Career Guidance Under Constraint: Join the CDI Webinar and Shape What Happens Next

What happens to career guidance when time, workload and delivery conditions make skilled practice harder to provide?

On 10 November 2026, our founder Carl Jackson RCDP will present the headline findings from his working paper, Career Guidance Under Constraint: Practitioner perspectives on time, capacity and delivery conditions, at a free-for-CDI-members webinar. Just as importantly, the session will invite attendees to test the findings against their own experience and help shape what happens next.

Join the CDI webinar

Career Guidance Under Constraint: What the evidence tells us and what should happen next?

• Date: Tuesday 10 November 2026

• Time: 4.00 pm

• Duration: One hour

• Venue: Online via Zoom

• Cost: Free for CDI members

• CPD competency: Professional Practice, CPD and Research

Register for the webinar via Zoom. You can also view the event details on the CDI website. For queries, contact the CDI Academy at academy@thecdi.net.

What does the working paper explore?

The paper draws on survey responses from 296 career development professionals, most of whom work in UK secondary schools and colleges. It looks at practical questions about how guidance is delivered: appointment length and volume, administrative work, capacity for follow-up and the wider responsibilities practitioners may hold.

These conditions matter. They shape how much time is available for each conversation, how consistently practitioners can follow up, and how sustainable the work feels. The findings offer a starting point for discussion, not a final verdict on the sector, and should be read in light of the survey’s exploratory scope.

A snapshot of the findings

The responses point to varied working conditions, alongside some clear themes:

• Appointment lengths vary. Around 37.5% of respondents said 40–45 minutes was their standard appointment length; 26.4% reported 30 minutes, and 2.4% reported 20 minutes.

• Short appointments are a regular feature for some. Overall, 17.6% said appointments of 30 minutes or less happened “almost always”. More than 90% of the time.

• Daily appointment volume is linked with session length. More than a quarter of respondents reported delivering seven or more appointments a day, and the paper found a statistically significant negative association between volume and length. Among those seeing seven to eight people daily, 56.5% reported sessions of 30 minutes or less; for those seeing nine to ten, the figure was 85.7%.

• Administration takes substantial time. Some 60.5% reported spending at least five hours a week on administration; 28.4% spent eight hours or more. Writing action plans and summaries was the most time-consuming administrative task for 78.4% of respondents.

The paper also records pressures practitioners identified, including high demand and waiting lists, timetabling constraints, triage models and leadership expectations. Some respondents described wider duties such as coordinating work experience, teaching or organising careers events.

Numbers help make working conditions visible, but they cannot capture every local context. That is why practitioner feedback matters alongside the data.

Read the paper and tell us what you think

The working paper is free to access on Zenodo. Before the webinar, we would love to hear what you would like to see from the findings. As you read, consider:

• Which findings reflect your experience, and which feel less familiar?

• What important pressures or delivery conditions are missing?

• What would you most like to see developed from the findings: further research, practical professional guidance, better sector measurement, coordinated advocacy, or something else?

There is no expectation that everyone will see the evidence in the same way: differences in context are valuable to the discussion. Bring your reflections to the webinar, where polls and structured questions will support the conversation, or share a perspective with us beforehand.

What will the webinar discussion cover?

Carl will introduce the headline findings and explore what they may mean for guidance quality, equity and practitioner sustainability. The discussion will then look beyond the findings to possible next steps: further research, practical guidance for professionals, improved ways to measure sector conditions and coordinated advocacy.

Carl Jackson RCDP is an Independent Careers Consultant and Trainer at Manifest Coaching & Facilitation, supporting schools, colleges and organisations with careers guidance, training and career transitions.

Be part of the conversation

Please read the working paper, reflect on what you would like to see from the findings, and register for the CDI webinar on 10 November. Your perspective can help make the discussion more grounded, more useful and better informed about what practitioners need next.

Meta description: Explore findings from a survey of 296 career development professionals and join Carl Jackson RCDP at the CDI webinar on 10 November 2026 to discuss what the sector should do next.