Jenny Bimrose

Girls and women: Challenges for careers guidance practice

This article reviews the position of women in the UK labour market and the increasing complexity of their employment patterns. It criticises current career theory for girls and women and examines enhancers and inhibitors of womens career development. Finally, some promising developments in theory-building for girls and women are briefly discussed, together with some implications for practice.

Knowledge Maturing in the Semantic MediaWiki: A Design Study in Career Guidance

The evolutionary process in which knowledge objects are transformed from informal and highly contextualized artefacts into explicitly linked and formalized learning objects, together with the corresponding organisational learning processes, have been termed Knowledge Maturing. Whereas wikis and other tools for collaborative building of knowledge have been suggested as useful tools in this context, they lack several features for supporting the knowledge maturing process in organisational settings. To overcome this, we have developed a prototype based on Semantic MediaWiki which enhances the wiki with various maturing functionalities like maturing indicators or mark-up support.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: An Ethical Dilemma for Career Guidance Practice?.

Sexual harassment in the workplace poses something of an ethical dilemma for career guidance practice. This is because it is now known that about half of all working women in the UK are likely to be victims at some stage of their employment and that the effects on individuals are invariably negative and can be positively harmful. What, therefore, is the role for career guidance—if any—in preparing and/or supporting girls and women who might face, or who are suffering from, sexual harassment in the labour market? This issue is thrown into particularly sharp focus by recommendations from recent studies into gender inequality in the workplace which exhort practitioners to combat stereotyping by encouraging girls and women into non-traditional vocational education, training and jobs. Yet research into non-traditional occupational areas reveals that there are particularly high levels of reporting of sexual harassment by victims. This article examines some of the research evidence on workplace sexual harassment and begins to explore implications for guidance practice.

Guidance for girls and women

The depth and breadth of gender inequality worldwide is persistent and pernicious. The potency of the social injustice emanating from gender inequality becomes particularly apparent when viewed through the lens of intersectionality, where gender collides with other structural variables that correlate strongly with social disadvantage like ethnicity, age, socio-economic class, sexual orientation and disability. In this chapter, indicators of this type of inequality are examined, like the gender pay gap, occupational segregation, non-standard employment and sexual harassment. Approaches that offer more than traditional career theories for supporting girls and women through their career trajectories are considered. Scenarios, using the medium of case studies, explore the application of gender-sensitive approaches to career guidance practice. Since the purpose of career guidance is to assist each individual realise their true potential, practice frameworks need to be adopted that reflect the true experiences of girls and women.

Knowledge maturing activities and practices fostering organisational learning: results of an empirical study

Knowledge work is performed in all occupations and across all industries. The level of similarity of knowledge work allows for designing supporting tools that can be widely used. In this paper an activity-based perspective towards knowledge work is taken. Based on findings from a previous ethnographically-informed study, we identified valuable activities to be supported in order to increase knowledge maturing inside companies. The goal of this paper is to contribute to which knowledge maturing activities are deemed important, so that they can be supported by IT services. Quantitative and qualitative data have been collected in 126 organisations of different size, sector and knowledge intensity. Important feedback and issues emerged and need to be managed in order to support success in the knowledge maturing activities that allow improvement of organisational learning through the dissemination and application of the most appropriate knowledge.

Supervision in careers guidance: Empowerment or control?

Abstract Like many other professions, careers guidance is currently undergoing rapid and radical change. But the Careers Service is still operating to nationally agreed ‘core training objectives’ which determine both initial training (Diploma in Careers Guidance Part I) and supervisory training (Diploma in Careers Guidance Part II). Recent changes influencing guidance practice and training are outlined, and the predominant mode of current supervision within the Careers Service is identified as ‘managerial’ in character. This is explained in terms of both the historical development of the service and its funding mechanisms. A model for supervisory practice for the future is presented, identifying three essential elements: organisational commitment, contractual agreement and an explicit framework.

ICT – the new frontier? Pushing the boundaries of careers practice

Much progress has been made in integrating information and communications technology (ICT) into careers practice, but there is still room for improvement. An international lens is adopted to examine some key elements that contribute to the successful integration of ICT into careers practice. We start by exploring the role of policy, using the UK as a case study. Next, the perceptions that Finnish career practitioners have of ICT are reviewed using research findings into the different ways they think about social media and its purpose in career services. Finally, lessons learned from the design and integration of online services within career development programming in Canada are discussed that ensure accessibility both to practitioners and their clients.

Styles of Career Decision-Making

Distinctive styles of client decision-making have emerged from case study research into the effectiveness of career guidance. This paper explores some findings from the third year of a longitudinal study currently underway in England, which relate to the ways clients approach transitionpoints in their careers and make the decisions that move them on. Data analysis reveals four career decision-making styles: evaluative, strategic, aspirational and opportunistic. Overall, it is evident that the choices and decisions made as individuals progress towards longer-term career destinations are multi-dimensional, complex, sometimes being implemented over an extended time frame and not always rational. For practice, implications of these findings include the need for practitioners to place less emphasis on planning for certainty and more tolerance of undecidedness.

Older women's career development and social inclusion

This paper considers womens career development and the potential contribution of career development theory, research, practice and policy in advancing a social inclusion agenda. In particular, the paper focuses on older women in the contexts of an ageing population, labour market shortages and Australias social inclusion agenda. Supporting young people to move from school and into the workforce has been a major focus of policy and service provision in Australia and internationally but there is growing recognition in Australia and internationally that adults may also benefit from career development support; its lack of provision has been criticised. In the context of Australias social inclusion agenda, older women, in particular, may benefit from career development.

Mid-Career Progression and Development: The Role for Career Guidance and Counseling

Many individuals experience a number of career transitions. This is a result of the interplay of labor market structure and individual choice such that many individuals are increasingly changing jobs more often during their working lives. Knowledge and understanding of these transitions provide powerful insights into the ways in which learning and guidance can be used to support individual progression and development across the life-course. Key findings are presented from a 2-year research study into forms of individual career progression, which focused on the work-related learning and career development of mid-career, mainly skilled workers in 10 European countries. With emphasis on how careers are changing, this research explored the different paths taken to develop the knowledge and skills used in employment, how and why participants gained qualifications, why they changed jobs, and why they stayed in the same career. The study involved a comprehensive literature review coupled with an online survey of 1,157 participants in the 10 countries, and some follow-up interviews.