The ‘P’ word: productivity in the delivery of career guidance services

ABSTRACT

The case for more attention to productivity in career guidance delivery is related to the pressures both for greater public accountability and for increasing access to services without massive increases in resources. The term ‘productivity’ is defined and its applications in a career guidance context are explored. Possible strategies for enhancing productivity are examined, and evidence of productivity gains is reviewed. A case-study is presented to indicate how services might collect and utilise productivity data to enhance their service provision.

Thanks are due to Professor Edwin L. Herr, Deirdre Hughes, Dr Jenny Kidd, Lester Oakes and Professor James P. Sampson Jr., and to an anonymous reviewer, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. The language used in this area is confusingly inconsistent. Sampson et al. (2004), for example, reserve the term ‘outputs’ for what in the present paper are referred to as ‘learning outcomes’—i.e. the new skills and knowledge that are acquired—using ‘outcomes’ to describe the effects that result from these new cognitive or perceptual capacities.