Strengthening Career Guidance for Mid-Career Adults in Australia

3. An assessment of career guidance for mid-career adults in Australia

Abstract

This chapter reviews the Australian system of career guidance for mid-career adults and makes recommendations for how it could be strengthened. It provides a brief overview of how the overall system of career guidance for adults is co‑ordinated, and then analyses provision for different sub-groups.

In Brief

Australia has public career guidance programmes that aim at mid-career adults, but improvements could be made to increase their uptake. The main findings from this chapter are:

• There are many actors involved in shaping and delivering career guidance services for mid-career adults in Australia. The National Career Institute (NCI) could raise awareness of available career guidance services, and the value of consulting career guidance regularly throughout one’s career journey. Introducing financial support schemes could encourage co-funding of private career guidance between employed individuals, employers and the government.

• Australia has several programmes that target mid-career adults who face disruption or job transition, and these should be evaluated, and scaled up if evaluation results suggest they are successful. Proactive career guidance initiatives targeted at workers in declining industries have been successful in connecting workers with upskilling and reskilling opportunities and new employment. Yet, more outreach is necessary to connect other vulnerable groups with career guidance

• For unemployed mid-career adults, access to federally funded career guidance programmes is limited. Some of these individuals require more comprehensive career support than simply job matching. There is limited use of professional career development practitioners in public career guidance programmes (such as the Mid-Career Checkpoint, Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers and Career Transition Assistance programmes).

• Mid-career adults who are employed and not facing disruption can also benefit from career guidance – even if they do not feel the need for it, as survey results suggest. The NCI could raise awareness of the value of accessing career guidance throughout people’s career journey, and not only when they are facing job disruption.

Introduction

This chapter reviews the Australian system of career guidance for mid-career adults. It provides a brief overview of how the overall system of career guidance for adults is co‑ordinated, and then analyses provision for three sub-groups of mid-career adults: those who are employed and not facing job disruption, those who are employed and facing job disruption, and those who are unemployed or out of the labour force. The chapter makes recommendations about how each of these sub-groups of mid-career adults could be better served, as well as how the overall system could be strengthened.

3.1. Overall system of career guidance for mid-career adults in Australia

Australia has a federal structure, with responsibilities for career guidance for adults divided between the Commonwealth and the six states and two territories (hereafter referred to collectively as “states”). There are currently two federally funded career guidance programmes specifically targeting mid-career adults: the Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers and the Mid-Career Checkpoint (Box 2.1). The federal government is also currently carrying out a pilot to provide job seekers, including those who are in mid-career, with one free career guidance session with a professional career development practitioner over the phone. In addition to these federally funded employment services, public career guidance for mid-career adults is provided through state‑funded employment services, higher education institutions, technical and further education institutions (TAFEs) and other vocational education and training institutions. Western Australia used to have a central public career service that employed qualified career professionals, but this closed in 2018. Victoria is now the only state offering public career guidance through its state‑funded employment services. New South Wales also started a pilot initiative in October 2021 (Careers NSW) to offer free career guidance to adults living in certain regions within the state.

With so many actors involved, co‑ordination of career guidance policy is a challenge. The National Careers Institute (NCI) was established in 2019 to provide Australians of all ages and career stages with information and resources to navigate career pathways (Box 3.1). Part of its mandate is to strengthen and consolidate careers information, encourage collaboration and improve co‑ordination between the various actors involved.

Box 3.1. Australia’s National Career Institute

The National Careers Institute (NCI) is an entity that sits within the Department of Education, Skills and Employment and is tasked with being a source of independent careers information for Australians of all ages. Formed by the Australian Government following the 2019‑20 federal budget measure, the NCI’s Strategic Plan aims to support a strong and effective career information system.

Since its inception in 2019, the NCI has delivered a careers information portal (yourcareer.gov.au), administered a partnership grant programme, promoted VET, and administered a training and skills website (training.gov.au and My Skills website). The NCI was not intended to be a provider of career guidance, though it did set up and administer telephone‑based career guidance through the School Leavers Information Service as a response to high youth unemployment during the COVID‑19 pandemic.

The NCI works with industry and employers to better understand the changing nature of the workforce and promote information for employee development including upskilling and reskilling opportunities. The NCI also works across the Commonwealth Government and with state governments on career information and guidance‑related matters.

The NCI could play a role in making adults more aware of available career guidance providers and the services they offer. This is a key challenge, because as highlighted in Chapter 2, 56% of mid-career non-users did not feel the need to speak to a career guidance advisor, while 20% of non-users did not speak to a career guidance advisor because they did not know such services existed. Public awareness campaigns can help to promote career guidance as a useful tool at any stage in one’s career, to develop career management skills and build resiliency. In Flanders (Belgium), career guidance measures are supported by large media campaigns, such as the “En alles beweegt” (“And everything is moving”) campaign in 2020. Adults in Australia could also benefit from a central navigation tool that clearly states the career guidance programmes they are eligible for, given their state and employment status. Finally, building an evidence base about the importance of career guidance could also help to raise awareness of its value. The NCI initiated the National Careers Information Survey in 2022 as a one‑off national survey to better understand the experiences and use of career information in Australia. Repeating this survey periodically, with the addition of questions related to the use of career guidance services, could potentially identify trends in take‑up and experiences of career guidance services over time.

There are currently no schemes to promote co-funding of private career guidance between individuals, employers and the government in Australia. The share of adults in Australia who pay out of pocket (57%) is much higher than the average of other countries in the survey (31%). Adults in precarious employment situations such as casual, contract or part-time employment are much less likely to pay out-of-pocket for career guidance than those who are employed full time. There are strong arguments to justify employer and government investment in career guidance, including the associated benefits to these parties in terms of lower skills mismatch, higher productivity and employee retention. Career guidance vouchers, which are offered in both Flanders (Belgium) and Germany (Box 2.4), are one way to promote co-funding of career guidance between the individual and government. In France, funding available under individual training accounts can be used to pay for career guidance services. Both Denmark and the Netherlands allow individuals to use paid leave for education and training purposes towards career guidance visits, which is a type of co-funding between the individual and the employer.

There is potential for better and clearer pathways into career guidance for mid-career adults. In Australia, career guidance is often a standalone service that adults have to seek out. Better referral systems between services could both raise awareness about career guidance among mid-career adults, and also improve the quality of services. During interviews, Australian stakeholders called for stronger referral systems within the career and training system, with bridges between career guidance services, health services, financial advice, and family and childcare support. Career guidance counsellors are increasingly asked to support adults with complex barriers to employment, and a stronger referral system could enable better service.

The following sections will consider how Australia’s current system of career guidance for adults could be strengthened for three distinct groups: employed mid-career adults who are not facing disruption, employed mid-career adults who are facing disruption, and mid-career adults who are unemployed or out of the labour force.

Box 3.2. Recommendations to strengthen co‑ordination of career guidance for mid-career adults

• Raising awareness about available career guidance services, and the benefits of such services for adults at any stage of their career. The NCI could take the lead in these activities. As a hub for career-related information, the NCI could create a central navigation tool that clearly spells out which career guidance programmes are available to adults across the country based on their state and current employment status. The NCI could also promote career guidance not only as something for young people or jobseekers, but also as a service that could be beneficial for people of all ages and career stages, creating a stronger culture around lifelong learning and the role of career guidance throughout a person’s career. Further, the NCI could contribute evaluation evidence on the impact of career guidance for mid-career adults, and in particular, identify which services are most effective for this target group. Repeating the National Careers Information Survey periodically would support these efforts.

• Introduce financial support schemes to promote co-funding, and reduce the individual cost of private career guidance. Australia has the highest incidence of out-of-pocket payment among countries in the survey, and cost can be a barrier for adults in precarious employment. Financial support schemes, like career vouchers or public career guidance services, would reduce barriers for adults in precarious employment.

• Strengthen referral systems into and from career guidance services. With their complex needs, mid-career adults can benefit from referrals to support services related to funding, health, financial planning, child and elder care, recognition of prior learning, and training. Stronger referral systems would also help to raise awareness about career guidance services among mid-career adults.

3.2. Career guidance for mid-career adults facing job disruption and job transitions

Mid-career adults facing job disruption and potential loss of employment – either due to automation, the green transition, or other trends affecting the labour market – could benefit from the support of career guidance in facilitating their employment transitions. Chapter 1 showed how mid-career adults in occupations with a higher risk of automation change occupation more often than those in lower risk occupations. However, they train less than mid-career adults in lower risk occupations. Career guidance can connect at-risk individuals to appropriate upskilling and reskilling opportunities, and help them to navigate a rapidly changing labour market and to find sustainable employment.

Both Tasmania’s Rapid Response Skills Initiative and the federal Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers target employed adults who are at risk of losing their job. As of October 2021, Careers NSW is also offering a pilot programme allowing adults in certain regions of NSW to book a free appointment with a professional career development practitioner. They can also book an appointment with an industry expert in the industry they are considering transitioning into. These programmes involve proactively supporting adults before they lose their jobs, which allows them to make training and employment choices without the financial and mental pressure of unemployment. Both programmes involve speaking to a career guidance advisor who aids the clients in assessing their skills and evaluating the gap between their current skills and those in-demand in the local labour market. Tasmania’s Rapid Response Skills Initiative includes support for recognition of prior learning, which can be a useful tool in formalising skills acquired through work experience in order to shorten training pathways into new sectors or occupations. Following the completion of the programmes and assessment of skills gaps, both programmes give mid-career adults suggestions for further training and offer funding to cover this training. While the combination of early intervention, use of skill assessments and recognition of prior learning, and support for training are promising programme features, evaluations have not been performed for either programme. Carrying out evaluations could inform efforts to improve these programmes and to scale up similar initiatives across the country. Building evidence about what works is the aim of the Future Skills Centre in Canada, which put out a call for proposals to test initiatives that support the upskilling and reskilling of mid-career adults (Box 3.3). A limitation of both the Rapid Response Skills Initiative and the federal Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers programmes is that because they do not have to be delivered by professional career development practitioners, they are not. Their impact is also limited, as the Rapid Response Initiative is only available in the state of Tasmania and the Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers is currently capped at 10 000 adults per year, though the cap has never been reached.

Mid-career adults who are facing disruption may benefit from active outreach in order to connect them with career support. This is important given that over half of mid-career adults do not feel they need career guidance, and another 20% are not aware that services exist. Jobs Victoria Advocates are trained by the Career Education Association of Victoria (CEAV) to reach out to adults in their own communities in order to connect them with social and employment services, including career guidance (Box 2.7). In Tasmania, the Rapid Response Skills Initiative mentioned above involves reaching out to workers in companies undergoing mass layoffs to offer career guidance and retraining opportunities. Australia has also previously implemented sector-wide initiatives during the closure of the auto-manufacturing industry: the Skills and Training initiative helped workers prepare to transition to new jobs in high demand sectors and occupations in affected regions. In the case of the Holden and Toyota plant closures, Transition Centres were set up within the plants. The Transition Centres offered career guidance, retraining opportunities, skills assessments and recognition of prior learning (OECD, 2018[1]). The initiatives were highly successful in helping employees find new employment.

Box 3.3. EDGE UP pilot for mid-career adults in Canada

The Energy to Digital Growth Education and Upskilling Project (EDGE UP) was developed by Calgary Economic Development in partnership with the Information and Communication Technology Council (ICTC) with the goal of reskilling displaced mid-career oil and gas professionals and helping them reemploy in emerging technology opportunities across all industries in Calgary. The EDGE UP team received financial support from the Future Skills Centre for the design, implementation and evaluation of the pilot.

The programme, modelled around ICTC’s iAdvance workforce development approach, includes skills mapping and short duration workplace readiness training, technical training (such as IT Project Management, Data Analytics and Software Development), micro credentialing, and employment support. The EDGE UP team created reskilling pathways based on a skills mapping research study that highlighted the transferrable skills of the target population and their skills gaps when compared with the needs of the most in-demand digital occupations. After participants finished the training programme, they continued to receive ongoing employment support and job search assistance, including notifications about employment opportunities and check-in calls from the programme co‑ordinator.

The programme evaluation was based on analyses of participant administrative data and participant surveys (baseline, exit and follow-up), as well as qualitative interviews with participants, programme partners and employers. There were 98 participants in the pilot, and 20 of them were interviewed as part of the evaluation.

Participants reported having clearer career goals following the participation in the programme. Half of the survey respondents reported being employed nine months after the completion of the programme, while 17% were enrolled in education or training programmes. The programme evaluation suggested that providing work placement opportunities and wraparound employment support would likely increase participants’ chances of being hired and hiring professional career advisors could build stronger capacity in employment support.

Source: Blueprint (2022[2]), “Energy to Digital Growth Education and Upskilling Project (EDGE UP)” Evaluation Report, February 2022, Future Skills Centre, https://global-uploads.webflow.com/5f80fa46a156d5e9dc0750bc/62013a2147ce61c6ef0397ec_FSC-EDGEUP-Final.pdf.

Box 3.4. Recommendations to support mid-career adults facing disruption or job transitions

• Scale up current programmes that target mid-career adults who are employed and at risk of losing their job. Australia’s current career guidance programmes for mid-career adults, Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers and the Mid-Career Checkpoint pilot, provide valuable support to this target group. The following actions should be taken to ensure the quality and success of these programmes as they are scaled up: i) first evaluate the impact of the programmes thus far; ii) make modifications as needed to the programmes to tailor them even further to the needs of mid-career adults; and iii) expand the programmes while building awareness of the benefits of career guidance for mid-career adults.

• Support flexible and shorter career and learning pathways of mid-career adults who are facing disruption by better linking career guidance with recognition of prior learning, as is currently done in Tasmania with the Rapid Response Skills Initiative. Allow funding for training that is tied to career guidance programmes to be used for recognition of prior learning processes. This would give adults formal recognition for skills acquired outside of formal training, and could shorten the time needed to retrain, thus facilitating their transitions.

• Scale up efforts to reach out to potentially vulnerable adults, such as low-educated adults, those in part-time employment, foreign-born adults, or those living in rural areas, to connect them with career guidance. Adults are often unaware of career guidance opportunities and their benefits. Victoria’s approach of reaching out to and building relationships with potentially vulnerable adults in the community (e.g. in libraries, community centres) is a promising way to connect vulnerable adults with career guidance services, and could be scaled up across the country. Training and employing career guidance advisors who are from similar socio‑economic backgrounds as vulnerable adults is another way to improve inclusivity of career services. This may be particularly effective in engaging Indigenous adults and those with disabilities, as Victoria is currently doing.

3.3. Career guidance for mid-career adults who are unemployed or out of the labour force

Career guidance can help unemployed mid-career adults find sustainable work. It encourages them to reflect on their skills and career aspirations, to identify relevant job opportunities and to find training opportunities in case of skills gaps. Adults with more complex barriers to employment can receive tailored support to overcome these barriers, thus avoiding long-term unemployment or a succession of poorly fitting jobs and subsequent unemployment spells.

For the most part, Australia’s federally funded employment services provide job matching support and not career guidance. While job matching support may be sufficient for the majority of unemployed job seekers, some groups of adults will require more comprehensive career support, such as mid-career adults who have been displaced after years working in a declining industry, or those who are re‑entering the labour market after years spent caregiving or pursuing other types of informal work. These adults could benefit from having their skills assessed, and possibly recognised formally through a recognition of prior learning process. Career guidance can also support them in identifying their transferrable skills, computing skills gaps, and navigating upskilling and reskilling options. Private career guidance may be prohibitively expensive for these groups.

There are some federally funded career guidance programmes for mid-career adults who are unemployed or out of the labour force in Australia, but access is limited. The Mid-Career Checkpoint, Skills Checkpoint for Older Workers and Career Transition Assistance programmes all provide career guidance to mid-career jobseekers. The programmes have a number of strong features, including use of skills assessments and personalised career development roadmaps and financial support for training. The Career Transition Assistance programme also involves employer visits. But these programmes are offered on a small scale, and do not have to be delivered by professional career development practitioners. Rather, they tend to be offered through employment services by counsellors without specialised training in career guidance.

At the state level, Victoria is the only state offering publicly-subsidised career guidance programmes for mid-career jobseekers, and the programme is delivered by professional career development practitioners. As of August 2021, jobseekers in Victoria can be referred to personalised, professional and free career guidance via the Jobs Victoria Career Counsellors Service (see Box 2.7). This programme is delivered by professional career development practitioners. In Victoria, there is a clear separation between the roles of the state‑funded career guidance counsellor and federally funded jobactive caseworker, the latter involving performing administrative tasks related to supporting the jobseeker in obtaining benefits.

Box 3.5. Recommendations to support mid-career adults who are unemployed or out of the labour force

• Scale up publicly provided career guidance programmes that target mid-career jobseekers. Australia offers career guidance to mid-career jobseekers through the Mid-Career Checkpoint and Checkpoint for Older Workers and some state‑level programmes, but capacity and participation are still low, and there is little advertisement of the programmes.

• Require professionals delivering publicly subsidised career guidance programmes to be listed on the Australian Register of Professional Career Development Practitioners, as is already the case in Victoria. Such a requirement could increase quality of publicly provided career guidance services for mid-career adults by ensuring that the professionals delivering the service have the required skills and qualifications. This register should be made publicly available.

3.4. Career guidance for mid-career adults who are employed and not facing disruption

Even if they are not facing disruption in their jobs, employed mid-career adults can benefit from career guidance. Analysis of the Australian HILDA survey data shows that the majority of mid-career adults (84%) remain in the same occupation from one year to the next, though not necessarily with the same employer (see Chapter 2). It is important that this group continue to upskill and to progress in their careers even while staying in the same occupation, particularly as the skill needs of a given occupation are susceptible to change with automation and other mega-trends.

Most non-users of career guidance in Australia say that they do not feel the need for it (56%), perhaps because they are employed and established in their career. But if adults viewed career guidance not as a service to access when they “need” it, but as a service to access regularly over the course of their careers in order to maintain their career management skills and improve decision making, then they could be more resilient and better able to respond to labour market shocks. The NCI could better promote lifelong career guidance as a tool to use all along one’s career journey, and not only when a person is unemployed or facing an employment transition.

Employed adults who are not facing disruption do not currently have access to publicly subsidised career guidance in Australia, with the exception of the Jobs Victoria Career Counsellors Service which does not base eligibility upon employment status (see Box 2.7). In some OECD countries, employed adults can access publicly subsidised career guidance through career vouchers (such as Flanders (Belgium) or the Netherlands) or via a dedicated public career guidance service (such as France). Another way to scale up public services is to leverage existing programme infrastructure by extending eligibility to mid-career adults. For instance, NCI’s School Leavers Information Service, which hires professional career development practitioners to provide career guidance to young people by telephone, could be expanded to include mid-career adults.

Employers can help mid-career workers to understand possible career and learning pathways that exist within their firm. As discussed in Chapter 2, employer-provided career guidance is more common in Australia than in other countries in the SCGA. Employers can help mid-career workers to identify career progression opportunities that exist within the firm, as well as the skill development opportunities offered or supported by the employer.

Career progression depends on mid-career workers first having a clear idea of any skill gaps with respect to their career aspirations. There are two steps involved in computing skill gaps: first, understanding the skills that the worker already has; and second, comparing those skills with those required for the next step in their career.

Understanding the skills that a mid-career worker already has entails making visible the skills they have acquired informally through work experience. As they directly observe employee performance, employers are well placed to support workers in understanding the skills they already have. Recognition of prior learning processes, which exist in most Australian states, are a way for adults to obtain formal recognition for the skills they have acquired informally through work experience or through non-formal training.

A second step in identifying the skills gaps of mid-career workers is to compare their current skills with those required for the next step in their career. Employers should provide transparency to workers about which skills are needed for different roles in their firm. The Australian Skills Classification developed by the National Skills Commission can be a useful tool in this regard, as it sets out the core competencies, specialist tasks and technology tools required for 1 100 occupations in Australia (National Skills Commission, n.d.[3]).

Another way for workers to learn about the different roles in their firm and the associated career pathways is through job rotation and mentorship programmes. Job rotation allows a worker to test drive other roles within the firm and to learn the skills required to perform them. Mentorship programmes connect workers with other employees, often in more senior positions, who teach them new skills and/or provide support in navigating career progression within the firm. While the implementation of such high-performance work practices is ultimately the employer’s decision, governments can support employers by providing guidance and disseminating good practice examples. While Australia has funded programmes to raise awareness about high-performance work practices in the past, there are no active programmes in this area. The European Workforce Innovation Network (EUWIN) is an example of how governments can support employers in promoting high-performance work practices (Box 3.6).

Box 3.6. Promoting high-performance work practices within firms

The European Workforce Innovation Network (EUWIN) was created in 2013 at the request of the European Commission with the goal to develop and promote the idea of workforce innovation at the European level through knowledge sharing. The network organises international workshops and Europe‑wide meetings involving public and private organisations, social partners, policy makers and researchers. An online EUWIN Knowledge Bank provides resources for practitioners and researchers, including articles, case studies and practical guides on how to promote workforce innovation.

According to EUWIN, workplace innovation is built on four elements: i) empowering jobs and self-managed teams, ii) flexible organisational structures, people‑centred management practices and streamlined systems and procedures based on trust, iii) systematic opportunities for employee‑driven improvement and innovation, and iv) co-created and distributed leadership combined with ‘employee voice’ in strategic decision-making. These four elements combine to form a system of mutually reinforcing practices that together support the fifth element of workforce innovation: a culture of innovation and organisational and individual resilience.

Building on the success of EUWIN, the European Commission launched targeted implementation projects in the area of workplace innovation. One of these is the INNovaSouth project, which supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Southern Europe to enhance their workplace innovation by increasing the employees’ motivation and productivity. Within this project, an Online Manual of Good Practices on Workplace Innovation was developed, providing practical advice to SMEs on how to improve their organisational processes and increase their competitiveness. A call for proposals was also launched under this project that will grant vouchers to selected Greek and Italian SMEs to launch workforce innovation initiatives.

Source: Adapted from OECD (2017[13]), Better Use of Skills in the Workplace: Why it Matters for Productivity and Local Jobs. EUWIN (2016[7]), Your Guide to Workplace Innovation; INNovaSouth (2020[8]), “Project Methodology”, https://www.innovasouthproject.eu/methodology/. Adapted from OECD (2021), “Creating Responsive Adult Learning Opportunities in Japan.” https://doi.org/10.1787/cfe1ccd2-en.

Box 3.7. Recommendations to support mid-career adults who are employed and looking to progress in their current job/sector

• Promote the use of high-performance work practices within firms, including flexible and transparent career and learning pathways, job rotation and mentorship programmes. The NCI could take a lead in these activities.

• Expand public provision of career guidance to employed mid-career adults, possibly by extending the current telephone‑based career guidance service (School Leavers Information Service) to adults. Employed adults who are not facing disruption do not currently have access to publicly subsidised career guidance across Australia, but could benefit from affordable access to these services over the course of their careers. As the service infrastructure already exists through the School Leavers Information Service, this could easily be extended to include older age groups.

References

[2] Blueprint (2022), Energy to Digital Growth Education and Upskilling Project (EDGE UP), Future Skills Centre, https://global-uploads.webflow.com/5f80fa46a156d5e9dc0750bc/62013a2147ce61c6ef0397ec_FSC-EDGEUP-Final.pdf.

[3] National Skills Commission (n.d.), Australian Skills Classification, https://www.nationalskillscommission.gov.au/topics/australian-skills-classification.

[1] OECD (2018), Getting Skills Right: Australia, Getting Skills Right, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264303539-en.