Career guidance, social inequality and social mobility
Insights from international data
Young people from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds face additional barriers
as they seek to convert their qualifications and experience into successful employment.
They encounter particular challenges in seeking to enter high status jobs. The barriers
they face can be productively conceptualised in terms of economic, human, social and
cultural capital accumulation. Schools can help to build these resources through programmes
of career guidance, but to be successful they must actively respond to predictable
barriers relating to access to trusted information and useful experiences. PISA shows
a need for socially focused interventions. Career uncertainty and confusion is shaped
by SES. Low SES students are also less likely to engage in most commonplace career
development activities. Equitable guidance systems will target greater provision at
low SES students and aim ultimately to provide personalise provision to all students,
encouraging and enabling understanding of and progression towards careers promising
greatest personal fulfilment. Insights from longitudinal data provide new opportunities
for more scientific and strategic approaches to delivering effective provision.
Available from March 21, 2024
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