‘It seems at the moment my career is dependent on factors outside of my control’: reflections on graduates’ experiences of employment and career enactment in an era of economic uncertainty and austerity

ABSTRACT

This paper explores contested notions of the purpose of education and careers work. The research for the paper examines public sector employee reactions to notion of a psychological contract breach, when cuts in funding put their jobs and careers at risk. It argues that, in this environment, the search for career fulfilment can be marked by feelings of cruel optimism, wicked problems and broken expectations. The findings are then used to present the case for further research, firstly, to address the notion of possible selves, as individuals explore alternative identity affirming career opportunities; and secondly, the impact of changes in public policy on the processes of psychological contracting between students and staff in further and higher education.     

Some limitations of the interview form in careers counselling for the mildly mentally handicapped

An examination is offered of the structure of talk in interviews in which careers officers ask mildly mentally handicapped teenagers about their preferences for post-school placement. Careers interviews in the special school represent a particularly asymmetrical version of professional/client interaction, in which the direction and scope of talk is determined almost wholly by the professional. The difficult task of getting mentally handicapped leavers to 'take the floor' in the formal interview situation is one that careers officers typically approach by moving towards certain highly directive elicitation practices. It is argued that information gathered via traditional interviews amounts to an extremely problematic basis for placement. Possible directions for changes in the focus of careers work with such leavers are suggested.     

Careers education in higher education: Principles and practice

It is argued that careers education represents a distinctive new approach in careers guidance within higher education. A detailed analysis is presented of American and British experiments to date, dividing them into three groups: unit courses leading to credit, courses not leading to credit, and intensive experiences. Attention is also paid to the need to integrate formal group work of these kinds with other formal and informal learning experiences. Finally, an attempt is made to identify some crucial dilemmas and issues which need to be addressed if careers education is to be structured into the British higher education system.     

GRADSCOPE: An Analysis of the Item Structure and a Survey of Usage

Two studies of GRADSCOPE, the most widely-used system for computer-assisted careers guidance in higher education in Britain, are reported. The first is an item analysis of the GRADSCOPE questionnaire. The six-factor solution from this factor analysis suggests that, with the exception of the Artistic theme, the content domain of the GRADSCOPE questionnaire covers Holland's occupational themes, and that GRADSCOPE is primarily concerned with the motivational component rather than the performance requirements of jobs. The second study, a postal survey of careers services and careers advisers about their experiences of using the interactive version of GRADSCOPE, aimed to examine the potential of interactive systems to effect change in careers work.     

The significance of occupations in work careers: An empirical and theoretical review

The central position of occupations in work careers has been a widely accepted position in the study of careers. Furthermore, it has also been commonly believed that most work careers follow the temporal sequence of occupational choice, occupational preparation and training, and occupational entry and retention. An analysis of research findings, however, shows that most individuals do not make stable occupational choices as the first step in their work careers, nor do they show a strong commitment to a particular occupation during their work careers. On the contrary, occupational mobility is far more characteristic of most work careers than occupational stability. One possible explanation of the high rates of occupational mobility is that individuals are responding to opportunities that develop during the course of their careers. As opportunities unfold during work careers, individuals use those opportunities to make future career and occupational choices. Thus, careers may be more accurately considered as a series of responses to a succession of opportunity situations than the effort to realize a predetermined occupational goal.     

Yes,but how?: Development and evaluation of careers education in higher education by careers advisers

Contrasting approaches to the evaluation of careers education activities are outlined, one based on the organisational needs of careers services (an 'accountability' model), the other based on individual needs of careers advisers (a 'developmental' model). The case is considered for adopting educational research methods developed from the ethnographic research tradition, such as action research, to help careers advisers meet the challenges facing them in the development, delivery and evaluation of careers education in higher education. Practical experience is cited, together with some positive outcomes that have arisen from undertaking fieldwork research. The difficulties and dilemmas in carrying out such research are presented.     

The changing UK careers landscape: tidal waves,turbulence and transformation

ABSTRACT

This article explores how the UK careers landscape in each of the four home nations is changing in response to neo-liberal policies. In this context, careers services are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate their added value, impact and returns on investment. As fiscal arrangements tighten and governments state their preferences and priorities for national careers services, differing strategic responses are beginning to emerge. A quasi-market, experimental approach is now the dominant discourse in England, in contrast to differing and complementary arrangements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The article suggests that insofar as these developments are transforming national careers services, they are also creating significant challenges which require new forms of policy imagery and imagination for high-impact, all-age careers services.     

Careers guidance and choosing a job

Data from the 16-year-old follow-up of the National Child Development Study relating to certain aspects of careers guidance are examined. These include the proportion of the 12,000 study children who were in schools with teachers responsible for careers guidance, the amount of training these teachers had received, and whether they were paid a special salary. The children's expected age of leaving school, their plans for further education and work, and their choice of likely first full-time jobs, are considered in relation to the presence of teachers with some training in careers guidance and to contacts with careers officers. The use made of sources of information about job choices is also described.     

Women in Technology: A Program to Increase Career Awareness

Most women work to help support themselves and their families. Unfortunately young women are not often encouraged to explore occupational options that offer increased economic mobility. This article describes a program designed to develop awareness of nontraditional technical careers for women, careers that require less than four years of postsecondary education. Attended by guidance counselors and math and science teachers, the conference explored the psychological implications of nontraditional choices as well as provided information about these occupations. The article also discusses funding, program development and design, and evaluation.     

Effects of a school reform on longitudinal stability of students’ preferences with regard to education

Background . Students’ perspective on education is of crucial importance for its effectivity, but students’ opinions are seldom acknowledged by teachers and designers. Student participation in the educational design process could be a suitable tool to better take students’ preferences into account. However, for effective participatory design, it is necessary to know whether students have stable preferences for the design of their education. Changeability of preferences would require a more continuing design process allowing continuous adaptations. Aims . This longitudinal survey study aimed to determine the changeability over time of students’ preferences for different aspects of a learning environment. Additionally, causes of possible changes in preferences are investigated. Sample . The participants were 1,335 high school students of five schools for secondary education in the Netherlands, joining this study during a period of 2 years. Method . Data about students’ preferences were collected at three moments, using the Inventory of Perceived Study Environment Extended. Learning‐related student characteristics, such as processing strategies and motivational orientations, were measured with the Inventory of Learning Styles. Additionally, data on learning performances were collected. Results . The results showed stability on preferences for almost all studied characteristics of the learning environment. Particularly remarkable was a drop in desirability for student autonomy. This was larger for students with a certificate‐oriented motivation and smaller for self‐regulated students. Additionally, poorly performing students had a larger decrease in preference for autonomy. Conclusions . The stability on most aspects supports that participatory design might result in fairly stable instructional designs, although caution is needed with respect to student autonomy.     

Women's work-life balance trajectories in the UK: reformulating choice and constraint in transitions through part-time work across the life-course

This paper examines the apparently paradoxical notion that women 'choose' part-time work when it is consistently documented as being less preferential in employment terms, conditions and prospects when compared to full-time work. Forming a dialogue with Hakim's (2000) preference theory, it is proposed here that four dimensions—care networks; employment status; the UK welfare policy context; and work-life balance preferences—shape women's likelihood of making transitions to part-time work following maternity. Data presented here reveal that factors in the first three dimensions often override and undermine the carrying out of preferences in women's decision-making about reconciling work and family life. Furthermore, the intersections of these different dimensions result in women making 'strategic', 'reactive' or 'compromised choice' transitions, which have consequences for the maintenance of careers and labour market prospects. It is proposed that the different combinations of these three types of transitions form work-balance trajectories, which can more adequately capture diversity in women's attempts to reconcile work and family life.     

A conservation of resources perspective on career hurdles and salary attainment

Guided by conservation of resources theory, the present study examines six types of hurdles individuals face in their careers and how those hurdles impede the attainment of higher salaries. With a meta-analysis of 339 empirical studies conducted over the past 50 years, we observed that socio-demographic hurdles (e.g., being non-Caucasian), trait-related hurdles (e.g., low cognitive ability), motivational hurdles (e.g., being unwilling to relocate), skill-related hurdles (e.g., low levels of formal education), social environment hurdles (e.g., no mentors), and work environment hurdles (e.g., jobs with low control) all made it more difficult to command high salaries.     

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.     

A systematic approach to planning a careers education course

The nature of careers education is discussed and a design framework proposed in which careers education is witnessed in terms of process. Five major process skills used by students in choosing a career are identified: discovering, selecting, responding, implementing, and assessing/evaluating. These mediate eight major components each characterised by elements accepted in the literature as impinging upon vocational development and career decision-making. An analysis of the aims, general objectives and specific objectives of careers education is undertaken, and suggestions are made for ways in which the process skills might be used to provide a rationale for programme development and improved classroom interaction.     

An alternative justification for careers education: A radical response to roberts and daws

K. Roberts and Daws have given what are apparently two divergent views of the place and nature of careers education and guidance. This paper seeks to show that while both provide useful comments on a problem area, both seek to discuss this problem from within a normative view of the world. In the case of Roberts this leads to a deterministic acceptance of the status quo, while Daws' view of careers education as a 'catalyst' seems doomed to remain at the level of hope. It is suggested that a more appropriate conceptual framework can be formulated, based on the idea of career choice as the creation of 'nomos', and on a different view of the relationship between individual, society and reality. This finally leads to a discussion of the place of careers education and guidance, and its further development, as an important contribution to radical education and social change.     

Careers education and the informal economies

It is suggested that careers education tends to be preoccupied with the bureaucratised sector of the formal economy. The importance of the free' sector of the formal economy is outlined, as is the growing importance of three informal economies: the 'black' economy, the 'communal' economy, and the 'household' economy. The implications for careers education of these alternative economies are discussed.     

Video game preferences and their relation to career interests

The current study used an mTURK sample to determine if there is a relation between video game preferences and career interests. Previous research has found that individual (e.g., personality) differences influence gaming preferences (Zammitto, 2001) and we sought to extend these findings to the domain of career interests. In addition, we examined the potential moderating role of gender. Since researchers have found that gender disparities in spatial attention can be reduced by playing certain types of video games (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007), and it has been demonstrated that spatial ability is an important predictor of success in careers where women are typically underrepresented (Blickenstaff, 2005), we predicted that women with a preference for these types of games (versus a general preference) may have more interest in these careers. We found that gaming motivations were differentially associated with career interests. In addition, gender was found to significantly moderate a number of these relations, such that the association between gaming tendencies and career interests was stronger for women than for men. Findings from the current study should help guide future research that aims to increase the representation of women in STEM careers.     

Does legal education have undermining effects on law students? Evaluating changes in motivation,values, and well‐being

We evaluated changes in subjective well-being (SWB), motivation, and values occurring over the law-student career. In study 1, law students began with levels of SWB higher than a comparison sample of undergraduates, but by the end of the first year their SWB had plummeted. These changes were correlated with the sample-wide decreases in intrinsic motivation over the first year, and were also correlated with increases in appearance values and decreases in community service values. Those with the most intrinsic motivations attained the highest grades, but, ironically, high grades in turn predicted shifts in career preferences towards "lucrative" and higher-stress law careers, and away from "service"-oriented and potentially more satisfying law careers. The declines persisted over the second and third years of law school. In study 2, the basic effects were replicated for a different sample of first-year students at a different law school. Implications for legal education and the legal profession are discussed.     

JOB ATTRIBUTE PREFERENCES AND WORK COMMITMENT OF MEN AND WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

The extent of assumed sex differences in preferences for work attributes is explored utilizing data from five representative national samples. The results indicated only minimal differences in preferred job attributes between males and females. Both sexes identified meaningfulness of the work as the most important job attribute, and rank ordered the other four attributes studied in the following sequence: promotion, income, security, and hours. Factors such as education, occupational prestige, age and one's commitment to continue working were more important than sex of the respondent as predictors of job attribute preferences. However, these status variables did not affect the relationship of sex and job attribute preferences. Furthermore, these factors had approximately the same relative predictive value for both males and females. Nevertheless, these statistically significant predictors explained a small proportion of the variance in job attribute preferences. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Crisis, taboos and careers guidance

The relevance of the idea of 'crisis' for careers and careers guidance is examined, together with some of the critical responses that have been made to recent crises. It is argued that careers guidance generally responds to such challenges by seeing them as external problems rather than as changes which may alter its very assumptions and methods. Two particular taboos are noted in this context concerning the value of work and of working for an organisation. The questioning of these taboos leads to four models of alternative careers: the Uncareer, the Guerilla Career, the Cop-Out Career, and the Non-Career. These forms of career raise the broader issues of order and disorder within careers, with their associated implications for careers guidance.