The strategy for Careers Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG)
was published in March 2011. It highlights the importance of CIAG
and how it should be independent, impartial, holistic,
confidential, high-quality and something which promotes equality of
opportunity. The strategy also suggests that CIAG needs to be
informed - based upon a detailed knowledge of the changing labour
market.
Skills Development Scotland (SDS) created its Labour Market
Information team in early 2010. The team was tasked with building a
Labour Market Information (LMI) system which would provide staff
with the knowledge they needed in order to support customers
looking for careers information.
In this month's Spotlight article, we look at the experience of
connecting Careers Information, Advice and Guidance to the labour
market and some of the useful developments and practice that have
seen the SDS website become Scotland's most popular LMI site.
The approach taken to build a LMI system that would meet staff
needs required consultation with a range of Skills Development
Scotland staff - including Careers Guidance practitioners. This
identified some key areas that were required, namely, access to
vacancy information, the ability to understand local labour market
context and an interest in learning more about emerging or
important sectors of the economy.
Providing tools which collected and presented this level of
information became the focus of the SDS website development. A key
principle was to make best use of what was already available to
prevent duplication and reworking. Popular products have included
access to Jobcentre Plus top ten vacancies - notified and sought by
area and a one stop location for all Sector Skills Profiles from
the Sector Skills Councils. SDS' LMI team also produced new
material - such as a weekly and monthly media monitoring service
that reports job gains and losses by region, based on a scan of
over 150 local and national newspapers.
A subsequent stage of development has been to arrange sectoral
LMI events. The events, hosted by SDS Sector Managers and Sector
Skills Council experts, bring LMI to life for practitioners. These
events have included speed networking with employers and employees
from various sectors. The events promote knowledge sharing and
provide a forum to address commonly asked questions from
practitioners and jobseekers.
SDS staff were also keen to experience some level of
professional development to allow them to better understand the
labour market and how to apply this information in their day to day
job. Through feedback a LMI induction package was created and
rolled out, initially to a LMI Group of staff from all regions
which they could then cascade to local staff. This has resulted in
user satisfaction levels of over 95%.
All the products and services described here are free and
accessible to SDS staff but also to partners. Many staff are now
using LMI not only to inform work with clients but also in
partnership activity.
Staff perspectives
"Last year, members of the LMI group delivered staff LMI
induction sessions to familiarise them with the content and uses of
the 'Knowledge' sub-sections on the
SDS website. In my work in a city centre office and in college I
use this LMI to challenge ideas and perceptions, support self
awareness and focus and help people to gain clarity about skills,
competencies and qualifications to make career planning
decisions.
"In my region, we were invited to give a LMI input to a range of
Area Planning meetings with other partners in the education and
guidance community. These meetings facilitate school college
collaboration and involve Glasgow City Council Vocational
Education, Secondary Teaching and College Lecturing Staff. An
introduction to SDS was followed by information about the nature of
career education, information, advice and guidance as well as the
structure and remit of the LMI group.
"The challenge of prediction and the difference between labour
market information and labour market intelligence was explored
demonstrating that although presentation of statistics can seem
difficult, they can be interpreted, clarified and explained.
Discussion surrounding the vital role of LMI in well informed
decision making followed and the website was reviewed.
"Ultimately, access, awareness and the application of
labour market information and intelligence contributes to the
acquisition of career management skills. These in turn have an
important role in the successful exploration of employment and
learning opportunities with the clients we support."
Anne Henderson, Careers Adviser, SDS Operations in
Glasgow
"In my role as SDS Team Leader, I work closely with the LMI
group.
"I have delivered a combination of SDS website and LMI
familiarisation sessions to external partners, including the
Ayrshire Integrated Employment and Skills Practitioners Group and
the Ayrshire Training for Work Provider Forum. The purpose of these
sessions is to demonstrate how Knowledge contained on the SDS
website, such as vacancy updates, unemployment reports, local
authority profiles and media monitoring reports of new job
opportunities can be best utilised and how they can use it with the
client groups that they work with.
"We have been very proactive over the last few months in
promoting the LMI web tools available not only to staff in our
public centres but also to partners in our communities. This
activity has helped to support our staff to understand the local
labour market for the benefit of our clients and to focus our
collaborations with partners to help identify the nature of the
labour market and the challenges and opportunities we collectively
face."
John White, Team Leader, SDS Operations in South
Lanarkshire
"I have been working in the Labour Market Information team over
the last year to establish the knowledge requirements of colleagues
in SDS so that we can build a responsive and evolving service that
helps us all to better understand the economy we work in. This has
involved taking the views of staff to build web tools to give LMI
context for their local area, staging events to promote key sectors
in Scotland and arranging continuous professional development to
support learning which helps us understand LMI and apply it to our
job roles. The best part of the job is capturing the enthusiasm of
colleagues and partners who have helped take these tasks forward in
their own areas and whilst being a catalyst for positive
change."
Mark Steell, Development Executive, SDS Labour Market
Information
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