Science Series #4: Who Uses Career Guidance — and Why Others Don’t?
Data basis: OECD Survey of Career Guidance for Adults (SCGA), field phase 2020. Source: OECD (2021) “Career Guidance for Adults in a Changing World of Work”
Important note before reading: “Career guidance” in the OECD study does not automatically mean strategic, high-end career counseling. See definition in section 1 below.
The ROI Paradox
The pattern appears frequently in practice: people who would gain the highest return on investment from career guidance — because their decisions carry large implications for income, role, and life — either do not invest at all, or invest only in insufficient measures like cosmetic CV revision.
OECD data from 2020 helps quantify this pattern clearly. “Career guidance” is used on average by 43% of adults within any five-year period — but usage is unequally distributed. And the activities covered by this category are broadly defined: they include conversations with HR, job fairs, reading industry articles, using software tools, and more.
A central mechanism: for many people, career counseling is not a starting point. It is a piece within an already-active career development behavior that is not necessarily structured or effective.
The core of this article: people who already develop their careers more systematically tend to seek structured guidance more often. Those who let their career run reactively tend to stay with informal sources or minimal measures — even when the objective value of professional guidance would be high.
1. What “Career Guidance” Means Here
The OECD defines career guidance as “a set of services” that help people make informed education, training, and occupational decisions. A “career guidance advisor” is anyone who provides such services — regardless of whether face-to-face or remote.
In practice, this covers a spectrum: from low-threshold orientation to multi-stage structured counseling.
Content and functions include:
– Orientation and information on job and training options
– Support with education, training, and career decisions
– Tailored advice at varying depth — not necessarily a strategic project
Channels and formats include:
– In-person / face-to-face
– Telephone
– Online chat
– Video conference
– Hybrid approaches
Providers, across the six SCGA countries, include:
– 24%: Public Employment Services (PES)
– 22%: Private providers (e.g. private coaches)
– 13%: Educational and training institutions (e.g. universities)
– 13%: Employer-linked advisors
– 12%: Specialized publicly funded career guidance agencies
– 15%: Other providers (employer groups, trade unions, NGOs)
Consequence: when we discuss “use of career guidance” below, we mean a broad mix of offerings — not exclusively strategic premium counseling.
It is also worth noting that in economic crises, the individual mix of measures used does not change significantly.
2. Study Design: Who Was Surveyed?
The OECD used the Survey of Career Guidance for Adults (SCGA), an online survey conducted by Cint on behalf of the OECD.
- Field phase: mid-June to early July 2020
- Countries: Chile, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, USA
- Target group: adults aged 25–64 (post-initial education)
Final sample sizes (after quality checks):
– Chile: 960
– France: 922
– Germany: 922
– Italy: 980
– New Zealand: 905
– USA: 922
Important methodological limitation: online surveys tend to underrepresent people who are not online — often older and less formally educated individuals. The OECD also notes that the SCGA oversamples higher-educated respondents.
3. How Many Use Career Guidance — and Why?
Usage over five years: on average, 43% of adults speak with a career guidance advisor within five years. Most users have multiple interactions — a process rather than a single appointment.
Most common reasons:
– 32%: job search / job search assistance
– 25%: information about education and training options
Beyond job search, motivations include in-company progression, job changes, uncertain labor market prospects, or mandatory contact. Depending on employment status — for example, unemployment — the mix of reasons shifts considerably.
Implication: career guidance is predominantly used when concrete transitions and decisions are at stake. That is precisely where the strongest leverage typically arises — provided the offering fits in content, timing, and format. In most cases, people are not pursuing a long-term strategy. They are looking for a short-term solution to an immediate problem.
4. Who Uses It Less?
The OECD quantifies clear usage differences across groups. Differences are measured in percentage points (PP) — the absolute difference between two proportions.
The largest gaps in usage (OECD Executive Summary):
– Age 25–54 vs. over 54: 22 PP
– Urban vs. rural: 14 PP
– High vs. low educational attainment: 11 PP
– Men vs. women: 8 PP
– Employed vs. unemployed: 2 PP (implication: measures are taken when the situation becomes urgent)
By occupation: usage in less-skilled roles (craft/trade, plant/machine operators, services/sales, elementary occupations) is lower — often below 40% over five years — while managers and professionals are at 50% or above. Additionally: workers in occupations with high automation risk use career guidance less often.
The critical point: several groups with elevated risk — skills obsolescence, automation pressure, lower education level, rural location, older age — are less present in guidance systems, precisely where potential benefit could be highest.
5. Why Non-Users Don’t Use It
Among adults who did not use career guidance, three reasons dominate:
- 57%: “No need” — The common mistake: people do not plan their own source of income and livelihood.
- 20%: Did not know such offerings existed
- 11%: No time (work/family/childcare)
- 4%: Too expensive
- 3%: Could not find a provider
- 2%: Poor quality of offerings
- 2%: Inconvenient time or location
The OECD adds a critical interpretation: “No need” can mean that people are well positioned. But it can also mean that the value and potential of professional guidance is not sufficiently recognized.
Even more important: in vulnerable groups, “no need” is particularly frequent. Examples: 67% of older adults, 60% in rural areas, 58% of the less educated cite no need — more often than their less vulnerable comparison groups.
This is fundamentally a perception and access problem, not just a motivation problem.
It is also worth noting that even highly educated groups — including HR managers — frequently do not engage strategically with career counseling. The complexity of the topic, but also the substantial positive impact of effective approaches, is systematically underestimated.
6. Informal Substitutes: Online, Friends, HR — and Why That Often Falls Short
The majority compensates without professional guidance:
– 69% search for information online
– 67% rely at least partly on family and friends
– 57% use other career development activities (e.g. HR conversations, advice from successful acquaintances)
This explains why “no need” is so high: information is available — but information does not replace structure, decision logic, planning, and execution of the core elements of strategic career counseling.
Here is where the ROI error arises: when people handle career decisions through informal sources or point-in-time optimizations (documents, profiles), the central problem often remains untouched: making a robust, realistic, market-viable decision about direction, role, timing, and approach — and then effectively developing the documents, tools, and networks for successful self-promotion.
7. Quality and Impact: High Satisfaction — But Effect Is Not Automatic
The OECD study reports:
– 75% of users are satisfied or very satisfied
– 70% experience improvement in their employment, education, or training status within six months
– But only 22% say the guidance “was useful in achieving that outcome”
This is a clear signal about causal complexity: improvement occurs frequently — but not every improvement is attributable to the counseling (or perceived as such). People who use guidance are often already in motion — in job search, pursuing training, intending to change roles.
Additionally: the provider type and outcome are connected. The OECD reports a strong correlation between outcomes and provider type. Professional guidance from private market providers is clearly associated with positive employment outcomes, while guidance through educational institutions and non-individualized training programs is rated by respondents as less effective or even counterproductive.
8. Delivery Formats: “Not Enough Time” Is a Design Problem
When 11% cite “no time,” that is not just an excuse. It is a systematic design signal.
The OECD shows how guidance actually occurs:
– 63%: face-to-face
– 19%: telephone
– 9%: online chat
– 7%: video conference
– 3%: instant messaging
There is a gap between preference and reality — connected to the prevalence of free, institutional, education-sector offerings. Professionals tend to prefer less face-to-face and more online counseling.
Learning: if time and life logistics are real barriers, career guidance must be designed to fit into daily life — modular, clear, low threshold to start, but not trivial in content.
9. Conclusion: Who Uses It — and Why Others Don’t
The OECD data makes three things visible simultaneously:
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Career guidance is widespread and is used pragmatically. 43% within five years, usually as a process, primarily for job search and training decisions.
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Usage is unequally distributed — and disadvantages vulnerable groups particularly. Large gaps by age, region, and education; additionally lower usage in occupations with high automation risk.
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Non-use is primarily explained by perception and access, not by conscious rejection. “No need” dominates, but is especially frequent in vulnerable groups — awareness and time barriers are substantial.
People who already develop their careers more systematically use guidance and other career development activities more frequently. People who steer their careers more reactively or informally tend to stay with online information, advice from their circle, or point-in-time optimizations — even when the potential ROI of professional guidance would be high.
In both cases, the most effective form of career guidance is the least used: strategic career counseling with systematic structure, long-term planning, and development of effective tools.
The OECD data makes clear above all that non-use of career guidance is in most cases not a conscious rejection. It arises from patterns of perception, decision deferral, and established informal routines.
Source
OECD (2021): Career Guidance for Adults in a Changing World of Work. Data basis: OECD 2020 Survey of Career Guidance for Adults (SCGA), online field phase mid-June to early July 2020 in Chile, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, USA. Target group: adults aged 25–64.