Career Development Interventions Individual Perspectives

1. Career Development InterventionsIndividual Perspectives

2. Overview • Approaches to Career Counselling (or vocational guidance) • Differentialist Approach • Behaviourist Approach • Developmental Approach • Relationship between careers education and career counselling

3. Aims of Career Development Counselling • Traditional View (1970’s) : educating people to make career decisions wisely, usually in advance of employment by any one particular organisation. • Contemporary View : organisations see the relevance of career counselling as a means of managing the process of organisational change - therefore increasingly occurs once the individual is within an organisation • Activities • opportunity awareness • self-awareness • decision learning • transition learning • US : ‘trained for career’ • UK : ‘educated to make wise career decisions’

4. Theoretical Approaches to Vocational Counselling * • Differentialist Approach : matching individual differences with differences in careers and jobs • Behaviourist/Social Learning Approach : teacher-learner approach. Use of behavioural methods to guide career development • Developmental Approach : emphasises the role of emotional factors in facilitating/blocking effective occupational decision making. * N.B. counselling vs guidance

5. Differentialist Careers Counselling • ‘talent matching’ (i.e. more guidance than counselling) • Williamson (1926-1969) : Trait-Factor Approach Underlying Assumptions • each individual is an organised and unique pattern of capabilities • individuals’ pattern of capabilities are identifiable by objective tests • different capabilities are significantly involved in (and correlated to) different work tasks • success in work tasks and academic achievement is best predicted by a battery of tests Williamson’s 6 steps for vocational guidance • Analysis • Synthesis • Diagnosis • Prognosis • Counselling/Treatment • Follow-up

6. Differentialist Careers Counselling (II) Rodger (1957) : ‘7-point Plan’ • System for gathering material to form a working image of the person’s occupational assets and liabilities • Assumes a ‘matching’ model of vocational guidance & allows for the use of tests • 7 points • physical make-up • attainments • general intelligence • special aptitude • interests • dispositional • circumstances

7. Differentialist Careers Counselling (III) Holland’s ‘Modern Differentialist’ Approach : • Based upon Holland’s ‘hexagon’ - interaction between personality and environment • Individuals can resolve their own vocational problems if they have suitable opportunities for obtaining information and are encouraged in the exploration • Techniques • placement/work experience services • transition service • counselling service • vocational education services • Holland’s Self-Directed Search (self-assessment booklet and occupational classification booklet)

8. Behaviourist Approach : Careers Counselling • the application of behavioural methods to the problems of occupational choice and development • Approach utilised more in US than UK • Counsellor conducts an initial assessment of the client, to make informed decisions about : • what specific behaviours need to be changed/reinforced • what the most appropriate ‘treatment’ methods are

9. Behaviourist Approach (II) • Treatments • systematic desensitisation (interview/presentation anxiety) • verbal reinforcement (Krumboltz and Thorsen) • modelling (e.g. videotapes - examples of effective behaviour) • simulated work experience • teaching decision-making skills • behavioural rehearsal • behavioural self-control

10. Developmental Approach • Emphasises the importance of clients’ emotions and attitudes. • Heavily influenced by Roger’s ‘person/client-centred’ therapy & Super’s theory of vocational development. • Occupational choice and developmental decisions are processes involving the whole person. • Theoretical Concepts • Occupational Self-Concept : those parts of the self-concept relating to work & leisure activities (see Super) • Organismic Valuing Process : innate capacity for adequate valuing of experience within themselves (those pertinent to occupational choice and development)

11. Developmental Approach (II) Theoretical Concepts, continued.. • Conditions of Worth & Occupational Self-Concept • introjected value patterns (from assessments of others) accumulated over the lifespan. Often lead to faulty career decision making • Occupational Self-Concept allowing Realistic Perception • Roger’s : people have a ‘locus of evaluation’ - we try to understand and clarify our personal meanings (e.g. failing chemistry... ‘do I really want to be a Doctor?’)

12. Developmental Approach (III) Practical Considerations • Increasing realisation that most people are unable to adjust to life without distortions of reality • Both client and/or counsellor may be misperceiving themselves, each other, the world of work • Clients come into counselling at varying states of ‘readiness’ for making/implementing occupational decisions • Goal of counselling is to facilitate the client’s self-actualisation, by providing a ‘safe’ environment in which to explore their occupational self-concept.

13. Elements of a Developmental Counselling Approach • Fundamental Counselling Relationship • Counsellor tries to create an emotionally supportive, empathic climate • Use of tests to facilitate occupational self-exploration • Developmental careers counselling differs from traditional ‘person-centred counselling’ in that it often centres on the use of psychometric tests (NB requested or provided). Issue of low test scores • Use of occupational information to explore ‘work’ • Issue of ‘unfavourable’ occupational information • Focused Exploration to assist occupational decision making • focus on client ‘thinking difficulties’ impeding occupational decision making • Planning the implementation of an occupational self-concept • ‘Action Planning’ following the crystallisation of a career decision

14. Comparison of Career Counselling Approaches • All approaches … • aim to help the client obtain greater fulfilment by an adequate matching of their capabilities to work • acknowledge the importance of self-direction and development • Developmental - more sensitive than other approaches to the notion that career choice can be highly irrational • Behavioural - place more emphasis than other approaches on the ‘mechanics’ of career decision making • Differentialist - use typologies to explain to clients how they interact with their environments.

15. The Societal Context of Careers Counselling • Herr & Cramer (1992) : potential clients of career counselling - more than just youth, pre-employment. • Additional contributions workplace counsellors can make : • counselling workers in dual-career families • counselling for individual self-analysis and planning • assessment centres (development centres) • life & career planning workshops • outplacement counselling *, pre-retirement counselling ** • consultation with mgmt about job enrichment schemes • provide support for employees coping with transition • educate line managers on the importance of individual differences in needs and interests

16. * Redundancy Counselling Lopez (1983) : Ways in which counsellors can assist those made redundant • identify individuals’ marketable, transferable skills • outlet for individuals to let off steam • discuss individuals’ support networks (social, financial etc) • reinforce individuals self-worth, build self-confidence ** Pre-Retirement Counselling • feelings of loss & ‘bereavement’ • Hopson & Adams (1976) 7 phases of transition 1. Immobilisation 5. Testing 2. Minimization 6. Searching for Meaning 3. Depression 7. Internalisation 4. Acceptance of Reality

17. Conclusions • Herr & Cramer (1992) : shift from personnel management to personal development • Employees are increasingly being seen holistically • Employees as ‘corporate resources’; links being made between ‘development’ and ‘behavioural health’ • Shift in careers counselling from economic health (FMJ and preparation for work) to encompass development of self-efficacy, coping with stress and transitions, organisational life generally.