Careers work with young people: collapse or transition? An analysis of current developments in careers education and guidance for young people in England

This paper analyses the current information available (in July 2011) about the changes that are taking place in careers work following recent government policy initiatives and public-sector austerity measures. In particular, it examines the local developments that have emerged in relation to a national policy context in which: • Existing careers work is being radically reconfigured. • The new National Careers Service (NCS) will principally serve adults (apart from its telephone/web-based services, which will cover young people too). • Securing careers guidance for young people has been made the responsibility of schools. • The requirement for schools to provide careers education has been removed. • There has been very limited transition planning at national level: this has led to considerable local confusion. • In particular, there is continuing confusion about the future relationship of remaining face-to-face Connexions services to the NCS, and about the branding of such services. Implications for Connexions services, Local Authorities, schools, new market players and the careers profession are identified

Advancing ambitions: the role of career guidance in supporting social mobility

Career guidance describes activities which support individuals to learn about education and employment and plan for their future lives, learning and work. These activities contribute to social mobility, helping people to discover and access opportunities that might exist outside of their immediate networks. They also encourage individuals to challenge their pre-existing assumptions about what they are capable of and to develop practical strategies to operationalise their aspirations.The Sutton Trus

Resolving the nucleus of Centaurus A at mid-IR wavelengths

We have observed Centaurus A with the MID-infrared Interferometric instrument (MIDI) at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at resolutions of 7 - 15 mas (at 12.5 micron) and filled gaps in the (u,v) coverage in comparison to earlier measurements. We are now able to describe the nuclear emission in terms of geometric components and derive their parameters by fitting models to the interferometric data. With simple geometrical models, the best fit is achieved for an elongated disk with flat intensity profile with diameter 76 +/- 9 mas x 35 +/- 2 mas (1.41 +/- 0.17 pc x 0.65 +/- 0.03 pc) whose major axis is oriented at a position angle (PA) of 10.1 +/- 2.2 degrees east of north. A point source contributes 47 +/- 11 % of the nuclear emission at 12.5 micron. There is also evidence that neither such a uniform nor a Gaussian disk are good fits to the data. This indicates that we are resolving more complicated small-scale structure in AGNs with MIDI, as has been seen in Seyfert galaxies previously observed with MIDI. The PA and inferred inclination i = 62.6 +2.1/-2.6 degrees of the dust emission are compared with observations of gas and dust at larger scales.Comment: Accepted for the PASA special issue on Centaurus

Careering through the Web: the potential of Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies for career development and career support services

This paper examines the environment that the web provides for career exploration. Career practitioners have long seen value in engaging in technology and the opportunities offered by the internet, and this interest continues. However, this paper suggests that the online environment for career exploration is far broader than that provided by public-sector careers services. In addition to these services, there is a wide range of other players including private-sector career consultants, employers, recruitment companies and learning providers who are all contributing to a potentially rich career exploration environment.UKCE

Enhancing choice? The role of technology in the career support market

This report explores the role that technology has played in the development of the career support market. This market is conceived broadly to include all possible resources that individuals might draw upon to support them in their career development. A key element is the role that is played by public-sector career services and by careers professionals; though these resources are supplemented by services paid for in a wide range of ways and delivered by a range of professionals and non-professionals.UKCE

Teachers and Careers: The role of school teachers in delivering career and employability learning

Teach Firs

Obscuring and feeding supermassive black holes with evolving nuclear star clusters

Recently, high resolution observations with the help of the near-infrared adaptive optics integral field spectrograph SINFONI at the VLT proved the existence of massive and young nuclear star clusters in the centres of a sample of Seyfert galaxies. With the help of high resolution hydrodynamical simulations with the PLUTO-code, we follow the evolution of such clusters, especially focusing on mass and energy feedback from young stars. This leads to a filamentary inflow of gas on large scales (tens of parsec), whereas a turbulent and very dense disc builds up on the parsec scale. Here, we concentrate on the long-term evolution of the nuclear disc in NGC 1068 with the help of an effective viscous disc model, using the mass input from the large scale simulations and accounting for star formation in the disc. This two-stage modelling enables us to connect the tens of parsec scale region (observable with SINFONI) with the parsec scale environment (MIDI observations). At the current age of the nuclear star cluster, our simulations predict disc sizes of the order of 0.8 to 0.9 pc, gas masses of 1.0e6 Msun and mass transfer rates through the inner boundary of 0.025 Msun/yr in good agreement with values derived from observations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the IAU General Assembly 2009, Rio de Janeiro, S267 Co-evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxie

Careers 2020: options for future careers work in English schools.

Careers work in English schools has endured much turbulence recently. The government has now established a statutory duty on schools to secure provision, placing commissioning of careers advice and guidance in the hands of schools rather than local authorities or central government. But the duty is framed very loosely, comes with no funding and offers no clear model of provision. The previous funding for face-to-face guidance from qualified careers advisers has been removed, as has the duty for schools to provide careers education. So what should schools’ careers offers look like in future? How can schools ensure the quality of the career development support that is so vital for young people, and particularly so for those who cannot rely on their existing networks for advice and opportunities?Pearson Think Tan

Future challenges and recommendations

Rapid advances in information technology and telecommunications, and in particular mobile and wireless communications, converge towards the emergence of a new type of “infostructure” that has the potential of supporting a large spectrum of advanced services for healthcare and health. Currently the ICT community produces a great effort to drill down from the vision and the promises of wireless and mobile technologies and provide practical application solutions. Research and development include data gathering and omni-directional transfer of vital information, integration of human machine interface technology into handheld devices and personal applications, security and interoperability of date and integration with hospital legacy systems and electronic patient record. The ongoing evolution of wireless technology and mobile device capabilities is changing the way healthcare providers interact with information technologies. The growth and acceptance of mobile information technology at the point of care, coupled with the promise and convenience of data on demand, creates opportunities for enhanced patient care and safety. The developments presented in this section demonstrate clearly the innovation aspects and trends towards user oriented applications