Scotland's careers strategy: moving forward

6. A Progressive Approach To Quality Assurance And Improved Outcomes 

We have confidence that CIAG services in Scotland are of a high standard and we intend to further build upon this. This strategy recognises there are a wide range of approaches to quality assurance, improvement and measurement across the education, employability, enterprise and skills system. We will build on this experience and further enhance approaches to securing improvement. 

Our first step will be through the collaborative review and development of a commonly agreed set of CIAG inspection and evaluation approaches to inform and support all providers. The approaches will clearly articulate how existing and new methods can be used to focus specifically on assessing the quality and impact of CIAG services. 

By doing so, we will work towards greater consistency in quality assurance and the assessment of impact, including areas of strength on which to build. We will consider how this complements existing approaches to benchmarking, enhancement-led Institutional Reviews (ELIRs) and other peer review processes.

Our approach will concentrate on capturing the voices of the users of CIAG and other key stakeholders. From this, we will encourage shared learning to drive forward the design and development of CIAG services across Scotland.

In The Netherlands, Noloc, the Dutch association for career counsellors and job coaches, and CMI (a Dutch organisation assessing the quality of career counsellors, are joining forces to realise a national quality standard for careers professionals. The project commenced in late 2017 and is due to be completed by 2020. “It was important to start from the point of a shared future, instead of a separate past.” The programme makes use of a ‘certification development framework’ developed as part of an EU-funded project ‘QUAL-IM-G’ of which Noloc is one of the partners.