This introductory chapter explores how structural inequalities shape the transitions from school to work of young people with different characteristics and why inequalities are of relevance to the work of career guidance practitioners.
Challenging Social Inequality Through Career Guidance
Insights from International Data and Practice
Abstract
Career guidance is widely recognised as an essential tool in the transitions of young people through education into employment (Cedefop, 2021[1]). The common aim of career guidance systems is to help young people to make informed decisions about their choices in education and training in order to enable smoother transitions into fulfilling and sustainable employment. International interest in career guidance grew in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis and the spikes in youth unemployment it produced, and was renewed again in recent years among policy makers and practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic and a growing recognition that in many countries young people continued to struggle in the early labour market in spite of unprecedented levels of academic achievement. In response to this growing interest, the OECD launched Career Readiness project for young people. Through 2020-22, the project laid the foundation for rebuilding this important dialogue on career guidance by distilling key indicators of teenage career readiness (OECD, 2021[2]) through analysis of longitudinal datasets in multiple countries. It also collected practices in career guidance which align with empirical evidence, identifying characteristics of more effective career guidance. This paper contributes to the second phase of the project (2022-24), which explores the importance of career development in relation to student demographic characteristics, strategically important economic areas (‘green’ jobs), and the use of digital technologies in guidance while providing countries with policy advice to enhance national practice.
This paper focuses on how school-level career guidance systems can respond to structural inequalities facing young people. It aims to provide educational jurisdictions and the wider career guidance community with new insights into how social inequalities influence the outcomes of young people as they transition from education to work, shape participation in career guidance activities and can most effectively be addressed through guidance provision. It draws on new analysis of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data as well as national statistics. The paper builds moreover on the OECD Career Readiness Indicators (Covacevich et al., 2021[3]) to review the impact of structural inequalities on the education-to-work transitions and the need for, and provision of, school-age career guidance. Consequently, the paper identifies a range of career guidance interventions that can be expected to mitigate the negative impact of inequalities on students’ transition outcomes, enabling fairer access to economic opportunities and stronger psychological preparation for transitions. The paper concludes by reviewing how the new Career Education Framework in New Brunswick (Canada) articulates means by which education systems can systematically address inequalities as they support youth in their transitions to work.
This first chapter introduces the concepts and contexts of structural inequalities, theories of change and the practical delivery of career guidance in terms of the transition from school to work, and answers why inequality matters in the delivery of career guidance.
Chapter two, three and four discuss first how early labour market experiences are shaped by inequalities linked to young adults’ characteristics in three areas: socio-economic status (Chapter 2), gender/sexuality (Chapter 3) and migrant background/ethnicity (Chapter 4). Within the analysis, greater challenges are identified for some youth (sharing distinct characteristics) more than others in successfully activating their accumulated human capital within the labour market. The chapters analyse the early labour market outcomes of young adults demonstrating comparable levels of educational success in relation to the different forms of employment outcomes against each of the three characteristics: rates at which young adults are Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET), patterns in labour market segmentation and job quality (earnings, job satisfaction, type of work contract, and qualification and field of study mismatch). Through this analysis, additional obstacles facing discrete groups of young people in achieving effective transitions into the labour market are highlighted. The three chapters then discuss how each characteristic of inequality relates to the career development of students within school either helping or hindering their capacity to convert human capital into successful employment. Finally, the chapters look at how career guidance, drawing on current examples of practice, can respond to the challenges of inequalities in student progression towards employment. In this, they cluster examples of practice around four thematic areas which cut across the different forms of inequality:
intensity of support;
professional capacity and targeted provision;
social capital: and,
critical understanding of personal relations within the labour market.
Chapter 5 concludes the paper by setting out the primary elements of a K-12 career education framework recently developed by the Canadian province of New Brunswick in collaboration with the OECD. The framework acknowledges the different ways in which inequalities can hinder youth in their transition to work and describes means by which guidance professionals can assess the need for greater intervention to effectively support individual students. The framework provides a model of practice which aligns with the findings of this paper and that could be used by policy makers in other jurisdictions, practitioners and other stakeholders. The chapter concludes by highlighting priorities for further research.
This paper includes analysis of data from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to gain insight into structural inequalities. PISA surveys (from 79 countries and economic areas in 2018) review the educational experiences and progress of nationally representative samples of students at the age of 15-16 years while PIAAC looks at the experiences of adults (in 40 countries) and assesses how they make use of their qualifications and skills in the labour market. This paper also includes the analysis of follow-up surveys of Australian students who participated in PISA 2003 through the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) in 2013. Data and methodology in this paper follow earlier OECD work (Covacevich et al., 2021[3]).
Results are reported in percentage, percentage point difference or odds ratio. Odds ratios reflect the relative likelihood of an event occurring for a particular group relative to a reference group. An odds ratio of 1 represents equal chances of an event occurring for a particular group compared to the reference group. A value below 1 indicates that there is less chance of an event occurring for a particular group compared to the reference group, and value greater than 1 represents greater chances. Odds ratios are adjusted for control variables. In the case of PISA data, these relate to gender, the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS), academic achievement in reading, migrant status, and programme orientation (vocational education and training versus general programme). In the interest of identifying promising practices that may foster labour market outcomes, this paper reports results that are significant up to the 10% level of significance, unless otherwise stated.1 This liberal significance criterion is in line with much of the academic literature and earlier OECD work in this field.
A teenage student’s socio-economic status (SES) is assessed by the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) (OECD, 2019[4]). For young adults using PIAAC data, the level of educational attainment achieved by the parents of the participants in the Survey was used as proxy to indicate young adults’ SES (OECD, 2016[5]). Migrant status is estimated by the birthplace of respondents – foreign-born (different from the country where the PISA or PIAAC test was undertaken) versus native-born.
1. If the probability of the observed correlation in the analysis (i.e., p-value) is less than 0.1 then the null hypothesis (i.e., the respective correlations are not statistically significant from either zero or between estimates), is rejected, meaning statistically significant at p-value lower than 0.1 (10%).
Structural inequality is a condition where a definable group of people with shared personal characteristics systematically face additional barriers in achieving social and particularly economic goals leading to disparities in outcomes which cannot be explained by variation in individual ability. Such inequality is a barrier that many young people are faced with when transitioning from education to work. In one’s career, two aspects play a key role: firstly, one’s individual effort as captured through educational attainments, skills or experiences, and secondly, structural factors that cannot be changed by one’s effort such as age, gender and sexuality, socio-economic background (SES), ethnicity or migrant background. While the former explains a significant part of labour market outcomes, it does not so completely. The latter serve to shape and often sharply constrain the career development and employment outcomes of individuals (Lehmann, 2005[7]; OECD, 2016[5]; 2019[8]).
Structural inequality becomes most apparent when young people with the same educational attainment or skills at similar levels end up with different labour market outcomes. This is what Chapters 2, 3 and 4 show. For those who are placed at a disadvantage due to their socio-economic background, gender, sexuality, migrant background or ethnicity, the playing field is not equal. This inequality is perpetuated and reinforced by unequal opportunities and their consequences and further rooted in institutions, systems, societies and histories (Alcorn, 2016[9]). The ambitions and resources of students are highly personalised, and so inequalities can work in diverse ways. The gender of a young woman for example might accentuate progression towards careers in nursing or teaching, but serve to hinder progression towards careers in information technology. For career guidance, and other interventions seeking to address inequalities and to fairly activate human capital in the labour market, this complex interplay between the individual and the structures in which they are developing their career creates challenges. By implication for the guidance community, it is clear that a one-size approach to provision will not fit all. The characteristics of young people are multifaceted and inequalities can be seen to build upon each other to increase disadvantage: a migrant-born girl from a low SES background for example can often expect greater challenges in achieving specific employment ambitions, linked to different aspects of her background, to a native-born girl from a high SES background. However, in order to simplify understanding of available data, a limited emphasis has been placed in this study on such intersectionality. This is an aspect of inequalities and guidance that would benefit from greater future study (Center for Intersectional Justice, 2020[10]; Council of Europe, 2022[11]).
Career guidance1 includes services and activities intended to assist individuals to make educational, training and occupational choices, to prepare well for their transitions into the labour market and to manage their careers (Musset and Mytna Kurekova, 2018[12]; OECD, 2004[13]). It is also commonly designed to help in the efficient functioning of education and the labour markets and to contribute to a range of social policy goals, including social mobility and equity. Empirical evidence points towards career guidance services – in school and outside – having a formative influence on students’ understanding of themselves and the world of work, and can often improve educational, social and economic outcomes (Hughes et al., 2016[14]) As young people stay in education and training longer and as the labour market becomes more complex leading to increased decision-making in more difficult circumstances, the case for career guidance grows (Cedefop, 2021[1]; Musset and Mytna Kurekova, 2018[12]). Career guidance can offer students not only current and projected labour market information but also useful perspectives, resources and tools that they can use to better understand, match and activate their emerging interests and skills to the labour market opportunities.
In secondary education, career development activities are commonly designed to help young people explore their career ambitions, to develop the skills required to begin managing their career journeys and to gain first-hand experience of the working world. Career development activities include a wide range of interventions that are commonly studied in isolation, but typically delivered in combination: career counselling, career exploration, work-related learning, work-based learning, mentoring, career management skills, recruitment skills (Covacevich et al., 2021[6]). Effective career guidance encourages students to reflect on who they are and who they want to become, and to think critically about the relationships between their educational choices and future life.
1.3.1. Career guidance can strengthen the capacity to aspire in the context of social stratification and structural inequalities
International evidence of social inequalities shaping labour market participation is widespread. It is easier for people sharing specific characteristics to achieve certain economic and social outcomes than others. For example, in the UK, power structures are dominated by a narrow section of the population who are educated privately or graduate from just two universities among the more than 160 institutions of higher education in the country. Looking at who occupies the most senior positions across a range of professions (including the law, business, national and local government, politics and sport), the UK Social Mobility Commission finds that 39% of such elites attended private fee-paying schools, more than five times as many as the population at large (7%) (Sutton Trust/Social Mobility Commission, 2019[15]). From another perspective, gay men in the UK are significantly less likely than comparable heterosexual men to be in the high-level managerial positions that come with higher status and pay – this "gay glass ceiling" is stronger for racial minorities than for white people (Aksoy et al., 2018[16]).
The OECD indicators on women in politics and businesses also show that less than a third of those people occupying positions of political power are women (35% of ministers and 32% of all parliamentarians) on average across OECD countries in 2021 (OECD, 2022[17]) and that women make up only 16% of board members in the top 500 multinational enterprises in 2020 (OECD, 2020[18]). In the US, women are less likely to be in the top corporate positions (26% of C-suite in 2022) and promoted. A recent McKinsey study of 333 participating organisations for example, found that for every 100 men promoted from entry-level roles to manager positions, only 87 women (only 82 women of colour) are promoted (Krivkovich et al., 2022[19]). McKinsey finds moreover that LGBTQ+ men and women are generally underrepresented in the management pipeline compared to its population estimation with LGBTQ+ women experiencing greater underrepresentation than male peers (Ellsworth, Mendy and Sullivan, 2020[20]).
Kearney and Levine (2016[21]) argue that such established inequality might discourage human capital investment: due to a heightened sense of economic and social marginalisation, an adolescent at the bottom of the income distribution or with other disadvantaged backgrounds may not see as much value in investing in his or her human capital as would a more advantaged peer. By way of illustration, US data show that geographic areas with higher levels of income inequality have lower high school completion rates, and the perceived return of schooling was lower among low-SES children, especially in high-inequality states. The study highlights the role of one’s relative position in society in determining individuals’ attitudes and behaviours towards their careers and related choices (Kearney and Levine, 2016[21]).
In this context, Indian sociologist Arjun Appadurai (2004[22]) argues that strengthening the ‘capacity to aspire’ or ‘navigational capacity’ of young people can be expected to help them to contest and alter the conditions of inequality. According to Appadurai (see also, (Archer, 2014[23]; St Clair, Kintrea and Houston, 2014[24]), young people from low-income backgrounds do not lack ambition for themselves, but systematically face greater challenges than high-income peers in accessing resources which will allow their ambitions to be fulfilled. Past structural inequalities can conflict with an individual’s future career development plans and there is a need to create and enable a culture of aspiration through providing more equal access to resources that support progression (capacity building) such as through career guidance. The concept of capacity to aspire highlights the importance of social relationships in enabling access to economic opportunities and bears close relation to the idea of critical consciousness defined by Blustein (2019[25]) as the capacity to reflect on, and commitment to address, the causes of social inequality (see also (Diemer and Blustein, 2006[26]).
Earlier OECD work and other national studies show that career ambitions are heavily influenced by student socio-economic status, gender and migrant background (Musset and Mytna Kurekova, 2018[12]). Moreover, studies point out that many young people, particularly from the most socially disadvantaged backgrounds, are confused about what they need to do to secure their job ambitions. In many cases, teenagers from lower socio-economic backgrounds underestimate their own academic abilities, show poor awareness of educational pathways and suffer negative academic consequences linked to lower-than-expected aspirations (Mann et al., 2020[27]). Consequently, what teenagers think about their working futures matters to their adult outcomes. It shapes the way that they perceive their daily classroom experiences and provides a compass for how education, skills and qualifications are mustered to access personally satisfying adult employment. Earlier longitudinal studies have shown that teenage students who express clear occupational expectations, hold high ambitions for themselves, understand how education can help them achieve their aspirations, and plan on securing the education necessary to achieve their career goals go on to engage more successfully in work than comparable peers (Covacevich et al., 2021[3]). The opposite is also the case: young adults who demonstrated incomplete or confused thinking about the labour market as teenagers and who felt that their education was a waste of time can be expected to work and earn less than peers with similar backgrounds and qualifications (Mann, Denis and Percy, 2020[28]).
Career guidance has long been viewed as having the potential to ameliorate social inequalities. Indeed, it can be argued that this commitment to addressing inequalities goes back to the origins of the field in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century where it was viewed as a technique that could support the fair and efficient functioning of a society that was in huge industrial, technological and geographical turmoil (Zytowski, 2001[29]). Ever since, the claim that career guidance can help level the playing field by providing individuals with knowledge and contacts that transcend their social background has been repeatedly made (Hansen, 2003[30]; Hooley, Matheson and Watts, 2014[31]). Most recently a movement of scholars has argued that, if properly conceptualised, constituted and delivered, career guidance can be an active and positive force for social justice (Arthur, 2014[32]; Hooley and Sultana, 2016[33]; Hooley, Sultana and Thomsen, 2017[34]).
It is important however, to recognise that while much evidence points towards career guidance as a force for social equity, this is not necessarily the case. Policymakers and providers have choices to make about the orientation that career guidance has in relation to society. As Watts (1996/2014[35]) notes career guidance can be used as a form of social reproduction and control, which “habituates entrants to the workforce, gatekeeps access to opportunities and cools out excessive ambition” (p.173). Consequently, career guidance can be viewed as a contested arena in which decisions around its design and delivery will influence the extent to which it can be expected to exacerbate or reduce social inequalities. While empirical studies have found that guidance interventions can serve to reduce inequalities among young people transitioning into the labour market (Lee et al., 2021[36]; Mann, Percy and Kashefpakdel, 2018[37]; Percy and Kashefpakdel, 2019[38]), this result is not always reported (Hatcher and Le Gallais, 2008[39]; Percy and Kashefpakdel, 2019[38]). This is particularly the case when career guidance is uncritically used as a tool to track young people into either academic or vocational tracks (Romito, 2019[40]). Questions consequently remain as to what more equitable career guidance should look like and how it can best be organised in ways that recognise the diverse experiences of young people and particularly speak to the challenges that they face.
1.3.2. Conceptualising the role of inequality in career development: how career guidance can help in the accumulation of human, social, cultural capital relevant to progression
In making sense of the capacity of guidance systems to address structural inequalities, this paper draws on capitals analysis. This is a commonly used means of understanding the factors influencing comparative outcomes in the labour market. Conceptualised in different forms, studies by Brown (2020[41]) and Tomlinson (2022[42]; 2013[43]) among others focus particularly on three intertwined aspects of resource that individuals draw upon in the competition for work. Each has implications for the design and delivery of career guidance systems and a growing literature has made use of these aspects of capital development to analyse the capacity of guidance systems to better enable successful transitions for young people from education into employment (Jones, Mann and Morris, 2016[44]; Lehmann, 2005[7]; Mann, Denis and Percy, 2020[28]; Norris, 2011[45]; Raffo and Reeves, 2000[46]; Stanley and Mann, 2014[47]). Theories related to capitals development make it easier for analysts to assess the value of different forms of career development within education and compare provision available to different groups of students.
Human capital is understood as the collection of knowledge, skills (often codified as qualifications) and work-related experience that an individual possesses (Brown, Lauder and Cheung, 2020[48]; Keeley, 2007[49]). Here, it is the role of school systems to help students to structure their accumulating knowledge, skills and qualifications in ways that will relate to potential successful futures in work. Analysis of PISA 2018 highlights ways in which guidance can enhance the accumulation of human capital within formative education. The international study shows that disadvantaged youth are routinely more likely to demonstrate uncertainty or confusion in their career thinking at age 15-16, making educational choices more difficult. They are also more likely to express lower ambitions (in terms of progression to tertiary education or professional occupations) than higher SES peers with the same levels of academic ability as captured by the PISA assessments (Mann et al., 2020[27]). However, PISA also shows that participation in a range of guidance activities can be seen to reduce such uncertainty and confusion (Covacevich et al., 2021[3]). School systems have the capacity to assess the career thinking of students and provide greater input should detrimental thinking be apparent, enabling more confident subject selection and understanding of post-secondary pathways. Schools also have scope to support students in accessing work-related experiences, which represent an additional means of accumulating human capital that is helpful in career advancement (Madgavkar, 2022[50]) and which is frequently inaccessible to young people, notably girls (Mann and Kashefpakdel, 2014[51]; OECD, 2021[2]).
Social capital relates to the networks of people with which an individual comes into contact (Halpern, 2004[52]; Lin, 2012[53]). As a concept, social capital has commonly been drawn on to identify how individuals gain access to resources of use in their transitions into and within employment (Granovetter, 1973[54]; Lin, 2012[53]). Such value can take different forms which relate in different ways to guidance provision. Social relations frequently enable access to experiences, information and active support of long-term value. Analysis of PISA data for example highlights the ways in which the career aspirations of teenagers are shaped by their family backgrounds (Musset and Mytna Kurekova, 2018[12]). Moreover, the influence of family relations is particularly strong in studies of how students access workplace experiences, such as internships (Hatcher and Le Gallais, 2008[39]). In some countries for example, university candidates must demonstrate first-hand experience of medical-related workplaces to secure access to degrees in medicine. As studies from the UK show, such experiences are much more difficult to source in the absence of strong family-based networks which in turn reflect SES background (Jones et al., 2018[55]). Through contacts with people in work, students can also gain recommendations and, at times, employment after completing secondary education. As first conceptualised by Granovetter as the ‘strength of weak ties’ (1973[54]), social capital also provides access to trusted information (often unavailable outside of immediate social circles) which can be linked to more attractive employment outcomes (Franzen and Hangartner, 2006[56]). Through personal encounters, individuals gain access to new information (and support) which have been seen to be helpful in self-conceptions and understanding of whether potential career pathways would be attractive and suitable for them as individuals (Jones, Mann and Morris, 2016[44]; Mann and Percy, 2014[57]; Rennison et al., 2005[58]). US sociologist Nan Lin has demonstrated that the value of such networks tends to be greater if an individual’s contact occupies a higher social and economic position within society (Lin, 2012[53]). Looked at from a perspective of social mobility, students from more disadvantaged backgrounds can be understood to have less access to higher status individuals who are able and willing to share career insights and work-related opportunities (Mann, Percy and Kashefpakdel, 2018[37]). As UK empirical studies show, the small minority of students who attend fee-paying schools systematically engage more frequently with people in work relevant to their career development and assess their interactions to be of greater value than is the case with more disadvantaged peers (Mann, 2016[59]; Mann and Kashefpakdel, 2014[51]).
If human capital refers to what an individual knows and social capital to who they know, cultural capital is a term used broadly to refer to what they think about themselves and their possible future within society. In relation to career development, the aspirations that children come to see as desirable and possible in light of their social circumstances can be seen as a form of cultural capital (Archer, 2014[23]). Such assumptions and expectations are heavily shaped by social class, gender and ethnicity as students and their families develop understanding of what possibilities and pathways are open to them and believing that they have the capacity and right to navigate them. Consequently, cultural capital can be seen as being strongly influenced by the social relations surrounding an individual student which individually and cumulatively serve to shape social norms about what is ‘reasonable’ for different students to aspire to in gendered and social terms, serving to constrain career ambitions. Within sociology, such understanding of how individuals navigated the structures of education and employment have been heavily influenced by the works of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1987[60]; 2018[61]). Notably, Bourdieu’s focus on the importance of distinctive socially inherited and (at times) unconsciously acquired attitudes and dispositions has been used to make sense of the ways in which a wide range of circumstances linked to social class, gender and ethnicity have been seen to influence personal behaviour and economic outcomes (Archer and Francis, 2007[62]; Friedman and Laurison, 2020[63]; Lehmann, 2005[7]; Stanley and Mann, 2014[47]). In terms of career development, such influences can be seen to shape the individual know-how needed to succeed within a profession and is often discussed in terms of understanding of the ‘rules of the game’ which underpin personal confidence and integration into particular forms of education and fields of employment (Archer, 2014[23]; Brown, 2020[41]; Clark and Zukas, 2013[64]; Reay, 2017[65]). In this way, it includes understanding of how systems of education and training actually work – and can be best exploited for personal advantage – so reinforcing a confident sense of personal agency. PISA data show that disadvantaged students who plan on working in a professional occupation are very commonly more likely to underestimate the levels of education required, speaking to a confusion about the role of education and training in enabling progression towards desired futures in work (Covacevich et al., 2021[6]; Mann et al., 2020[27]). As PISA also shows, lower levels of such career uncertainty and confusion are linked statistically to participation in career development activities (Covacevich et al., 2021[3]).
Collectively, the three concepts provide a mechanism for assessing and addressing the differing capacities of young people to progress effectively through education and into employment (Stanley and Mann, 2014[47]). A recent survey by Skills Development Scotland shows for example that the three most cited barriers identified by school-leavers related to successful career progression relate respectively to cultural, human and social capital: i) not having enough confidence in myself (47%), not enough work experience (44%) and not knowing the right people (38%) (SDS Evaluation and Research Team, 2023[66]). Guidance activities can be expected to have the potential to address these needs in a multi-faceted fashion:
Through [school-mediated] employer engagement activities, a teenager may make the contacts needed to be offered a job (social capital … as access to employment) while simultaneously acquiring the expertise or ability to make them employable in that role (human capital … as skills development). Or, to give another example, a young adult may report maturing and becoming more assured about themself (cultural capital … as enhanced personal confidence) as a result of trusted information from employers (social capital … as authentic guidance) (Jones, Mann and Morris, 2016[44]).
Within education systems there is evidence that the capacity of schools to develop human, social and cultural capital through career guidance interventions varies, with studies particularly noting variation by socio-economic status (Mann et al., 2020[27]; Mann and Kashefpakdel, 2014[51]). Ashton and Ashton illustrate the expected impact in the field of the performing arts from a UK perspective (2022[67]). Fee-paying secondary schools provide considerably greater opportunity than state schools for students to develop skills in industry-standard facilities working closely with professionals from related vocational areas, optimising skill development, social networks and vocational understanding. Such provision is seen by Ashton and Ashton as an explanatory factor in a growing domination of the performing arts by individuals from a narrow social background (2022[67]).
The development of human, social and cultural capitals is heavily shaped by personal background and is unequally distributed across populations of young people (Norris, 2011[45]). Unequal distribution of these capitals across young people results in disparity in choices, opportunities, sources of support and employment outcomes. A primary objective of effective guidance programmes will be to build equal and fair access to such resource building, providing greater support to those in greater need based on their personal circumstances and aspirations. In this paper, focus is not devoted to a further important capital: economic or finance capital. While family wealth does influence access to guidance-related opportunities outside of the classroom (Norris, 2011[45]), this paper specifically focuses on the capitals that school-based interventions have the potential to develop.
1.3.3. Career guidance as a means to enhancing student outcomes in employment
While it has long been agreed that guidance should form a mandatory element of secondary school provision, there has been a need to strengthen the supporting evidence base that supports and particularly to clearly demonstrate its impacts on educational and labour market outcomes through experimental and quasi-experimental studies (Hughes et al., 2016[14]). The OECD Career Readiness project has made a substantial contribution to filling this evidence gap by looking at long-term employment impacts typically at age 25 linked to career-related activities, experiences and attitudes at around age 15 by reviewing academic literature and undertaking new analysis of longitudinal datasets in ten countries (OECD, 2021[2]).
These studies show a strong pattern of statistically significant relationships between the character of teenage career development and better than expected employment outcomes (lower rates of young adults not being in education, employment or training, higher wages and/or greater job satisfaction) in relation to three clusters: how students explore, experience and think about their potential future in work (Covacevich et al., 2021[3]; Covacevich et al., 2021[6]; Mann, Denis and Percy, 2020[28]). While prior to Covacevich et al. (2021[3]), evidence had existed in the academic literature to show strong relations between teenage work-related experiences and thinking and better outcomes, the OECD analysis provided important new evidence of the link with participation in Career Development Activities (CDA) as forms of career exploration. This paper draws on the OECD Career Readiness Indicators (described in detail in Box 1.2) identified within this longitudinal analysis. The paper focuses particularly on those forms of guidance that are most commonly and easily delivered within schools. It explores the extent to which participation in such CDA are shaped by inequalities.
One challenge facing analysts seeking to make sense of the ways in which inequalities influence the employment outcomes of young people relates to the ways in which they can be seen to shape the academic success with which students approach the labour market. It is widely accepted that forms of inequality influence the educational achievement of students (OECD, 2019[8]). For instance, PISA 2018 shows that on average across OECD countries, a student’s economic, social and cultural status explains 12% variance in student reading performance (14% in mathematics, 13% in science). A student from the bottom 25% in terms of SES is five times more likely than a student from the top 25% to be a low performer (OECD, 2019[4]). However, the extent to which one’s SES affects these outcomes varies across countries, ranging from 6% to 19% (OECD, 2019[4]).
There is also potential for engagement in career guidance to influence the educational success of young people. A review of experimental and quasi-experimental studies by Hughes et al. (2016[14]) finds that 60% of 67 evaluations in studies provided ‘largely positive’ findings evidencing improvements in educational outcomes linked to student participation in career development activities. Consequently, the risk exists that such participation will influence academic achievement, notably if it is patterned by social background, gender or migrant status, which will in turn influence employment outcomes that are linked to educational success. This paper responds to this potential risk through by comparing the vocational fortunes only of comparable students. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 each begin by looking at how inequalities in terms of gender, socio-economic status and migrant background/ethnicity are visible when comparing the early labour market outcomes of students possessing similar levels of education and qualifications. In this it should be noted, scope exists for further study of the ways in which guidance might address student academic success, building on existing research literature (Hughes et al., 2016[14]).
Looking at comparable groups of young adults, inequalities are then explored in relation to a range of labour market outcomes: similarly qualified cohorts of young adults can face very different levels of unemployment, earnings, skills mismatch, job satisfaction and opportunity to work across the labour market (segmentation). In the analysis that follows, PIAAC data is reviewed against each of these indicators of career success.
Analysis of early labour market outcomes shows that commonly those young people who face social disadvantages – whether that be in terms of SES, gender, migrant backgrounds – face greater challenges in accessing employment and higher quality jobs. Young adults with certain disadvantages are often disproportionally represented in certain labour market segments or in other ways share poorer employment outcomes. Evidence presented in this paper confirms that this is true even when controlling for academic ability and qualifications (Figure 1.1). Such impacts can be long lasting. Experiences of unemployment or economic inactivity among female youth, migrant youth and youth from low SES backgrounds have an effect on later labour market outcomes (Bell and Blanchflower, 2011[68]; Dietrich and Möller, 2015[69]). Even if initial labour market outcomes were similar or even better, the outcomes of disadvantaged groups tend to become poorer than those of advantaged groups over time (Box 1.2).
Patterns in later outcomes provide insights of value to professionals working in teenage career development. PISA data also show that inequalities are frequently apparent in the character of such development. Socio-economically disadvantaged students for example, are commonly less certain and less ambitious about their future careers and demonstrate poorer understanding of the labour market and its relation to education. While it should be expected that such groups would typically receive greater levels of guidance than their more advantaged peers, frequently this is not the case. Although girls are more certain, ambitious and aligned in their educational and career planning than boys, their career aspirations are more concentrated, and they are less likely to receive employer-involved career guidance. Foreign-born students too, are more ambitious than their native-born peers, but they commonly receive less career guidance than native-born students (Figure 1.1).
However, many career guidance systems recognise the need for greater support focused on students facing greater challenges. In doing so, it is important for career guidance policy makers and practitioners to understand the linkages between structural inequalities, young people’s career development and career readiness, and the labour market needs and outcomes. It is particularly important to recognise that challenges for individuals in their education-to-work transitions can differ substantially (Alcorn, 2016[9]). If guidance systems are to address inequalities in a systematic fashion, provision cannot be based on a one-size-fits-all model.
OECD Career Readiness Indicators
Based on the analysis of longitudinal datasets in 10 countries, the OECD Career Readiness project confirmed 11 indicators (and three additional predictors where data results were less conclusive) of better employment outcomes linked to different aspects of teenage career development. The analysis, having controlled for a range of factors that typically influence employment outcomes including academic achievement, gender, socio-economic background, and migrant status, explored whether the character of teenage career development, typically at age 15 could be statistically related to better outcomes (in terms of likelihood of being NEET, earnings and job satisfaction) commonly at the age of 25. Analysis was undertaken using existing longitudinal datasets in Australia, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, Denmark, Germany, Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay. Due to variation in the questions asked in surveys, analysis of different forms of career development was not possible in every dataset. New evidence was integrated into the existing research literature. Confirmed indicators group into three clusters linked to how students explore, experience and think about their potential futures in work.
Career exploration includes participation in
(1) career conversations with teachers, family members and friends.
(2) career talks or job fairs.
(3) workplace visits or job shadowing.
(4) application and interview skills development activities.
(5) occupationally-focused short programmes (career pathways).
In addition, some evidence was identified of the long-term impact of school-based career reflection activities (activities designed by, and delivered with, schools to help young people in secondary education visualise and plan their futures, such as career questionnaires and career classes).
Career experience includes participation in
(6) part-time work.
(7) volunteering.
In addition, some evidence was identified of work placements being linked to better outcomes.
Career thinking includes:
(8) Career certainty, being the ability as a teenager to name an expected adult occupation.
(9) Career ambition, being the expectation of working in a job classified as high-skilled jobs (major categories 1 and 2 of the International Standardised Classification of Occupations).
(10) Career alignment refers to young people having educational plans that are aligned with their occupational ambitions, typically assessed in terms of whether students planning on working in high-skilled jobs (major categories 1 and 2 of the International Standardised Classification of Occupations) express the intention to pursue tertiary education.
(11) Instrumental motivation towards school refers to the belief of students that engagement in education will be beneficial for their employment outcomes.
In addition, some evidence was identified linked to the concentration of career expectations of young people (the share of students expecting to work in one of ten most popular jobs by the age of 30).
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← 1. Career guidance struggles from difficulty and variation in descriptions and definitions. This paper chooses to follow previous OECD work, as well as recent analytical work, on this topic, and covers the following four main elements: career education, career information, individual career counselling and direct contact with the world of work (Musset and Mytna Kurekova, 2018[12]).
Career education in which students learn about the world of work and develop career management skills through classroom teaching, and through other activities.
Career information on courses and occupations, learning and career opportunities, progression routes and choices, as well as information on where to find help and advice, and how to access it.
Individual career counselling on a one-to-one basis, providing specific advice on career decisions; either pro-actively (mandatory interviews for all) or reactively (on demand). Advice can be general or targeted. Counselling includes activities that help young people to gather, understand and interpret information and apply it to their own situation, as well as impartial guidance and specialist support to help young people to understand themselves and their needs confront barriers, resolve conflicts, develop new perspectives and make progress.
Direct contact with the world of work to give young people first-hand insights into, and experiences of, the labour market in order to raise, broaden and inform career aspirations.