The Changing Context of Career Practice: Guidance, Counselling or Coaching? · OCCASIONAL Guidance,...

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The ChangingContext of CareerPractice: Guidance,Counselling orCoaching?

Professor Jenny Bimrose

Inaugural Professorial Lecture, University of Derby

University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GBTel: 01332 591267 Fax: 01332 597726Website: http://www.derby.ac.uk/cegs/

The Changing Context of Career Practice: Guidance, Counselling or Coaching?OCCASIONAL

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In June 2005, Dr. Jenny Bimrose was appointed Visiting Professor of Career Research andPractice at the Centre for Guidance Studies (CeGS), University of Derby. She is a PrincipalResearch Fellow at the Institute of Employment Research (IER), University of Warwick. Jenny'sresearch at both a national and European level offers new insights to what constitutes effectiveguidance. She has also driven forward the development of a National Guidance Research Forum(NGRF) website and a European Guidance and Counselling (EGCRF) website, working closelywith colleagues from IER and CeGS. This publication helps improve our understanding of howpractitioners make sense of policy constraints on their practice and how they are able to reconcilethese with the needs of their clients.

Acknowledgments

The Centre for Guidance Studies would like to thank formally the organisations highlightedbelow for their generous support of 'Career Guidance Week' which was held from 26th to 30thJune 2006. We are also indebted to the individuals who attended events throughout the week andto everyone who assisted with the planning and organisation of this highly successful event.

The Centre for Guidance Studies (CeGS) is owned by the University of Derby. The Centre aimsto bridge the gap between guidance theory and practice. It supports and connects guidancepractitioners, policy-makers and researchers through research activities and learningopportunities, and by providing access to resources related to guidance and lifelong learning.

Further copies of this paper are available from the Centre for Guidance Studies or can bedownloaded from the CeGS website at www.derby.ac.uk/cegs

Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby, DE22 1GBTel: 01332 591267Fax: 01332 597726Email: [email protected] Director: Deirdre Hughes

ISBN 0 901437 59 X© CeGS, 2006


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1. Introduction

Over the past decade or so, career guidance serviceshave undergone fundamental and rapid change. Muchhas been led by policy, with the rate of changedemanded often resulting in training support forpractitioners lagging behind implementation. Theeffect of this on practitioners working in differentsectors of the guidance industry remains largely amatter of speculation, with only anecdotal evidenceavailable to assist our understanding. The effect onpractice in England is, however, beginning to emerge,with evidence becoming available from an on-goinglongitudinal case study.

The focus of this paper is on the consequences ofconstant policy change on the training, continuingprofessional development and occupational identity ofthe practitioners who deliver services in England. Itbegins with an overview of labour market changes andreview of the careers industry as part of this broadercontext. The concept of occupational identity is thenconsidered, together with the ways its formationinteracts with the training and continuing professionaldevelopment of practitioners. Finally, researchevidence from an on-going qualitative, longitudinalcase study of effective guidance is examined, since thisprovides rich and deep insights into ‘practice in action’.

2. Labour Market Context

The career guidance industry is part of the servicesector and an integral part of the UK labour market. Intrying to make sense of what has been happening in thisparticular sector in recent years, it can be instructive toreflect on predicted, compared with actual, labourmarket changes, together with their impact onorganisations delivering services.

Predictions of labour market change vigorouslypromoted ten to twenty years ago focused on a shiftaway from an industrial to an information society. Withthe opening up of the world market, a global economywould have primacy over national economies. Thesefundamental economic and social changes woulddemand a high-skill, knowledge-driven labour force,working out of paperless offices either as portfolioworkers, or as employees in flatter, less hierarchicalorganisations. Where organisations employed ‘core’staff, these would be learning organisations, espousingan ideology of lifelong learning to ensure the supply ofknowledge workers. Routine use would be made ofoutsourced labour; leading edge working practices (liketeamwork) would be common practice; and the rhetoricof competencies and skills would replace that oftraining and job descriptions. These changes heraldedthe demise of the traditional, organisational career in

favour of more temporary, fluid career patterns. Nolonger could individuals look forward to a job for life.

However, this grand vision of labour market change,focusing on overarching trends, has fallen short in anumber of respects. In 2000, for example, 96% ofworkers had one job in the UK; 94.1% of working menand 91.6% of women were in permanent jobs; and ofthese, 95.2% of men and 73.3% of women worked full-time. Instead of individuals working flexibly,performing tasks for different organisations, there ismore multi-tasking within an organisation asindividuals switch from one task to another for thesame employer:

“One job per person has stayed the norm –permanent full-time employment remains dominant,workers are not moving more often from oneemployer to another and the ‘career’ – as a way ofviewing work – has triumphed.” (Moynagh & Worsley, 2005, p.93).

In addition, the proportion of employees seeingthemselves as having a career increased from just underhalf to 60% between 1985 and 2001. The biggestincrease (from 14% to 34%) was amongst low-paidgroups, like bus and coach drivers, packers andcleaners. This trend extends to young people, withresearch evidence revealing how young people also‘appeared firmly wedded to careers’. (Moynagh &Worsley, 2005, p.96)

So, most of us still work in permanent, full-time jobs inhierarchical organisations, where job descriptions arestill written and training courses offered. In theseorganisations, it may be difficult to distinguish leadingedge working practices from the survival strategies thathave been developed by individuals in response to workintensification. Many of us can still only dream ofworking in paperless offices! Clearly, the impact oflabour market changes on the employment patterns ofmany individual workers has not been quite aspredicted.

Nor has much progress been made towards creating ahigh skill, knowledge driven economy. The UnitedStates of America, arguably the model for a knowledgedriven economy, is not currently showing many signs ofdeveloping a labour market where the majority ofworkers require a high level of skill. What does emergeis an economy where there are:

“….islands of high skill (geographic clusters,sectors and a few occupations…..) set amidst a seaof low skill (and often very poorly paid) servicework.” (Keep and Brown, 2005, p.14).

Rather than the development of a high skilled labourforce, trends indicate an increasing polarisation, with a


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growth in high skilled professional and managerialoccupations existing in parallel with high demand forlabour in lower skilled occupations at the bottom end ofthe occupational spectrum. An image of an hour-glasseconomy conveys how this trend towards thepolarisation of the workforce is strengthening(Moynagh and Worsley, 2005).

This is, of course, not to deny that in some sections ofthe labour market, the grand vision may have beenrealised, but there are significant deviations andextensive variations. How, then, can the failure torealise this vision be explained? A post-structuralanalytical framework helps us to make sense of thecomplexity underlying change by breaking down over-arching narratives into a series of smaller ones.Applying such a framework to the careers industry, is itpossible to discern overarching trends in the careerindustry – or does a highly complex picture, withmultiple strands, emerge? To start to answer thisquestion, we need to consider the policy context ofguidance.

3. Policy Context

It is something of a truism to state that the contexts inwhich guidance is delivered in the UK have undergonerapid, perhaps relentless, change over the past decadeor so. For example, devolution has brought with it fourseparate country models of service delivery. The‘massification’ of higher education has seen an increasein student numbers with a widening access agenda andthe implementation of student fees. The Connexionsservice in England brought with it an emphasis on theNEET (Not in Education Employment or Training)group as part of a social inclusion agenda. The policyframework for adults in England distinguishedinformation from advice and guidance for resourcepurposes and introduced eligibility criteria for someservices that depended on qualification level (that is,pre-level 2). Finally, a radical re-organisation ofcareers education and guidance in compulsoryeducation in England is in prospect with the publicationof the Youth Matters Green Paper (DfES, 2006). Manyof these policy changes have brought with themextended periods of uncertainty and instability,followed by change.

For service providers, there has been: a shrinkingresource base; a target culture with an emphasis onquantitative outcomes; competition for resources,alongside pressure to collaborate and form partnerships;an increasing expectation to generate evidence ofimpact; higher levels of scrutiny and accountability;and an expanding, perhaps more discerning,client/customer base. There have also been competing

policy priorities. For example, the Connexions servicein England was mandated to deliver a holistic service tothe NEET group, alongside specialist career guidance toall young people.

This brief review of the changing policy context forguidance by no means does justice to the full picture.However, even from this cursory examination of policydevelopments, it quickly becomes apparent that no oneoverarching trend is identifiable in the recentdevelopment of career guidance services in the UK.What emerges, rather, is an extremely complex picture,from which a key question emerges: what effect hasthis had on the practitioners who deliver services totheir clients?

4. Forming an occupational identity

Each of us has multiple identities, which are social aswell as individual since they locate us within societyand mediate our interactions with others (Lave &Wenger, 1991). Our occupational identity is one of themost important. It is the one we build through workand it mediates not only the ways we relate to the workorganisation and work process, but critically, how wedevelop our skills and knowledge over time (Brown,1997). These identities are typically formed within‘communities of practice’, which have a strong sense ofjoint activity with shared goals and shared practices(Attwell & Brown, 2003). Whilst broad communitiesof practice may exist at sectoral or occupational levels,they are also likely to be associated with particularwork organisations, or within particular education andtraining institutions. The influence of an individual’soccupational identity goes beyond formal employmentto other forms of social identity – especially the self-governance of communities (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Italso frames the ways individuals cope with thepressures and stresses of work (Brown, 2002). This isparticularly important during a time of rapid change,such as that currently being experienced bypractitioners working in guidance organisations.

Understanding the process by which individuals formtheir occupational identity is highly relevant for careerguidance. The broad community of career guidance hasalways been somewhat fragmented and as aconsequence, there has been an absence of any unifyingprofessional identity. Membership of one of the variousprofessional associations illustrates the way in whichpractitioners demonstrate their occupational identitythrough allegiance with a particular part of the guidancesector. At the beginning of the 1990s, four professionalassociations had been established by guidancepractitioners: the Institute of Careers Officers(subsequently renamed the Institute of Career

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Guidance); the National Association of Careers andGuidance Teachers (subsequently renamed theAssociation of Career Education and Guidance); theAssociation of Graduate Careers Advisory Services;and the National Association for Educational Guidancefor Adults (Watts, 1991, p.232). Now, otherassociations have started to develop membership, suchas the Association of Career Professional Internationalfor the private sector. This fragmentation has beenfurther exacerbated by recent policy developments, likethe introduction of the Connexions service in Englandthat brought with it the new role of Personal Adviser(Social Exclusion Unit, 1999), some who havequalifications, experience and interest in careerguidance and some who do not.

A finding from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) cross-countryreview of guidance was that training has a dominanteffect in establishing a professional identity (McCarthy,2001). The process of becoming and remaining skilled,as part of developing an occupational identity, iscomplex. A central assumption of a static model ofoccupational identity is that once skill needs have beenidentified and measured, all that remains is for therequisite training to be delivered. In reality, it is rarelythat simple. Brown (1997) argues for a dynamic modelof occupational identity that recognises the changingnature of employment, the role of the individual as anactive agent in the process of becoming skilled and theevolving context in which that occupational identity isacquired. This model helps us to understand the centralrole of training and continuing professionaldevelopment (CPD) in developing and maintaining anoccupational identity. It also seems particularlyapposite for career guidance today. Not only are thebroad policy and organisational contexts in whichservices located constantly shifting, but the boundariesof the associated professional roles are also subject toconstant change. These shifts and changes inevitablyhave an impact on practitioners, emphasising the needfor robust systems of both initial training and CPD ascentral to the definition and re-definition ofoccupational identities.

5. Initial Training

Career guidance is seen as pivotal by policy makers forup-skilling the economy (for example, see: HMGovernment, 2005). It is not unreasonable, therefore,to expect the industry to lead the way in both skillingand up-skilling its workforce, with a coherent trainingstructure and strong ethos around CPD. What actuallyemerges is a fractured, fragmented, rather ad hocsystem of both initial training and continuingprofessional development. Take, first of all, initial

training. In tandem with policy changes to servicedelivery have been changes to initial training. There hasbeen:

• the introduction of work-based training routes toaccredit competence at levels 3 and 4, throughlargely employer-based assessment centres;

• changes to off-the-job training in higher education,predominantly at post-graduate level, with anemphasis on learning outcomes;

• the rapid introduction, followed by an even speedierdemise, of the Diploma for Personal Advisers inConnexions, in England, at academic level 2;

• the development of supervised practice in somesectors (like Connexions), but with an apparentemphasis on managerial rather than other forms ofsupervision; and

• the emergence of other, related forms of educationand training, like Foundation Degrees and theNational Occupational Standards for ‘LearningSupport and Development Services for children,young people and those who care for them’.

The work-based route, originally designed to assess andaccredit competence in the workplace, has been widelyused to train, and then accredit, inexperienced staff inthe career guidance sector. Whilst examples ofexcellent practice undoubtedly exist, inconsistencies areevident, with the length of time required for successfulcompletion of a relevant vocational qualificationvarying, as well as the nature and amount of trainingprovided.

Neither is the off-the-job route without its difficulties.It has suffered long periods of instability anduncertainty because of the need to update thecurriculum and changes to the funding regime. Coursecentres have closed as a consequence. Others are leftvulnerable. Criticisms of this route to qualificationfrom employers are not uncommon: it is accused of notbeing ‘fit for purpose’ and is not regarded as meetingthe needs of some employers. These criticisms,however, overlook how the content of both theQualification in Careers Guidance and its predecessor,the Diploma in Career Guidance, were determinedlargely by employers. However, a key problem morerecently has been: whose responsibility it is to updatethe curriculum? Attempts to revise content have beenbedevilled by policy change and uncertainty. Initially,the Local Government Management Board hadresponsibility for the Diploma in Career Guidancequalification and controlled grant allocation. With theintroduction of Connexions in England, management ofthe qualification shifted to the Department of Educationand Skills (DfES). More recently, its management hasbeen sub-contracted to the Institute of Career Guidance(ICG). These changes have contributed to a delay in

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the revision of the qualification to meet the changingpolicy context.

A review carried out by the OECD concludes thatwhilst the qualifications and training structure in theUK is very diverse and highly developed comparedwith many other countries, a new, more coherentstructure is necessary that would rationalise the manyqualification routes and provide clear progression paths(United Kingdom Country Note, 2003). So, if this isthe current situation with initial training for careerguidance, what of continuing professionaldevelopment?

6. Continuing Professional Development

The arguments for the economic benefits of ‘lifelonglearning’, promoted and supported within ‘learningorganisations’, are increasingly accepted by policymakers. These arguments, however, seem not to havebeen embraced universally by the career guidancecommunity. A recent review of policies for careerinformation, guidance and counselling services infourteen countries, commissioned jointly by the OECDand the European Commission, included anexamination of the training, skills and qualifications ofguidance workers. It found that this aspect of guidancewas: ‘very much under-researched’ (McCarthy, 2001,p.7). It did, however, highlight worrying trendsregarding continuing professional development.Specifically, participation rates varied considerably –from 100% to 10% (p.14). Furthermore, ‘recurrenttraining’ for continuing professional development wasfound to be optional in most countries, including theUK.

For employers of guidance workers to capitalise ontheir employees’ knowledge, it is vital to provideopportunities for reflection. A key issue is often notwhether employers recognise the value of this, butwhether they can protect time for employees to do thisin practice (Brown, 2002). It is, perhaps, somewhatironic that a profession that concerns itself with thecareer progression and development of its clients doesnot give more of a priority to the very activities thatwould secure the development and progression of itsown practice. There is, indeed, still much to learnabout the role of learning in career guidance practice:what exactly is undertaken; by whom; how often; andthe types of learning that are most effective. There isalso work to be done in convincing some employersand policy makers that supporting lifelong learning forguidance practitioners should be given a higher priority.

With occupational identities that are fragile, a trainingsystem in need of reform and CPD that needs

strengthening, what, then, are the implications forcareer guidance practice?

7. Guidance-in-Action

In a complex labour market, the need for high qualitycareer guidance has never been greater:

“Put simply, in the absence of adequate advice andguidance, increased complexity leads to aconcomitant increase in the likelihood of asubstantial proportion of individuals reaching sub-optimal decisions, which in turn lead to asignificant level of sub-optimal outcomes.” (Keep& Brown, 2005, p.16)

Yet one could be forgiven for regarding currentarrangements for the delivery of the service in Englandas fragmented, inconsistent and confusing. Many areexasperated by the failure even to agree a cleardefinition of career guidance for the UK – though itcould be argued that the lack of clarity evident in thebroad community of career guidance practice reflectsthe lack of stability created by a volatile policy context.An example relates to the word ‘career’, the use ofwhich was generally discouraged in England with theintroduction of the Connexions service. The content ofthe Connexions’ Diploma for Personal Advisersemphasised an approach to working with young peoplethat required counselling skills and an holisticapproach. This need to adopt a counselling approach topractice was reinforced by the promotion of on-goingsupervisory support for practitioners delivering theservice. Not only was practice determined by policy inthis instance, but so was the use of language used todescribe practice.

Another example of the way in which policy has bothframed and constrained practice relates to theintroduction of ‘skills coaching’ in selected districts inEngland by nextstep organisations. Many practitionersdelivering this service have a career guidancebackground, but how the service is delivered andexactly what it comprises is being largely determinedby policy. Again, practice is circumscribed by policy,together with the language used to describe the service.This has the potential to create a level of role confusionfor the practitioner who might one day be required tooperate as a skills coach with one set of clients and thenext provide advice or guidance to a different set.How, then, do practitioners manage to reconcile thevaried demands of fund-holders and managers withthose of their clients in delivering services?

A five year research study is currently underway inEngland, which provides us with some insights. It is

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examining the nature of effective guidance and theimpact is has on clients’ lives. Fifty in-depth casestudies have been completed (2003/2004) and clientsare being followed up over a further four year period(2004-2008), to track progress. The professionalcontexts in which the case studies have been carried outincluded: further education, higher education,charitable/voluntary organisations, adult guidanceorganisations and the workplace. Case studies haveexamined: the client’s perceptions of the guidanceepisode; the practitioner’s perceptions of the guidanceepisode; the perceptions of an ‘expert witness’ of theguidance episode; together with the structures andoperation of guidance services. Additionally, thestrategies and skills used by guidance practitioners havebeen scrutinized (Bimrose et al., 2004; Bimrose et al.,2005).

‘Effectiveness’ is defined in this research as whatclients found useful (Bimrose, et al., 2004) with themajority (98%, n=49) participating in the initial phaseof this research evaluating their guidance interview as‘useful’, immediately after the event. A typology of theguidance interview has been generated from a detailedanalysis of practitioner interventions across the forty-nine ‘useful’ interviews with four discrete categories ofactivities identified. These are:

• building a working alliance: scene setting/orientation; contracting; rapportbuilding and maintenance.

• exploring potential: hard and soft data;

• identifying options and strategies: information, advice and influencing.

• ending and following-through.

Not all these activities of guidance are evident acrossall interviews, nor did any particular combination orsequence emerge. Some factors that influence thenature of the guidance intervention came from outsidethe immediate boundaries of the interview itself (forexample, interview time available, access to ICT,opportunities to offer follow-up support to clients).There is, however, evidence from this research that thetraditional trait-and-factor ‘matching’ approach, derivedfrom differential psychology, is still greatly influentialon career guidance practice. This is illustrated by thelarge proportion of interviews (about three quarters)that were primarily concerned with assessing differentaspects of their client’s background with a view tomatching the client to an appropriate course or job,and/or included recommendations for, or actual usageof, various resources that were based on this paradigm(e.g. computer-aided guidance; interest inventories; andpsychometric tests). For example, varied dimensions ofthe client’s background and present circumstances were

probed, including ‘hard’ factual client data, which wascollected in 54% of interviews. Work-related history;educational and training background; influences andconstraints; skills and abilities; and personality traitswere systematically assessed. An example follows:

Practitioner: Can we go back a couple of stepsreally? I mean, the degree that you did…., can Iask where you did it?...Can I ask, before you wenton and did the degree, had you done a….foundation course at all?...How had you gotthrough to that?...What subjects did you do your Alevels in?...Can I ask what grades you got?...didn’tyou expect to do better in any of them?...When youchose your ‘A’ levels, you chose (subjects). Whatmade you choose to study those particular subjectsat ‘A’ level?

In addition, softer, attitudinal data was explored. Thisincluded the exploration of client preferences (aboutcourses, jobs, strategies, options, etc.), which wasundertaken by 94% of practitioners (n=46) and assessedmotivation, feelings, preferences and awareness. Twoillustrative examples of different practitionerinterventions follow:

Practitioner: ...there’s quite a lot of pressure todeliver, often against deadlines...Are youcomfortable with that? Personalpressure?…somebody requiring you to come upwith the goods…Are you comfortable with that sideof things?

Practitioner: Can you pin-point what it is about ajob that keeps your interest, that keeps you feelingbuzzy like that, stops you getting bored? Do youknow?

The continued popularity of the matching approach tocareer guidance can be explained, partly, by its practicalappeal. It provides practitioners with a clear rationaleand framework for practice. Their role is clearlydefined as an ‘expert’, possessing specialist informationand knowledge of the methods needed to assessindividual suitability and capability for the labourmarket. Additionally, and importantly, the underlyingphilosophy of a differential approach has suited policymakers since it lends itself to the servicing of labourmarket requirements. People perform best in the jobsfor which they are best suited. It can also be achievedwithin a relatively short time span. It is assumed that aone-off intervention will suffice. Perhaps mostimportantly, the outcome from this approach is thematching, or placement, of the client into the ‘best fit’employment, education or training opportunity – ofparamount importance when resources often depend onmeeting particular, quantifiable targets of placement

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into jobs or courses. Consequently, the matchingapproach has been embraced enthusiastically by policymakers and it seems has barely questioned bypractitioners.

The theory contains, however, serious flaws. Scharfreminds us that:

“There is little research supporting or refuting traitand factor theory itself as a viable theory of careerdevelopment. Rather, the research that has beendone, of which there is a large amount, has relatedtraits and factors to one another or has establishedthe validity and reliability of measurements of traitsand factors.” Scharf (1997, p.26).

Mitchell and Krumboltz (1996) criticise its usefulnessin current labour market conditions. Matching assumesa degree of stability in the labour market. The volatilityof many occupational environments, together with theincreased pressure on individuals to change and adaptto their circumstances makes:

“Trying to place an evolving person into thechanging work environment .... is like trying to hita butterfly with a boomerang.” (Mitchell andKrumboltz, 1996, p.263).

Other researchers highlight the failure of the theory toaddress the issue of change in environments andindividuals. They also draw attention to problemsinherent with the theory’s associated measures forgender, but regard the most serious limitation to be itsfailure to explain the process of personalitydevelopment and its role in vocational selection(Osipow & Fitzgerald, 1996, p.104).

Research designed to evaluate Holland’s theory forparticular client groups also reveals weaknesses.Mobley and Slaney (1998) suggest that althoughextensive empirical and theoretical investigations haveexplored the use and relevance of Holland’s theory,‘considerably less attention has been devoted toinvestigating the implications of the theory from amulticultural perspective’ (p.126). For example, Leonget al. (1998) studied the cross-cultural validity ofHolland’s (1985) theory in India. Whilst its internalvalidity was found to be high, results regarding externalvalidity were ‘less than encouraging on several fronts’(p.449). They concluded that their findings suggest thatculture specific determinants of occupational choiceshould be studied as alternatives to the ‘Westernassumption of vocational interests being the primarydeterminants’ (p.453).

In their study of gender differences in Holland’soccupational interest types, Farmer et al. (1998) found

limitations for the practical applications of the theoryfor women, concluding that ‘counselors may need to re-evaluate Holland et al.’s advice on consistency and jobstability’ (p.91). Sexual orientation is an aspect ofHolland’s theory that Mobley and Slaney (1998)consider overlooked. In particular, they suggest that therelationship between Holland’s concept of congruenceand gay and lesbian development need to be carefullyresearched. Yet another relevant aspect neglected inHolland’s ideas is homophobic tendencies both in theworkplace and society at large (p.131).

The corollary to the finding that a matching approach tocareer guidance is still dominant in the UK is that therewas little evidence from the longitudinal case studyresearch of newer approaches to guidance. Forexample, the social learning theory of career decisionmaking (Krumboltz & Nichols, 1990; Krumboltz, 1994;Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996) or narrative approaches tocareer guidance (e.g. Savickas, 1997; Cochran, 1997;Peavy, 2000). In these approaches, which typically takelonger than a brief, one-off intervention, more value isplaced on the softer outcomes of the career guidanceprocess, like the development of career decision-making skills or helping the client to achieve a higherlevel of personal self-awareness and understanding ofrecurrent themes in their lives. This raises importantquestions about why practitioners are not using thesenewer approaches, what actually constitutes goodpractice and how this can be supported.

Moreover, evidence from the case study researchreveals how introductions to interviews and to a lesserextent, conclusions were strongly influenced by specificpolicy requirements to collect particular informationabout clients and to record the outcome of theinterview. The way in which the collection of dataneeded to be carried out for auditing purposes (that is,to complete a pro-forma to record detailed clientinformation) caused discomfort on the part of somepractitioners. A final observation about ‘practice inaction’ from the research is that the time taken for aguidance interview was typically under one hour,though this varied according to the professional contextin which career guidance was delivered. Managing acomplex guidance agenda within (what for the mostpart is) a strict time limit places considerable demandson the skills of practitioners. A number of practitionersstruggled with these limits.

Overall, it is evident from the on-going longitudinalcase study that current career guidance practice isheavily constrained by policy. The extent to whichpractitioners feel that they have the discretion toexercise professional judgements about how theyshould operate in the best possible interests of theirclients seems to be severely restricted. In consequence,

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the ability for practitioners to deliver evidence-basedpractice (that is, practice developed from recent, robustresearch and related theory) is limited. New thinkingand new approaches are difficult to implement. Tokeep themselves up-to-date with developments inresearch, practitioners have to overcome a number ofbarriers relating to available training and CPD. Wherethey are successful in this endeavour, operationalconstraints restrict what they can do and how they cando it.

8. Conclusion

Recent populist visions of macro change in the labourmarket and employment practices have not come topass in quite the ways predicted. Instead, what isevident is an increase in the complexity surrounding theways individuals navigate their way into, and through,the labour market. This emphasises the need for highquality career guidance. However, evidence suggeststhat practitioners are still heavily reliant on traditionalapproaches to guidance with little attempt to integratenew approaches to their practice. In view of this, thecareers profession needs to review, critically, both itspractice and training for practice. The types ofsupporting frameworks and strategies required foreffective careers work should be made explicit andtraining strengthened and supported. Suggestions ofpractical ways forward include:

• Learning more about the impact of differing typesof career interventions on individuals’ lives. Thisrequires a more active commitment to gathering,and disseminating, evidence about ‘what works’through, for example, practitioner forums andpractice-orientated publications.

• Building ‘communities of interest’, wherebypractitioners from different sectors of the careerguidance community are supported to work togetherto improve specific aspects of careers work (using,for example, the National Guidance ResearchForum (NGRF) website1, designed specifically tobring research and practice closer together).

• Strengthening initial training for those entering thecareers profession as well as broadening the rangeof continuous professional developmentopportunities for those already working in the field.

• Presenting the business case to employers andpolicy makers for investing more time and energy indriving up expertise and credentials.

• Linking practice more closely with the labourmarket so that this unique selling point of careerswork is fully understood by employers and otherkey stakeholders.

A key challenge for the career guidance community andpolicy makers is to support practitioners in theformation of clear occupational identities, throughrobust training systems, so that they can navigate thechanges in their own industrial sector and help othersnavigate theirs. The cost of failing to do so has farreaching consequences, not just for the careersprofession but for society as a whole.

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