesting that there will no longer be a need for careers information and advice roles. Careers advice roles are often an entry point for individuals into the sector, and the fact roles currently sometimes ask for no careers qualification does encourage applications from diverse backgrounds, which promotes innovation and supports careers and HE sector objectives to be more representative of society.

Furthermore, careers advisors, careers coaches, and other similar roles can successfully augment guidance, particularly when the scalability of provision needs to be considered as with most HE providers. Approaches such as student careers studios and job search assistants can be used to successfully support guidance provision.

With a new government appearing to prioritise career development, the use of protected titled to recognise careers professionals who have proven experience and competency – as well as to raise the standards to which careers professionals must adhere – can only be good for the quality and credibility of both the careers and education sectors. This in turn may lead to CIAG having greater economic and societal impact, as well as achieving broader HE and post-16 education and skills objectives.