Jenny Bimrose

With over thirty years experience in higher education, researching and teaching at post-graduate level, Jenny has extensive experience of external project management and consultancy, both in the UK and Europe. She is a Fellow of the Institute for Career Guidance, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Research Associate at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa. She is currently a member of the Career Profession Task Force, convened by Government, lead manager for an ESRC seminar series on the careers profession (2010 - 2012) and Co Editor for the British Journal for Guidance and Counselling. One particular research interest relates to supporting the use of ICT in careers practice. An example is through the MATURE project. Another is through the development of a website (the National Guidance Research Forum website), which was designed to support and facilitate the integration of careers guidance research with practice. A particular feature of this website is the high quality, impartial labour market information, produced in collaboration with Sector Skills Councils.

Another strand of research relates to the role of careers guidance in the career biographies of young people and adults making transitions into and through the labour market. Current and recent projects in this area include: a qualitative, five year longitudinal case study, which evaluated the effectiveness of careers guidance for adults, undertaken for the [then] Department of Education and Skills; research undertaken for the European Commission into the career trajectories of adults across Europe; a qualitative evaluation of a career adaptability framework being developed from an international research study, funded by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills; and an international comparative study of the career trajectories of older women across six countries. Other research includes an investigation into information, advice and guidance offered by Sector Skills Councils; a feasibility study into the provision of local labour market information (LMI) for guidance for Ufi learndirect; a national evaluation of the skills coaching pilot in England for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP); the development of an on-line module to support guidance practitioners' use LMI in practice (LMI online learning module); a literature review for DWP on skills diagnostics and screening tools; and qualitative research into careers education and guidance provision within Connexions Kent & Medway.