Strengthening career guidance for mid-career adults in Australia

In a rapidly changing world of work, adults in Australia are being challenged to upskill, retrain and consider alternative career paths. Mid-career adults are in a unique position: they have acquired considerable skills and work experience but still have many years left in the labour market before retirement. They thus may need help to build on their existing skills to progress but have time before retirement to recoup their training investments. If well designed, career guidance can facilitate employment transitions for this group and usefully inform their training choices.

This report assesses the career guidance services that are currently available to mid-career adults in Australia and puts them into an international perspective. New online survey data shows Australia performs well in OECD comparison with respect to the use of career guidance services, but there is room to strengthen the inclusiveness of these services and to tailor them to the needs of mid-career adults. The report provides concrete recommendations in this regard: (1) strengthen co-ordination of career guidance for mid-career adults; (2) support mid-career adults facing job disruption or job transition; (3) support mid-career adults who are unemployed or out of the labour force; and (4) support mid-career adults who are employed and looking to progress in their current job/sector.

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