Quality career information and advice is essential for bridging skills gaps and should be accessible to people of all ages, especially those who need it most.
This involves informing ‘influencers’ with trusted, evidence-based and unbiased information, then taking it to where the target audience is — whether that’s the family dinner table or the local pub.
“We've got a fragmented approach to sharing quality career information and advice, and a national overarching framework would help,” Australian Industry Group Centre for Education and Training (CET) Executive Director Caroline Smith said at an Australian Industry Group webinar last week.
“This challenge brings opportunities, and it's for all of us to work on it together.”
“In our modern and dynamic labour market, a focus on lifelong learning and career journeys is more important than ever,” Dr Smith said.
“Individuals can expect to have multiple careers throughout their working lives.
“High-quality career information and advice can drive improved training completion rates, help define pathways into jobs in demand and enable smooth transitions within the labour market as our economy evolves.
“It's a crucially important foundation — and it’s not only about young people; quality career information and advice are important at all stages of an individual's working life.”
Joining Dr Smith for the webinar were:
“International research shows that when people have access to high-quality career information and advice, they can make more meaningful decisions about their career,” Career Industry Council of Australia’s (CICA) David Carney said.
“Historically in Australia, we've spent a lot of time, money and resources on supporting young people to transition successfully from school — but we won’t be able to address skills gaps and the needs of industry by focusing solely on school leavers.”
CICA is working with government and industry to support mid-career people — those in their late 30s and 40s — to successfully move into other careers.
“We can't expect them to navigate their way through what is an increasingly difficult period to source the information they need,” Mr Carney said.
“Much information people receive outside of school tends to come from media, and it’s often not accurate.
“Therefore, we need to make sure they have access to information and advice that allows them to make meaningful transitions and educated decisions about where they're looking to move to into the future.
“One of our big opportunities is to raise awareness of where those career opportunities and growth industries are.”
Regional Development Australia Townsville and North West Queensland (RDA) is focusing on how workforce development priorities and economic development priorities can work hand-in-hand in a regional context.
“We do a lot of work to see what's happening in the region with regards to development opportunities, new industries and community needs, as well,” Lisa McDonald said.
“The key issue that comes up again and again is how are we going to develop these projects and meet these needs? It always comes back to workforce.
“We're in a hyper-competitive market. The 2032 Brisbane Olympics will suck a lot of talent out of our community, so we've had a real focus on growing our own. There's a lot of untapped potential in the workforce.”
Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance (MISA), one of 10 Jobs and Skills Councils, recently launched its Make It Manufacturing campaign to reshape the perception of manufacturing and to inspiring more Australians, particularly young people, to explore the diverse and future-focused careers in the sector.
The campaign, being piloted in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania over the next three months, was informed through MISA’s workforce plan developed last year.
“There’s an ageing workforce in manufacturing, so we need to try and recruit more young people into the industry,” MISA’s Jane Perera said.
“We undertook deeply informed research to explore the public perception of manufacturing, career motivations and barriers to entry.
“While people recognise the importance of manufacturing to the Australian economy, many still have outdated perceptions around it being low-tech, low-skilled and poorly paid. There's a huge need to change that perception.
“We had conversations with 15-to-19-year-olds to learn their thoughts on manufacturing.
“We discovered they didn't have any perception at all. They certainly didn’t think of manufacturing as a career choice, hence the campaign.”
The campaign website features real stories of manufacturing innovation — from clean and circular manufacturing to advanced technology.
“We're using insights from the research to build a long-term attraction strategy that connects with schools, parents and career advisers and sharing authentic and contemporary images and information on what manufacturing looks like today and what it could look like in the future,” Ms Perera said.
“We don't have a national framework of career information and advice across the country,” Mr Carney said.
“It’s very much a fragmented approach as to what young people can and can’t access.
“If you’re a young person who hasn’t received any type of career information and advice, and you're left to make your own decisions with the support of parents and carers, it’s difficult to know where to even start if you find yourself wanting to change careers in your late 20s or early 30s.
“There are websites, but would you know where to find them?
“If you did stumble upon a website, would you have the skills to ascertain whether the information is unbiased? Would you question who funded the information? Has it been funded by a third party, in which case, the information could be skewed. And how up to date is that information?
“A lot of information is out of date.
“We also have an outdated style of thinking about where we expect people to go to collect this information.
“We need to go where they are — not expect them to find us.
“We live in a very social world, connected to devices and so forth and yet, most of the career information we expect people to access is in traditional web format on a desktop or through your phone.
“Sometimes, that’s not the most appropriate place to reach those looking for such information.”
In launching its Make It Manufacturing campaign, MISA took pains to consider who influences young people into career paths.
“It's not just the young people we need to think about, it’s also the parents and career advisers,” Ms Perera said.
“Parents and family members are often the first to give young people career advice and opinions.
“It’s imperative to bring them along this journey, because they’re also seeing negative stories about manufacturing in the media when in fact, many opportunities are coming up.
“Manufacturing is changing and technology's changing and that's the message we need to give.
“It’s so important that families can access accurate, inspiring and evidence-based career information.”
The Make It Manufacturing campaign website is designed to spark family conversations around the dinner table.
“It helps families understand today's manufacturing careers are creative, purposeful and well paid and that VET pathways can also open doors to lifelong learning and innovation,” Ms Perera said.
Dr McDonald also sees the strong influence parents have on their kids’ career choices.
“Our aim is to have people stay in the region, so we need to show them what industries are growing here,” she said.
“We spoke to some high school students about their career aspirations, and they were all strongly influenced by their parents.
“That got us thinking: ‘Maybe we need to be educating parents on what's available in the region?’”
A survey of about 180 parents found they were hungry for local information on careers and job opportunities for their kids.
“They wanted to know which jobs are secure, what qualifications are needed and what future industries will be in demand,” Dr McDonald said.
“They're conscious industries and skills needs come and go, and they say it’s difficult to find industry information. There's a plethora of sources, but there's no one place where they can have a look at the spectrum of opportunities in their region.
“But what they really want is real-world insights, networking opportunities and being able to talk to people in industries.
“That made us realise we needed to do something a little more direct and in person with parents, to give them that opportunity.”
One solution has been a series of events called Pathways and Possibilities.
“We’ve had great attendance by parents at those events,” Dr McDonald said.
“Some brought their kids, others just wanted to educate themselves. We’ve had some great outcomes in terms of parents figuring out how to link their teenagers to employers offering apprenticeships or traineeships.
“There’s going to be some great conversations between parents and their kids.
“I'm super keen on making kids aware of the full spectrum of careers they can consider.”
Under-represented groups are not missing out.
RDA is about to launch a program providing school-based education support for refugee migrants and First Nations students.
“There’s real demand in the education sector — not only for teachers but teachers’ aides, too,” Dr McDonald said.
“The program is targeting people who are out of work or study, to let them know there's an opportunity for a supported education pathway.
“We’ve partnered with schools that will provide work experience opportunities.
“It’s about creating face-to-face direct connections with people.”
While students turn to their parents and carers for career advice, mature-age Australians tend to turn to their peers, Mr Carney said.
“If someone’s in their 40s and decides it's time for a career change, they’ll probably raise the topic with friends at the weekend,” he said.
“Even then, the ability to access unbiased and quality information is somewhat limited. So, we need to support the ‘influencers’.
“We haven't done that to date; we tend to focus on providing information for the end user of career information.
“To support the people supporting and influencing those people, we need to go where they are, whether that’s the pub or the footy club.”
“When you're looking at influencers, the parents most engaged in a young person's career journey are not the ones you need to reach,” Mr Carney added.
“The proactive parents already have the information. You want to tap into the parents who didn’t have a great experience in school themselves.
“We say to schools all the time: ‘When you hold information nights in the classroom, do you wonder why parents aren't coming?’
“‘Why not run them in venues where parents don't feel threatened?’ Many fear they’re going to get told off, like they're back in school.”
The lack of a centralised source of career information and advice is not ideal, Mr Carney said.
“We do have an issue with states and territories being responsible for schooling,” he added.
“In the absence of centralised requirements or policy, the delivery of career information and advice in schools is fragmented across the country.
“Not only that, but school-based career advisers tend to be teaching, as well.
“It’s an extremely challenging environment, yet it’s important to get it right.
“Research shows individuals will generally be more successful throughout their careers if they make that first step correctly.”
The VET system could have a greater role in providing career information and advice, Mr Carney said.
“There isn't a lot of career advice and support in our VET system, because it hasn’t been set up that way,” he said.
“Another policy lever that could be pulled is better supporting employment service providers to ensure the conversations they're having with clients come from a well-informed position.”
Ms Perera added: “Policy and government play a critical role in creating the connection between career information and the (employment) ecosystem.
“Presently, the landscape can feel fragmented, because you've got different initiatives across states and sectors, and sometimes that doesn't connect seamlessly.
“At a national level, policy can help align education, training and workforce policy so career information reflects the full spectrum of opportunities, not just the one pathway.
“That would help ensure students, parents and families have access to accurate information.
“Supporting national campaigns is important. The work MISA is doing ensures consistent messaging about the value of vocational education and the importance of skilled trades in our future economics.
“It’s important we embed industry partnerships within the policy frameworks, so career information reflects the realities of the modern workforce.”
“It's time to take stock and think about how we can do things differently from a career advice and information perspective,” Mr Carney said.
“We need to take a bold step to address some of the big challenges we're facing.
“It requires national leadership, but all of us have a role to play.”
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Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at Australian Industry Group.
A former journalist for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK, she is passionate about giving businesses a voice.
