Career Guidance Guarantee

Career guidance helps people manage their life, learning and work. People’s careers develop over their lives, so they need lifelong access to career guidance.  

There is extensive evidence which demonstrates that career guidance is an important part of the education and employment system. Where career guidance operates well, it supports the effective functioning of labour markets and skills alignment, bringing economic and social benefits.  

We believe that England should develop its existing career guidance system, offering everyone access to lifelong career guidance backed by a Career Guidance Guarantee.  

The Career Guidance Guarantee (CGG) was launched on Wednesday 20th October 2021, as the first part of the CDPG’s work to promote the key messages of the Career Guidance Guarantee and press for enhanced career guidance across the education and employment systems.

On 18th July 2023, the CDPG sponsored a roundtable in the House of Lords with Policy Connect on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Skills, Careers and Employment. The roundtable was chaired by Baroness Garden of Frognal, with representatives from the careers sector, employers, Unison and parliament.

The roundtable focused on the need for the career Guidance Guarantee and the Investing in Careers report that had been commissioned for the event. The discussion served to raise the profile of career guidance not just as key supprot for individuals but also as a valuable investment in addressing qwider excon9omic and social challenges facing England in the build-up to an election.    

Over February and March 2022, the CDPG hosted three virtual roundtables to discuss key aspects of the career guidance system in England, attended by representatives from over 40 organisations. These discussions brought together careers professionals with politicians, policymakers, employers and key stakeholder organisations to explore and further develop the Guarantee.

We are hugely grateful to all those who joined the roundtables and contributed their expertise and experience so openly to the discussion. The three roundtables focused on the following areas:

The CDPG were delighted to launch the Career Guidance Guarantee at a virtual event attended by over 400 colleagues from across the careers profession. Members of the CDPG introduced and explained the Career Guidance Guarantee, answered questions from the audience and outline the next steps, including the call for support from across the sector. 

We are asking everyone working in, or with an interest in career guidance, to support the Guarantee, adding weight to our ask of politicians, major employers and key decision-makers. There are three ways you can do this: 

1. Become a signatory to the Guarantee. 
2. Record a video of you, and your clients, talking about why access to career guidance is vital. 
3. Write, share, retweet and comment online, using #CareerGuidanceGuarantee.  

By adding your signature or uploading a video, you are agreeing to allow members of the CDPG to reference your support and share the content at future events and in materials promoting the Guarantee.  

Become a signatory 

We are urging career development professionals and political leaders to show their support for the Guarantee by adding their signature to the Guarantee. 

By adding your name to the list of signatories, you are agreeing to allow us to reference your support for the Guarantee at events, in letters and other media and materials.  

Send a supporting video 

Real stories about the impact of career guidance are immensely powerful so we’re asking if you, and any of your clients, could record a short video to explain the importance of career guidance to you. It would help if you could answer the following questions and keep your video to no more than two minutes: 

• How has giving/receiving careers guidance made a difference to you?
• Why is it important to you that everyone has access to lifelong careers guidance?  

Please note that, due to the constraints of video length on social media, we may make selections from the video content that you have supplied.   

You can send your video to us at events@thecdi.net and in your email confirm that you are happy for us to share your media.  

Talk about the Guarantee 

As the CDPG we are a few voices, but as career development we are many. Please help us get the message heard as widely and loudly as possible by writing about, commenting on and retweeting the Career Guidance Guarantee, using the hashtag #CareerGuidanceGuarantee.