This is a research based project that aimed to provide a comprehensive comparative and evaluative analysis of the function and outcomes of labour market and career advice and guidance programmes and services for out-of-work individuals and workers at risk, in five European countries (France, Germany, Spain, Slovenia, and the UK).

Advice and guidance programmes and services for adults are defined in this study as mediating services aimed at increasing the employability and the mobility of individuals, not only geographical or occupational mobility, but also mobility between different statuses (unemployed/inactive, trainee, learner, volunteer, precarious job-holder, stable job-holder, qualified job-holder).

The three key results of the project were the development of criteria for assessing the outcomes of advice and guidance programmes and services (as transitions for individuals), a typology of these services across different institutional, legal and funding contexts, and an analysis of the functions of these services as agencies for transitions.

The results of the project could thus lead to an increased attention in the policy but also in the practitioner and in the research communities to different and relatively contrasted frameworks of implementation of advice and guidance services and programmes and to their implications for individuals. They also provide the basis for reviewing the way in which advice and guidance services are assessed and evaluated. 
 

This literature review undertaken (2005)for the Higher Education Careers Services Unit in the UK by the Institute of Employment Research at the University of Warwick, examined career-related interventions and their impact on students' career related decisions, career learning and progression towards the labour market.

Although there is substantial literature in the English speaking world on different curricular and extra-curricular interventions, broadly defined, which may impact on a student's career learning, progression, and career decision-making, evidence related to the efficacy of these interventionsis limited.

Six themes were identified from the literature for which research reports were assessed:

• career related interventions
• curricular interventions to support
• vocational trajectories
• curricular related interventions
• extra-curricular interventions
• pre-entry curricular interventions
• multi-cultural curricular interventions

• the reasons for the non-participation in paid employment of those aged 45 years and over;
• the potential role of career information, advice and guidance (CIAG) in assisting that group;
• and what options for targeted CIAG would be most beneficial to this group.