1. Understanding career management skills
Tristram Hooley
Seminar for guidance counsellors from Studievalg and eGuidance,
DGI-byen, Copenhagen, 22 September 2017

2. The parable of the three fishermen
Saving people – career crisis support
Stopping them falling in – pre-emptive career support
Teaching them to swim – career management learning

3. A paradigm change From ‘test and tell’ To ‘explore and learn’
A focus on career management skills shifts the focus of career guidance.
From ‘test and tell’
To ‘explore and learn’
A medical model where we solve people’s problems
An educational model where we teach knowledge and skills

4. So career management skills (CMS)
Are the skills that you need to navigate your way through life, learning and work.
They are different to, but linked with, employability skills (what employers want you to do) and academic skills (what you need to be able to do to succeed in the education system).
But, what, exactly are these skills?

5. So what skills do you need to manage your career?

6. CMS Frameworks

7. The purpose of CMS Frameworks
To articulate what career management skills are.
To create a common language that can be used by all stakeholders (e.g. individuals, educators and employers).
To support collaboration between stakeholders to deliver career management skills.

8. A brief history NCDA guidelines (US)
Blueprint for Life/Work Design (Canada)
Blueprint for Career Development (Australia)
Lots of European experiments

9. Elements of the frameworks
Community of practice
Learning areas
Learning model
Levels/context
Resources
Policy
Delivery approach

11. CMS in SCOTLAND Self Strengths Horizons Networks
I develop and maintain a positive self-image
I maintain a balance that is right for me in my life, learning and work
I adapt my behavior appropriately to fit a variety of contexts
I am aware of how I change and grow throughout life
I make positive career decisions
Strengths
I am aware of my skills, strengths and achievements
I build on my strengths and achievements
I am confident, resilient and able to learn when things do not go well or as expected
I draw on my experiences and on formal and informal learning opportunities to inform and support my career choices
Horizons
I understand that there is a wide variety of learning and work opportunities that I can explore and are open to me
I know how to find and evaluate information and support to help my career development
I am confident in responding to and managing change within my life and work roles
I am creative and enterprising in the way I approach my career development
I identify how my life, my work, my community and my society interact
Networks
I interact confidently and effectively with others to build relationships
I use information and relationships to secure, create and maintain work
I develop and maintain a range of relationships that are important for my career journey

12. So what can you do with CMS?
In one-to-one for client assessment and action planning
Do your clients have these skills?
Could they develop them?
Which one’s are blocking their career development?
What should they focus on?
In group work and career education
What do you want them to learn?
Do the career management skills provide a structure for learning?
Can you assess against them?
In consultancy with other professionals e.g. teachers or human resource management professionals
Can the CMS integrate with the learning outcomes and frameworks that they are already using?

13. A tool for Designing career learning
What would someone need to know and be able to do in order to agree with that statement
Resources and activities
I maintain a balance that is right for me in my life, learning and work
Assessment
Can they provide evidence that they can do this?

14. So CMS gives you a lifetime career learning curriculum
Self
Strengths
Horizons
Networks
Provides a career learning curriculum
Also offers learning outcomes that can be integrated into:
Subject based curricula
Workplace based learning and development frameworks

15. The vision
Career management skills support individuals in their career development. They know what is important and focus on it as they move through life.
Career management skills provide a framework for careers professionals and services to deliver coherent and consistent services.
A career management skills framework allows career development to be built into all aspects of society.

17. References
Australian Government, Department for Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations (2010), Australian Blueprint for Career Development,
Hooley, T., Watts, A.G., Sultana, R. and Neary, S. (2013). The ‘Blueprint’ framework for career management skills: a critical exploration. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 41:2,
Skills Development Scotland (SDS) (2012). Career Management Skills Framework for Scotland. Glasgow: SDS.
Neary, S., Dodd, V. and Hooley, T. (2015). Understanding Career Management Skills: Findings From the First Phase of the CMS Leader Project. Derby: International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
My blog has a lot of CMS related resources at skills/

18. Tristram Hooley
Director of Research, The Careers & Enterprise Company/ Professor of Career Education, University of Derby/ Professor II, Inland Norway University of Applied Science
@pigironjoe
Blog at