The budget is two weeks away. Low growth and even lower productivity mean higher taxes are nailed-on. And we can expect little extra for day-to-day spending on public services - outside the NHS - as pressure on welfare spending continues to rise.
Every decision the Chancellor announces on the 26 November will be made through the prism of whether it supports or harms growth. Any new proposal will need to come from reprioritisation of spending on public services elsewhere. And if the cost is modest, there is a greater chance of success.
On Budget Day, the Chancellor has an opportunity to build a guidance service in England to support her key objective – growth, growth, growth.
Career guidance service reform
Under the recent machinery of government changes, the Department for Education retains control of 16-19 education and higher education (including the Level 4-6 Lifelong Learning Entitlement).
Responsibility for adult skills and apprenticeships – including the Growth and Skills Levy – was transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions.
In terms of career guidance, DfE retains control of guidance services for young people through funding the Careers and Enterprise Company, whilst the National Careers Service is transferred to DWP and merged with Job Centres to form a new Jobs and Careers Advice Service.
Post-16 reform
Last month, the government published the Post-16 Education and Skills white paper setting out reforms in England.
The agenda is impressive in scope.
Skills England is mapping occupational gaps. V Levels will create new technical routes. Apprenticeship units will form part of flexible training under the Growth and Skills Levy. Technical Excellence Colleges will anchor regional skills ecosystems.
Universities are expected to specialise and become more involved in skills at local level.
The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will make fee-loans available for upskilling and reskilling at Level 4-6 to adults as well as young people from September 2027, with funding for credit-modules linked to provision which supports sectors in the Industrial Strategy.
Means-tested maintenance grants targeted on courses which support the sectors covered by the Industrial Strategy will also be introduced.
An international call, a national silence
November is Global Careers Month, and seven international agencies - Cedefop, the European Commission, ETF, ILO, OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank - have issued a joint statement urging governments to invest in career guidance.
Their evidence is stark: quality career guidance delivers positive economic, educational and social returns. Yet fewer than half of 15-year-olds have spoken to a careers adviser.
The agencies are clear: effective career guidance requires professionally trained practitioners. You cannot outsource this to well-meaning teachers, employers, or algorithms. England appears determined to learn this lesson the hard way.
As these international agencies remind us during Global Careers Month, investing in career guidance isn't optional if you're serious about skills transformation. It's foundational infrastructure.
A missing profession, an infrastructure paradox
Yet scan the policy papers, ministerial letters and white papers, and you'll find a curious omission: professionally qualified careers advisers. This isn't an oversight. It's a fundamental flaw in the architecture.
Consider what the government is asking the system to deliver. Young people must navigate an increasingly complex landscape: V Levels alongside T Levels, apprenticeships at multiple levels, foundation apprenticeships, higher technical qualifications, and traditional academic routes.
Adults face choices about retraining, upskilling through the Growth and Skills Levy, accessing free courses for jobs through the devolved Adult Skills Fund, as well as making decisions regarding accessing the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
Who will help them make sense of this? Skills England will identify what the economy needs. But individuals aren't economic units to be deployed. They have aspirations, constraints, previous qualifications, caring responsibilities, financial pressures, and complex relationships with learning shaped by their educational histories.
But policies don't implement themselves. Systems don't navigate themselves. People need career guidance from professionals who understand both labour markets and human development, who can work across the lifespan, who hold appropriate qualifications and adhere to professional standards.
An uncomfortable question
As Global Careers Month highlights international consensus on investing in career guidance, England's Labour government is building an ambitious skills architecture without the professional workforce to make it work. It's time to ask an uncomfortable question: can you transform lifelong learning and career development without careers professionals?
England cannot build a skills revolution without career guidance infrastructure. It will fail at precisely the point where it matters most – when individuals make the decisions that shape their working lives and, collectively, our economic future.
Employment advisers are not careers advisers
As part of establishing the new Jobs and Careers Advice Service, the recent decision to absorb 1,000 National Careers Service advisers into Jobcentre Plus raises serious questions about professional identity.
Employment advisers do vital work, but they're not careers professionals. The risk is conflating job placement with career development - a category error that undermines both functions.
The new Jobs and Careers Advice Service presents an opportunity to embed this professional capability systematically. But DWP must protect the distinct role and skills of careers advisers, not dilute them.
Accountability without capacity building
The government has strengthened statutory guidance on careers provision. Independent Training Providers must now align with Gatsby Benchmarks. Schools and colleges are expected to demonstrate careers impact e.g. The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) Careers Impact Maturity Model sets standards; The DfE-owned matrix Standard and independent Quality in Careers accreditation measure effectiveness.
But this is accountability without capacity building. We're mandating outcomes while defunding the professional infrastructure to deliver them.
Lessons from closer to home
The Chancellor does not need to look far for inspiration. Northern Ireland maintains a professionally qualified workforce within an all-age Careers Service. Scotland has Skills Development Scotland. Wales has Careers Wales. England is the outlier, pursuing a model where career guidance is everyone's responsibility and therefore no one's.
November: a month to remember
November is Global Careers Month. It is also the month of the budget. The Chancellor can make it a month to remember for career guidance.
Ask 1: Recognise the role of professional careers advisers
Professional careers advisers exist to bridge the gap between labour market intelligence and individual decision-making. DfE and DWP must work together to define the relationship between work coaches and professionally qualified careers advisers.
Ask 2: An expanded career guidance profession in England
The Chancellor should commit on Budget Day to expand the career guidance profession in England. The Budget should announce:
- a pipeline of professionally qualified careers advisers with training at Level 6 and Level 7
- CPD for existing practitioners on AI, green skills, and new technical pathways
- integrated careers hubs linking schools, colleges, employers and local community services that support local residents
- Careers Leaders and Careers Advisers in all post-16 providers
- workforce development fund for career guidance professionals mirroring FE teacher training investment
- quality standards linked to professional qualifications and matrix Standard accreditation
- regional career guidance hubs with professionally qualified coordinators, and
- a research programme to evaluate impact and build evidence.
Ask 3: Invest an extra £85m a year in career guidance in England
The Chancellor should announce a ring-fenced Career Guidance Budget for England of £85m per year, over and above the £30m for the Careers and Enterprise Company funded by DfE, and the £50m or so for the National Careers Service which has been transferred to DWP.
There are at least three potential sources of funding.
Funding could be transferred from the DWP Employment Support Budget which is due to increase by £200m in 2026/27 and rise by £1.0bn in 2029/30.
Another potential source is from the UK Growth and Skills Levy which will replace the UK Apprenticeship Levy next year. In 2026/27, the levy is expected to raise at least £100m more than in 2025/26. If the Chancellor releases an extra £100m in public spending, £85m could go to England to fund all-age career guidance and £15m to the Devolved Nations as part of the block grant settlement.
Equally, the £85m could be ring-fenced out of the UK immigration skills charge, which raised £560m in 2024/25 and supposedly spent on post-16 skills. What better use of the charge than to fund a world-class career guidance system for England.
Dr. Deirdre Hughes OBE is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick IER and Director dmh associates & CareerChat UK
Our regular guest policy views are written by senior leaders and thinkers. They aim to stimulate discussion, identify issues and contribute to debate on post-16 education, skills and employment policy. The opinions expressed are the authors' own and do not necessarily express the views of the Campaign for Learning.