As we await the update to Compass, many schools and colleges will be wondering how they can possibly meet the 8th Benchmark without more funds to resource more careers adviser hours. With a school of 250 learners per year, and a careers adviser carrying out 6 meetings day, a school might expect to pay almost £11,000 a year for Year 11 learners alone. So, what about Sixth Formers, who have previously only needed that vague and malleable “opportunity” for guidance? Schools and colleges who serve learners up to 18 are going to have to make some tough choices to make that resource stretch further. Even schools and colleges employing careers advisers, need to consider asking more of their colleagues, taking other duties off them – as well as budgeting for on-costs and the possibility they may have time off work.
And so we arrive at the possibility of group guidance; using your adviser to see more than one learner at a time and process learners faster and more cost-effectively to give better coverage.
Having delivered guidance singularly and in groups, I can see how group work can add value, especially for Year 9 learners or a group of Year 12s wanting to know about apprenticeships, but I would liken them more to workshops or information and advice sessions – not true guidance.
The best careers guidance meetings are deeply personal, can involve complex revelations of family dynamics, vulnerabilities of character and great skill on the part of the adviser – holding that moment for a young person, at a pivotal point in their lives. Can this be delivered to Tom, Dick and Harriet at the very same time? Would any of us submit to counselling sessions with two people – who are strangers? Or even worse – colleagues? I am not so sure.
We are, again, in a position where quality could be compromised to be compliant. If you are considering group guidance in your setting you might wish to look at what the CDI is recommending (below). And crucially you should talk to your careers adviser about what they feel able to deliver as a professional; how to get the right balance between individual and group sessions and what they see guidance doing for the young people sat in front of them. Schools who deliver guidance most effectively use a triage model to understand the needs of their learners and they can justify the decisions they make around managing the precious resource. So, while group guidance might form part of this picture, it should be managed with care, because to understand guidance, and to commission it within your school, is to appreciate its value and act to protect it as best you can.
Where group work is carried out as part of personal guidance, the CDI strongly recommends that it meets all of the following criteria:
- The group size should typically be no more than three or four students;
- It should be confirmed as appropriate to meet each of the individual participating student’s needs;
- There should be a clear rationale for choosing this approach, with the impact evaluated and recorded;
- It should be delivered by a qualified careers adviser;
- Participation in group personal guidance should not preclude students from opportunities for a 1:1 guidance interview with a qualified careers adviser, should they feel that this is necessary.
Jan Ellis, CDI 2020 www.thecdi.net/CDI/media/Write/Resource%20library/Other%20Resources/CDI-Personal-Group-Careers-Guidance-Feb-2020.pdf?ext=.pdf
Jenny Beaumont
Career Mark Manager, Complete Careers LLP