Report from SDS also shows high customer satisfaction rates across all age groups.Developing career management skills increases your chances of getting a job and keeping it.
Scotland’s all-age career service – delivered by the national skills agency Skills Development Scotland (SDS) – has published a report which highlights evidence of the impact of career management skills to getting into and sustaining work, further or higher education, training or apprenticeships.
The report also includes annual service use and satisfaction rates, showing 99% of adults using Scotland’s career service are satisfied with the support they’ve received.
James Russell, SDS Director of Career Information, Advice & Guidance said: “As careers professionals, we face the challenge of preparing the people of Scotland to thrive against a backdrop of constant change, developing their career management skills to enable them to reach their full potential.
“The figures in the report clearly show that those who have developed their career management skills are more likely to get into and stay in work, an apprenticeship, training, further or higher education. Not to mention they’ll be better equipped to make career changes, and deal with any challenges they may face in their working lives, throughout their lives.”
SDS’s professionally qualified careers advisers work with customers in every state secondary school in Scotland, its high street career centres as well as partner and community venues to develop career management skills. These are the skills that enable people to understand more about themselves and what they’re good at, explore what they want to work towards and who can help them take those steps.
James added: “The results reflect the dedication of our Scotland-wide network of careers advisers and our partners and are a testament to the effectiveness of our approach to delivering careers services.”
Results also show that 96% of head teachers are satisfied with services provided to their school. Pupils are also content with the service received, with positive endorsements for S4-S6 pupils up to 97%.
Careers advisers had face-to-face time with 242,336 pupils from across Scotland last year. That’s 93% of P7-S3 pupils in Scotland, and 77% of those in S4-S6.
The customer endorsement of SDS career services is being reflected by careers professionals across the UK and the rest of the world.
Dr Siobhan Neary, Head of the International Centre for Career Guidance Studies at University of Derby, said: “Countries look in awe at what Scotland has been able to achieve with an all age service that is highly professionalised and responsive to policy.
“We all seek opportunities to emulate this best practice and customise within our own contexts.”
Dr Ronald G. Sultana, professor of education at the University of Malta, said: “It is relatively easy to articulate grand visions and designs: it is in the implementation that many falter.
“Scotland has wisely invested as much in the latter process as in the former, ensuring that partners are on board, that career practitioners are professionally trained, and that suitable resources are at hand.
“Most importantly, the notion of reflective practice is at the heart of its institutional culture, facilitating agile and timely responses to new demands that will be inevitably blown in by the winds of change.”
