Career Guidance for Adults in Canada – only 19% of them used it in 5 years, nearly half of the average across other countries

A growing body of international evidence suggests that career guidance has the potential to support successful employment transitions: notonly from the education system to the labour market, but also from unemployment to employment, and from declining to growing sectors. In thisway,it can support the post­ pandemic recovery by facilitating career transitions and bolstering the labour market participation of vulnerablegroups.

This study takes stock of career guidance services for adults in Canada, and puts them into international perspective. It relies on new internationalsurvey evidence from the OECD Survey of Career Guidance for Adults (SCGA),  interviews with key Canadian stakeholders, and policyquestionnaires completed by federal and provincial ministries.

Adults in Canada use career guidance services less than adults in a number of other OECD countries. According to the SCGA, only 19% of Canadian adults used a career service over the past five years. This is nearly half of the average across countries in the survey (39%). Thelower use of career services in Canada reflects that Canadian adults are less likely than their international counterparts to seek guidance whenchoosing a study or training programme (19% versus 31%), or when they want to progress in their current job (27% versus 40%). Employed adults in Canada are also less likely to use career services than the unemployed,which is not the case in other countries. The most common reason thatadults stated for not using career services was not feeling the need to, and this is in common with other countries in the survey. Unlike in othercountries, however, adults in Canada were more likely to report that they did not have enough time due to either work or family/childcareresponsibilities.

Source: Career Guidance for Adults in Canada | READ online