IAEVG Conference 2-4 October 2018 Qualitative approaches to Career Counselling Themes and Methods

Perceptions of career – and counselling Examples: Super: Careers unfold, through the individuals’ engagement in different activities and roles (education, work and other life-roles) Savickas: Careers are constructed (though language). Individuals need help to de-/reconstruct a coherent life-/career story SCCT: Careers are influenced by a complex interplay between many different factors connected to the individual, the environment and behavior

Life-span and transitions Transitions are multidimensional and complex (OECD) and can be affected by many different and interrelated factors

1. Transitions and choice incidents - Your career story Draw your life-bow on a piece of paper. Make small marks on the bow illustrating various phases – e.g. places you have been, things you have done and significant events: Education, work, family, leisure Choose one of the transitions you have encountered and think about what may have influenced the choices you made: Individual factors – e.g. changing life-roles, personal life- tasks, priorities, interests and values Contextual factors – e.g. possibilities and barriers and/or other peoples expectations/demands

Career counselling - What? Why? How? The content of choices. What influences career choices - what do we talk about and why? The process of choosing. How do counsellors facilitate choices? How do we organize career counselling and what methods do we use? The wise choice of vocation – looking back: A: Self-knowledge – understanding your self, your interests, abilities, resources and barriers B: Occupational knowledge – knowing about different types of jobs and requirements connected hereto C: True reasoning – the ability to reason between the relationship between A & B (Parsons, 1909)

Themes and phases in career counselling Themes – collected from different career theories Factors assumed to influence career choices – the theoretical ‘building blocks’ The ‘content’ of career counselling Phases – presented in various theories How counselling flow is described - sequences 4 phases – across different career theories Career assessment Career exploration Specification of career choices Implementation of career choices

Career assessment – exploring counselling needs Transitions and choice incidents Inner motivated or caused by external events. Results in changes in life-structure (Super) – ‘a gap’ (CIP) Life-span, roles and individual tasks Role interactions and/or priorities (Super/Savickas) Life-space and context Physical, mental and social world (Lewin/Kelly) Possibility structures (SCCT)/Social niche (Gottfredson) Readiness to make career choices - complexity Resources to handle career related tasks – career maturity/adaptability (Super, Savickas)

Life-space and context The ‘social world’ – the ‘field’ (Bourdieu/Lewin) Individual occupy different spaces on the social arena – leads to unequal access to material, social and cultural resources The interplay between objective and subjective factors affects motivation, aspirations and goals The Life-space (Super) The contextual dimension of individuals life-story – possibility structures The changing constellation of social and individual roles (life-structure) which frames career development and choices

Life-space in different Life- phases Changing life-structure Values and priorities Socio-economic factors Possibilities and barriers Personal development tasks Inner motivated or demands from others

2. Career assessment Choose a section of your life-bow (like a pie-piece) and explore your life-space - at the given time Write keywords on the selected piece describing the important roles and activities you were engaged in Think about how different factors may have influenced your performance and choices e.g.: Individual factors connected to different life-roles (e.g. family responsibilities, leisure activities) Contextual factors (e.g. economy, housing, support) Discuss with the person sitting next to you: How can ‘exploring life-space’ contribute to the assessment of counselling needs?

Career exploration -widening the perspective The individuals perception of occupations Socialization processes, environmental influences and prior learning (Gottfredson, Krumboltz/SCCT) Stereotypical perceptions of jobs and their ‘performers’ (Gottfredson) The individuals understanding of herself Self-concepts, self-efficacy (Super/SCCT) Generalized/stereotypical self-observations (Gottfredson/Krumboltz) The individuals perception of the future Possible pathways to different types of careers Education and training – possibilities, limitations

3. Widening the perspective - perceptions of jobs and ‘self’ In pairs (counsellor and counselee) Ask the counselee to imagine that she’s being offered the jobs written on the cards and then – spontaneously - place them in one of the 3 piles: A ‘NO pile’ – Jobs she would not consider A ‘YES pile’ – Jobs she would consider A ‘IN DOUBT pile’ – Jobs she doesn’t know if she would consider Cards from all 3 piles can be used to explore possible connections between different career choice variables!

Reasons for not considering a job Choose some of the cards from the NO-pile and let the counselee describe how she perceive these. Ask open questions to explore the counselees: Perception of the jobs, e.g.: which characteristics does she attribute to the jobs how may these be in conflict with her self-concepts, self-efficacy, interests, aspirations or expectations for the future Motives for not considering a particular job, e.g.: types of activities/work, working hours or job requirements career opportunities, status, salary… Summarize from the counselees stories, what she wants to avoid, e.g.: Types of jobs/activities that involves/requires……

Reasons for considering a job Choose some of the cards from the YES- pile and explore how the counselee perceive these. Ask open questions to explore: Values Which values does the counselee attribute to the different jobs (e.g. helping others, make a difference) The connection between values and job-attributes (e.g. balance life/work, status/salary, career options) Interests Types of activities that the counselee attribute to the jobs The connection between these and her interests (e.g. creativity, mathematic, nature, people ..) Summarize from the counselees stories what could cause her consider a career option, e.g.: Jobs/activities that provides an opportunity to ……...?

Card sorts in career exploration Using card sort exercises as a first step in career exploration Crystallizing interests and values – likes and dislikes Using values and interest to explore career options, e.g. jobs that … has to do with people, mathematics, creativity Using the counselees stories to help her specify a career choice, e.g.: Jobs where she can avoid …. Jobs which offers an opportunity to become engaged in a specific type of activities

Specification of career choices – exploring incentives, options and goals Outcome- expectations and motivation What does the counselee want to achieve, through her career choice (SCCT) Perceptions of the future and personal goals The kind of life that the counselee wants to live (Super) The counselees intentions and desires (SCCT) Prioritizing and balancing life-roles Life-themes and personal projects (Super, Savickas) Specifying a career choice Connect the past, the present and the future (Super)

The life-career story - connect the past, the present and the future Patterns in life-themes -work/life/leisure/family Important activities Values, interests and resources Past Current life-space Possibilities and barriers Life-structure and roles Thoughts, emotions, actions Present Personal goals Outcome expectations Life-role expectations Connection between values, interests and priorities What would it take? Future

Implementation of career choices - understanding perseverance The type of choice – background Direct or indirect choice pressure – failed to crystallize and/or specify career options (Super/CIP) Faulty expectations – a chosen activity was not as expected (SCCT) Changes in life-structure New roles and tasks- changed engagement (Super) Motivation and perseverance Lack of self-efficacy/personal goals Stops believing that ones efforts can lead to a desired goal (SCCT)