Why care about careers?

Key challenges

We know from the CDI Big Listen survey that whilst career development professionals are proud of the work they do, they do not believe that work is sufficiently recognised, valued or funded. There are three main areas where this campaign will make a difference:

1.    Demonstrating the value of the career development sector in supporting economic growth, so we can maximise our contribution.

2.    Improving public perception of the career development sector to ensure that people understand what we do and how we can help.

3.    Building a robust career development workforce that can respond to future challenges by improving recruitment and retention.

The tasks ahead

In order for the campaign to succeed, we need the knowledge to help us plan our activities and the evidence to make our case. For that reason, our work begins with an investment in a significant piece of primary research which we’ve commissioned. The research will help us to better understand the public’s career development needs, as well as their perceptions of the career development sector.

Utilising this research:

We will develop easy-to-use content that supports career development professionals to promote themselves and our sector to a range of audiences.

We will continue to advocate for the career development sector at all levels of influence, from employers to policymakers, bringing this work together under one umbrella to better focus our messaging.  See our CEO, David Morgan, presenting at the House of Lords.

We will keep on amplifying the great work that career development professionals do, as part of a wider strategy to improve the talent pipeline within our sector.

Promoting the profession

A core part of the CDI’s role is to showcase and celebrate the great things we do in the sector and to promote best practice across career development. There is already great work being done to highlight the work of career development professionals, but by bringing this under one campaign we can become more effective at promoting our profession. We will also further support this work by using the research project as a foundation for new activities, to influence policy makers, and hold round-table discussions in parliament.