What is the National Careers Service?

Finding impartial and reliable advice on education and careers can be a challenge. You may not know where to turn or whose advice to follow; enter the National Careers Service.

The National Careers Service is available to people living in England and over the age of thirteen, providing career information and advice. The guidance will help find relevant training and learning across all stages of your career.

The online resources will help you explore different career options, read articles that will help you make informed decisions, take assessments, find courses, and update your skills. The online services are complemented with personalised careers guidance over the phone or via webchat.

National Careers Service advice

The careers advice from the National Careers Service is split into three categories; making career choices, getting a job, and progressing your career.

Making career choices

The National Careers Service offers several resources and advice on making career choices, including:

  • The next steps after getting a GCSE, AS level, or A level
  • The next steps in training and education if you are aged 16
  • Advice for 17 to 19-year-olds who want to explore their study, work, and education options
  • Advice on gap years
  • Job and career support for people with disabilities
  • What to do if you lose your job
  • How to deal with difficult experiences and find work in a tough jobs market
  • Career choices for people interested in the armed forces

Getting a job

The National Careers Service provides plenty of resources to help you secure a job. Helpful advice includes how to:

  • Find job vacancies through social media, networking, or with a recruitment agency
  • Prepare for a virtual job fair and find a job online
  • Write a cover letter
  • Write a CV
  • Complete an online application form
  • Answer common interview questions
  • Create a LinkedIn profile
  • Do well in telephone and video interviews
  • Find graduate schemes and virtual internships
  • Prepare for virtual internships
  • Prepare for psychometric tests

Progressing your career

Careers progression advice is the third service from the National Careers Service. The advice focuses on career choices throughout your life and includes:

  • How to develop your soft skills
  • Developing your digital skills
  • Mentorship advice
  • Advice on volunteering
  • Identifying skills and up-skilling
  • Online learning opportunities 
  • Types of work experience and how it can help you develop

National Careers Service resources and tools

The National Careers Service provides various tools and resources for you if you are a job seeker or looking for learning and training opportunities. The services include skills matching, career exploration, and course finding.

Skills matching

Skills matching and skills assessments are beneficial at any career stage, including when you are starting work, returning to work, or looking to progress your career. Skills are transferable abilities that you acquire through education, volunteering, work, and life. Your skillset is unique, invaluable to employers, and might suggest a suitable career path.

The National Careers Service Skills Assessment takes a maximum of ten minutes to complete and contains fifty multiple-choice questions. At the end of the assessment, you are provided with suggested roles you may enjoy and wish to explore further.

The National Careers Service Skills Health Check is another superb tool to help you identify your work-based and personal skills. Identifying your skills is vital if you are writing a CV or preparing for a job interview. You have a choice of ten health check assessments, each taking between fifteen and thirty minutes. Your skills report becomes more detailed as you take the assessments, which you can complete in your order of preference.

Need help creating your CV? Check out our free CV templates and advice on how to write a CV.

Career exploration

The career exploration resources are grouped into job categories and provide a role overview, average salary, qualifications & skills, and career progression & opportunities.

Need help deciding if a career is right for you? Check out our career advice and average salaries.

Course finding

The National Careers Service course finding tools cover digital & numeracy courses, free lessons for developing employer-needed skills, and learning opportunities from colleges, learning providers, and local authority providers.

Career Advice

If you are hunting for career advice for a specific industry or business sector, you can find our guidance below:


About the Author: Debby Burchill

Debby thrives on collaborating with businesses to enhance their job advert potential. She takes pride in assisting clients in discerning optimal salaries based on location and job type, ensuring they attract the crème de la crème of candidates.



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