commitments

• aims for earning-a-living and working in the economy
• mapped by a framework of learning outcomes
• links to vocational education and career-guidance.
• a distinct body of knowledge describes rational decision making
• can therefore aspire to full subject status
• needs specialist, trained teachers
• students may sit for exams.

rationale

You may see the value of careers work in terms of its economic benefits - to the economy and to society. National and individual competitiveness is improved where people enter work well prepared and wellmatched. Individuals might then find economically significant work which is, therefore, likely to be rewarding. The whole approach links readily to an education system seen to be developing employable abilities.

This is the orientation most likely to be supported by dominant political and economic interests. Services that respond to market forces are in tune with these assumptions.

As a subject careers education can become examinable; and being an examinable subject is a good way of achieving status in the school or college.

implications

If you agree with this case you may also agree that careers work must be developed so that it becomes more than a way of supporting guidance. In this view careers education can be seen is capable of becoming a subject in its own right – with a body of knowledge taken from well-established academic disciplines.

issues

There are doubts about attributing economic effects to careers work. Even if - in theory - they could be, they would be too small to detect.

Furthermore, in an increasingly capital-intensive economy, competition for work becomes correspondingly severe. Even if there were a perfectly reliable system for selection, the labour market cannot provide attractive work to every well-enough qualified person who seeks it. The guidance-education-training ‘system’ - serving employability - attends too little to people who need alternative ways of living their lives and of claiming their membership of society.