Career Counselling Information System (CCIS) - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation

Career information systems are of utmost importance, especially in countries with a dense young population like Türkiye. The primary responsibility of career counsellors is to conduct guidance activities to assist individuals in making choices, decisions, and preparations for their future occupations and careers. To support this mission, the Career Counselling Information System has been developed and made available to career counsellors.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

Career Counselling Information System (CCIS) is the national career counselling platform of Türkiye, which is established by using entirely domestic and national resources. It is offered free of charge to all career counsellors in Türkiye by the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Human Resources Office.
The Office has the duties of encouraging the relevant institutions to discover talented children and youth in preschool, primary, secondary and higher education periods and to ensure that they choose a profession convenient for their talents and personalities, and to work in cooperation or support projects deemed appropriate. The Office has launched CCIS as part of this mission.
CCIS was designed to assist young individuals in making career decisions through an objective approach rooted in a data-driven decision-making mechanism. CCIS was originated by extending the analytical framework of the UNI-VERİ project, which aims to analyse the labour market performance of higher education graduates by using big data methods and provide support in formulating policy recommendations.
With CCIS, an innovative and technology-based platform, the labour market performances of departments are reported on a university basis and high school students/graduates are guided through objective data in university preference processes. The platform is available to more than 40 thousand career counsellors. CCIS aims to improve the service quality of career counsellors' career guidance activities and to bring a developmental perspective to talent management studies by drawing attention to the importance of early career guidance.
The CCIS presents the labour market performance of graduates of 81 bachelor's and 42 associate's degree programmes at the university level under six indicators. These six indicators are: Entry-Level Wage Distribution, Duration Until First Employment, Qualification Mismatch, Employment in the Public Sector, Firm Size and Sectoral Distribution.
It is crucial to provide support according to a data-driven approach and accurate information about existing occupations and their opportunities for students to be placed in the appropriate university and department. The labour market is a significant factor that shapes many career theories and influences an individual's career decision. In all countries, higher education institutions have a crucial impact on shaping labour market performance. Therefore, it is essential to uncover universities' labour market performance profiles and incorporate this data into career counselling processes since it would provide insight about universities’ impact on labour market. Career counsellors interpret the labour market data in CCIS and provide career guidance to youth who seek to choose a university and profession. Consequently, the objective data on CCIS is presented through professional interpretation to high school students/graduates and in this way the youth can make more conscious choices.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

CCIS is the first platform that provides data-driven information about the labour market performance of graduates, built upon real-world data. Within the framework of equal opportunity, high school students/graduates all over Türkiye can benefit from the objective data in the platform by taking assistance from their career counsellors. In this way, career counsellors have the opportunity to strengthen the quality of their guidance services.

What is the current status of your innovation?

CCIS is still developing with the user, stakeholder, and beneficiary feedback. Forty-two associate degree departments' data was included in CCIS as requested by career counsellors in 2022. In addition, approximately 40.000 guidance professionals working under the Ministry of National Education and Türkiye Employment Agency were integrated into the system. In 2020, the first year the system was developed, 12.341 individuals benefited from the system. Over 47.000 individuals made career decisions via CCIS at the end of 2024.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

University graduate information was obtained from the Council of Higher Education, and employee information from the Social Security Institution. The Office cooperates with these two organizations for the data needed. In addition, the Ministry of National Education and Türkiye Employment Agency are other partners of the CCIS since career counsellors who use the system and provide feedback for developing the system work under these two institutions.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Career counsellors are the main stakeholders and the users of the platform. High school students and graduates who want to receive career guidance services are the beneficiaries. The Ministry of National Education and Türkiye Employment Agency are the stakeholders. High school students/graduates sign up to the system to obtain a student code. They can take a career guidance service when they share this code with a career counsellor.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

The labour market performance of 81 undergraduate and 42 associate degree departments based on universities are reported. Career counsellors are involved in CCIS and were informed and trained about the system. Career counsellors around Türkiye contributed to thousands of youth’s career planning with the labour market performance information. Individuals can make data-driven decisions about their professions and future career orientations through CCIS. Thus, it can be ensured that qualified graduates who are the future human resources meet the labour market's needs.

Challenges and Failures

The information presented in the system must be renewed every year. Since matching newly arrived university graduate information and employee information requires complex analysis, objective data cannot be instantly processed into the system. Another challenge is that different methods had to be used as a communication strategy since the system users (career counsellors) and beneficiaries (students / high school graduates) are different.

Conditions for Success

Effective communication with collaborating institutions: CCIS requires objective data analysis. The Office needs to cooperate with the Council of Higher Education and the Social Security Institution to collect data. To reach counsellors and the youth, cooperation with the Ministry of National Education and the Türkiye Employment Agency is needed.
Competent career professionals: Professionals trained about the system and indicators play a significant role in assisting youth in making conscious choices.
Raising individuals’ awareness about CCIS: Individuals who know the importance of information on labour market performance can make more rational decisions about their careers with CCIS.

Replication

CCIS is the only platform with objective data about the labour market performance based on university and department. In addition, psychological counsellors, guidance professionals, and career counsellors all over Türkiye use it in career-counselling services for individuals. Thus, it has not been replicated and is not expected to be replicated for Türkiye. However, The Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Human Resources Office is open for collaboration and knowledge exchange for building a career counselling information platform that contains objective data about the labour market performance of other countries.

Lessons Learned

Planning: When initiating a project containing objective and big data gathered from different institutions, every step must be planned carefully to avoid potential disruptions.
Effective communication strategy: When initiating a project with different users and beneficiaries, an effective communication strategy needs to be prepared. It is essential to reach all the target groups and inform them about the system's benefits.
Effective use of digital systems: When initiating a comprehensive project such as CCIS, a digital platform should be designed and implemented effectively. It is vital to get feedback to make the system more user-friendly. In addition, users need to be trained to use this digital platform.