1. Career Development Interventions Individual Perspectives

2. Overview Approaches to Career Counselling (or vocational guidance)
Differentialist Approach
Behaviourist Approach
Developmental Approach
Relationship between careers education and career counselling

3. Aims of Career Development Counselling
Traditional View (1970’s) : educating people to make career decisions wisely, usually in advance of employment by any one particular organisation.
Contemporary View : organisations see the relevance of career counselling as a means of managing the process of organisational change - therefore increasingly occurs once the individual is within an organisation
Activities
opportunity awareness
self-awareness
decision learning
transition learning
US : ‘trained for career’
UK : ‘educated to make wise career decisions’

4. Theoretical Approaches to Vocational Counselling *
Differentialist Approach : matching individual differences with differences in careers and jobs
Behaviourist/Social Learning Approach : teacher-learner approach. Use of behavioural methods to guide career development
Developmental Approach : emphasises the role of emotional factors in facilitating/blocking effective occupational decision making.
* N.B. counselling vs guidance

5. Differentialist Careers Counselling
‘talent matching’ (i.e. more guidance than counselling)
Williamson ( ) : Trait-Factor Approach
Underlying Assumptions
each individual is an organised and unique pattern of capabilities
individuals’ pattern of capabilities are identifiable by objective tests
different capabilities are significantly involved in (and correlated to) different work tasks
success in work tasks and academic achievement is best predicted by a battery of tests
Williamson’s 6 steps for vocational guidance
Analysis
Synthesis
Diagnosis
Prognosis
Counselling/Treatment
Follow-up

6. Differentialist Careers Counselling (II)
Rodger (1957) : ‘7-point Plan’
System for gathering material to form a working image of the person’s occupational assets and liabilities
Assumes a ‘matching’ model of vocational guidance & allows for the use of tests
7 points
physical make-up
attainments
general intelligence
special aptitude
interests
dispositional
circumstances

7. Differentialist Careers Counselling (III)
Holland’s ‘Modern Differentialist’ Approach :
Based upon Holland’s ‘hexagon’ - interaction between personality and environment
Individuals can resolve their own vocational problems if they have suitable opportunities for obtaining information and are encouraged in the exploration
Techniques
placement/work experience services
transition service
counselling service
vocational education services
Holland’s Self-Directed Search (self-assessment booklet and occupational classification booklet)

8. Behaviourist Approach : Careers Counselling
the application of behavioural methods to the problems of occupational choice and development
Approach utilised more in US than UK
Counsellor conducts an initial assessment of the client, to make informed decisions about :
what specific behaviours need to be changed/reinforced
what the most appropriate ‘treatment’ methods are

9. Behaviourist Approach (II)
Treatments
systematic desensitisation (interview/presentation anxiety)
verbal reinforcement (Krumboltz and Thorsen)
modelling (e.g. videotapes - examples of effective behaviour)
simulated work experience
teaching decision-making skills
behavioural rehearsal
behavioural self-control

10. Developmental Approach
Emphasises the importance of clients’ emotions and attitudes.
Heavily influenced by Roger’s ‘person/client-centred’ therapy & Super’s theory of vocational development.
Occupational choice and developmental decisions are processes involving the whole person.
Theoretical Concepts
Occupational Self-Concept : those parts of the self-concept relating to work & leisure activities (see Super)
Organismic Valuing Process : innate capacity for adequate valuing of experience within themselves (those pertinent to occupational choice and development)

11. Developmental Approach (II)
Theoretical Concepts, continued..
Conditions of Worth & Occupational Self-Concept
introjected value patterns (from assessments of others) accumulated over the lifespan. Often lead to faulty career decision making
Occupational Self-Concept allowing Realistic Perception
Roger’s : people have a ‘locus of evaluation’ - we try to understand and clarify our personal meanings (e.g. failing chemistry... ‘do I really want to be a Doctor?’)

12. Developmental Approach (III)
Practical Considerations
Increasing realisation that most people are unable to adjust to life without distortions of reality
Both client and/or counsellor may be misperceiving themselves, each other, the world of work
Clients come into counselling at varying states of ‘readiness’ for making/implementing occupational decisions
Goal of counselling is to facilitate the client’s self-actualisation, by providing a ‘safe’ environment in which to explore their occupational self-concept.

13. Elements of a Developmental Counselling Approach
Fundamental Counselling Relationship
Counsellor tries to create an emotionally supportive, empathic climate
Use of tests to facilitate occupational self-exploration
Developmental careers counselling differs from traditional ‘person-centred counselling’ in that it often centres on the use of psychometric tests (NB requested or provided). Issue of low test scores
Use of occupational information to explore ‘work’
Issue of ‘unfavourable’ occupational information
Focused Exploration to assist occupational decision making
focus on client ‘thinking difficulties’ impeding occupational decision making
Planning the implementation of an occupational self-concept
‘Action Planning’ following the crystallisation of a career decision

14. Comparison of Career Counselling Approaches
All approaches …
aim to help the client obtain greater fulfilment by an adequate matching of their capabilities to work
acknowledge the importance of self-direction and development
Developmental - more sensitive than other approaches to the notion that career choice can be highly irrational
Behavioural - place more emphasis than other approaches on the ‘mechanics’ of career decision making
Differentialist - use typologies to explain to clients how they interact with their environments.

15. The Societal Context of Careers Counselling
Herr & Cramer (1992) : potential clients of career counselling - more than just youth, pre-employment.
Additional contributions workplace counsellors can make :
counselling workers in dual-career families
counselling for individual self-analysis and planning
assessment centres (development centres)
life & career planning workshops
outplacement counselling *, pre-retirement counselling **
consultation with mgmt about job enrichment schemes
provide support for employees coping with transition
educate line managers on the importance of individual differences in needs and interests

16. * Redundancy Counselling
Lopez (1983) : Ways in which counsellors can assist those made redundant
identify individuals’ marketable, transferable skills
outlet for individuals to let off steam
discuss individuals’ support networks (social, financial etc)
reinforce individuals self-worth, build self-confidence
** Pre-Retirement Counselling
feelings of loss & ‘bereavement’
Hopson & Adams (1976) 7 phases of transition
1. Immobilisation 5. Testing
2. Minimization 6. Searching for Meaning
3. Depression 7. Internalisation
4. Acceptance of Reality

17. Conclusions
Herr & Cramer (1992) : shift from personnel management to personal development
Employees are increasingly being seen holistically
Employees as ‘corporate resources’; links being made between ‘development’ and ‘behavioural health’
Shift in careers counselling from economic health (FMJ and preparation for work) to encompass development of self-efficacy, coping with stress and transitions, organisational life generally.