Skills, employability and careers

Our many years of experience in employability and careers is most notable in the UK, where we deliver the National Careers Service as a prime contractor in the North East, Cumbria, Yorkshire and the Humber and as a key subcontractor in the South East of England. We provide world-class careers advice and guidance to more than 82,000 adults annually in a range of community settings. Our provision has helped transform lives and provides lasting economic and social benefit to the communities in which we work. Employing a person-centred approach, we help individuals recognise their strengths and skills, improve their employability and explore and manage their available career opportunities. Working together, we support people to realise their potential and achieve positive work and learning outcomes.

We also know that governments need skilled workforces which meet the needs of a changing labour market. We provide accredited vocational skills programmes, with a focus on the education sector – for example, through the UK government’s Skills Bootcamps in Early Years – and are continuing to build our portfolio in this area.

We are accredited to both the Matrix and Merlin Standards and, in all our work, we seek to demonstrate our belief in evidence-informed practice and service management.

We are committed to ensuring excellence in the quality of the services we deliver. In the careers and employability space, this extends to providing training for careers advisers to ensure that the support individuals receive is of the highest quality, and truly makes a difference to their lives. In Zimbabwe, through our Skills and Training Centre, we train edt colleagues in the Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Advice and Guidance, which they apply within the TEACH programme for teacher professional development. Feedback on the training has been overwhelmingly positive, with 100% of participants satisfied with training they received, and 94% reporting a positive impact on their practice. Moreover, 88% felt that the qualification was helping them to improve client outcomes.