Rachel Mulvey

Mid-career changes symposium

Increasing instability, particularly in European countries grappling with major socio-economic consequences of the recent economic crisis, characterises modern labour markets. The paradigm of lifel...

How to be a good professional: existentialist continuing professional development (CPD)

ABSTRACT This article reflects on the construct and practice of continuing professional development (CPD) and its significance for the professional careers workforce. The article presents the idea of the CPD triad and considers how professional bodies, employers and individuals can each benefit from a practitioners ongoing commitment to continuing professional development. The tension between the practitioners quest for lifelong learning is set against professional body demands, leading to the conclusion that these are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Consideration is given to propositional, practical and procedural knowledge, and to overall competence. The article explores an existentialist approach to professional learning, and concludes that, along with personal agency, this could usefully be adopted by career practitioners to weather turbulent times.

Introduction to the symposium edition: Professional regulation: philosophy, policy and practice

This symposium edition on professional regulation was commissioned at a time when it appeared that counsellors and psychotherapists were about to follow practitioner psychologists into statutory regulation in the then Health Professions Council (HPC). After the 2010 election the coalition government changed New Labour’s policy towards professional regulation in favour of a form of quality assured selfregulation. This is to be enforced by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (the Authority) which had previously been the Council for Health Care Regulatory Excellence (CHRE). Enforcement will be by means of a scheme to accredit the voluntary registers of the unregulated health and social care professions. This shows that whatever professions may want in terms of regulation, the power to decide ultimately rests with the government. Regulatory failure in several fields had already led to a review of the effectiveness of existing medical regulatory models, and the development of the concept of Right Touch Regulation. As this edition is published, the new model of accredited voluntary registers will be the subject of a public launch. This symposium comprises articles which together span a wide range of views and positions on regulation. Some focus on regulatory models. Waller and Guthrie consider statutory regulation in the HPC using as case studies art therapists and counsellors and psychotherapists, the former regulated in the HPC and the latter kept out by the change of government policy. Cayton and Bilton present the CHRE model of Right Touch Regulation (RTR) and the scheme to accredit voluntary registers. These two articles clearly show the contrast between the statutory regulatory assumption that professions are risky dangerous even and the CHRE approach to proportionate risk assessment and management. This approach has been further developed by the CHRE and is embodied in the scheme to accredit voluntary registers, as outlined in the article by Cayton and Bilton. This latter approach relies on appropriate and proportionate risk assessment and mitigation and the integrity of the individual practitioners. The principles of RTR may sit more comfortably with counselling and guidance professionals than the greater rigidity of statutory regulation. House and Musgrave take a different view and propose a local model of professional accountability, that in their view both protects the consumer and

Low qualified and low skilled : the need for context sensitive careers support

ABSTRACT The research investigation into the career trajectories of low-skilled, mid-career individuals in Europe, on which this symposium focused, has emphasised the importance of career support. Participants sometimes had not even completed their initial school qualifications. Often, though not always, they had significant skill deficits. The majority of participants typically had not had any consistent access to high-quality support services at critical turning points in their career trajectories. In some cases, the inappropriate and/or poor quality of the career support had become part of the problem. Findings indicate that career support services for these individuals must be based on context-sensitive frameworks for practice, which integrate knowledge and understanding of the broad social and economic factors that impact their career trajectories.

Exploring Career Decision-Making Styles across Three European Countries.

Career decisions are amongst the most important we make. Unsurprisingly, much published research exists on this particular aspect of career behaviour. However, the overwhelming majority of studies have been carried out on young people making initial career decisions. This paper extends our understanding by examining how mid-career adults in three European countries (Denmark, France and Italy) actually make career decisions. Characteristic patterns of behaviour recur when individuals approach points of transition or of crisis; each of these transitioning styles is illustrated by an iconic case. Emergent findings support the growing body of evidence that challenges the dominant policy and practice orthodoxy, which places rationality at the centre of the process, by recognising the importance of emotion and context.