Professor Jenny Bimrose was awarded the Rodney Cox Lifetime Achievement Award at the CDI’s ‘UK Career Development Awards’ held on 11 March. The presentation was made by Dave Cordle, the CDI president, on behalf of the CDI’s board of directors.

The award is in recognition of Jenny’s sustained and significant contribution to the careers sector in which she has worked in for over 40 years. Jenny recently retired from IER, but has continued her research in the careers field. The award was sponsored by C&K Careers.

While Jenny was unable to attend the official award ceremony because of self-isolation, she is now holding the CDI Award in her hands.

You can read more on Jenny’s career and her recent publications in this University of Warwick press release.

It is a widely accepted notion that involving parents in careers education and guidance (CEG) is highly desirable. Although parents and carers undoubtedly influence the career development of young people in their care, with a range of consequences, robust evidence of what, when and how parental behaviours constructively support their children’s learning about career progression remains elusive.

Sally-Anne Barnes, with Jenny Bimrose, Alan Brown and John Gough, have been undertaking an international evidence review to understand how parents and carers can be better supported by schools and colleges to feel more informed and confident in how they support education and career choices. This has been undertaken with the support of the Gatsby Foundation and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. This study has produced a wealth of experiential evidence on the engagement of parents, as well as an overview of what is happening in practice.

The evidence report has now been published. Sign up to find out more or join an upcoming webinar. Read the press release here.

The notion that involving parents in careers education and guidance (CEG) is highly desirable is neither new nor innovative. Although parents undoubtedly have the potential to influence the career development of young people in their care, both positively and negatively, robust evidence of what, when and how parental behaviours constructively support their children’s learning about career progression remains inconclusive and elusive.

Sally-Anne Barnes, with Jenny Bimrose, Alan Brown and John Gough, have been undertaking research to understand how parents and carers can be better supported by schools and colleges to feel more informed and confident about the careers support and advice they give. This has been undertaken with the support of the Gatsby Foundation and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. This study has produced a wealth of experiential evidence on the engagement of parents , as well as an overview of what is happening in practice. A recent event held in London to share findings and interesting practice was attended by participants from across the UK. An evidence report will be published shortly along with a practice report. Sign up to find out more or join an upcoming webinar here.

IER welcomed members of the Jordan British Council, the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Commission for Higher Education Institutes and the higher education sector (AQACHEI) in October 2019. The delegation was comprised of key members responsible for the implementation of the Jordan National Qualification Framework.

They came to find out more about LMI for All and how it is supporting careers education and guidance within the education sector.

The event was organised by Lisa Collett from Cotswold Research who has been managing the Action Learning Forum project in Jordan.

IER and FIER at the University of Jyväskylä have been working on a project commissioned by the EC DG EMPL researching lifelong guidance policy and practice in the EU. The team, led by Sally-Anne Barnes, organised a successful workshop in Brussels at the beginning of October to discuss the findings of the study. This event was attended by 32 experts in guidance and lifelong learning from across Europe.

Following this, the research findings were presented at the European Vocational Skills Week 2019 held in Helsinki. The interactive session on 'guidance for lifelong learning' was streamed live and debated what support was needed to promote lifelong guidance.

The research report is due to be published in 2020.