Young People's Career Information Literacy: Three Essential Skills for Decision-Making

Career decision-making depends upon the effective access and use of career information. In this paper, the findings of a qualitative study on the career information literacy skills among Scottish secondary school students are presented. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews (N=33) and diary studies (N=12) with Scottish secondary school students aged 13-18. Interview transcripts and diary entries underwent systematic thematic analysis using NVivo 11, with close attention paid to the career information literacy skills used for the purposes of career decision-making. Three distinct clusters of competencies are found essential for career information literacy: (1) digital skills, (2) social skills, and (3) resilience. Of these, resilience is especially crucial for sustained engagement with career information. The main contribution of the work is to extend conceptualisations of career information literacy. This is achieved in the development of a tripartite conceptualisation of essential information literacy skills in the context of career decision-making.