1. Careers Services: Engaging ‘disengaged’ young people in multicultural contexts Thematic Seminar IAEVG International Conference, University of Jyvaskyla June 2009

2. Authors and papers Gideon Arulmani: Cultural Preparedness: A framework for career counselling Director, The Promise Foundation, Bangalore, India. Mariyam Nazima: Yes...Because I Can!” Case Study from the Republic of Maldives President, Labour Tribunal, Republic of Maldives. Hazel Reid: The Narrative Approach to career guidance in an uncertain world. Director, Centre for Career & Personal Development, Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

3. Presentation Plan Part 1:Gideon Arulmani, across the internet from India. Part 2:Hazel Reid, direct interaction. In the event that the video link fails (!), Hazel will take over and make her presentation.

4. Part 1: Cultural Preparedness: A framework for career counselling

5. Until recently... Prosperity was achieved by engaging with work in a specifically defined, socially approved manner: Educational qualifications Job applications Recruitment procedures Job responsibilities Performance appraisals Promotions Stability Durability Long term Qualifications Persistence Personal Responsibility

6. …what are they saying today? I don’t want to be like my mum. Thinks she’s liberated. Works so hard. But she’s dead when she gets home. Irritable. Not fun anymore. I would find her life boring. But it’s my life. 14 year old girl, Portsmouth (UK). Everything is changing. I don’t know if what I study will be relevant to the job market. It is better just to wait and see. 18 year old girl, Hanoi (Vietnam). There are high paying jobs available in the BPO sector for which you must know only how to speak English. So that’s what I’m going to do… and I will stop going to college. 18 year old boy, Bangalore, India. …one job…for a LIFE time… no way! 16 year old boy, Portsmouth (UK). When my family immigrated to Australia, we were promised jobs. It’s ‘their’ responsibility to support us... Anyways there’s always the dole. 19 year old girl, Melbourne, Australia.

7. “Commitment…that’s so not me” What else is there? What’s around the corner? Hang loose. Wait and see. I must get a prestigious job It’s their responsibility. We’re free to change.

8. The Multicultural context Work today occurs within a context that is populated by individuals from varied cultural, socio-economic and religious backgrounds. Patterns of immigration over many decades and the forces globalisation over the recent past have led to multicultural societies becoming a strongly present reality today. Young people in multicultural contexts are often under the influence of multiple social and cultural factors when they begin to consider career development. What is often expressed as ‘boredom’ could reflect their disengagement from ‘prescribed’ modes of career development.

9. The Multicultural context There is a higher likelihood of counsellor and counselee coming from differing cultural backgrounds, each influenced and guided by their own beliefs and ways of living. Individualism – collectivism: Career decision- making could reflect strong community orientations with a preference for co-operative decision-making A ‘respectable’ career: The attitudes of prestige, social status can be carried over from ‘home’ Transmission of attitudes: Career beliefs could be passed on from one generation to another

10. The Multicultural context It is essential in that counsellors are particularly sensitive to cultural factors (their own as well, as those of their clients), that could influence the career counselling process. It is here that I would like to introduce the notion of cultural preparedness.

11. Excerpt from case notes This was an interaction with a young woman working as a Call Centre Agent in one of the most well known Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies in Bangalore (an Indian city that has become well known for its computer industry). She came from a traditional Indian middle class home and had Grown up in an urban environment. She was 24 years old and held A bachelor’s degree in commerce. She had enrolled for a master’s degree but had discontinued the course in favour of taking up this job. Here are excerpts from my first (and only) session with her.

12. Excerpt from case notes Client: Some my friends have come to you for help to leave their job as call centre operators. But I don’t want to leave. I am happy with the job. I earn well. I want to know how to come up in this job and reach the top in this job. Counsellor: How have you done at your job so far? Client: Average. I should have risen higher by now, but I am more or less where I started. That’s why I have come to you. Counsellor: Tell me more... Client: The performance appraisal that my company did said that my mother tongue influence is still high. Also sometimes, I get irritated with the caller.

13. Excerpt from case notes Counsellor: When you get irritated what happens? Client: My supervisor says that the tone of my voice changes and shows my irritation. Counsellor: What makes you irritated? Client: I don’t like answering only to people’s complaints. The whole time I have to listen to someone from another country and listen to their problems and complaints. Counsellor: Were you aware that this is what the job was about, when you applied for the job? Client: Yes. And I want to learn how to do better at this job.

14. Excerpt from case notes Counsellor: The most important requirements of your present job seem to bring out the worst side of your personality. Client: If a job doesn’t fit, the person must be changed. That’s why I am here. You are a psychologist. You know how to change my personality to suit my job requirement. Anyway why are you asking me so many questions? I thought you had answers, not questions. Counsellor: Changing a person’s personality is difficult and most often not necessary. Do you think your irritability would reduce if you went for a different kind of job? Client: I can’t leave this job. I can’t quit. If you can’t help me change my personality, then I will go to some other expert.

15. Excerpt from case notes Counsellor: Do you know of any one who can do that? Client: Yes! There are many experts. I know an astrologer who can do that. Our own family priest I am sure can help me. I thought since you are a behavioural scientist you would know best. Counsellor: I can only help you learn to help yourself. I do believe that you can learn to help yourself. What this means is that I am willing to work with you, but you are the one who is really at the centre of our interactions. Think about what I have said and let me know if you would like to continue.

16. Excerpt from case notes The session ended on this note. The client did not return. As a part of routine follow up the client was contacted by telephone about a month after the session. She reported that she had indeed visited her astrologer. He, through his divinations had found that she was unsuited for the job that she held! He had advised her to look for another job! My client took his advice, found employment as a receptionist in a hotel and was now quite happy!

17. A theoretical construct Cultural Preparedness

18. Cultural Preparedness Necessary and sufficient conditions? Methods of counselling that emerged in the West were created by members of this culture in response to needs expressed from within this culture. Developed by a people, for a people with certain orientations. The creators of the service as well as the consumers of the service were culturally prepared in a similar manner to offer and partake of the service. They share a similar vocabulary of values and cherish a particular approach to life. At a very fundamental level, the counsellor and counselee, in the West, share a cultural heritage that has prepared them over a period of time to engage with each other in a mutually compatible manner.

19. Cultural Preparedness Necessary and sufficient conditions? Against this background of cultural preparedness, conditions could be created for a particular approach to counselling that were necessary and sufficient for that context. The key point to be noted is that the same conditions may be neither necessary nor sufficient for a people who have different cultural heritage. A counselling approach that is empirical and individualistic in its orientation, for example, may not find resonance amongst a people whose culture has prepared them over the ages to approach their existence in an intuitive, experiential and community oriented manner.

20. Cultural Preparedness Questions of relevance The counsellor in this interaction did not seem to match the client’s assumptions of what ‘counselling’ meant. Nor was the counsellor culturally prepared to meet the client’s expectations. The counsellor’s version of counselling belonged to a cultural framework that did not match the manner in which the client’s culture had prepared her to seek help. While I was ‘client centred’ and ‘unconditional’ in my practice, I had not exhibited these necessary and sufficient conditions in my actual conception of the totality of this individual. She was embedded in a culture that was different from the culture that had spawned the form of counselling I was trained to administer. I could (and did) of course say that the ‘suitability’ of this client was low for counselling… and soothed my smarting self-esteem that she would choose an astrologer over me!

21. Cultural Preparedness Questions of relevance What I failed to consider was the possibility that it was in fact the suitability of my form of counselling that was low for her. It also dawned upon me that my client did in fact receive ‘counselling’ from her astrologer. This form of counselling did not have its cultural orientation in the tenets of Western psychology. It was rooted in Indian tradition – a tradition of which both the counsellor (astrologer) and counselee were a part. In other words the ‘counsellor’ in this situation delivered a form of counselling for which the young lady was culturally prepared.

22. Cultural Preparedness Questions of relevance Could the counsellor have been more effective in this situation? Would it have been possible to establish a counselling relationship with this young person on her terms, rather than on the terms dictated by the school of counselling to which the counsellor was committed?

23. Two approaches to service delivery This debate has occurred between two positions. UniversalismParticularism

24. Service Delivery The universalist view Universal common ground, shared across cultures. All-embracing principles that describe as wide a range of observations as possible. Theories of social science have searched for a deep structure, from which human social life emanates (E.g. Marxism, Freudian psychoanalytic theory, behaviourism and Parsonian functionalism). The attempt is at generalization rather than focusing on specific characteristics. The approach lends itself to data generation and analysis based on which nomothetic trends and commonalities can be understood.

25. Service Delivery The particularist view Rests on the assumption that human experience is mediated not only by universal structures, but by particular cultural characteristics as well. The focus is on culturally learned perspectives that are unique to a particular culture. It is emphasised that beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of one’s own culture. The principle of ethnocentrism: "one’s own group is the center of everything," against which other groups are judged. The approach provides detailed and comprehensive descriptions of particular situations.

26. Service Delivery Implications The universalists: Could foster dominance by the more powerful majority culture at the expense of minority cultures Could homogenise and destroy diversity Could miss the trees for the forest The particularists: Could result in ever-expanding constituent groups that perceive themselves as being, different, special, disenfranchised … Could be left finally with nothing more than individual differences Could miss the forest for the trees

27. Culture sensitive careers services Need a conceptual framework that recognizes: culture-particular characteristics culture-universal characteristics That distinguish one from the other That unite and offer bridges between differences

28. Case Study 1: Employment Skills Training Project Mariyam, Nazima. President, Labour Tribunal, Republic of Maldives Analysis of the Maldivian social cognitive environment revealed consistent patterns of commonality and specificity along career beliefs.

29. CAREER BELIEF THEME PATTERNS OF SPECIFICITY PATTERNS OF COMMONALITY Control and self- direction: “It is the government's responsibility.” “My father will do it for me.” Negation of personal responsibility Persistence: “It’s too hard for me.” “I would rather be unemployed.” Giving up in the face of barriers Saying NO rather than YES to personal engagement with work and career development Proficiency:“I want to go to college.” “I want a practical course.” High emphasis on acquiring education

30. Development of a programme Searched within social cognitive environment both for common principles as well as specificities. Mapped specificities and particularities on to the broader matrix of commonalities. Developed a careers programme that used universalist principles to address culture specific, felt needs.

31. The social marketing campaign Slogan Youth Employment Services YES! YES! BECAUSE I CAN “Yes” Career Counselling Programme

32. The social marketing campaign Logo and Slogan

33. Universalist approach; acultural

34. Universalist principles interpreted into a specific cultural context

35. Harnessing diversity Some evidence (Arulmani, G & Abdulla, A 2007)* Glassian Effect Sizes indicating the impact of career guidance on career beliefs * Capturing the ripples: Addressing the sustainability of the impact of social marketing. Social Marketing Quarterly Acultural approach Blended commonalities with specificities

36. Case Study 2: The Promise Foundation, India: Career guidance and livelihood planning project Analysis of social cognitive environment revealed the following key social cognitions pertaining to work: - Work is an integral part of life - Work is an extension of life - Work is related to life stages Jiva “Life” in most Indian languages

37. The Jiva Framework The Jiva ‘spiral’! The Jiva Career Spiral Mental ‘tick’ marks! The Jiva Tick mark The changing and the unchanged. Changing and unchanged Green and blue! Green and Blue!

38. Principle 1: The Jiva Career Spiral A non linear approach to career development Tendrils and galaxies... both expand and develop as spirals

39. Principle 2: The Jiva Tick Mark: Career and the labour market Personal potentials and labour market cycles. Win some... Lose some?

40. Principle 3: Green and Blue: In tune with the environment Career and the environment Hand crafted Malaysian Industrial fishing fishing tool… one fish at a time!

41. Principle 4: The changing and the unchanged A career develops in finding the balance between what changes and what does not change. Personal interests for example, are liable to change while aptitudes are deeper traits and therefore are more stable. Similar tasks but changing complexities

42. Principle 5: Give in order to get the counselling interaction could be a teaching-learning experience both for the client as well as the counsellor. Career counselling then becomes a ‘give’ and ‘get’ partnership between counsellor and counselee. Test and Tell Learn from each other

43. Culture sensitive careers services Need a conceptual framework that recognizes: culture-particular characteristics culture-universal characteristics That distinguish one from the other That unite and offer bridges between differences

44. Conclusion “Established models, associated with outcome-driven thinking based on lists of personality traits and job factors, or ideas based on linear development through education to a lifetime career, may be useful for some but are unlikely to engage all young people.” Reid, 2008.

45. Thank you! Any comments?!

46. Over to Hazel Reid!