Career Information and Advice
Providing information and advice to individuals relating to the management of their careers; employees can be encouraged to take responsibility for their own career development. Some managers are often concerned that, if people are encouraged to think about their personal development, they may decide they want to leave the organisation. But in fact communicating vacancies and opportunities that exist within the organisation will limit the likelihood of the individual leaving for opportunities elsewhere.
Guidance
Career information, advice and counselling include:
- Career counselling by trained individuals.
- Career information/advice from staff in a learning centre or career unit.
- Career workshops or careers courses.
- Career coaching.
- Career information/tools, IT or paper based.
Where possible, career coaching and mentoring should provided by an independent, external counsellor, so that the individual can engage in a frank discussion about preferences and future intentions in the knowledge that the information will go no further.
If any career intervention is decided upon, priority should be placed on turning these decisions into actions. If the process for achieving this is unclear or slow it may lead to individuals feeling frustrated or let down.
Tools
DWP library of job descriptions – Summary of job description library that The Department for Work and Pensions have created as part of their intranet.
DfT Guide to mentoring – An introductory guide to mentoring provided by the Department for Transport.
FMDS mentor guide
MoD career path – A tool that helps to demonstrate possible career paths with MoD finance.
The ‘Aristotle’ PDP tool – A spreadsheet based PDP tool to aid individuals identify learning needs.