IAEVG Conference 2-4 October 2018 Self-governance as an objective of Career Counselling. Challenges, Risks and Discussions

Political rationales A Life-long guidance system need a number of features, e.g.: Programs to develop people’s career-management skills .. (OECD/EU, 2004) Career guidance ..can help … [by].. encouraging all individuals … to engage in career planning … enabling them to respond more flexibly to the opportunities … (Worldbank, 2004) ..schools [must] provide the students with: the right guidance and right skills in relation to choosing and.. completing the education they are most suitable for .. (Regeringen/DK, 2013)

To have the right skills to make the right choice The dominant political discourse – CMS, leads to: ‘good choices’ and enables us to manage our career The gospel of flexibility… The precariat is told that it should be in control of his or her destiny, answer to market forces and be infinitely adaptable (Standing , 2014 p. 41) The result of guidance in a political constructed reality can be that.. youngsters lower their ambitions - thus maintaining social injustices (Colley, 2004)

Professional rationales - examples Parsons: A good match leads to a wise choice. Self-knowledge, vocational knowledge – true reasoning Super: Careers unfold – a process influenced by individuals life-span, life-space and meaning making Savickas: Careers are constructed - Individuals need help to de-/reconstruct a coherent life-/career story SCCT: Careers are influenced by a complex interplay between both individual and contextual factors

Counselling services – reduced to.. ‘arenas for competence development’? Guidance as education? We need to change perspective from choices to learning (Poulsen et al., 2016) Collective guidance contributes to the development of career competences (UU DK, 2016) Guidance and education (Law, 1999, 2003) New-DOTS thinking needs both careers guidance and careers education. ..is a rationale for curriculum that will help the guidance process; but it stands independently of that function

Learning CMS - a recipe for coping with career problems? If I cannot control my career it is because I don’t have sufficient competences? If people are led to believe that their difficulties stem from internal but changeable factors, the net result may be self-blame rather than heightened motivation (Bandura, 2000 p. 125) Neither the fit between person and environment nor anticipatory consequential thinking can predict academic performance and perseverance It is not experience or skills per se ... that shapes academic performance and career choices (Bandura, 2000 p. 426, 423)

The Life Design Paradigm Career problems relate to individuals who are ..dislocated from their current stories..[need help to] deconstruct, reconstruct [in order to].. reinterpret the past to suit future aspirations (Savickas/Nota et al p. 141 - 142) The Handbook of Life-design presents a model that.. [consider] individuals as governors of their work ...and, more generally, of their lives...... The life course has become a ‘biography of choice’ (Nota et. al p. 11,135) Life is still influenced by environmental factors.. yet constructed to a large extent by the individuals. Counselors facilitate flexible adaptation to or re-construction of one’s own eco-system .. (Savickas et al. p. 244)

Are careers constructed? Core employees must learn.. how to make the best investment of their current competencies to adapt….. in order to survive in a boundaryless labor market…… Peripheral workers must learn.. how to cope with multiple transitions…working lives will unfold (Super)…career decision will be frequent and dictated by their employability….. Marginalized workers may encounter additional barriers to and constraints on their employment, sometimes even leading them to concentrate on just day labor” (Savickas et al. 2009 p 242)

Shifting paradigms leading to… Shifting paradigms leading to….. individualization and de-contextualization? Constructive alternativism - Constructivism Individuals construct representation of reality – not reality itself (Kelly) Life-space – the social foundation of thought and action (e.g. Super/SCCT ) From constructivism – to constructionism? Career construction theory adheres to epistemological constructivism (Savickas, 2002 p. 154) We have crafted a contextualized model based on the epistemology of social constructionism (Savickas et al, 2009)

Luck is no accident (Krumboltz 2010)…or Luck is no accident (Krumboltz 2010)…or? – individualization and antirealism The answers lies within yourself … The self-help industry and coaches has become the new priesthood – preaching the religion of self. (Brinkmann, 2017) The postmodern narrative movement tend to .. Ignore the importance of the (extralinguistic) reality of the real person... with all her real life experiences Devaluate or undermine the client’s unique, personal experiences/views/story Changing nothing more (or less) than those option-limiting ”problem”-causing narratives (Held, 1995)

Thank you for your attention! “Equipping people with a form belief that they can produce valued effects by their collective action and providing them with the means to do so are the key ingredients in an enablement process” (Bandura p. 477) Thank you for your attention!

References Bandura, Albert (2000): Self-efficacy. The Exercise of Control Brinkmann, Svend (2017): Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze Celley, Helen/Vejlederforum (2004): Do we choose careers or do careers choose us? Held, Barbara S. (1995): Back to Reality. A Critique of Postmoderne Theory in Psychotherapy Krumboltz, John D. & Levin, Al S.( 2010): Luck is no Accident. Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career Law, Bill (1999): Career-learning space: new-DOTS thinking for careers education Law, Bill & Watts. A.G. (2003): The DOTS analysis - original version OECD/EU (2004): Career Guidance: A Handbook for Policy Makers Poulsen, Bo m.fl. (2016): Udsyn i udskolingen Regeringen (2013): Aftale mellem regeringen [ ], Venstre og Dansk Folkeparti om et fagligt løft af folkeskolen (Political agreement on the Danish primary school) Savickas, Mark L. (2002): Career Construction: A Developmental Theory of Vocational Behavior. In: Brown. Duane and Ass. Career Choice and Development. Fourth edition Savickas, Mark L. et al (2009): Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century Standing, Guy (2014): The Precariate. The new dangerous class UU Danmark (2016): Udvikling af kollektiv vejledning. Inspirationshæfte til UU- vejledere m.fl. (Youth Guidance Centers in Denmark: Developing collective guidance) Worldbank/A.G. Watts(2004): Public Policies for Career Development [ ]