The focus of this paper is on how social inequalities shape the career development and transitions of young people. It asks how schools guidance systems can best respond to circumstances where evidence is strong that definable groups of students with shared characteristics face greater barriers than peers in successfully progressing through education into employment. In exploring the conversion of qualifications, skills and experience into employment, the paper draws on a capitals-based conceptual model. In the competition for employment, relative success is widely understood in terms of the comparative human capital, social capital and cultural capital possessed by individuals in relation to their career ambitions. Across these three fields, guidance systems have important roles to play. They can encourage and enable students to make good investment choices in their education and training, optimising their future relevance. They can also help students to build such human capital through relevant work-based experience by means of internships or volunteering in the community. Through such means students can also build social capital, engaging with people working in professions of interest well placed to provide trusted advice and practical support to career progression. In-school programmes of career talks and job fairs can both enable such engagement and help students to build understanding of different work cultures and the progression pathways most valued by employers, underpinning an assured understanding of distinct social and cultural norms (cultural capital). Through these means, students can be seen to form the sense of personal agency that allows informed and confident progression through education into desirable employment.

The paper focuses on three primary areas where social inequalities can distort the career success of young people: their socio-economic background (SES), gender and migrant status. These forms of inequality are focused on over three dedicated chapters with the discussion of gender also highlighting evidence of additional labour market barriers linked to sexual orientation and gender identity and the chapter on migrant status also drawing on wider evidence related to ethnic identity.

Each of the three chapters takes the same form. They initially present new evidence from analysis of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to test, having controlled for academic achievement, skills and other factors that influence labour market success, whether SES, gender and migrant status can be seen to shape the employment outcomes of young adults. The analysis finds considerable evidence, commonly aligned with wider research literature, that this is the case. The three forms of inequality can be seen to shape, if in different ways, the likelihood of young adults becoming NEET (Not in Education Employment or Training), patterns of segregation within the labour market when in employment as well as indicators of job quality, including salary levels. While individual circumstance will vary, it is students from low SES backgrounds, women and young adults from migrant backgrounds who can often expect poorer labour market outcomes than would be expected, given their academic achievement, skills levels and other factors. While guidance systems have limited capacity to resolve such inequalities, they can and should address the additional barriers to progression that these barriers present to students.

Secondly, each chapter explores whether patterns of teenage career development can also be seen to be shaped by such characteristics. Drawing on data from participating OECD countries in the 2018 round of the PISA, the study again finds strong patterns in student engagement in career development. Students from low SES backgrounds for example, are substantially more likely to underestimate the need for tertiary education to secure their career objectives, they are also less likely to engage in school-managed career development activities (CDA) than their high SES peers. Both girls and migrant students are less likely than peers to engage in those forms of CDA that are most strongly associated in longitudinal evidence with better employment outcomes: activities which bring them into direct contact with employers and people in work. While both groups tend to be more ambitious for their futures than boys and native-born students, the career plans of both groups are more highly concentrated around a small number of potential future jobs, indicating the need for greater career exploration.

Finally, each chapter presents examples of practice from around the world that illustrate ways in which guidance systems can address such additional barriers preventing optimal progression within the labour market through career guidance. Examples cluster around four thematic areas:

The paper then presents a newly developed model for comprehensively addressing social inequalities within K-12 career guidance. The New Brunswick Career Education Framework was developed in partnership with the OECD. It draws upon available empirical data to articulate career development journeys designed to provide support for students across the four thematic areas detailed above. It is also predicated on the basis that different students may require more intense support from guidance systems depending on the resources accessible through non-school sources and the character of their career ambitions. The paper concludes with a summarising conclusion which points the way towards enabling more personalised guidance for young people while challenging social inequalities and highlighting need for additional research in the field.