Why career guidance needs to be at the heart of a vocational education system

1. Tristram Hooley Presentation to the Edge emerging researchers group London 26th February 2019 Why career guidance needs to be at the heart of a vocational education system

2. Overview

3. Overview

4. According to Google

5. What is career? Career is… the individual’s journey through life, learning and work.

6. A journey or a race?

7. Influences on our career +s focus on what you can control expands possibilities -sresponsibilisation fatalism

8. Defining career guidance “Career guidance supports individuals and groups to discover more about work, leisure and learning and to consider their place in the world and plan for their futures… Career guidance can take a wide range of forms and draws on diverse theoretical traditions. But at its heart it is a purposeful learning opportunity which supports individuals and groups to consider and reconsider work, leisure and learning in the light of new information and experiences and to take both individual and collective action as a result of this.”

9. Overview

10. Origins in social reform • “Frank Parsons was a consistent opponent of that individualism which pits men against each other in the struggle for existence, and an earnest advocate of that individuality that fits men for useful membership in the social body, and so draws them together in mutual fellowship and service.”

11. The concept of ‘fit’

12. Test and tell

13. Challenges to a stable world View

14. A paradigm change An educational model where we teach knowledge and skills A medical model where we solve people’s problems

15. Overview

16. Career guidance is both • part of an effectively functioning education and employment system; and • a safeguard against ineffective and imperfect systems.

17. Challenges of terminology and classification • “Vocational guidance”/career guidance is often confused with or subsumed within “vocational education” in policy discussions. • This is mainly just (misplaced) taxonomical tidiness rather than a substantive issue. • However, it also speaks to a mistaken understanding that career guidance is just about ‘choosing a job’ and also that it is only about ‘choosing your next job’. • Conversely, there is sometimes concern that vocational learners don’t need guidance because they have already chosen.

18. Access to career guidance

19. Relevance to VET

20. Overview

21. England • Career guidance policy is largely focused on schools. • School policy is based around The Gatsby Benchmarks, Careers Leaders and The Careers & Enterprise Company. • Policy in general FE is essentially borrowed from schools. There is little policy that governs the rest of the VET system. • In practice most general FE colleges have careers services, similar to, but typically more limited than those that exist in universities. • A key challenge for VET when implementing career guidance systems is managing the overlap between vocationally focused work-related learning and career learning. This is a grey area.

22. School-based systems e.g. the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Canada, the US • Career guidance is based around the school. • In most cases (the Netherlands is an exception) this is based around a guidance counsellor model who is often not focused on career as an issue. • Strengths: Strong relationship between careers/guidance professionals, other school staff and students. • Weaknesses: Weak connections to the labour market. A tendency for the strongest allegiance to be to the school and the academic track.

23. Externally-based systems e.g. Germany • Careers provision is based outside of the school typically in the public employment service. • Careers provision is delivered into the school by external expert visitors. • Strengths: Usually strong connections to the labour market. • Weaknesses: Can be difficult to influence school processes and understand where students are coming from.

24. Partnership systems • Identified by the OECD review (2004) as the strongest model. • Has been eroded in most places (e.g. England, New Zealand) but still endures to some extent in Scotland and Wales. • Combines an internal focus within the school with external expertise and connections to the labour market.

25. Overview

26. A continuum of public policy approaches to career guidance

27. Evidence base for lifelong guidance

28. The evidence base is partial. We need… • Studies to explore the optimum timing, duration and mode of delivery of career guidance interventions. • Development and adoption of more standardised measurements. • Increased use of controls and randomisation. • Longitudinal work. • More use of administrative datasets and (online) big data. • More statistical meta-analyses. • More conceptual and sociological work to look at how career guidance interlinks with other aspects of the education and wider society.

29. Good career guidance (Gatsby) • A stable careers programme • Learning from career and labour market information • Addressing the needs of each pupil • Linking curriculum learning to careers • Encounters with employers and employees • Experienced of workplaces • Encounters with further and higher education • Personal guidance

30. Overview

31. The politics of career guidance “Careers education and guidance is a profoundly political process. It operates at the interface between the individual and society, between self and opportunity, between aspiration and realism. It facilitates the allocation of life chances. Within a society in which such life chances are unequally distributed, it faces the issue of whether it serves to reinforce such inequalities or to reduce them.”

32. Socio-political ideologies of guidance

33. Problematising key concepts in career guidance • Individualism • Resilience • Adaptability • Career management Can easily become – responsibilisaton -blaming the victim and placing all responsibility with them

34. Career guidance, social justice and neoliberalism

35. The two volumes

36. Political questions for career guidance and VET • How can career guidance be supported to increase its independence from schools self-interests and a focus on the academic track? • Should career guidance be used to support system change around VET e.g. convincing people to engage with new qualifications and pathways. • In an unequal society how can we avoid VET becoming the ‘natural’ choice of the disadvantaged? What role can career guidance play in challenging norms and structures?

37. References • Gatsby Charitable Foundation. (2014). Good career guidance. London: Gatsby Charitable Foundation. • Hooley, T. (2014). The Evidence Base on Lifelong Guidance. Jyväskylä, Finland: European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. • Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. and Thomsen, R. (2018). Career guidance for social justice: Contesting neoliberalism. London: Routledge. • Hooley, T., Sultana, R.G. and Thomsen, R. (2018). Career guidance for emancipation: Reclaiming justice for the multitude. London: Routledge. • Law, B. (2012). The uses of narrative: Three scene storyboarding – learning for living, http://www.hihohiho.com/storyboarding/sbL4L.pdf. • Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2004). Career Guidance and Public Policy: Bridging the Gap. Paris: OECD. • Pryor, R. & Bright, J. (2011). The chaos theory of careers. London: Routledge. • Watts, A.G. (2009). The relationship of career guidance to VET. Paris: OECD. • Watts, A.G. (2015). Socio-political ideologies of guidance. In Hooley, T. and Barham, L. (Eds.). Career Development Policy and Practice: The Tony Watts Reader. Stafford: Highflyers.

38. Conclusions • Career guidance is a critical part of an effective VET system. • At the moment its potential is often under-realised both prior to and within the VET system. • There is an evidence base and a body of international practice that provides insights into how career guidance should best be organised. • There are a number of challenging political and ethical questions that need to be addressed as we implement career guidance systems.

39. About me Tristram Hooley Professor of Career Education, University of Derby/ Professor II, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences/ Chief Research Officer, Institute of Student Employers Email: t.hooley@derby.ac.uk Twitter: @pigironjoe Blog: https://adventuresincareerdevelopment.wordpress.com/