V Levels: Why Professional Careers Guidance Has Never Been More Critical

The government’s announcement of V Levels marks yet another seismic shift in the post-16 education landscape. On the surface, the promise of streamlining 900 confusing Level 3 qualifications into a clearer system sounds positive. Young people will now navigate between A Levels, T Levels, and the new V Levels, with the flexibility to mix and match according to their aspirations. It’s a system designed to offer something for everyone. Congratulations to Bridget Philipson & Professor Becky Francis CBE and colleagues.

But here’s the critical question no one seems to be asking: how will individuals, parents, and employers actually understand and navigate this expanding maze of options?

How To Navigate and Understand The Expanding Maze Of Options

While the DfE has delivered an online session for careers leaders in schools and colleges and careers advisers to explain the new arrangements, the fundamental question remains: are careers professionals being genuinely embedded throughout the design, implementation, and delivery of these reforms, or merely informed after decisions have been made?

A System That Demands Expertise

Let’s be clear about what young people now face. A student interested in creative industries might take two V Levels in Craft and Design and Media Production, combined with an A Level in Music. Another pursuing health and fitness could select three different V Levels across Sport, Digital, and Health Care. These aren’t simple choices – they’re life-shaping decisions that require sophisticated understanding of educational pathways, labour market trends, individual aptitudes, and future progression routes.

Who is equipped to guide these decisions? Not well-meaning teachers already stretched thin by curriculum delivery. Not parents navigating a qualifications landscape that has changed dramatically since their own education. Not work coaches or “job advisers” whose primary focus is immediate employment outcomes.

We need careers advisers – professionals trained in psychology, sociology, education, counselling, labour market intelligence and wellbeing, with skilful practice honed through rigorous qualification and continuing professional development. These are practitioners who understand the complex interplay between individual potential, educational systems, managing transitions and labour market realities.

The DWP’s Costly Oversight

The recent centralised DWP decision to place job advisers in GP surgeries exemplifies this dangerous pattern of overlooking professional expertise. While the intention – supporting people with health conditions into work – is commendable, the execution ignores a fundamental truth: career guidance is a specialised profession requiring specific expertise. Compounding this oversight, Regional Mayors were not consulted fully on these decisions affecting their areas, despite their strategic responsibility for local skills, employment, and economic development. Mayors should have been engaged to ensure provision aligns with regional and local needs for careers information, advice and guidance (CIAG) and supports both citizens and businesses in their regions.

Job advisers focus on getting people into available work quickly. Careers advisers, in contrast, bring deep understanding of how health, wellbeing, psychological factors, and social circumstances intersect with sustainable career development. They’re trained in counselling approaches that help people navigate complex transitions, particularly when dealing with health challenges, disability, or disadvantage.

This isn’t about territorial disputes between professions. It’s about using the right expertise for the right outcomes. We wouldn’t ask a GP to fill in for a physiotherapist simply because both work in healthcare. Why do we consistently undervalue the distinct expertise of qualified and specialist careers advisers?

An International Profession, a National Blind Spot

The careers guidance profession is part of an international professional body with recognised standards, ethical frameworks, and evidence-based practice. Careers advisers undergo rigorous training combining theoretical knowledge with practical application. Their work matters – research consistently shows that quality careers guidance improves social, education and employment outcomes.

Yet in England specifically, successive governments have failed to recognise this value. The previous government’s systematic dismantling and under-resourcing of the National Careers Service was a policy catastrophe whose consequences we’re still living with. Thousands of young people and adults in England have made ill-informed decisions, entered unsuitable pathways, or dropped out entirely because they lacked access to professional career guidance – a stark contrast to the careers provision maintained in other UK nations.

This Government Cannot Repeat the Same Mistake

As V Levels join an already complex qualification ecosystem, the stakes have never been higher. We’re asking 16-year-olds (and teachers and parents) to understand the nuances between academic and technical routes, to grasp labour market projections, to recognise their own aptitudes and interests, and to make choices that could determine their entire career trajectory.

Without properly resourced, professionally qualified careers guidance embedded throughout schools, colleges, and adult education settings, this new system risks creating more confusion, not less. We need careers advisers involved from design through implementation. They bring vital evidence about career exploration patterns, can map progression pathways, train teachers and parents, work directly with learners, and support adults retraining later in life.

The infrastructure already exists. The profession is ready. What’s missing is recognition and investment from government. The choice is simple: invest in the career guidance profession now, or spend decades managing the consequences of inadequate provision. We’ve seen what happens when we get this wrong. It’s time to get it right.

Across 72 pages, there are only 12 mentions of “careers” and zero mentions of “careers advisers.”

The Post 16 White Paper on post-16 education and skills will reveal much about this government’s intentions. However, a glaring omission undermines these ambitions. Across 72 pages, there are only 12 mentions of “careers” and zero mentions of “careers advisers.” While references to improving careers advice in schools and colleges, the proposed Jobs and Careers Service, and commitment to 2 weeks’ work experience signal some recognition that guidance matters, the reality is stark: we are creating increasingly complex qualification pathways without investing in the professional career guidance infrastructure to help individuals navigate them.”

The proposed Jobs and Careers Service merger exemplifies the problem. DWP is “in-sourcing” approximately 1,000 careers advisers from National Careers Service contractors by October 2026, absorbing them into Jobcentre Plus structures. As Katharine Horler, CEO of Careers England, pointedly asks: “How are we going to make sure that careers doesn’t get lost within the great big machine that is DWP?” 

Associate Professor Deirdre Hughes OBE, University of Warwick IER and Director, dmh associates & CareerChat UK

Legacy Fellow, Career Development Institute (CDI) and a Vice President of the International Association for Vocational Education and Guidance