Deirdre Hughes

An Expanded Model of Careers Professional Identity: Time for Change?.

ABSTRACT The careers profession is challenged significantly by government, employers and potential consumers to articulate its added value to society. Neoliberal discourses such as privatisation, deregulation, flexicurity and a self-help culture are impacting upon arrangements for the design and delivery of all-age careers provision across the UK. In this article, a UK-wide alliance designed to reconceptualise professional formation and identity is examined and critiqued. Findings from experiences in England illuminate the necessity for credible and authentic professional reconstruction. This is challenging work, where boundary maintenance is contested and disconnect with employer networks is prevalent. The article concludes that there is a need for strong leadership and more collective efforts to harness and secure careers professionals’ identity and impact.

Testing times: careers market policies and practices in England and the Netherlands

Careers work is a very political business. Since the early 1990s, successive governments in England and the Netherlands have persistently challenged those working in the careers sector to demonstrate the educational, social and economic value and impact of their work. In this context, the marketisation of career guidance policies and practices has expanded, with a growing assumption that market-based goods and services ensure greater responsiveness to consumer choice and offer better and/or more innovative services for lower prices. In this article, we do not intend to give a comparison of trends in England and the Netherlands. We only examine the impact of market principles applied to career guidance provision in both countries. Findings indicate such provision for young people is on a steady decline. Lessons learned from these two nations indicate that a market for quality career services does not exist in schools and colleges. As a result, marketisation and privatisation of career services have led to an impoverished and fragmented supply of services. Greater attention by governments in career guidance policies for young people (and adults) is necessary to reduce the widening gap between ‘the haves and have nots’ in society. Failure to reduce labour market mismatch through new forms of careers dialogue is not only damaging and costly for individuals, families and employers, but for the taxpayer too.

New school for the old school: career guidance and counselling in education

These are critical times for career guidance and counselling in education. Wherein the twentieth century emphasis was on training well-socialised citizens and well-trained employees with technical skills (Cedefop, 2010), the twenty-first century attention is focused on active citizenship (Veugelers, 2009), intrinsic motivation (Grugulis & Vincent, 2009; Payne, 2000), the ability to work together (Leckey & McGuigan, 1997), and proactive adaptability and resilience to changing circumstances (Hillage, Regan, Dickson, & McLoughlin, 2002). Prerequisites for these so-called twenty-first century skills are self-awareness and self-directedness of students (Savickas et al., 2009; Schulz, 2008). In education and educational policy, self-direction has until today often been conceived of as ‘self-regulation’ on the basis of individuals taking more responsibility, being in control and the development of metacognition.

Working Relationships between Careers Services within and outside Higher Education.

The relationships between Careers Service Organisations and Higher Education Careers Advisory Services have in recent years been made more volatile by competitive pressures induced through quasi-market reforms. Within a lifelong learning agenda, however, there have been moves towards closer working between the two sets of services. The extent of current links is reviewed, and their nature is analysed in relation to students pre-entry, on-course and post-exit, in relation to adult guidance, and in relation to activities which cross-cut these areas of work - labour-market information, quality standards, and staff development. The scope for further development of these links is discussed.

Careers work in England’s schools: politics, practices and prospects

ABSTRACT This article provides a five-year historical synopsis of how central government policies are impacting on careers work in England’s secondary schools. It shows attempts to reshape and re-engineer careers provision for young people, through an evolving careers experiment. The extent to which such exogenous arrangements are facilitating and/or impeding progress to secure independent and impartial careers guidance for young people is considered. Some brief comparisons are made to other national careers policy developments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. A blame culture and evidence-based rhetoric has crept into England’s policy discourse. The career development profession has largely been left on the periphery of the careers experiment and this article seeks explanations of this oversight. There are tensions yet to be resolved when it comes to a quasi-market experiment in careers work and the role of government. Key lessons learned are outlined for consideration by policy-makers, academic and practitioners both within and outside of the UK.

Connecting to the muses

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. Pablo PicassoWe set out to bring into being a Creative Methods issue ...