1. Why Careers matter? Helping young people to think about the future
Tristram Hooley
Workshop at Hong Kong Baptist University
14th February 2019

2. Overview Taking a social justice perspective The importance of context
Definitions
Why focus on career?
The importance of context
Taking a social justice perspective

3. Overview Taking a social justice perspective The importance of context
Definitions
Why focus on career?
The importance of context
Taking a social justice perspective

4. How you defined career

5. What is career?
Career is… the individual’s journey through life, learning and work.

6. Expanded notion of work (ENOW) – Wong (2015)
Gainful employment
Work trials
Work exposure and VET
Voluntary work
Domestic/ neighbourhood provisioning
Serious leisure and activism

7. How you defined career guidance

8. Defining career guidance
“Career guidance supports individuals and groups to discover more about work, leisure and learning and to consider their place in the world and plan for their futures… Career guidance can take a wide range of forms and draws on diverse theoretical traditions. But at its heart it is a purposeful learning opportunity which supports individuals and groups to consider and reconsider work, leisure and learning in the light of new information and experiences and to take both individual and collective action as a result of this.”
Tristram

9. Career guidance can be embedded in wider services

10. Overview Taking a social justice perspective The importance of context
Definitions
Why focus on career?
The importance of context
Taking a social justice perspective

11. What issues do the young people that you work with face?

12. Maslow’s hierarchy of neeeds
Where do the issues that your young people face fit onto this hierarchy?
Where does ‘career’ fit into this?

13. Progression and change
Social relations
Hope and aspiration
Self-determination
Respect and belonging
Safety and security
Physical needs
Rethinking Maslow
Context
Progression and change
Career is how we manage and negotiate the interaction between our needs over time

14. Imagine if things were the same forever
Career is how we think beyond our immediate circumstances.
It is about taking control of our lives and our futures.

15. Mirko’s story

16. Progression and change
Social relations
Hope and aspiration
Self-determination
Respect and belonging
Safety and security
Physical needs
Discussion: Mirko’
Context
Progression and change
How can we understand Mirko’s story in this way?
What is he looking for?

17. Overview Taking a social justice perspective The importance of context
Definitions
Why focus on career?
The importance of context
Taking a social justice perspective

18. Inspiration?
“If you believe in yourself you can make yourself what every you want to be.”
Lea Michelle

19. Career and context

20. Influences on our career
Internal/ psychology
Motivation/ resilience/ self-efficacy
Career management skills
Habitus
Community
Opportunity structure
Labour market
Education system
Politics and society
Tristram

21. Analysing the context P E S T L Political Ideology
Policies and programmes
Funding P
Economic
Jobs
Labour market trends E
Social
Community
Family
Friends and networks S
Technological
Emerging technologies
Declining technologies T
Environmental
Nature
Space
Place
Legal
What is allowed?
What is changing L

22. The importance of labour market information
The big picture
What jobs are out there?
What are the big trends? What are the counter-narratives?
What are the differences in pay and opportunity?
Why are different jobs paid differently?
Is this right?
What do employers expect?
What sort of skills, aptitudes, attitudes and so on are employers looking for?
Why are these things important?
What are the upsides and downsides of becoming who they want you to be?
What can you expect?
What do jobs pay?
Do they offer pensions?
What will I do?
What rights will I have?
Can I join a trade union?
What influence will I have over my work?
Will there be access to training?
What is the impact of your work?
What am I producing?
Why?
Who is this for?
What are the political, economic, social, environmental, ethical and legal impacts of this work?
What information exists? How are you using it? How can you make it available to young people

23. Discussion
What information is available on the labour market in Hong Kong?
How do you use this information in your services?
Do you encourage young people to engage with it directly?

24. Key principles for the use of labour market information (Alexander, 2019)
Information should be contextualised and relevant.
Resources should be clearly structured and segmented according to user need
Resources should have a pedagogical design
Resources should be designed for use in wider career decision making contexts of individuals

25. How we experience context negatively Young’s Faces of Oppression
Exploitation
Marginalisation
Powerlessness
Cultural imperialism
Violence

26. Capitals – how we manage (and are managed by) context
Bourdieu’s capitals
Other capitals
Financial capital
Social capital
Cultural capital
Mobility capital
Erotic capital
Career capital
Etc.

27. Discussion What capital do the young people that you work with have?
What capital do they lack?
What can you do to build their capita?
Discussion

28. Overview Taking a social justice perspective The importance of context
Definitions
Why focus on career?
The importance of context
Taking a social justice perspective

29. Social justice approach to Career Guidance
Context and power are important in framing our careers.
There are things that we can do to challenge inequality and oppression.
The concept of ‘career’ can support individual and collective emancipation.

30. Five signposts towards emancipatory career guidance
developing critical consciousness
the naming of oppression
problematising norms, assumptions and power relations
building solidarity and collective action
working at a range of levels and scales from the individual to the global.
Hooley, Sultana & Thomsen, 2019

31. An Example from Brazil
Marcelo Afonso Ribeiro and Guilherme de Oliveira Silva Fonçatti - The gap between theory and context as a generator of social injustice: Seeking to confront social inequality in Brazil through career guidance
Use and develop theories that are embedded in the local context.
Let people tell their stories, help them to imagine their futures (co- construction)
Help them to see how they fit into the context
Challenge them to think about their lives as ‘careers’ even the bits that they see as failures (see also ENOW). This helps them to see themselves as ‘the subject of rights’.
Help them to construct a trajectory away from being a ‘subordinate person’.

32. Think of a young person you work with
How can you help them to
Develop a better understanding of their context and their position within it?
Name the oppression that they face and think about how to challenge it?
Challenge what they assume to be ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ in their life?
Connect with other people for mutual support?
Make progress in the short-term, but also gain more influence over their context?

33. References
Alexander, R. (2019). Labour market information and careers education and guidance: A literature review. Reading: Education Development Trust.
Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp ). New York: Greenwood.
Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. and Thomsen, R. (2018). Career guidance for social justice: Contesting neoliberalism. London: Routledge.
Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50,
Rutledge, P.B. (2011). Social networks: What Maslow misses. Psychology Today. Retrieved from networks-what-maslow-misses-0.
Wong, V. (2015). Youth transition to work in an age of uncertainty and insecurity: Towards an expanded notion of work for insight and innovation. Journal of Applied Youth Studies, 1(1),

34. Conclusions
Career is a part of life. It is interwoven into every other aspect of what we do.
Career can’t wait. It has to be addressed alongside other more acute needs.
Career offers people motivation and solutions to their problems.
We need to acknowledge the context within which people build their careers and help them to understand and critique this context.
A social justice approach is a practical way to address these challenges in an unfair world.

35. About me
Tristram Hooley Professor of Career Education, University of Derby/ Professor II, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences/ Chief Research Officer, Institute of Student Employers Blog: