The Adult Advancement and Careers Service and Adult Learners
A NIACE position paper
Published: January 2008
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This paper is an initial response to the proposal for an Adult Advancement and Careers Service as outlined in Opportunity, Employment and Progression: making skills work , and is a revision of the earlier NIACE Position Paper on the Adult Careers Service (November 2007). It outlines what we regard are the key issues and some possible questions to inform the government’s thinking on service design.
Trials for the Adult Advancement and Careers service are planned for the next two years, with the service fully operational from 2010-11. The existing learndirect advice and nextstep services will be brought together within a new organisation, which will work in close partnership with Jobcentre Plus and a range of statutory and voluntary advice services. A policy framework for the development of the new service will be available early in 2008.
While NIACE remains supportive of the development of an Adult Advancement and Careers Service, there are some issues about the service as currently outlined which we would like to explore further, in particular:
 | Previous reforms of Information, Advice and Guidance for adults have been well intentioned but often not achieved their goals. There are important lessons to be learned from earlier experiences. |
| While the word ‘universal’ was used to describe the offer of the Adult Careers Service, we are aware that this is not being so widely used in the description of the Adult Advancement and Careers Service. We are concerned that the need to target and prioritise the unskilled, low-skilled and workless may be at the cost of wider access to a whole range of other adult learners. We are also concerned that the imposition of systems which apply access criteria can actually create barriers to the very priority groups they are intended to favour. |
| Adults frequently seek guidance at a time of crisis, change or transition. It is important that any entitlement to the new service reflects this. |
| A review of current quality assurance arrangements and workforce competency requirements will be necessary to meet the needs of the new service. |
| In order to deliver the government’s vision, planning arrangements should be based on the views of service participants: users, providers as well as policy makers (and their intermediary agencies). |
