Let’s revisit Career Guidance, its theories and its models!

1. Let’s revisit Career Guidance, its theories and its models! Adrian Hancock Coventry University

2. Aims for today • At the end of the session it is intended that participants will have • Familiarised themselves with the basis and elements of career theories and models that underpin the delivery of career guidance • Identified more recent developments in career theory, including motivational theories

3. Main Career Theories • What are the main elements of a careers theory? The agent; the environment; the action (after Killeen, cited in Watts et al, 1996) • What are the main theories of career choice? Matching, trait factor; structural; developmentalist; social learning; social constructionist.

4. Main Career Theories • What are Holland’s types and can you name them? And what model of intervention do they inform? Realistic; Investigative; Artistic; Social; Enterprising; and Conventional.

5. Holland’s Personality Types Hexagon

6. Holland’s Hexagon • Realistic – prefer to deal with Things. Practical, mechanical, stable Example: Carpenter. • Investigative – prefer to deal with Things and Ideas. Intellectual, reserved, independent, and scholarly Example: Pharmacist. • Artistic – prefer to deal with Ideas and People Aesthetic, creative, independent Example: Actor.

7. Holland’s Hexagon • Social - prefer to deal with People. Helping, Informing, Teaching, and Counselling Example: Social Worker; Careers Adviser • Enterprising - prefer to deal with Data and People. Persuasive, Energetic, and Sociable Example : Salesperson • Conventional – prefer to deal with Data and Things. Careful, Conforming, Conservative Example: Administrator

8. Main Career Theories • Who upset careers advisers in 1977 with his article ‘The Social Condition: consequences and limitations of career guidance’; and how did he or she go on to modify his or her views? Ken Roberts, by suggesting that careers advisers should help clients to adjust to, and make the best of, available opportunities, rather than promoting the illusion of choice. He subsequently modified his views, e.g. at the ICG conference in 1996 by exploring the ideas of prolonged transitions to adulthood • On which theory and theorist does the ‘career rainbow’ concept draw? Donald Super’s ideas of developmentalism and the notion of occupying different roles at different life stages

9. Opportunity Structure: Ken Roberts • Educational Attainment • Job Opportunities • Environment • Home (class, culture) • Peers

10. Ken Roberts 2009‘Opportunity Structure: Then and Now’ • Constraints still there – lack of intergenerational occupational class mobility suggests choice is still limited by class and culture • Social and cultural capital impact on careers • Working class young people go to lower ranked universities and enter lower paid (often non-graduate) jobs than middle class people • Therefore, a different opportunity structure but one still restricted and bounded for many: for example, jobs such as retail and hospitality have replaced factory work and mining • We are no longer conveyed in metaphorical public vehicles to the factories, mines and offices. We now travel in cars – but, crucially, not everyone has the same engine or fuel supply.

11. Ken Roberts 2009‘Opportunity Structure: Then and Now’ ‘Transitions into the workforce are more prolonged and more complicated for the majority of young people than was the case in the 1950s and 1960s. At age 16, 18 and 21 their eventual destinations are less certain than used to be the case. Certainly, young people today make more choices during the transition, but there is not a shred of evidence indicating that the overall role choice in explaining outcomes has expanded.’ (p365)

12. More theory • Who talks about Horizons for Action? Hodkinson et al’s Careership Theory from early 1990s: One of the key concepts is the notion of ‘horizons for action’: ‘‘No one can choose a placement that does not exist or for which they would not be considered. Horizons for action, therefore, are partly determined by external opportunities in the training markets. Equally, no one can choose a placement that they do not perceive as suitable or appropriate for themselves. Therefore, horizons are also formed by their own subjective perceptions.’ (1996, p.3)

13. Hodkinson et al • Pragmatically rational decisions (influenced by socialisation: class, culture, ethnicity etc) • Turning Points

14. More theory • Social Learning and Community Interaction, e.g. Krumboltz (1976) and Law (1981) 'The way in which who-does-what in society is decided is the product of a plurality of interpersonal transactions conducted in local settings, and on the basis of interaction within and between groups of which the individual is a member - the community ... The evidence gives significance to the personal exchanges which occur between individuals and the people with whom they are in community contact - notably family, neighbourhood, peer group, ethnic group and teachers at school.' (Law, 1981, p.218)

15. New approaches to helping • What is planned happenstance? Answer: compared to ‘traditional, rationally-based’ decisions, planned happenstance embraces change and uncertainty, so that people take a contingent, improvisational, alert and curiosity-led approach, and embrace unexpected opportunities for learning and growth – or, to put it another way, ‘to be in the right place at the right time’ can be the outcome of this approach

16. Planned happenstance Traditional approachPlanned happenstance Makes clear decisions Embraces indecision Process is logical and Recognises that the future is systematic unpredictable and uncertain Identifies an ideal job Unexpected events offer opportunities Matches skills and Curiosity-driven interests to job Narrows down choices Adopts a flexible attitude to changes in circumstances http://www.sgm.ac.uk/pubs/micro_today/pdf/050908.pdf

17. Some further approaches • Motivational interviewing Is a directive, client-centred counselling style for changing the behaviour of clients. Compared with nondirective counselling, it is more focused and goal-directed. The examination and resolution of ambivalence is its central purpose, and the counsellor is intentionally directive in pursuing this goal.

18. Planned happenstance Mitchell et al (1999:118) argue that advisers need to help client’s to develop five new skills: • Curiosity: explore new opportunities • Persistence: in the face of setbacks • Flexibility: changing attitudes and circumstances • Optimism: in finding new opportunities • Risk Taking: in the face of uncertainty

19. Some further approaches • Narrative Interviewing • Career Coaching

20. Advantages (and disadvantages) of theory? • Properly grounds and informs practitioner work • Develops and deepens understanding • Prompts critical and reflective practice • Militates against tick box, superficial assessments and solutions • Challenges assumptions • Promotes ‘right’ conduct • ‘Know what, how, why’ • ‘Theories’ are descriptions of reported or interpreted phenomena? • They describe and analyse but don’t solve • On the one hand this...but the other, that • Borrow from other disciplines • Don’t (necessarily) help you meet targets

21. Conclusions • Theories of career choice aim to describe, categorise and analyse a certain phenomenon – that is, people progress throughout their career • They draw on psychological and sociological theories in their concern with agency, structure and action • No one theory can ‘account’ for an individual’s choices and actions • They can inform practice, deepen understanding and bolster the set of special skills that guidance practitioners possess • They can also heighten our appreciation of an individual’s unique narrative within a social context of shared meanings and culture

22. References • Hancock, A. N. (2009) ‘The Effects of Chance , Turning Points and Routine on Male Career Development’. Journal of Education and Work 22 (2), 121-137 • Hodkinson, P., Sparkes, A.C. and Hodkinson, H. (1996) Triumphs and Tears: Young People, Markets and the Transition from School to Work. London: Fulton. • Holland, J. L. (1985) Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments, 2nd Edn. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. • Law, B. (1981) ‘Community Interaction: a “Mid-Range” Focus For Theories of Career Development in Young Adults’, British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 9 (2): 142-158. Krumboltz, J.D. (1976) 'A Social Learning Theory of Career Selection', The Counselling Psychologist, 6 (1), 71-80 • Levin, A. S., Krumboltz, J. D., and Mitchell, K., E. (1999) ‘Planned Happenstance: Constructing Unexpected Career Opportunities’. Journal of Counseling and Development 77, 115-124

23. References • Roberts, K. (1977) ‘The Social Condition, Consequences and Limitations of Careers Guidance’. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 5 (1), 1-9. • Roberts, K. (2009) ‘Opportunity Structures: Then and Now.’ Journal of Education and Work 22 (5), 355-368 • Super, D.E. (1981) ‘Approaches to Occupational Choice and Career Development’. In Watts, A.G., Super, D. and Kidd, J.M. (1981) Career Development in Britain, Cambridge: Hobsons • Watts, A.G., Law, B., Killen, J., Kidd, J.M. and Hawthorn, R. Rethinking Careers Education and Guidance. London: Routledge