March 16, 2018
The evidence base for careers websites. What works?
There is some evidence which suggests that using career websites as part of broader careers education provision can impact positively on young people’s career readiness and the quality and diversity of their social networks for careers purposes.
The evidence points to a number of findings which can be turned into lessons for practice.
- Information-based career websites need to exist in the context of a wider offline careers support program. They are not a replacement for professional career guidance.
- Career websites that provide automated interactions need to be embedded within a wider range of careers support services. Only by doing so can they increase users’awareness of career support or give users new ideas about careers by exposing them to multimedia resources.
- Where career websites are used to facilitate communication (e.g. through online guidance and counselling or through delivery based inside virtual worlds), this can lead to positive outcomes such as gains in career decidedness and self-knowledge, gains in satisfaction with future career prospects, and in career exploration behaviours (such as more frequent career searches).
- Career websites need to be integrated into careers education provision and into wider forms of career support (e.g. tutorial support and personal guidance).
