• Vocational Profiling

    Welcome to the Vocational Profiling Resources

    This section of the VLE is designed to help you understand how to support young people, identify their strengths, and their future career goals. 

    The resources here will guide you through a process called vocational profiling, a structured way of exploring what young people enjoy, what they are good at, and what kind of work environment will help them thrive.

    You’ll find tools that support young people’s journey toward education, training, and employment. These resources are here to help young people reflect, make informed choices, and plan their next steps with confidence.

    What Is Vocational Profiling?

    Vocational profiling is a person‑centred, strengths‑based process used to build a detailed understanding of a young person’s skills, interests, aspirations, and support needs. It enables practitioners to gather meaningful information that can inform high‑quality careers guidance, planning for transitions, and routes into employment or further education.

    A vocational profile typically explores:

    • Skills: The young person’s current abilities, developing competencies, and areas where further learning or experience may be beneficial.
    • Interests: Activities, subjects, and types of tasks that motivate and engage the young person.
    • Strengths and personal qualities: The attributes and characteristics that contribute to how they learn, communicate, and work with others.
    • Aspirations: Longer‑term career goals, preferred roles, and the type of environment or workplace culture they are likely to thrive in.
    • Support needs and reasonable adjustments: Any strategies, resources, or adaptations that will help the young person be confident, safe, and successful in education, training, or employment.

    Vocational profiling is not an assessment or test, and it does not produce right or wrong answers. Instead, it supports practitioners to gain a holistic picture of the young person and identify opportunities that align closely with their strengths, preferences, and ambitions.

    How These Resources Will Support Your Practice

    The materials in this section are designed to assist professionals in delivering effective vocational profiling with young people. By using the resources, practitioners can:

    • Facilitate structured reflection on the young person’s experiences in education, community settings, and everyday life.
    • Help young people recognise their strengths, skills, and emerging confidence.
    • Introduce and explore a wide range of job roles, sectors, and career pathways.
    • Support meaningful conversations about what matters most in a future workplace or learning environment.
    • Produce a vocational profile that can be shared with colleagues, careers advisers, employers, or education providers to inform planning and transitions.

    These resources aim to strengthen professional practice, encourage high‑quality person‑centred conversations, and support young people to move toward sustained and fulfilling destinations.

    Hampshire County Council have produced these resources to be used as a series of guided interventions with a young person, ideally starting from Year 9 onwards. Because the vocational profile acts as a working document or “passport”, it can be revisited after new experiences or reviewed each year; this does not mean starting again but simply updating any changes and adding new insights.