A Qualitative Study of the Career Aspirations of Resettled Young Sudanese and Somali Refugees

The study documents and explicates the academic experiences, visions, hopes and desires which shape the vocational aspirations of young Sudanese and a Somali refugee who have resettled in Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the experiences of a sample of 14 young resettled refugees in Brisbane, Australia. Adopting a qualitative methodology, the interviews covered the aspirations of the participants across three time periods: life in the country of origin, transit and resettlement. Participants expressed high ambitions despite their experiences of school disruption pre resettlement and language difficulties post resettlement. The situation in the country of origin emerged as influential upon their aspirations in both pre and resettlement life. English language difficulties emerged as the most common consideration influencing aspirations following resettlement. A number of considerations were found that influenced their vocational aspirations before and after resettlement. Such considerations may enlighten service providers working with resettled young African refugees.     

Life Design Career Counselling with an Abandoned Adolescent: A Case Study

This article describes the value of life design counselling with an abandoned adolescent female. The participant was selected purposively from among a group of abandoned adolescent females who had expressed a need for career counselling. The life intervention comprised two 90-minute sessions per week over a period of a month. Life design data included collage, family constellation, life line, career style interview, asset map and life chapters. Following the intervention, the participant demonstrated career adaptability and an eagerness to take an active part in her evolving life story. Life design counselling has potential to meet the career counselling needs of children with neglect and abandonment experience.     

Gender differences in applying social cognitive career theory in engineering students

This study tested Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) in predicting engineering interest and major choice goals among male and female college students. Participants were 579 sophomore engineering students who completed measures of self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, interests, goals and social supports and barriers. Findings confirmed that the SCCT model produced a good fit to the data across gender. The findings also corroborated that women have less self-efficacy beliefs and interest than men. However, there are no statistically significant differences in measures relating to outcome expectations and goals. Moreover, women are more likely to perceive support, especially from peers and family, while men are more likely to perceive family barriers than women. For other supports and barriers there are no gender differences. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Elite athletes and retirement: Identity,choice, and agency

Retirement from elite sport can be highly distressing for athletes, and many report experiencing depression and anxiety in adjusting to this transition. In this article, a discursive psychological approach is employed to explore constructions of choice and identity around elite athletes’ retirements within Australian newsprint media. Within these accounts, three ‘types’ of retirements were identified: retirements occurring in relation to age, injury, or active choice. Retiring with individual agency and at an appropriate time was repeatedly privileged, whereas retiring in different ways was routinely problematised. In privileging particular ways of retiring, certain identity positions were made more accessible than others. Consequently, certain actions and choices are deemed appropriate (or not) for athletes, ultimately constraining decision‐making around retirement. The implications of such limited identity positions and choices are explored in relation to the psychological distress and clinical concerns that emerge among many athletes in the transition out of elite sport.     

Income and support during transition from a military to civilian career

This study examined experienced military members (N= 136, average age 51 years) transitioning to a 2nd occupation, specifically K–12 teaching, and revealed correlations between the length of their transition to both perceived support and income. Perceived support from family and friends had a small, positive correlation with transition time (r= .31), while income had a small, negative correlation with transition time (r=?.28). The Career Transitions Inventory ( Heppner, 1991 ), the Satisfaction with Life Scale ( Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985 ), demographic questions, and open‐ended questions were used. Implications for career counselors working with transitioning military members are discussed, along with future implications for research and practice.     

Ehud Yairi: Reflections on a Career

This is the second in a series of papers that provides an historical record in this journal of contributions made by the most influential researchers in the field of fluency disorders. The present paper reflects on the long and productive career of Ehud Yairi, outlining his many contributions to the field of stuttering, and his outstanding achievements and accomplishments. The paper is based on interviews with him during 2020, after the conclusion of his research career. His visionary, lifetime work has advanced our understanding of the nature, origins, and epidemiology of this disorder.     

Motherhood and Counselor Education: Experiences With Work–Life Balance

Female professors with children continue to experience institutional and cultural barriers in academia. This article situates the experiences of counselor educator mothers in the context of current trends in academia and research related to mothers in the workforce.     

A mixed-method approach to post-retirement career planning

In times of rising longevity and shortage of skilled workers, post-retirement work has become increasingly prevalent in many countries. However, not much is known about the expectations and facilitating factors associated with work-related activities after retirement. In two studies we draw on the social cognitive career theory and investigated the role of outcome expectations and facilitating factors in post-retirement career planning. First, we interviewed 22 older employees and subject matter experts in a German aerospace company to learn more about expectations of post-retirement work and its facilitating factors to build a theoretical model. Second, to test our theoretical model, 212 employees of the same company aged 50 to 65 completed a web-based survey. Results showed that outcome expectations and the facilitating factors identified in the interview study were significantly related to post-retirement career intention. Further, the facilitating factor social approval moderated the relationship between outcome expectations and post-retirement career intention. We discuss implications of our findings in terms of how they inform retirement counselors, organizations, and society to help increase engagement in work-related activities after retirement.