Young ‘let down’ by careers advice

i, Wednesday 01 November 2017, Number 2,165, p40

Why did this article catch your attention?

This article caught my attention because it looks like careers advice has failed young people.

Who is affected by this ‘let down’ by careers advice?

This article from the i newspaper (pictured) claims that ‘most young people’ have been or are being affected, which is not right in the slightest.

How would they be affected?

With incorrect information about careers, young people have made the wrong decisions by going into the wrong types of work and not being able to fulfill themselves using their skills and knowledge.

What can be done about succeeding by careers advice, instead of failing by careers advice?

There are a couple of things that I can think of that would help succeed by careers advice. These include:

• Communication: People who work in the careers sector need to communicate with not only those whom they are helping, but with the companies who might be recruiting. This is to see if their clients are right for the job. They will need to ask questions to clarify the skills, experience and knowledge that is needed for the relevant job. Communication is the most important aspect of life, not just in recruitment and careers.
• Training courses: I feel that training courses will help career coaches in different ways to help jobseekers find suitable employment. It isn’t all online (yet)/ for example, what other ways can a jobseeker apply for suitable employment? Here are a few ideas:

1. Company hunts
2. Speculative approach and CV Drops (part 1, part 2)
3. Job fairs
4. Networking events

When should this be sorted out?

This should be sorted out as soon as possible because, I feel, we are failing society with making these wrong decisions.

Where could I go to get better careers advice?

There are many places you can get good careers advice from. but I have found some that I wouldn’t recommend:

• National Careers Service(NCS): NCS are unable to write CV’s, and I have had to re-write the whole of my CV. They didn’t make a section for skills, they used ‘I’ and ‘me’ for alot of my CV

Here are a few good places I think provide good advice:

• Monster, where you can get help with planning your job search, CV writing tips, job interview help, work life and career development
• Prince’s Trust
• Reed
• Total Jobs, where you can find CV and cover letter templates, different job descriptions