Supervision in careers guidance: Empowerment or control?

Like many other professions, careers guidance is currently undergoing rapid and radical change. But the Careers Service is still operating to nationally agreed 'core training objectives' which determine both initial training (Diploma in Careers Guidance Part I) and supervisory training (Diploma in Careers Guidance Part II). Recent changes influencing guidance practice and training are outlined, and the predominant mode of current supervision within the Careers Service is identified as 'managerial' in character. This is explained in terms of both the historical development of the service and its funding mechanisms. A model for supervisory practice for the future is presented, identifying three essential elements: organisational commitment, contractual agreement and an explicit framework.     

Careers education and counselling in Northern Ireland: A historical outline

Vocational guidance services have been developing in Northern Ireland for about thirty years. Recently the careers service has been transferred from an education to a manpower services base, while the schools have been given greater opportunity, and responsibility, for the provision of careers education. The changes have given considerable impetus to careers teacher training, and to the appointment of schools' careers staffs. The possibility of further development of the partnership between careers officers and careers teachers is examined.     

All-age guidance—public,private or welfare service?

The emphasis upon the creation of a culture of lifelong learning propels the issue of accessibility to guidance for adults into the limelight. The Careers Service and other careers guidance providers have demonstrated a communient to all-age guidance in the absence of a coherent policy or resource framework. Following 'contracting out', Careers Services are wrestling with the ambiguities inherent in the 'private company-public service' equation. These are compounded by the continuing absence of clarity at policy level regarding the development of all-age guidance. The central question remains that of how a service, with benefits accruing to the individual, the community and the economy, is most appropriately funded and delivered.     

Career guidance in Scotland: retrospect and prospect

Devolution of powers to Scotland has accentuated pre-existing divergence from the rest of the UK with respect to education, training and career guidance provision. Scotland now has an all-age national careers service—Careers Scotland. It is suggested that it is unlikely that a national, publicly-funded careers agency would have been established in the absence of devolution. The article outlines the development of career guidance in Scotland over the last 25 years and how the pre-existing Scottish context and the new context of devolution have impacted upon it. The role of Careers Scotland and its relationship with other providers of career guidance in Scotland are examined. Other key issues considered include: the allocation of resources based on need; relationships with local authorities and schools; and training and professional identities in an increasingly diverse UK guidance context.     

Barriers to inclusion for the disaffected: Implications for 'preventive' careers guidance work with the under-16 age-group

Issues arising from Careers Service refocusing its work with the 'disaffected' in the UK are examined, with particular attention to preventive work with the under 16s as a new direction for careers practitioners. The extent to which 'inclusion' is likely to be achieved via enhanced guidance is discussed. The benefits of such intervention are questioned. It is suggested that guidance is ineffective if it fails to consider social difference, and that it must pay adequate attention to the social and personal context within which the individual operates. Assumptions behind individualistic 'lifelong learning' policies are called into question.     

Is guidance an applied science?: The role of theory in the careers guidance interview

Some of the findings of a study investigating careers officers' use of theoretical models in the careers guidance interview are discussed. Data were collected through visits to institutions offering Diploma in Careers Guidance courses, a large-scale questionnaire survey of careers officers, and semi-structured interviews and group discussions. There was evidence that in initial training, theory is used to support, rather than determine, the development of skills. Results also suggested that practising careers officers are familiar with a fairly wide range of theories, although in their interviewing they tend to apply broad principles of theory, rather than specific elements. Careers officers who trained some time ago were less familiar with theories than were those who trained more recently, and there was no support for the hypothesis that long service leads to a greater recognition of the relevance of theories generally. Familiarity with guidance and counselling theories appears to be more influential than knowledge of career theories on the way careers officers think about interviewing. Overall, the findings cast doubt on the view that careers guidance is an applied science.     

The Careers Service and Schools: A Changing Relationship

The changing relationship between the Careers Service and schools is examined. From a base-point in the 1960s and early 1970s, the implications of the changing context are explored: notably the much greater difficulties which young people have experienced in entering the labour market, the advent of new transition programmes, and the political pressures associated with the economic recession and the growth in unemployment. The effects of these changes on careers education in schools, and on the activities of the Careers Service, are described, as are their implications for the relationship between the Careers Service and schools. Finally, a typology for defining this changing relationship is outlined as a basis for further research.     

Career guidance in Wales: retrospect and prospect

Deregulation of the LEA Careers Service followed by the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales in 1999 led, through consultation, to the establishment of a bi-lingual all-age career guidance service under the banner of Careers Wales. The article traces the history of career guidance in Wales from 1974, showing how it has taken a very different path to England, gaining a positive outcome from an independent review of Careers Wales in 2004 and an accolade from the OECD. Current strengths, especially the innovative use of technology, are explored, and challenges for the future are investigated, including the contributions of other guidance providers. Priority is currently being given to the development of common pan-Wales standards. The need for a stronger research culture is recognised. Most crucial of all, in the authors' opinion, is the maintenance of client entitlement in the face of financial restrictions.     

Testing times: careers market policies and practices in England and the Netherlands

Careers work is a very political business. Since the early 1990s, successive governments in England and the Netherlands have persistently challenged those working in the careers sector to demonstrate the educational, social and economic value and impact of their work. In this context, the marketisation of career guidance policies and practices has expanded, with a growing assumption that market-based goods and services ensure greater responsiveness to consumer choice and offer better and/or more innovative services for lower prices. In this article, we do not intend to give a comparison of trends in England and the Netherlands. We only examine the impact of market principles applied to career guidance provision in both countries. Findings indicate such provision for young people is on a steady decline. Lessons learned from these two nations indicate that a market for quality career services does not exist in schools and colleges. As a result, marketisation and privatisation of career services have led to an impoverished and fragmented supply of services. Greater attention by governments in career guidance policies for young people (and adults) is necessary to reduce the widening gap between ‘the haves and have nots’ in society. Failure to reduce labour market mismatch through new forms of careers dialogue is not only damaging and costly for individuals, families and employers, but for the taxpayer too.     

False dawns,bleak sunset: the Coalition Government's policies on career guidance

ABSTRACT

The Coalition Government's policies on career guidance are analysed. Its rhetorical concern for career guidance provision is based largely on its support for social mobility, and its recognition of the role of career guidance in moving towards a demand-led skills system. Initial policy statements affirmed its intention to establish an all-age careers service, to revitalise the professional status of career guidance and to safeguard the partnership between schools and external provision. But these policies have been undermined by its commitment to school autonomy and to public expenditure cuts, exacerbated by indecision and delays due to difficulties in resolving the tensions within its policies. The result is a significant erosion of the all-age vision, and a likely major reduction in the extent and quality of careers help for young people.     

Young People's Perceptions of their Vocational Guidance Needs: Ii. Influences and Interventions

Questionnaire responses from 1,366 pupils at 20 schools in England were used to develop a scale tentatively interpreted as reflecting vocational development. This interpretation was evaluated by concurrent assessments from local careers officers and by its predictive value in the first months on the labour market. Influences on scores included reading ability, social and economic factors, and features of the school. Careers interventions were effective in increasing vocational awareness. Schools providing formal careers education in the fourth or fifth years had pupils whose scores suggested a gain of six months' vocational awareness. The input of the Careers Service was also related to the scale, pupils at schools with more active careers officers appearing more advanced in their vocational development.     

The handicapped school leaver and the transition to work

Handicapped young people are disadvantaged in the search for work, and many of the most severely handicapped from special schools face particularly difficult problems in adjusting to the realities of the labour market. Careers advisers also face some acute difficulties in their interactions with handicapped young people. The relevant results of a recent national investigation into the employment experience of handicapped school leavers are examined, including information about careers advice and sources of information about jobs. It is argued that, despite the existence of careers officers who specialise in work with handicapped young people, careers guidance for this group is under-developed both inside and outside schools.     

Devolution and diversification: career guidance in the home countries

The devolution instigated in the United Kingdom in 1997 was a further stage in a long historical process. Nonetheless, prior to the 1990s, the basic structures of career guidance services were broadly similar across the UK. But the marketisation of careers services that took place under the Conservative government in the mid-1990s went further in England than elsewhere. This helped to pave the way for the markedly different directions followed post-devolution, with England seeking horizontal integration of services for young people and adults respectively, whereas Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have emphasised vertical integration of career guidance services on an all-age basis. Some sectors have been affected less by devolution than others. It is suggested that the model adopted in England has already weakened the structures for career guidance provision, and is currently at risk of weakening them still further. The relative size of England means that these weaknesses could have ripple effects on the other home countries too—in relation to professional training and professional status, for example. Existing collaborative mechanisms need to be strengthened, and a culture of mutual learning enhanced, if the potential benefits of diversification are to be fostered and its potential risks avoided.     

The recruitment process for school-leavers: Practical and theoretical implications

Recruitment is viewed as a process whereby 16-year-old school-leavers and recruiters first come together through the mutual use of recruitment methods. In 1983-84, a school-leavers survey, recruiters survey and some Youth Training Scheme (YTS) case-studies were carried out in Doncaster and in Reading. For jobs, college courses and YTS entry, school-leavers found the Careers Service and directly contacting the recruiter to be the most consistently 'effective' recruitment methods. Employers and colleges relied mostly on direct approach by school-leavers. Changes to recruitment brought about by YTS are considered. Implications of the findings for careers guidance practice and for theories of occupational choice and entry are explored. An alternative perspective to the sequential concept of occupational choice and entry is put forward.     

Careers guidance and ethnic minorities in Holland and Britain: Confronting fear and anger

The development of equal opportunities for ethnic minorities through careers guidance is discussed. The provision of careers guidance services in Holland and Britain are described in relation to a model of organisational development. The emotional barriers of fear and anger are discussed in a structural context, both in relation to face-to-face client work, and in relation to service development. The concept of 'career negotiation' is presented to reflect the processes of internal and external dialogue needed to empower clients.     

Actual and ideal work tasks of careers officers

Actual and ideal functions of careers officers as seen by professional workers in the Youth Employment Service and by students in training were investigated. An instrument - based on an American counsellor task inventory and subsequently named the Careers Officers Task Inventory (COTI) - was administered by mail to a nationally representative total sample, consisting of a random sample of careers officers (stratified by geographical region and office size), all careers officers with special responsibilities for the handicapped, and the total intake of student careers officers in Britain at the time of the survey. Negligible disparity was found between perceptions of the job as it is and as it should be. Differences between sub-samples included differing perceptions of the role of counselling. Some contrasts with parallel American findings are indicated, and questions for future research are raised.     

Competing schools or stylistic variation in careers guidance interviewing

We know very little about how careers officers conduct careers guidance interviews. Research was carried out to discover how careers officers view interviewing, the factors that lead them to vary their interview style, and how they modify their approach with experience. There was little evidence that officers vary their style by using radically opposed models in different circumstances. Instead, variations in approach are best regarded as different combinations of ideas and techniques. Careers officers adapted their interview styles largely in response to the perceived needs of clients. Initial training course attended appeared to have a limited but enduring effect on interview style, but there was also evidence that with experience careers officers develop more confidence, coherence and flexibility. Careers officers judged their interviews to be most effective when they were able to establish a rapport with the client, to spend time drawing up a contract, to challenge clients in a sensitive way, and to structure the interview appropriately.     

The Careers Service: Past, Present and Future

The history of the Careers Service is divided into a number of phases: pre-1919, the inter-war years, the early post-war phase, and 1973 onwards. The latter period is analysed in particular detail. External influences upon the service-including developments in the education sphere, theories of vocational guidance, and legislative changes are reviewed. Changes in economic orthodoxy which have influenced developments in economic policy and thereby the operation of the labour market are emphasised. The potential future role of the Careers Service is considered.     

The Inter-Life project: researching the potential of art,design and virtual worlds as a vehicle for assisting young people with key life changes and transitions

ABSTRACT

Careers work in the twenty-first century faces a key challenge in terms of digital technologies: to evaluate their potential for careers work in challenging settings. Given the rapidity of developments, technologies require evaluation in research innovations and naturalistic settings. Virtual worlds offer potential for careers and guidance work, and the therapeutic domain. To illustrate this, we present examples in which young people explore their feelings and ideas, plans and difficulties, while preparing for film-making. During this they develop important life transition skills. We argue that the power of virtual worlds – to support emotional and cognitive engagement – could be utilised in practice settings. We conclude that they are serious candidates as digital tools in the careers and guidance domain.     

Expectations, recall and evaluation of careers guidance interviews by pupils and careers advisers: a preliminary study

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the perceptions of initial careers guidance interviews as expressed by pupils and careers advisers. A sample of 51 careers guidance interviews were studied, which were carried out by 16 qualified careers advisers operating under normal working conditions. The school pupils were from the lower streams of 16 different secondary level schools, half were male, and the majority were either unsure of leaving or were planning to leave school at the earliest opportunity. The study adopted a quantitative repeated measures design where both interview participants completed pre-interview expectation questionnaires, post-interview recall questionnaires and scales measuring interview evaluations. The results suggested a range of differences between careers advisers' and pupils' expectations, recall and evaluations of careers guidance interviews. However, both participants' overall satisfaction with the careers interview was significantly related to the interpersonal aspects of the process, while the provision of careers advice contributed to overall satisfaction expressed by careers advisers only. The findings are discussed in relation to evaluation of provision and the preparation of clients for participation in careers guidance interviews.