Strategic planning and performance measurement: Implications for careers services in higher education

Increasing pressures are being exerted on careers services in higher education to demonstrate their effectiveness. To avoid the imposition of crude and inappropriate measures, the issue of performance measurement needs to be subsumed within a broader approach to strategic planning. Two models are presented: a strategic-planning process used in the business sector, and a model developed for establishing accountability in careers services. Issues are identified in relation both to the process of the models and to the content of the careers-service matters to which they might be applied (many of these issues are relevant to other guidance and counselling services in higher education and elsewhere). Finally, some brief examples are presented of strategic planning in action.