Guidance Community Discussion Space

Why is there no Welsh dimension? I note you have a link to Careers Scotland and could therefore add a link to Careers Wales. Additionally, this information would need to reflect graduate level information across the UK.

Phil Jarvis has helped create career resources now used by millions of students and adults in education, government and industry settings across Canada and around the world. Examples include Careers Canada, Careers Provinces, Choices, Canada Prospects, The Real Game Series, the Blueprint for Life/Work Designs, Canada WorkinfoNet, Destination 2020, The Edge Magazine and Smart Options.

He is a passionate advocate of equipping all citizens with the career and life management competencies they need to find meaning, purpose and prosper in the workforce and society of the third millennium.  He was a moving force in setting up the Canadian Blueprint for Career Development.  This was taken as a reference point for the subsequent development of the Australian Blueprint for Career Development . 

At the Centre for Guidance Studies event on the 10 July 2006, Phil Jarvis gave a presentation which you can access here, at which a key message was that increasingly it makes sense to see Career Development primarily as about process and learning rather than about outcome and placement.

You can access the presentation and related article here - what do you think of this new paradigm for Career Develpment - is it resonant for you?  Whether you attended the forum in Derby or not share your responses and ideas here.

Don't forget, all comments posted on or before the 11th August will contribute to a CeGS e-briefing document which will review and draw together responses to the CeGS event and Blueprint document.  You are encouraged to contribute your ideas in time for inclusion in this bulletin, but obviously, discussion is welcome on this website for an indefinite period.  Make your voice heard! 

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GUIDANCE THROUGH NEW TECHNOLOGY
26th June 2006

This day was led by Professor Tony Watts and Professor Jim Sampson and focused on cutting edge developments in guidance and new technology nationally and internationally. There were focused workshops on:-

The challenges and benefits of telephone guidance work

New technologies and their value

Delivering careers education, information and guidance via the internet

Researching and evaluation of a new technological guidance tool

Delegates during the day raised the following questions, to which you can add your own thoughts and comments using the discussion features on this website.  You will need to join the site to contribute to discussion.

Key questions raised in the day

• does the use of different delivery methods (eg phone and web) alter the definition of ‘guidance’ and does this matter?
• what are the necessary considerations related to online chat in real time with an adviser (like connexions direct)
• how can staff be encouraged  to use technology in guidance interviews?
• how to ensure that different advice and guidance ICT and face-to-face strategies are “joined up” and that referrals are made appropriately

This website also includes resources on the theme of ICT and career guidance which you can access via this link.

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CAREER EDUCATION AND GUIDANCE
28th June 2006.

This day was led by Dr Bill Law. As well as giving an overview of the challenging current developments in careers education and guidance in schools and colleges, it explored the evidence-base for changes in careers education and guidance and new developing models for successful delivery. Workshops provided opportunities to focus on:- 

The implications for quality standards

Children’s trust – the future for careers education and guidance

The new 14 to 19 year old agenda

Using positive role models in aspiration raising

Research and models of delivery of careers education and guidance

Delegates during the day raised the following questions, to which you can add your own thoughts and comments using the discussion features on this website.  You will need to join the site to contribute to discussions.

Key Questions raised in the day

• What will be the careers co-ordinator’s, careers teacher’s  and outside agency adviser’s roles in three years time in the average school?
• How do we encourage young people to think and decision make independently?
• Is there an argument for the creation of a cross-sector, lifelong learning group to be a voice for CEG at government level? (also to enhance research and staff development provision)
• Will the forthcoming quality standards be sufficient to prevent a return to the pre careers service privatisation scenario (1993) of very disparate guidance funding levels, as we move to children’s trusts and “single pot” local area agreements
• If careers advisers are a nation – will there ever be a state again?
• What should be the ‘entitlement’ for CEG for a 14 year old
  -from whom
  -how?
• Many sixth form students are so focussed on going to University they won’t even consider other possibilities. How and should guidance practitioners encourage them to consider other options?
• Isn’t the specialised diploma more or less the same as GNVQ?
• Many young people have “habits of mind” (as described by Dr Bill Law). Do they need to question these before being able to consider “changing mind”? Is there a difficulty around lack of security to move forward and the need to know that there is something to go back to , a viable alternative, a bolt hole? How do we give young people confidence to change the mindset and what ongoing support do they need to copy with a “change of mind”

This website also includes resources on the theme careers and the curriculum which you can access via this link.

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NEW CAREERS ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE
29th June, 2006

Led by Professor Jenny Bimrose this day focussed on the needs of people in the workforce and the need for ever more complex guidance in a rapidly changing economy. It drew on current longitudinal research. Workshops included:

How apprentices manage their career development

The mature workforce – the government’s new agenda

How Guidance can support Skills for Life

Working with employers – upskilling the workforce

Delegates during the day raised the following questions, to which you can add your own thoughts and comments using the discussion features on this website.  You will need to join the site to contribute to discussions.

Key questions raised in the day

• Given the wide range of people and organisations who offer “IAG” what is the Unique Selling Point of dedicated IAG organisations/practitioners (public or private), and what can they offer in the workplace?
• Is there sufficient time for reflection and continuing professional development for people in work?
• Are the concept of career management and career development only a luxury for well paid professionals?
• How to go about finding a good mentor at work (to help develop one’s career)
• Is it possible to have impartial guidance in the workplace?
• In terms of career development, how important are personal competencies, inter-personal skills and emotional intelligence?
• Is there a national network for people working with apprentices and their supporters to raise aspirations – even Aimhigher is fragmentary in regard to this?

This website also includes resources on the related theme of workplace learning, which you can access via this link

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ADVANCING PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
30th June 2006.

Led by Siobhan Neary-Booth this day provided opportunities for guidance practitioners, trainees and interested observers to learn about new professional practices and to share knowledge, so enabling individuals to map out different ways in which they could develop meaningful professional development for themselves.  Workshops included:

Ethical Practice – what is it?

Advanced interviewing skills and underpinning theories

New Leadership skills in Guidance organisations

Practitioners as researchers – what are the benefits?

Delegates during the day raised the following questions, to which you can add your own thoughts and comments using the discussion features on this website.  You will need to join the site to contribute to discussions.

Key questions raised in the day

• What proportion of a guidance worker’s time should be spent undergoing “cpd” activities?
• Should cpd be compulsory for guidance practitioners? If so how should it be monitored?
  Who should pay for cpd?
• How can we influence government policy when the government is not interested in meaningful consultation?
• If ONE opinion is that NVQs don’t include enough theory – what has been done to introduce a “technical certificate” as per apprenticeships?
• Is connexions here to stay? Will there be a reversion to Careers Advice?
• Given the diversification and targeting of client groups there would seem a dearth of material on specifically effective practice (interventions). How can we speed up the production and sharing of high quality research into practice in this area?
• In your opinion what are the advantages of training to be a personal adviser via the NVQ route as opposed to the QCG?

You may also be interested in related topics within this website including:

ethical practice

interviewing skills and theory for guidance practice

research in practice

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On yesterday's (Monday 24th July) BBC Radio 4 'You and Yours' broadcast, one feature concerned 'How good is Careers Advice in Schools?'  On the BBC website it states: 

Schools careers advice has attracted criticism from organisations like the CBI who say the guidance given to pupils is inadequate. Professor Kiran Trehan, head of the business school at the University of Central England in Birmingham tells us about the poor help she got as a school girl.

Kiran's account of her experience of Careers Advice is pretty damning - you can listen to the whole interview on the BBC website link above, but the following is an extract:

My first experience of a Careers Service was very much to stifle me and my aspirations, particularly living in the cultural context that I came from, so I guess my first experience wasn't a very positive one.

BBC site, 'How good is careers advice in schools ?'

interviewer: What did they actually say to you?

Pretty much that going to University wasn't really an option and had I considered working in other areas which were very much centred around retail or general admin jobs. My aspirations were to go to university but I think a lot of their advice had to do with the area I was brought up in around Forest gate. Had I listened to that and not had my own single minded determination I guess it would not have happened [going to university]

. ...   I think it was just them having low expectations of children that came from working class backgrounds and in addition to that were from ethnic minority communities. ....  I wouldn't want to leave the impression that Careers Advisers or the service as a whole was completely inadequate, I think they were doing a role and they had a purpose, but I think it is really important for Careers Advisers to think about the knowledge and information they portray because it does have long-term implications.

You and Yours are planning a further interview today Tuesday 25th July 2006, with a Space Scientist who apparantly was told she should become a nurse, but then there is a debate on Careers Advice on Wednesday 26th July at approximately 12.20 with Anthony Thompson (CBI), Kath Wright (ACEG) and another from industry.

It seems recently that Careers Advisers have been blamed for all sorts of aspects of inequality.  Whilst clearly the experiences highlighted in the BBC programme are shocking a more pertinent question might be are they representative of what is going on in careers guidance today, and how can the Careers Guidance as a profession defend itself from these attacks?  Please use this discussion forum to give the case for the defence.  It seems to me that the perspective of the careers guidance community has sometimes been missing from the discussions - for instance, the recent attribution of blame to careers advisers for perpetuating gender inequality - if only careers advisers were on their own powerful enough to challenge inequality I'd be delighted!

This space is your opportunity to redress this potential imbalance and inform what is a lively debate.  Looking on the bright side, any renewed focus on the activities of Career Guidance is an opportunity to speak up about the potential value of the work, whilst recognising that of course as with any profession there may be instances of less than good practice.  So how do you respond to the suggestion that Careers Advisers contribute to the perpetuation of inequality by lowering aspirations and colluding with the status quo?  Can you give examples of more enlightened practice, or any explanation of the experiences of the interviewees above?

This site also contains a discussion around Digby Jones' suggestion that careers advisers are to blame for gender inequality to which you may also want to contribute.

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Although Careers Advisers are encouraged to challenge clients in terms of the perceived realism of their aspirations I wonder if this is going far enough.In terms of equality of opportunity./gender stereotyping ought we to take things further? This could ,for example, involve talking to girls who express an interest in "practical" work about bricklaying rather than just child care. I am not sure this always happens. Furthermore I am even less sure that it would happen in reverse.  If a male client wanted to look at "practical work" would we consider  dressmaking and  child care or would we fear being ridiculed for doing this?