Career counseling

Career counseling and career guidance are similar in nature to other types of counseling (e.g. marriage or clinical counseling). What unites all types of professional counseling is the role of practitioners, who combine giving advice on their topic of expertise with counseling techniques that support clients in making complex decisions and facing difficult situations. The focus of career counseling is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues.

There is no agreed definition of career counseling worldwide, mainly due to conceptual, cultural and linguistic differences.[1] This even affects the most central term counseling (or: counselling in British English) which is often substituted with the word guidance as in career guidance. For example, in the UK, career counseling would usually be referred to as careers advice or guidance. Due to the widespread reference to both career guidance and career counseling among policy-makers, academics and practitioners around the world, references to career guidance and counselling are becoming common.[2]


Career counseling or career guidance includes a wide variety of professional activities which help people deal with career-related challenges. Career counselors work with adolescents seeking to explore career options, experienced professionals contemplating a career change, parents who want to return to the world of work after taking time to raise their child, or people seeking employment. Career counselling is also offered in various settings, including in groups and individually, in person or by means of digital communication.

Several approaches have been undertaken to systemize the variety of professional activities related to career guidance and counseling. In the most recent attempt, the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counselling in Europe (NICE) – a consortium of 45 European institutions of higher education in the field of career counseling – has agreed on a system of professional roles for guidance counselors. Each of these five roles is seen as an important facet of the career guidance and counselling profession. Career counselors performing in any of these roles are expected to behave professionally, e.g. by following ethical standards in their practice. The NICE Professional Roles (NPR) are:[3]

  • The Career Educator "supports people in developing their own career management competences"
  • The Career Information & Assessment Expert "supports people in assessing their personal characteristics and needs, then connecting them with the labour market and education systems"
  • The Career Counsellor "supports individuals in understanding their situations, so as to work through issues towards solutions"
  • The Programme & Service Manager "ensures the quality and delivery of career guidance and counselling organisations' services"
  • The Social Systems Intervener & Developer "supports clients (even) in crisis and works to change systems for the better"

The description of the NICE Professional Roles (NPR) draws on a variety of prior models to define the central activities and competences of guidance counselors.[4] The NPR can, therefore, be understood as a state-of-the-art framework which includes all relevant aspects of career counselling. For this reason, other models haven't been included here so far. Models which are reflected in the NPR include:

  • BEQU: "Kompetenzprofil für Beratende" (Germany, 2011)
  • CEDEFOP "Practitioner Competences" (2009)[5]
  • ENTO: "National Occupational Standards for Advice and Guidance" (Great Britain, 2006)
  • IAEVG: "International Competences for Educational and Vocational Guidance" (2003)[6]
  • Savickas, M.: "Career Counselling" (USA, 2011)[7]

Benefits

Empirical research[8] attests the effectiveness of career counseling. Professional career counselors can support people with career-related challenges. Through their expertise in career development and labor markets, they can put a person's qualifications, experience, strengths and weakness in a broad perspective while also considering their desired salary, personal hobbies and interests, location, job market and educational possibilities. Through their counseling and teaching abilities, career counselors can additionally support people in gaining a better understanding of what really matters for them personally, how they can plan their careers autonomously, or help them in making tough decisions and getting through times of crisis. Finally, career counselors are often capable of supporting their clients in finding suitable placements/ jobs, in working out conflicts with their employers, or finding the support of other helpful services. It is due to these various benefits of career counseling that policy makers in many countries publicly fund guidance services. For example, the European Union understands career guidance and counseling as an instrument to effectively combat social exclusion and increase citizens' employability.[9]

History and New Approaches

Frank Parson's Choosing a Vocation (1909) was perhaps the first major work which is concerned with careers guidance.

While until the 1970s a strongly normative approach was characteristic for theories (e.g. of Donald E. Super's life-span approach[10]) and practice of career counseling (e.g. concept of matching), new models have their starting point in the individual needs and transferable skills of the clients while managing biographical breaks and discontinuities. Career development is no longer viewed as a linear process which reflects a predictable world of work. More consideration is now placed on nonlinear, chance and unplanned influences[11].

This change of perspective is evident in the constructivist[12] and social constructionist paradigms[13] for career counselling. The constructivist/social constructionist paradigms are applied as narrative career counseling[14][15] that emphasizes personal stories and the meaning individuals generate in relation to their education and work.

Postmodern career counselling is a reflective process of assisting clients in creating self through writing and revising biographical narratives taking place in a context of multiple choice from a diversity of options and constraints. The shift moves from emphasizing career choice to empowering self-affirmation and improving decision making.[16] Recently this approach is widely applied in Australia such as in Athlete Career and Education (ACE) program by Australian Sports Commission and Scope for artists by Ausdance.

Training

There is no international standard qualification for professional career counselors, although various certificates are offered nationally and internationally (e.g. by professional associations). The number of degree programs in career guidance and/or career counseling is growing worldwide. The title "career counselor" is unregulated, unlike engineers or psychologists whose professional titles are legally protected. At the same time, policy makers agree that the competence of career counselors is one of the most important factors in ensuring that people receive high quality support in dealing with their career questions.[17] Depending on the country of their education, career counselors may have a variety of academic backgrounds: In Europe, for instance, degrees in (vocational/ industrial/ organization) psychology and educational sciences are among the most common, but backgrounds in sociology, public administration and other sciences are also frequent.[18] At the same time, many training programs for career counselors are becoming increasingly multidisciplinary.

Professional career guidance centers

There are many career guidance and counseling centers all over the world. They give services of guidance and counseling on higher studies, possibilities, chances and nature of courses and institutes. There are many such service providers all over the world providing online counseling to people about their career or conducting a psychometric test to know the person's aptitude as well as interests.

Career Assessment

Assessment tools used in career counseling to help clients make realistic career decisions. These tools generally fall into three categories: interest inventories, personality inventories, and aptitude tests.

Interest inventories are usually based on the premise that if you have similar interests to people in an occupation who like their job, you will probably like that occupation also. Thus, interest inventories may suggest occupations that the client has not thought of and which have a good chance of being something that the client will be happy with. The most common interest inventory is a measure of vocational interests across six domains: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional[19]. People often report a mixture of these domains, usually with one predominant domain.

Aptitude tests can predict with good odds whether a particular person will be able to be successful in a particular occupation. For example, a student who wants to be a physicist is unlikely to succeed if he cannot do the math. An aptitude test will tell him if he is likely to do well in advanced math, which is necessary for physics. There are also aptitude tests which can predict success or failure in many different occupations.

Personality inventories are sometimes used to help people with career choice. The use of these inventories for this purpose is questionable, because in any occupation there are people with many different personalities. A popular personality inventory is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It is based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality, but Jung never approved it. According to Jung most people fall in the middle of each scale, but the MBTI ignores this and puts everyone in a type category. For example, according to the MBTI, everyone is either an extrovert or an introvert. According to Jung, most people are somewhere in between, and people at the extremes are rare. The validity of the MBTI for career choice is highly questionable.[20]

Challenges

One of the major challenges associated with career counseling is encouraging participants to engage in the process. For example, in the UK 70% of people under 14 say they have had no careers advice while 45% of people over 14 have had no or very poor/limited advice.

In a related issue some client groups tend to reject the interventions made by professional career counselors preferring to rely on the advice of peers or superiors within their own profession. Jackson et al. found that 44% of doctors in training felt that senior members of their own profession were best placed to give careers advice.[21] Furthermore, it is recognised that the giving of career advice is something that is widely spread through a range of formal and informal roles. In addition to career counselors it is also common for psychologists, teachers, managers, trainers and Human Resources (HR) specialists to give formal support in career choices. Similarly it is also common for people to seek informal support from friends and family around their career choices and to bypass career professionals altogether. Today increasingly people rely on career web portals to seek advice on resume writing and handling interviews; as also to research on various professions and companies. It has even become possible to take vocational assessments online.

Career Counseling in the United States

In the United States, the designation, "career counselor" is not legally protected; that is, anyone can call themselves a career counselor. However, CACREP, the accrediting body for counselor education programs requires that these programmes include one course in career counseling as a part of the coursework for a masters in counseling.

The National Career Development Association (NCDA), the credentialing body for career counselors, provides various certifications for qualified career counselors. For those university-trained counselors or psychologists who have devoted a certain number of years to career counseling and taken specific coursework, it offers a Master Career Counselor (MCC) credential. The National Career Development Association is the only professional association of career counselors in the United States that provides certification in career counseling.

Career Counselling in Australia

In Australia, career counselling may be provided by professionals from various disciplines (e.g., psychology, education, guidance, and counselling). The Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners[22] provide guidelines about appropriate qualifications and competencies for career counselling. There are a range of postgraduate degrees (e.g., Master, Doctor) that are endorsed for career development practice according to the Professional Standards. The Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA) endorses career development programs in Australia.[23] There are other relevant qualifications but these may necessarily not be endorsed under the provisions of the Professional Standards by CICA. A Diploma of Counselling and a Certificate IV in Career Development are offered at TAFE colleges and other registered training organisations throughout Australia.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Van Esbroeck, R.; Athanansou, J. (2008). "1. Introduction". In Athanasou, J. & R. Van Esbroeck. International Handbook of Career Guidance. Springer. pp. 1–19. ISBN 978-1-4020-6229-2.
  2. ↑ Schiersmann, C., Ertelt, B.-J., Katsarov, J., Mulvey, R., Reid, H, & Weber, P. (eds.) (2012). NICE Handbook for the Academic Training of Career Guidance and Counselling Professionals. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University, Institute of Educational Science. p. 7. ISBN 978-3-944230-03-0.
  3. ↑ Schiersmann, C., Ertelt, B.-J., Katsarov, J., Mulvey, R., Reid, H, & Weber, P. (eds.) (2012). "Core Competences for Career Guidance and Counselling Professionals". NICE Handbook for the Academic Training of Career Guidance and Counselling Professionals. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University, Institute of Educational Science. pp. 41–60. ISBN 978-3-944230-03-0.
  4. ↑ Katsarov, J.; Dörr, E.; Weber, P. (2012). "The NICE Core Competences in Comparison with other National and International Competence Frameworks". In Schiersmann, C.; Ertelt, B.-J.; Katsarov, J.; Mulvey, R.; Reid, H; Weber, P. NICE Handbook for the Academic Training of Career Guidance and Counselling Professionals. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University, Institute of Educational Science. pp. 231–238. ISBN 978-3-944230-03-0.
  5. ↑ CEDEFOP (2009). "Professionalizing Career Guidance. Practitioner Competences and Qualification Routes in Europe" (PDF). Luxembourg: CEDEFOP.
  6. ↑ Repetto, Elvira; Malik, Beatriz; Ferrer, Paula; Manzano, Nuria; Hiebert, Bryan (September 2003). "International Competencies for Educational and Vocational Guidance Practitioners". International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance. Archived from the original on 24 March 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Savickas, M. (2011). Career Counseling. Washington: American Psychological Association. p. 6.
  8. ↑ Whiston, Susan C.; Li, Yue; Mitts, Nancy Goodrich; Wright, Lauren. "Effectiveness of career choice interventions: A meta-analytic replication and extension". Journal of Vocational Behavior. 100: 175–184. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.010.
  9. ↑ Council of the European Union (October 31, 2008). "Council Resolution on Better Integrating Lifelong Guidance into Lifelong Learning Strategies" (Resolution No. 14398/08 EDUC 241 SOC 607).
  10. ↑ "Donald Super's LIFE-SPAN, LIFE-SPACE APPROACH" (PDF). Grinnell College.
  11. ↑ Pryor, R. G. L., & Bright, J. E. (2011). The chaos theory of careers: A new perspective on working in the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Routledge.
  12. ↑ McMahon, M. (2017). Career counselling: Constructivist approaches (2nd ed.). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
  13. ↑ McIlveen, P., & Schultheiss, D. E. (Eds.). (2012). Social constructionism in vocational psychology and career development. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.
  14. ↑ Mcilveen, P.; Patton, W. (2007-09-01). "Narrative career counselling: Theory and exemplars of practice". Australian Psychologist. 42 (3): 226–235. doi:10.1080/00050060701405592. ISSN 1742-9544.
  15. ↑ Cochran, L. (1997). Career counseling: A narrative approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
  16. ↑ Peavy, R. V. (1996). Constructivist career counselling and assessment. Guidance & Counselling, 11(3), 8-14.
  17. ↑ ELGPN (2012). European Lifelong Guidance Policies: Progress Report 2011-12. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.
  18. ↑ Ertelt, B.-J., Weber, P. & Katsarov, J (2012). "6. Existing Degree Programmes in Europe". In Schiersmann, C.; Ertelt, B.-J.; Katsarov, J.; Mulvey, R.; Reid, H; Weber, P. NICE Handbook for the Academic Training of Career Guidance and Counselling Professionals. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University, Institute of Educational Science. pp. 83–104. ISBN 978-3-944230-03-0.
  19. ↑ Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
  20. ↑ Paul, Annie Murphy (2004). The Cult of Personality. New York: Free Press (Simon & Schuster). pp. 118–136. ISBN 0-7432-4356-0.
  21. ↑ Jackson et al, Informing choices: the need for career advice in medical training
  22. ↑ "Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners".
  23. ↑ "Careers counsellor". careercentre.dtwd.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 2016-10-25.

Further reading

  • Swanson, J.L.; Parcover, J.A. (1998). Annual Review: Practise and research in career counseling and development — 1997. The Career Development Quarterly, 47, 2, 98-135.
  • Galassi, J.P., Crace, R.K., Martin, G.A., James, R.M. & Wallace, R.L. (1992). Client preferences and anticipations in career counseling: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 39, 46-55.
  • Swanson, J.L. (1995). The process and outcome of career counseling. In W.B. Walsh & S.H. Osipow (Eds.), Handbook of vocational psychology: Theory, research and practice. (pp. 295–329). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Kim, B.S, Li, L.C., and Lian, C.T. (2002) Effects of Asian American client adherence to Asian cultural values, session goal, and counselor emphasis of client expression on career counseling process. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49, 3, 342-354.
  • Pryor, R; Bright, J. (2011). The Chaos Theory of Careers. Routledge. pp. 13–23. ISBN 978-0-415-55188-5.
  • Shaw, Bershan (2009), Career Coaching, New York: 68 Jay St, Brooklyn, 12001
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