Give me more of that guidance!!!

This was a really interesting and insightful way to end or PP2 classes’. It was good to see other people’s ideas and also reassuring that our main ideas focused around the same areas; local guidance, catering to all ages, and having continued personal development. I thought that was really a mature idea if i am honest from all groups and reflects maybe the influence that certain theories have had on us- for instance the constructivist approach where we build our own knowledge. I think its easy for a lot of individuals in their work to get very comfortable and possibly become a ‘know it all’, so it was great to see that we all acknowledged the idea of keeping up to date with ideas and with where we ourselves would be at.
One area I, and others felt strongly about was the need to have our managers or supervisors still taking on one-to-one guidance, group work- or really simply to be doing what they as managers were telling their staff to do. I feel that in order for them to run and manage an organisation and team of employees, they have to be up-to date with how to deliver guidance if they are to ‘preach’ to their staff.
Personally an area that I felt strongly about was the starting of career lessons in the primary school. I feel that in an ideal world there would be far more time spent on careers in school and at an early age to incorporate the idea that careers is an important part of our lives. This may allow children to start thinking more early on about what a career means to them and be more equipped to deal with the decisions they will need to make in life. The lessons would also incorporate self-esteem building, recognition of skills and attributes, etc –all the provisions needed throughout life to apply for jobs, know where to look for them, write a CV, be confident about ourselves, take part in an interview, work as a team member, and much more- all the issues that need to be addressed after leaving school for many people could be addressed gradually throughout their lives while still at school.
The government would also be supportive of long-term guidance and understand that the real benefits may take years to show in the individual. There wouldn’t be target setting or time-constraints, the guidance would be individualistic and the client would set their goals (with help if needed) - as what they wanted to achieve would be most important.
This is my idea of guidance- it would be great if this was the case and I think we would all have the perfect job :) !!

Not long to go- what theory will stay with me??

I have already blogged on my like for the Happenstance theory; however I think that the idea that will stay with me the most when I leave is the idea of multiculturalism.
All the placements which I have been on have incorporated diverse groups and individuals. I have seen the SERVE project in action which aims to help young men/women out of the gang culture in the east end of Glasgow; I have been to a group for young teenage mums looking to get back into education or work, careers Scotland now translates their materials into a number of languages, observed how gender bias is addressed in career lessons and many more relevant examples.
I think as a career adviser it is important that we are aware of any assumptions or bias that we may have when giving guidance and I think personally it is important to do this continually throughout your career as more multicultural issue crop up. I think it would be dangerous to simply try to fit multicultural groups/individuals into the box which you want them to fit into. It is important that we allow there to be individualistic guidance as much as we can and respect the differences that people bring to our society and simply not try to integrate them fully into our society as then everybody would become the same; more or less.

Finally understanding the narrative theory

Our last tutorial really condensed everything that we have being covering in our classes. Sometimes its easier to understand a concept when it is simply defined to you in a couple of simple sentences and I think Grant going over the theories that we had looked at in class helped me to eventually get my head around the narrative approach. I think also writing our CDT essay gave me an opportunity to try to put the contemporary theories into my own words and this also really helped.
Gothard, et al (2001) suggests that ‘the use of narrative methods would seem to have a high degree of congruence with the practice of mentoring,’ this idea really helped me to see how a narrative approach would work into today’s guidance centres. It gave me the idea that a lot of Key Workers may unknowingly use a narrative approach.
Effort and commitment to the young person is needed on behalf of the key worker and the work involved at times can be stressful and have many hurdles, and I think in order to overcome these hurdles and episodes the young person needs to trust the key worker and this does mirror the idea of a mentor and I think for a lot of young people this kind of relationship works and is needed. What is created between this individual and their key worker should be the ability to talk the key worker through their life story; what has happened, where they are at now and how they may want to move forward- I do think that this is a good way of looking at how the narrative approach can or would work.

If we Career Advisers Cant Even Get A Job!!!

Looking for jobs is extremely daunting, i am finding myself applying for jobs and talking myself out of them almost instantly- i suppose thatfear of rejection, not getting a reply, etc starts kicking in.
Even for us so called 'career advisers' it is a really difficult process to put yourself out there, to be measured on a bit of paper that you have constructed about yourself . Ive realised it really isn't a nice process, especially when you are applying for jobs that you have already invested yourself in. I wasnt that bothered at University about being knocked back for part-time jobs a i knew that wasn't my 'career'; now however its an almost a knock to yourself to go for a job that you have studied for, put your effort into and think that you can do- for someone to say "no, actually you not what we are looking for."
I just thought that it must be a really really difficult experience for people who have multiple barriers to employment. I mean to constantly be rejected, as most people would see it, could put most hardened and confident people off- never mind people who are struggling with so many issues in their life already. It does give new meaning to all the schemes/pilots and non-profit orginisations that help these individuals intensively.

One Rule for New Starts, and Another for Others?

I have been taking part in a few interviews on placement and it has been commented a few times that i should remember to go over confidentiality with the client at the beginning of the interview. However, not one interaction i have seen so far involving a member of the employed team have yet to do this!
Now i know I'm not covering it either (as i keep forgetting!!) but the fact that i am am almost getting into trouble for something that doesn't seem to be getting covered anyway seems odd to me. Is it because the employed staff are so eager to be authoritative to a student or is it that they themselves have become oblivious to how they conduct their own interviews, almost assuming that they are doing everything right, when in actual fact they are not doing as they preach!!
I was thinking today that too many professionals now get away without reflecting or evaluating on their own practice, it seems to fall by the way side after a professionals 'probation' year on a job. Does this suggest that no one needs help or guidance in their ob after that, are all people who have been in a job after their probation year experts needing no help or advice on how they are conducting themselves in their job?....personally i think not!
Another clear example comes to mind of teachers who have been in the same post for 20 years, they are seen as experts in their field and on paper that may be so but are they actually up to speed on how to keep a class in the spirit of learning or has it all become routine and dull for them?
I'm starting to think that maybe professionals should be critiqued by the new 'probation' students surely they are the new starts coming to it with a fresh head on their shoulder, eager and willing- maybe they shouldn't be seen as a threat as they so often are.

Placement

I have been on placement for the last week in the Parkhead office with Careers Scotland.
If I am honest, I wasn’t looking forward to gong back onto another placement with Careers Scotland as I had already been on one previously and thought it may be repeating what I had already experienced.
However, so far I have been really enjoying myself, and have been finding out things on this placement which I hadn’t previously known, even after my previous placement in Hamilton earlier this year. I have so far been out in schools, where I have seen how different schools use their career advisers very differently. It seems that the schools in the east of Scotland want a lot out of their career adviser and they are expected to be fully integrated into their system- however, this is a constant struggle I have seen for the career advisers as many are spread over as much as 3 schools and feel that their resources and themselves are being spread very thinly.

I have been a lot more comfortable on this placement and have been enjoying it and I feel that his has something to do with the area which I am working in- I know it well and feel comfortable working with the individuals from this area as I fell that I am more in tune with them, their environment and needs.

I have seen the work that careers advisers to within Additional Support Needs (ASN) schools and I have been really taken aback by how much effort and commitment goes into this work, the work which they do with the school is tremendous and the benefits that the individuals are getting out of it seems to be really worth it. Young people with ASN are being placed into long-term work placements where the employer gets to know the individual, what their attributes are and how to work with the individual in the working environment to make it a possible transition into the workplace after school rather than into college. The careers adviser was telling me that the success stories within an ASN school are what makes it all worth while, she had one boy with Aspergers syndrome which went to work for a local restraunt chain and through mentoring, support from Careers Scotland, and the employer, he has now been there for 4 years and is a full-time supervisor.

With regards to my previous blogs about community and possibly not needing to know the community which you were working within I now do see the benefits of being able to integrate into a community quickly, as knowing the area and about the local areas needs and requirements when it comes to career decisions, employment opportunities, I now see how much more useful I would be to a client in being part of their community or living in the surrounding area.

Happenstance

One of the theories I actually like, I think it is a real honest and true theory.

As it is a contemporary theory it has borrowed from traditional theories, however, I can’t quite believe it took until 1999 for it to be really formalised into a theory by Mitchell, Levin and Krumboltz.

Happenstance, as a term, refers to when chance events affect an individual’s career path or planning. The theory is held in high regard, partly due to the number of people able to account for when and where chance has played a part in their own career. I myself maybe particularly drawn to this theory, as I fell that it relates to me. I had throughout school and college planned everything around becoming a primary teacher, as I thought this is what I wanted to do. It wasn’t until I took a year out from the course for a variety of reasons (one being my deep dislike for what I had so far spent 3 years doing). It was on this year out that I was offered training at my current work on the Connexions Line; it was from here that I found out about career advisers, and this course. It was sheer luck that I was offered that work and that I liked it so much that I decided to do this Postgraduate course. This is a clear example of how chances lead me to find out what I truly wanted to do.

Where traditionally, vocational confusion would be considered a problem or an issue to be resolved, Happenstance actually embraces it. The theory effectively promotes uncertainty. “Work world shifts challenge career counsellors to adopt a counselling intervention that views unplanned events as both inevitable and desirable.”

However, I am able to see the weakness in this theory; I can see where some might find the concept difficult to digest. It may be that a client has never experienced any of this ‘luck’ that Happenstance bases itself upon, it may also suggest that there is no need for focussing on formal support, planning or guidance when it comes to career choices or accessing the job market. However, I still feel that as a contemporary theory it is going someway to acknowledge the other factors which now affect an individual’s career journey.

(Levin, A., Mitchell, K., Krumboltz, J. (1999) Planned Happenstance - Constructing Unexpected Career Opportunities. Journal of Counselling and Development, 77(02), P. 115 – 125)

Communities

Along with my thinking about moving to London or whether to stay here in Glasgow, I have also been looking for jobs in which to fund either of these decisions after finishing University in May, and this got me thinking about communities and guidance.
It seems that every job which I look for, which centres around giving guidance in a careers context always seems to suggest that they would ‘prefer/or it would be desirable’ that the applicant have knowledge of the area which they will be working in.

I can understand on the face of it why this would be- having an understanding of local issues, being able to relate with the local communities.
However, for someone coming out of a University course where we have been told that jobs in the Career Guidance sector wont be easy to come by and that we should consider relocating, then it is a further hurdle to learn that you would be looked down upon in your application if you did not come from the area.

Can it be possible to learn enough and integrate yourself enough into a new community in order to give the best guidance that you can to people affected by the local issues in the local area? Could enough research be done beforehand to function within this new community? These may be the many questions which worry an interview panel.

I feel that your role within your (new) job would be your small-knit community, where you could integrate fully eventually and learn the inside and outsides of how it works, functions and interacts with the wider community (your clients)?

Surely working within a job which deals directly with the public and social issues that it faces, you would quite quickly grow and learn the community as a whole and how you yourself can work within it and achieve the targets of your job for the benefit of the community’s members?

I realise the importance of community and understanding the community in which you work as it will form belief systems, ways of life for an individual, even for some people a way of thinking.
My granddad often used the phrase ‘small town mentality’ and what he meant, and quite harshly, was that people from small industrial towns where there was little work and little to do had the mentality that this was the way life was, that they couldn’t do anything about it; there was no jobs in their local area, and so for them benefits and unemployment was the way that they lived and would continue to live.
In this case it can be important to know the ‘mentality’ of a community. Bill Law (1981) stated that;’ the way in which who does what in society is decided is the product of a plurality of interpersonal transactions conducted in local settings, and on the basis of interaction within and between groups of which the individual is a member- the “community”.’ This suggests that the ‘mentality’ of a community can be passed down through the generations and can be difficult to get out of, in this way communities allowed to exist without intervention could be dangerous and stagnant.

In this case, I have realised right here and now through typing this out, that maybe the answer is to actually have guidance workers who are not from the area to break this cycle and to bring a new ‘mentality’ to members of the community- hopefully this could change the communities thinking in the long term and benefit the community as a whole.

….I wonder if it would be possible to convince an interview panel that not knowing about the community you were going to be working within was a good thingJ!!!

Kidd, J.M. (2006) Understanding Career Counselling. Theory, Research and Practice. London, SAGE Publications

Recent Experience- Centigrade Interviews

I found the centigrade interviews to be useful in a number of ways. It was firstly interesting to have experience of trying to take part in an interview using the results of a matching technique. I found this particularly difficult as I felt that a great amount of time was spent beforehand trying to reassure the pupil that what was in the centigrade results wasn’t something that they would have to stick to, that these results were what was produced at a particular moment in time, that the results were a guide to possible career routes- it seemed that I was almost talking down the whole centigrade process at times.
I felt that the whole centigrade booklet could leave the pupils with a huge burden on their shoulders; if they didn’t choose something that was reported as being a ‘good match’ for them, would it be in the back of their minds that they wouldn’t be good at the route they eventually choose, I personally didn’t like the defectiveness of the report.

In both my interviews I felt that the individuals had answered the questions in the survey deliberately to have the outcomes that they wanted. In my first interview, the pupil was very quiet and almost, it seemed, completely disinterested in talking about his career choices (this was almost commented on by Pete).
When I delved further into family aspirations, the outcomes of his report seemed to relay what his parents wanted him to do rather than what he wanted to do. They had suggested that he do medicine as they thought it was a good career and that he was good at sciences, however, although his report only detailed matches to science subjects, when we discussed them he was un-emotive about these choices and also suggested that he would hate to be a doctor…..how did his results match him to a Medical Course when personally he suggests he would hate to be a doctor….is he answering the questions as if his parents will see the results!
He recognised that he was good at sciences but he had no interest there, in fact I feel now, with hindsight, that he was so disinterested in talking about his career choice as the centigrade results may have mirrored what his parents where already doing- forcing him into something he didn’t want to do!

I feel that maybe the school careers service could be doing more to address the issue of trying to really find out what interests you. This could happen through work placements and trials, why is it that pupils only have the chance of 1 placement within a working environment in their whole secondary school education; surely there is room for this to happen more often. This would allow children to, at least, have some confidence in knowing what areas of the working world they do and don’t like.
This may also lead to confidence in which to answer these surveys more openly and honestly as they would have genuine experience at their backs and may also help someone like the boy I interviewed to have the confidence to say to his parents ‘no I don’t want to be a doctor- I experienced something at school that I much prefer’-they would also have the confidence that he had.

Comparison: Careers Scotland and Connexions

As I was one of the few to go down South on placement and spend sometime with the Connexions service and we have all done some work now with Careers Scotland, I thought it might be useful to post some of the differences between the two organisations, as I realise some people may be about to embark on a placement down there this time around.

‘Connexions is for you if you are 13-19, living in England and wanting advice on getting to where you want to be in life. It also provides support up to the age of 25 for young people who have learning difficulties or disabilities (or both).’ (www.connexions-direct.co.uk, 2008)
In this case this is the first major difference between Connexions and Careers Scotland; they work solely with young people and thus have no experience with adult guidance.
Connexions is a modern public service and young people are actively involved in its design and delivery. The service is managed locally by your Local Connexions Service and it brings together all the key youth support services. (www.connexions-direct.co.uk, 2008)
Connexions Personal Advisers work with young people in Local Connexions Services. They can give you information, advice and practical help with all sorts of things that might be affecting you at school, college, work or in your personal or family life. They can also refer you to specialist support if it is needed.
This is another clear difference between Careers Scotland and the Connexions service, although Key Workers or Activate advisers may develop an informal relationship with clients were social and personal issues may be discussed it is not within the Careers Scotland remit to be approached in order to gain advice on these issues specifically. This may be an area Connexions personal advisers are happy to engage with as they are working solely with young people who often have many issues while growing up and must in this case be specifically trained to have this experience. Connexions also provide drop-in clinics for the C-Card, a scheme which young people over the age of 12 can pick up free condoms from their local Connexions centre. This I found was awkward for some people within the orginisation, however, I found that the kids who took part really appreciated this service as they were often far too intimidated to go to a drop-in clinic at a local sexual health clinic. I feel that these sort of services, along with having a closer relationship with their personal adviser may allow the kids to be more open about their sexal behaviour and can thus get the information that they may previously have not know: the aim obviuosly would be to make them more aware of sexual relationships and not to encourage underage sex.

Connexions also targets the NEET group and works closely with individuals with learning difficulties and multiple barriers to learning, this echoes the youth work done within Careers Scotland. (www.everychildmatters.gov.uk, 2008)
The Connexions service has recently been through a process of transition. Following the publication of Every Child Matters: next steps, and children's trusts were set up in each local authority area. From 1 April 2008 the funding that went directly to 47 Connexions Partnerships now goes directly to all 150 local authorities (LAs), via the new Area Based Grant, with LAs now responsible for delivery. (www.everychildmatters.gov.uk, 2008) In this case Connexions is also subject to government policy in how their service is delivered and what is delivered, however LA’s can be more specific with the needs of their community problems and how best to spend the money that they are given.

Simone's first post!!!!

On a wee break at Colinton Road getting taught how to setup my Blog by Holly- what a good teacher:)