I am a believer in the changing nature of career and thought
I understood what Castells (1996) means when he talks about the emerging
“network society” in the new “information age” with “flows of people and
information”. However until last night I
don’t think I had actually experienced it. How could I have experienced it without
changing jobs? I am still a careers
advisor working in a secondary school.
I attended a play
last night, “Consumed” by Border Crossings, and in many ways I was able to
experience the reality of it through the lives of the characters. It wasn’t directly about careers and I was
there for a night out but I came away with a strong sense that this was really
interesting and useful in the current debate about career. It struck me that this was what the “network
society” and “information age” that Castells talks of actually looks like.
In a dramatic way
it gave an insight into some of the issues facing modern workers in the age of
globalism and information technology. I
would suggest that it gives food for thought in the debate of how we prepare
young people for the challenges they may face in the future and issues some adults
already encounter. “Consumed” is playing
in various parts of the country until mid- March 2013. I would highly recommend it, its relevance to
careers is not its major focus but that is in fact the strongest relevance , it
is much more like real lived experiences where the complexity of relationships
and interactions are not foreseen in advance.
As a careers
professional in a school I encounter plenty of factual information and whenever
possible employers or employees engage with our students to give them a sense
of their personal reality. We cannot know what individual challenges and
pressures will be faced whilst being part of the “flows of people and information”.
However, being able to experience that
world, albeit through theatre must go some way to helping us understand what
challenges our clients might face. Theatre
allows you to become immersed in every way, thus allowing learning to happen at
a different level.
It is an experience
I will take with me on my journey as a careers professional. I hope that some of you have the chance to do
the same.
Morag Walling
(MA in Career
Guidance student at CCPD)
Castells, M. (1996) The information age: economy, society and
culture. Vol.1: the rise of the network society. Oxford: Blackwell.
