1. Career Adapt-Abilities: a new approach for identifying students in most need
Gill Frigerio, Career Studies Unit, University of Warwick
Dr Toni Wright, Psychology Dept,
Newman University
Introduce selves
Me: background as a careers adviser then head of service where I became interested in theoretically informed ideas on the purpose of our work and measures/demonstrators of impact deriving from that purpose
Now: teach in career studies unit on cpd for career development practitioners. Partcularly mention CEIGHE modules in management and marketing
Toni: background as counselling psychologist in student services, now academic psychologist plus private practice.
Research into student interventions and their relationship to outcome – most recently evaluation of employability enhancement intervention for students
Reference other participants in the research – Anne, Jenny, Eluned, Jane

2. Outline What is career adaptability?
Is it a useful concept for HE Careers & Employability Services?
Research to date
Our work to develop a UK instrument
Applications for HE careers services
This is how we would like to spend the next hour – our presentation followed by open discussion
Charting origins and rationale for career adaptability
Final point is where we would like to engage you in discussion and hear your ideas

3. What is career adaptability?
Has it’s origins in the vocational psychology of Donald Super which developed into Career Construction theory (Savickas, 1997)
The focus is on the individual and their psychosocial resources, as opposed to employability – where employers and their needs tend to dominate.
The capability of an individual to make a series of successful transitions where the labour market, organisation of work and underlying occupational and organisational knowledge bases may be subject to considerable change’ (Bimrose et al, 2011)
Incorporates both individual readiness & resources and the concomitant responses & results
Has come about through career development theory responding to the changes in the labour market
Models based on ‘stages’ suggests a stability in the labour market that is no longer a given. Globalisation and more precariousness.
replaces ‘maturity’ as a notion (defined as lack of planfulness and lack of information)

4. Career Adaptable Competencies
Control: exerting a degree of intra-personal influence on their situations
Curiosity: broadening horizons by exploring social opportunities & possibilities
Commitment: experimenting with new & different activities
Confidence: believing in yourself & ability to achieve your goal
Concern: developing a positive optimistic attitude to the future
Savickas et al. (2009)

5. Something new for HE Career & Employability Services?
Career adaptability - a useful theoretical perspective because…?
As noted earlier, contrast with employability in its focus on the client:
“ ..career belongs to the person, not the organisation” (Duarte, 2004)
From adaptability to adapt-abilities (psycho-social competences) which focus on the person and the resources they have available to enable them to manage life and work challenges and transitions
Problems with existing psychometric tests – identification of need and targeted interventions is currently problematic
Potential for a quantitative measure in line with our purpose and professional values
Career adaptability as a particularly useful theoretical perspective
HE has become an increasingly public good and its relevance to the economy more pressing, therefore needs to be cognisant to the changes to the labour market
Managing CES currently dominated by employability discourse, using KPIs to demonstrate impact and DLHE data
Despite DLHE, much framing of employability in terms of ‘sustainable employability’ (get a job, keep a job, get another job)
From adaptability to adapt-abilities (psycho-social competences)
Lack of 'maturity' means trait/factor approaches can be misused with our core clients, especially the ones we are seeking hardest to engage

6. Birmingham PSA (employability award) evaluation project:
Reported change in employability related values, attitudes & behaviour e.g. reflecting on skills/experiences; applying skills and attributes to specific situations/contexts;
Increased ability to articulate skills/attributes
Increased confidence leading to higher aspiration
However, no change on psychometric tests
Rather than increasing student’s cognitive skills, the PSA may be changing their application and the meaning ascribed to their possession (internal change within person rather than simple acquisition of skills)
Employability awards may improve an individual’s resources to negotiate the challenges of leaving university and entering the world of work
Wright (in prep)
Birmingham work relates both to the practical work of services and to current project

7. Career Adaptability Research to date
International life design group met in 2008 and 2010; 13 countries (not inc. UK) involved in study to develop and validate the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS). (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012)
In the UK Bimrose and colleagues developed qualitative descriptors. (Bimrose et al, 2011)
Evaluation of employability intervention at the University of Birmingham ( )
Birmingham, Warwick, Newman and HECSU - UK collaborative project currently ongoing (Glasgow Caledonian also participated in experimental phase of validation)
CAAS on 4 scales, originally with 6 items each, now 5

8. Developing a UK instrument
Collaborative project with aim of validating CAAS for use in UK context
HEA bid unsuccessful
Project scaled down and work continued
US version of CAAS adapted to UK context
UK version shown to fit four factor model and to correlate with Trait Emotional Intelligence (Cooper & Petrides, 2010)
Describe cognitive interviewing etc if time

9. Sample questions (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Different people use different strengths to build their careers. No one is good at everything, each of us emphasises some strengths more than others. Please rate how strongly you have developed each of the following abilities using the scale below.
Strongest Very strong Strong Somewhat strong Not strong
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Becoming aware of the education and career choices that I must make
Actively engaging with my career
Remaining positive
Taking responsibility for my actions
Acting in line with my values and principles
Relying on myself
Looking for opportunities to grow as a person
Observing different ways of doing things
Adapted from Savickas & Porfeli (2012)

10. Participants Birmingham University: 301 students
Glasgow Caledonian University : 195
Newman University: 175
Warwick University: 175
Total = 846
After removal of outliers and those with missing values = 753 used in the final model analysis

11. Principle Components Analysis

12. Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Questions
Factor
Adapt-ability
Concern
1-6
7-12
13-18
Curiosity
Confidence
18-24
Control

13. Applications: Anne & Eluned
Target careers guidance interventions
Allocate resources to greatest effect
Demonstrating careers guidance impact at individual and institutional level
Encouraging students’ reflective career development and effective action planning
Any application to your own context? – group discussion
Eluned and Anne to kick off this section

14. Outcomes for today
To understand career adaptability as a means of developing student centred approaches to employability
To consider the value of career adaptability as a way of HE career services targeting their work and resources
To contribute to current research in exploring possible applications of the career adaptabilities measure in HE career services
To consider the value that the concept, and the questionnaire, could have for your own institutional context
Next step: Pilot projects in UK HE institutions

15. Interested in getting involved?
Contact Gill Or Toni with any ideas or suggestions for pilot projects in your own institutions Gill: Toni: We are here this evening so please do chat to us about your ideas if you wish.

16. References
Bimrose, J., Barnes, S-A., Brown, A. and Hughes, D. (2011) 'The role of career adaptability in skills supply',  Wath-upon-Dearne: UK Commission for Employment & Skills
Cooper, A. & Petrides, K.V. (2010) A Psychometric Analysis of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF) Using Item Response Theory, Journal of Personality Assessment, 92, 5, pp
Duarte, M.E. (2004) The Individual and the Organisation: Perspective in development Psychologica (Extra Serie)
Savickas, M.L. (1997) Career Adaptability: An Integrative construct for Life- Span, Life-Space Theory, The Career Development Quarterly, 45, 3, pp
Savickas, M.L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J.P., Duarte, M.E., Guichard, J., Soresi, S., Van Esbroeck R. & van Vianen, A.E.M., (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st Century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 3, pp
Savickas, M.L. & Porfeli, E.J. (2012) Career Adapt-Abilities Scale: Construction, reliability and measurement equivalence across 13 countries, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 80, pp
Wright, T.E. (in prep.) Does it Do What It Says On The Tin? – Evaluation of an established University Employability Enhancement Award in the UK