People across England can now seek free careers advice through the Department for Work and Pensions, whether or not they receive benefits, after around 500 qualified careers advisers have joined the department. Online and telephone guidance is available now; face-to-face appointments at Jobcentres are due to begin later in October.
The service is intended to help people at different stages of working life, from looking for a first or next job to considering a career change, moving forward in an existing role or identifying skills and training. The change brings careers guidance together with employment and skills support already offered through Jobcentres.
People can use the Get Careers Information and Advice website or call the freephone line on 0800 072 0288. The in-person element is not yet available at Jobcentres: the department says appointments there will be offered later this month. The announcement does not give a specific start date for those appointments.
Access is not restricted to people making benefit claims. That makes the service available to workers who want to progress or retrain, as well as people currently seeking work. The offer includes information and advice on finding employment, changing careers, improving prospects in a current job and building skills.
Qualified advisers will provide more in-depth guidance to people facing greater barriers to work or learning. The groups highlighted include young people who are not in education, employment or training, people under 18 who are not in school or college, and disabled people. Careers guidance for young people who remain in school or college continues through those institutions.
The department says the advisers are joining its workforce as the National Careers Service is merged into the Department for Work and Pensions. The transfer concerns the careers-support service in England; careers provision in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is handled separately. The new arrangement is part of a wider Jobs and Careers Service being developed by the government.
That wider integration plan was set out before the service became operational. The current development is the availability of advice through the department’s online and telephone channels, alongside confirmation that around 500 qualified advisers have joined. Those details mark a practical change for people seeking support, rather than a newly announced long-term blueprint.
Bringing advisers into the same department as Jobcentre employment support is designed to make it easier to connect career decisions with help on job searching, skills and routes into work. For someone unsure whether to retrain, change sector or look for progression, the advice is meant to cover more than vacancy searches alone. The department says advisers will focus their deeper guidance on people with greater barriers, while the wider service remains open to everyone.
The move also changes how people reach the service. The careers website has been renamed Get Careers Information and Advice and continues to provide online information and digital tools, while personalised support is now available by telephone. People who need a conversation with an adviser can call the new freephone number; those who prefer an in-person appointment will need to wait until Jobcentre appointments start later in October.
The announcement describes a nationwide offer across England, not a guarantee that every type of support is delivered in person immediately. The current live routes are online and by phone, with Jobcentre appointments still to come. No timetable for individual locations or appointment capacity was provided. For now, the main change is that specialist careers guidance is available through the employment department without a benefits-status test, and the advisers who will provide that guidance have joined its workforce.
