The chief executive of Careers Wales North-West, Sarah Finnegan-Dehn, will serve a year’s term as the president of the Institute of Career Guidance.

The Institute has laid out priorities for 2012: protecting the provision of career guidance for young people in England; ensuring its impartiality; helping employers and young people come together to get the economy back on its feet; and promoting the importance of career guidance.

Finnegan-Dehn says: “Youth unemployment is increasing and the choices young people have to make are becoming even more complex.

“In England, careers services for young people are being cut and there are fears of a postcode lottery for face-to-face guidance. Websites are useful for providing information… but they cannot replace the person-to-person relationship.”