Career Guidance for Adults in Latin America

1. Recommendations

Coverage and inclusiveness

Raise awareness about formal career guidance opportunities through media campaigns and active outreach to vulnerable groups

Many adults are not aware of career guidance services and rely strongly on informal sources of information, such as family and friends. This might be due to a lack of public information, and risks compounding inequalities in the labour market.

Provision and service delivery

Expand public provision (including PES) and associated funding to offer affordable or free high quality career guidance services to vulnerable adults

Vulnerable adults, such as the unemployed and low-educated adults, are less likely to use career guidance services in Latin America. Unequal access to services might be due to limited provision by public employment services.

Further expand the range of delivery channels available, and strengthen online career guidance platforms.

Face‑to-face provision remains the most common channel of career guidance, while there is unmet demand for alternative channels such as instant messaging. Online career guidance platforms represent a cost-effective way to meet demand for professional career guidance. Existing platforms could be strengthened by providing personalised information based on skills assessments, by integrating information about job and training opportunities, and by giving users an opportunity to chat live with a counsellor directly on the platform.

Quality and impact

Strengthen general public service delivery quality standards and include a component that considers career guidance specifically

Competence frameworks for career guidance advisors are not yet in place and quality standards around service delivery are rare, with significant variation across local employment offices.

Develop a skills profiling tool that can be used by providers, particularly when working with adults who have no formal qualifications

Effective guidance relies on personalised assessments and recommendations about training and job pathways. Skills profiling tools can be extremely useful in contexts where adults lack formal qualifications, but they are not widely used in Latin America.

Governance and funding

Consider forming a working group with all relevant stakeholders to improve career guidance policy and provision

Stakeholders, such as social partners and professional guidance associations are often not part of the strategic governance of career guidance policy.

Develop a system of regular reporting standards between local employment offices, national ministries and other relevant public bodies, and facilitate international exchanges of good practice

Co‑ordination mechanisms between the different levels of government and other public bodies responsible for career guidance exist, but could be strengthened. It may also be useful to organise regular exchanges of good practice and promising initiatives across Latin American countries.

Design financial measures to reduce the direct and indirect costs of career guidance for vulnerable adults

In Latin America, adults are more likely to pay out-of-pocket for career guidance than elsewhere. The cost of career guidance is a barrier, particularly for unemployed, informal and inactive workers.