To dream an impossible dream?
My final post will talk about the kind of guidance I would like to be delivering in the not toooo distant future. Here goes:
- I would like to be part of a service that is open to all and fosters links with the local area, through joint working with other community organisations, adapting services to the local needs. It would be staffed by a mix of people, but have at it’s core people from the local area if possible. I would offer apprenticeships to 16 year olds from local schools to train as career advisers. I would also try to recruit older people from the community for “grown up” apprenticeships, who were maybe changing career.
- Through outreach programmes, operating in youth clubs etc and perhaps a mentor scheme, where older people could be buddied up with younger ones and learn from their experiences in the labour market, I would be able to work more closely with the clients and their families and the wider community.
- I would ask those already working in the local labour market to contribute to a resource around employment in that company, and ask them to leave contact details to find out more from the individual concerned, not from what the company says. You could have a website dedicated to this, allowing for anonymity so people could tell the truth about employers/working conditions…
- Different techniques could be used, leaving more to the adviser to decide on the situation and the use of their judgement, moving away from the restriction of following an operating model such as CPJ.
- As stated in the class the other day, it would be great if the managers were also working as practitioners too, and participated in peer reviews etc. I believe this would give managers a better idea of what the job entails and more credibility in the eyes of the staff.
- Caroline mentioned a way of measuring the success of the service, by using people’s stories….probably highly unpopular with funders but an excellent idea! You could have a story book with people’s own stories in their own words, telling of what impact career guidance had had in their lives etc. There could be testimonials on the web. Like mentioned in class, blogs by people using the service too could be nice way of people supporting each other and connecting with the world of gudiance.
- Advisers would have the links with the jobcentres cut to allow for less of a bureaucratic role. They would not get their books signed by the Careers Service.
- Schools advisers would also be available one evening a week for example in the local youth club or Scouts Hall, etc, to offer guidance. Parents and carers would be encouraged to attend these sessions. Tea and coffee would be served of course!
- I poached this idea from another service, but what about training up local people to be CV advisers? They could run clinics alongside trained Careers Advisers to check over CV’s.
So, that is my wonderful world of guidance. I would LOVE to see some of these ideas put into practice, but at the moment it’s “blue-sky” thinking as they say. It would be good to be part of a service that is valued by the people that use it. So, my last point is that we need to have some way of feeding user’s views into the delivery and provision, in meaningful way. Perhaps the internet offers a way to do so, like blogging by clients!
A few reflections
Doing my final placement at the naval base at Rosyth, where they offer career guidance to those leaving the Forces. Haven’t had much of a chance to talk theory yet, will leave til next week when I get to observe one to one interviews. I think it will be interesting to see what approaches they use, there are a growing number of people affected by depression related problems due to combat in Iraq/Afghanistan and who have sustained injuries that will change their lives. Offering career guidance to people in this situation will inevitably need the adviser to engage the service leaver with the “community” that is around veterans i.e. British Legion, charitable organisations. The Forces could be seen as a massive community that provides support for its members in many aspects of life e.g. they get dental/medical care through the forces. Of course such membership comes at a price and is controlled by the state. I saw a number of young people, mainly teenage boys, when I was at Connexions who wanted to sign up. They saw it as a way out of their deprived community and a chance to get a decent job, and perhaps be part of another community that offered more stability than they found at home?
On a different note I read a book by the Dalai Lama recently in which he talks about developing empathy and compassion for your fellow humans. He says that “there are some factors that can help one deal with others more skillfully. First it is helpful to understand and appreciate the background of the person you are dealing with..” This simple sentiment struck a chord with the postmodern/community guidance approach. So hey there must be something in this!:)
Careers Scotland and Counselling
After all our debating this week, I thought I better get down a few reflections before I head back to Wales, and enjoy some time with my community down there!
The talk we had by Careers Scotland Andrew Paine was very well delivered and he provided a technical rationale for the CS approach, but as I said in class he never mentioned core conditions e.g. empathy, genuineness etc. Where was the emphasis on client/counsellor relationship? I thought today after Pete’s lecture – isn’t the Career Planning Journey attempting to make guidance an applied science? He didn’t refer to structural factors either – opportunity being limited by where you live for example. Another small point I don’t know if anyone picked up on – he talked about challenging people’s ideas and did the adviser “roll over like a kitten”? I cringed! How would you feel if you went to see a career adviser and they imposed their views on you, challenging you about the validity of your decision?? LIKE THEY KNEW BETTER! As an organisation, it doesn’t seem very concerned with accepting different realities and the ever changing nature of careers and people themselves. Whose interests are they really serving? As you can see I am not really a fan of this approach! What do others think?
The other point is around guidance and counselling. I feel a bit sad that people don’t think they can deal with situations where one might describe as counselling takes place. In a guidance setting, people bring other issues, and this may come out in the process of talking about careers. It seems people go to careers advisers at transition points in their lives and surely by the nature of this, emotions/feelings may overspill. Why do you need a degree in counselling to offer some comfort to an upset person? We shouldn’t see ourselves as experts, and worry we are not trained to deliver such work, indeed I think in practice “counselling” will go on without you even really noticing that is what you are doing. The boundaries blur and realistically are we going to turf someone out of our office if they show too much emotion? I don’t think it is something to fear and it may be a natural part of the process of guidance. If we really feel out of our depth we can refer to other agencies but I think most people would surprise themselves at their abilty to relate and help. I think you may do more harm by ignoring the other factors in someone’s life that could be related to their ability to find a job, move career etc?
Right, I am off to eat Easter eggs now!
Uncertainty and reflective practice!
I identify with the social constructivist approach in theory. Rogers premise that one of the 6 core conditions (that we talked about today) must be the client is incongruent and vulnerable and the counsellor is the congruent, empathethic guru with the answers to fix it all seems a bit worrying. I like the values of empathy and unconditional positive regard – who wouldn’t? But it leaves me with some doubts as to whether we can truly create these conditions. I quite liked a quote from the article (P350) we read in class by Harlene Anderson – “I Do not know better than a client how she or he should live their lives: I do not want to use my knowing to lead a client in any direction.” I didn’t really see how Rogers was similar to her approach….where does he talk about people’s wider context and the client writing their own narrative?
Sadly there seems a horrible tension between a postmodern approach and the way in which Careers Scotland/Connexions operates. As an adviser for them you are under such pressure to achieve targets so you end up placing young people on training schemes that you know are not any good – dead ends! You end up leading the client in a direction that the economic/political metanarrative dictates!
The idea of the self is hard, I think we are different depending on where we are and who we are with, we’re changing all the time. By telling your story in a counselling/guidance setting you are creating a narrative for yourself and trying to make sense of who you are and your surrounding environment. It reframes difficult experiences and can help to give perspective. It’s refreshing to view the client as “expert” as the counsellor. These techniques such as rewriting your own story are effective and we shouldn’t be afraid of using them!
Postmodern guidance
I enjoyed the lecture we had yesterday and the post modern approach we talked about. I could see a potential conflict of trying to practice in this way in a setting like Careers Scotland. Modernity and the managerial culture in CS mean it seems all about “fitting square pegs into round holes” and this is frankly depressing and can kill any joy out of young people’s lives.
For me, constructivist guidance brings a freedom and space to be a true reflexive practitioner! I thought it was crucial that it takes into account how people are connected to the world, their “lifespace” and that language is the toolbox of social construction. The activity we did in class was very uplifting and considering the wider context of my life is essential to any career planning I need to do. My career planning journey involves so much more than 6 steps laid out by CS. It was empowering as you weren’t firing questions at people and there is the freedom to choose how much to reveal about the picture.
I couldn’t help but think off a friend who was really unsure about what to do with his life and kept changing jobs and not fitting into the round hole. He had been described as a “decidious tree” who ‘changed with the seasons’ and was constantly becoming. This was a nice metaphor I thought! A modernist approach would have sought to categorise and been perhaps baffled at his inconsistency, but he eventuallly managed to resolve his life situation in a way that made sense to him.
I hope that career guidance is able to move forward to take on a postmodern approach as a profession, by using activities like we did yesterday and PCP because I just cannot see myself enjoying working in an environment that doesn’t!
counselling psychology
Counselling Psychology seems to offer a way of enabling people to explore ideas and pre-conceptions in a non-directive way. I do not see it as matching as the elements and constructs are from the client. One would hope the end result is that the client has more self awareness and insight into themselves and so can make more informed decisions. I liked the idea of the self-characterisation, it seems quite powerful and would help people to move on their thinking. I will definitely think about using this technique. As for challenging people’s ideas, we are told that we should do this but I am uncomfortable with actively confronting clients with my views on their choices. Why should we think we know best?? Aren’t people allowed to have their own ideas and dreams? Of course, there are constraints and challenges to us all but using some of the techniques we saw today may be more helpful.
Guidance and God!
Humanism and Existentialism!
Whilst some people might be uncomfortable with the existentialist approach I thought there were a lot of useful ideas for us. This sense of existence before essence is explored more fully in Sartre’s lecture “Existentialism is Humanism.” Two quotes stood out:
“If I regard a certain course of action as good, it is only I who choose to say that it is good and not bad.”
We take responsibility for our own actions and lives. This can be an empowering attitude to offer our clients and might allow a more genuine response than a purely humanist stance?
Sartre also talks about a young man seeking advice on a moral dilemma – to serve his family or his country. The point is made that in asking a priest for example, the young man knows deep down what his advice will be and that “to choose an adviser is to commit oneself to that choice.” It’s as if we know in our hearts what we want to do but by committing to an adviser we can ally ourselves with expertise and the reflection of what we are is clearer, making the choice more justifiable? Is this not what our clients seek from us??
I thought the existentialist reflections on death were also intriguing. We live in a society that hides from death and does not deal well with illness, disability…
Regarding surveillance society, we are living in such rapidly changing technological times it is hard to keep up. Power seems to reside with information. I remember naively filling out the 16 point profile for clients whilst working in advice and guidance detailing all sorts of highly personal information, often gathered over time– health, family background, education, work history, criminal record, sexual health, time spent homeless, mental health or drug issues- all this to do what exactly?! The government wants young people to become labour market ready and more “employable.” Does holding this information contribute to that? Myself and colleagues often expressed unease at this aspect of the work and resented having to track our clients to the point of having to do home visits to their last known address to find out where they were now! As a company it was seen as bad not to know someone’s “destination”. Looking back it is hard to know and justify what the link is with a young person receiving useful career guidance?!
Today’s lecture gave more interesting points. Living with uncertainty seems to be hallmark of post modern living. Now “god is dead “I think some people search for their own “gods” – lovers, friends, celebrities, musicians etc. As long as we do not try to become gods for those we advise…! We have a position of power after all.
The imposition of ethics seemed to have the purpose of making career guidance a legitimate profession and mainly protect the adviser’s interests. The attempt to do so was problematic in many ways. Imaginative practice appeared to be jeopardised by divisions between colleagues and organisational power struggles. Let’s hope we are able to be reflexive practitioners out there in the big wide world of guidance!
The Class
I went to see a new French film last night called ” The Class.” It seemed to me to raise some very pertinent questions around the nature of education and what we teach young people ( and in some cases why!). It is very intensely filmed in a school in the Paris suburbs, with a multicultural class of 14/15 year olds. There are conflicts of race, class, gender even and the challenge of teachers to deliver their lessons is clear. The dialogue is very real and frank between the teacher and the kids, and it’s intelligently done so you sometimes feel a mix of emotions towards both parties – sympathy, annoyance, sadness, injustice, anger….
I won’t give too much away of the plot as it’s worth seeing for yourself, but something caught my attention – at the end the young people have to tell their teacher what they have learned this year, at the end of the class one girl comes up and says ” I have learnt nothing this year from any subjects…I don’t want to go to vocational college.” She wasn’t argumentative or difficult, just being honest! It resonated in relation to career guidance in many ways, one question being-how can a standardised careers education system be used across all schools when each has their individual challenges and within that each student brings their own experiences, feelings to the table? It seemed in this film that young people’s life chances could be limited by education, race and social class, where they lived in the city, family support or lack of….which reflects real life and obviously the reverse is true.
Critical thoughts
The use of trait and factor theory, as Pete told us in CDT module last week came about especially during mass mobilisation of the population in WW2. I think in that case it was appropriate to the situation. But I agree it neglects individual’s aspirations and imposes an inequality of power onto client/adviser relationship. I was also struck at how people’s ancestry and family background was analysed by the introduction of vocational guidance and family influence is still examined more subtly today. It really felt that women did not fit into the conceptualization of the theory- Parsons always refers to boys!
As we saw in the lecture, the relationship between client and adviser can be viewed as the most important factor in career guidance. Carl Rodger’s humanist stance supports an argument influenced by strong Christian ideals. I am glad that there is a counter to the sometimes authoritarian theory mentioned above. His emphasis on core conditions makes sense. I found it a reassuring approach that offered a clear and logical underpinning value structure for practice. There is however something that appears slightly passive about this approach – wouldn’t it very easy for the client to become dependent on the “expert” and the helping relationship? I don’t think I totally agree the relationship is the most important as what happens after that interaction ends – what strategies does the client come away with for their future?
Standardised national career education programmes such as Careers Box do not seem to fit with the idea of reflexive practice. They encourage reliance on material that may not suit the client group. It should be tailored to the group where possible, with the career adviser exercising professional judgement. Not using standardised programme gives the career guidance profession more credibility with young people as well.
I also believe there is a place to integrate some of the ideas mentioned in Tom Hodgkinson’s article “Toil and trouble.” Is it such a bad thing for young people to be aware of some of the issues that may face them?? I think some exploration would help young people to make more informed choices about careers but of course it is too subversive to appear on career education curriculum!
We have to accept that for a lot of people a job is a just a source of income and many are wholly unfulfilling. The Idler website has some really funny stories about ‘crap’ jobs! But I think there is a really serious side to the Idler – we do live in a work dominated and obsessed culture. We are sold the message that work is the answer to all woes, individual and social as Hodkinson says! Maybe we’d be a lot happier with more time…In conclusion; the reality of any job will be very different to the promise as the article states. As careers advisers, should we just gloss over this fact?
Reflecting on Practice!
Here are a few notes on Schon:
Schon’s call to “think on our feet” and “keep our wits about us” was refreshing. To be in the moment with our client and provide the best outcome, we must do these things. Managerialism and competency based models focus on achieving targets and “ticking all the boxes “in professional life. But I wonder does this pave the way for an impersonal service grounded in purely achieving maximum productivity?
As noted, we look to professionals for the “definition and solution” of our problems and their claim to “extraordinary knowledge” grants them a privileged status in society (and usually high salaries!).
With the rise of capitalism and industrialisation in the western world so have the numbers of professionals. But the public started to question the knowledge and ultimately the power of the professions – Schon points out the between 1963 and 1981 public confidence diminished, as a response to the public perception of their ineffective handling (and indeed possible creation of) national crises in USA. The scepticism could also stem from, in my view, the unfettered access to information we now have. Internet technology has revolutionised the world and will continue to do so.
Trying to impose order and control on the practice situation supposes a uniformity and constancy of individuals situations e.g. by using the Career Planning Journey as an assessment/diagnostic tool Careers Scotland. Does this mean the career adviser working with a client who has their own unique problems that do not fit into the continuum of the CPJ should lose confidence? Professional artistry, thinking on the feet, being reflexive is needed here but I do not really think this is promoted enough in professional training or at organisational level. Maybe we like the security of knowledge to cling to, to demonstrate our status, but much more can be gained from being aware of and open to uncertainty. Thankfully, Schon declares that some professionals have developed a pluralism that allows for competing images of practice to exist. As to whether this has happened in career guidance, it is hard to say with the lack of consensus about if it actually exists as a profession anymore!
The argument that this crisis of confidence may come from trying to match traditional patterns of practice and knowledge to features of the practice situation – complexity, uncertainty, instability etc is interesting. Knowledge can be seen as fluid and change may be the only constant in a professionals working life – the acceptance of these values might lead to a happier professional!
Ivan Ilich “Disabling Professions”: I enjoyed this article very much but it definitely takes more than one reading!
This radically demystifies the professions and is highly critical of the institutions surrounding them. Illich sees the dominance of professions in our lives as reducing human ability to be self-sufficient and free from the professions judgement of our needs. The position of power and “divine authority” occupied by the professions cannot be overstated. Illich claims “many professions….exercise tutelage over the citizen become client, but also determine the shape of his world-become-ward.” This has much relevance to career guidance, as the “gatekeepers to opportunity” we wield enormous influence over the client and their world.
The prescription professionals’ offer takes on a sinister aspect that speaks of social control. A mass sleepwalking of the public into the potentially manipulative hands of professionals who decide their ills and the best cure. I asked myself as I read this, do I really want to be part of all this?! If medicine creates an unhealthy culture, is career guidance as a profession just the establishment creating a solution to a “problem” that might not actually exist?
Illich notes the idea has developed through the twentieth century that as citizens we have needs. Indeed, a need-less citizen would be “highly suspicious.” This disabling of the citizen to be dominated by the professions is based on 5 illusions which enslave the citizen. In my understanding they are:
1. Discounting of use value – we are born to be consumers and the possession of mass produced goods reduces human capacity to decide its needs, which were previously shaped by the tools available in that culture.
2. Technological progress seen as a concept that is an “engineering product” i.e. more complex tools require special operators.
3. Laymen must have their tools validated and certified by professional tests.
4. The experts will tell us what we need and set limits for growth.
5. The professionalization of laymen – certified self-helpers!
This Marxist stance breaks down all the ingrained pre-conceptions I had about the professions and their knowledge. He ends on a positive note: there are people who question and live ‘post professionally.’
Only through careful analysis of what it means to be a professional and in considering differing world views can we start to construct our own basis for reflective practice. Illich’s characterisation of the Age of Disabling Professions makes for unsettling reading, but helps me in the ‘post-professional’ age develop my own professional identity and see a wider social context.
