Career Information - Assessingthe Quality of Information

Introduction

CDPs have an important role to play in disseminating information — this extends across all areas, from career pathing to labour market information. The information provided has to be of a high and accurate standard, since the CDP's services help people manage their careers, make occupational and study decisions, and plan career transitions. CDPs therefore need to assess the quality of information carefully before sharing it.

What is quality information?

High-quality information can be described as accurate, fitting to the task, clearly expressed and easily accessible.

Assessing the quality of information

Quality information can be assessed against a number of attributes. The stronger a source of information scores against these attributes, the higher its overall quality is likely to be. The quality of information can be assessed through the following attributes:

Timeliness. Information must reach the recipient within a suitable time frame. Timely information helps ensure that correct decision-making occurs at an early stage; for timeliness to be effective, the information obtained must also be current.

Appropriateness. This refers to how appropriate and suitable the information is for the intended user. The more suitable the information is to the recipient, the better its quality.

Reliability. Reliability is a key feature of quality information. Reliable data is trustworthy, dependable, authentic and reputable, and information should only be used once its reliability has been reasonably established.

Accuracy. This refers to the correctness of the information given. It means the information is free from errors and mistakes, is clear, and accurately reflects the intended message. The information needs to be fair and free from prejudice, and should not contain numerical or grammatical mistakes. Information in written form is generally easier to verify and trace back to its source than information received verbally, which can be more difficult to confirm.

Completeness. This refers to the measure of inclusiveness. It is essential that the information provided gives the full picture rather than a partial one, since a partial picture can lead to misinformation. The information must be complete and should meet the needs of the recipient — incomplete information can result in poor decisions, leading to unnecessary financial loss and distress.

For information to be considered complete, it also needs to meet the following criteria:

Relevance. Information is relevant if it answers the questions of what, why, where, who and how for the person receiving it.

Adequacy. This refers to there being a sufficient amount of information available to meet the user's needs.

Authoritative. This refers to information that can be trusted as accurate, true or reliable. Information from credible sources — such as government departments, professional associations and educational institutions — tends to be more authoritative.

Comparability. This refers to how comparable a piece of information is; it is the quality that allows users to identify similarities and differences between information sourced from different places.

Consistency. This refers to information on a particular topic being consistent across different sources - for example, information on the role of a career development practitioner should be broadly similar across books, academic papers and websites.

Together, these attributes help define the quality of information. A high score against each attribute indicates that the information is of good quality. As a CDP, it is important that all information you share is checked against these attributes, and that you collect information only from legitimate, reputable and officially recognised sources.

Doing so ensures that the information collected is of high quality, accurate, current and easily accessible to clients. It is also important for practitioners to draw on multiple resources - books, newspapers, websites, pamphlets and official documents - when gathering information.

How to evaluate a webpage

A vast amount of information is available online, and practitioners should feel free to use the internet to access what they need. Resources found online are easily accessible and easily shared. However, because so much information is available, and because anyone can publish content online, it is important for CDPs to be able to evaluate webpages to ensure they are receiving quality information from them.

Below are some criteria a CDP can apply to evaluate the quality and trustworthiness of information found online.

- Relevance. The information obtained should meet the needs of the researcher in terms of its accuracy, currency, reliability and relevance to the topic.

- Source. The source of the information should be identifiable in terms of its author, organisation or publisher.

- Reputation. The reputation of the author or organisation should be verified.

- Objectivity. Search results should be critically evaluated in terms of their accuracy and objectivity.

- Comprehensiveness. Search results should meet the researcher's needs in terms of how completely they cover the topic.

- Methodology. Search results should clearly indicate the data collection methods and research methodology used.

- Presentation. Search results should be presented in clear, academic language, in a structured format that typically includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion and reference list.

- Currency. Search results should be current, relevant to the researcher's needs, and available online.

Conclusion

Career development practitioners must disseminate sound advice and guidance, since this information can significantly affect the life of the learner. Learners rely on the practitioner's word, which means the practitioner holds a degree of authority over the guidance they receive. It is unethical to use that authority to share incorrect information that could potentially harm the learner.