The National Guidance Research Forum (NGRF) website was first launched in 2004 for careers guidance practitioners and researchers as a collaborative project between the Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER), University of Warwick, the International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby and KnowNet a specialist software company. Since then it has received funding from various key stakeholders. In 2010 with funding from the BIS/Skillset, the LMi Future Trends section has been updated. Updates and revisions to the Making Guidance More Effective and the LMI online learning module are also underway.

The NGRF is a shared web-based knowledge base that seeks to bridge the gap between career guidance research and practice. It was developed from the contextualised problems that policy makers, managers, practitioners, researchers and trainers face. This development process represents a major contribution to research capacity building within the career guidance community and has involved a range of prospective users on an iterative basis in the development of the website. The NGRF comprises three sections:

• Making Guidance More Effective
• LMI Future Trends
• LMI online learning module
  

Six expert groups looked at key areas or problems related to their expertise and provided a mediated commentary on key documents and research findings online to create the Making Guidance More Effection section. The LMI Future Trends section combines labour market information from a range of sources to present a picture of the UK labour market and future prospects at a sector and sub-sector level. The LMI online learning module works alongside the content in the NGRF to support practitioners reflections on their research and use into labour market information.

Purpose of the NGRF website:

• To bring together research and practice in guidance to increase effectiveness.

Objectives:

• To create and support an on-line community of interest for career guidance
• To bring practice, research and policy closer together
• To focus on the core problems of career guidance practice

Principles:

• Inspiration
• Intelligence
• Innovation
• Inclusiveness

Editorial Team

• Jenny Bimrose
• Sally-Anne Barnes
• Alan Brown

For more information on the NGRF see:

Papers on the NGRF development:

The National Guidance Research Forum Website: Bringing Career Guidance Research and Practice closer together (IER Bulletin, No.77)

Bridging the Gap between Research & Practice: Development of the UK National Guidance Research Forum website (Bimrose et al, 2005)