A Blueprint For State Careers Provision? Look To Australia

AI may be rapidly transforming careers as we know them, but the challenges to providing adequate careers provision in education settings are not new. Careers advice and guidance is one of the most consistently cited pressure points in FE.

Have the current challenges been made more acute by a period of rapid change in the job market? Undoubtedly. But the perennial problems persist.

“Rudimentary” Careers Advice

A shortage of dedicated careers advisers, limited time in the day, and constrained resources. According to an Ofsted report,  many colleges offer “rudimentary” careers advice, with few deprived students receiving tailored advice.

The Sutton Trust also points to post-16 providers not having the resources to provide the level of careers support students need. It is almost a tale as old as time. And one that isn’t just felt in the UK.

These same challenges are mirrored in many countries, but particularly in Australia. There is a shortage of careers advisers and limited capacity for wider staff to take this role on. Acutely aware of this, the government in Victoria explored a model to deliver targeted careers guidance, at scale.

What’s possible when guidance is treated as an essential investment rather than a bolt-on

As the UK reshapes its own careers infrastructure, Australia’s approach shows what’s possible when guidance is treated as an essential investment rather than a bolt-on.

The My Career Insights programme, delivered for the Department for Education in the State of Victoria, combines personalised support with scale: more than 240,000 students completed questionnaires to build a structured snapshot of their strengths, interests, and working style, designed to help them make informed decisions about subjects, pathways, and careers – and nearly 1,200 one-to-one careers meetings take place in Victorian government secondary schools every week.

The need for a combination of scale, personalisation and employer-aligned information speaks directly to the challenges facing colleges, adult learners and the wider skills system.

So what does the right programme take?

Genuine investment

Careers can’t be an add on to already overstretched staff and lecturers. It’s about recognising what’s possible when high-quality careers guidance is treated as essential infrastructure rather than an optional extra. It chimes with everything the current government says it wants for young people – to raise aspirations, broaden horizons, and give young people clarity about their future.

Sustained effort

The Ofsted report points to a lack of ‘strategic planning and attention to the needs of individual pupils’. And yet we know that Careers provision for young adults isn’t a one-size-fits-all – it’s about tailored support. Neither is it just ‘one and done’ – it’s about finding ways to embed advice and to provide tools at critical junctures. After the initial one-to-one meeting with students, we provided structured resources for the young people and their parents to help them apply their profile insights to real decision points, like when they need to choose options, or decide what to do when leaving compulsory education.

Wider involvement

For young adults, parental involvement is key. In Victoria,  parents are welcome to attend the one-to-one sessions that students have, and the overwhelming majority (85%) do. The programme takes this further. We know from the Gatsby Foundation’s Talking Futures campaign that parents and carers are the biggest influence on young people’s career decisions, yet many report feeling underprepared to discuss the full range of educational and career options available today. Recognising this, students are encouraged to invite their parents to review their profiles, helping to frame and extend career conversations in the home.

As Carolyn Gregg,  a career practitioner and programme co-ordinator told us: “It’s powerful to see parents of students who’ve struggled at school attending a one-to-one and realising their child can have career aspirations and plan their future.” For adult learners, the equivalent ‘influencers’ may be different – employers, mentors, community organisations, or family members – but they’re equally important and any UK model must reflect this wider ecosystem.

Current information

Yes, the world is changing faster than any of us can keep up with, but we need to try. Any careers resources need to be clearly linked to the labour market and regularly checked and updated. Another area in which, evidence tells us, it can be all too easy for colleges to fall behind.

Tailored support

Combining a profiling tool with one-to-one support will work for many, but it wasn’t always enough for young adults who were struggling to engage and access education, let alone careers advice. We trialled an increased number of one-to-one sessions (4-6 sessions over Years 9 and 10) for harder to reach priority cohorts, which saw increased engagement.

And for FE, investment is also about supporting adults navigating redundancy, career change, or upskilling – groups who often need deeper, more personalised guidance. Tailored support is essential for learners with SEND, care-experienced students, adults retraining after redundancy, and those balancing study with work or caring responsibilities.

With the merger of the National Careers Service and Jobcentre Plus in the UK, now is the time for the government to work with the sector on a model that could provide clarity and guidance for all age groups. If the UK is serious about building a coherent, all-age careers system, a national model that mirrors Victoria’s – combining personalised guidance, up-to-date labour-market intelligence and sustained investment – would give us the tools to help every learner navigate a fast-changing world of work.

By Steve Cole, CEO, Morrisby