National Careers Exhibition 2013

The Centre for Career and Personal Development (CCPD) at Canterbury Christ Church University were exhibitors and presenters at this year’s National Careers Exhibition at Olympia recently.

CCPD Staff Jacquie Minter at our stand at the exhibition

Four members of the centre were kept busy for two days explaining the wide ranges of programmes, courses and professional development on offer.  We also had a steady stream of alumni popping in to say hello and to update us on their own career development and successes.  Some just stopped by to say how much they had enjoyed the two very popular seminars presented by Rebecca Tee and Barbara Bassot and to meet the staff from CCPD.  

CCPD Staff Anne Chant speaking to an interested visitor to the stand

A thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience was had by all and we look forward to next year. If you didn’t have the chance to see us in person do drop us a line or check out our programmes and courses on our website: http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/ccpd/

Rebecca Tee

 

Centre for Career & Personal Development exhibit at at the National Career Guidance Show 20th/21st March 2013

Dr Barbara Bassot, Anne Chant, Jacquie Minter and Rebecca Tee from CCPD are exhibiting at the National Career Guidance Exhibition at Olympia on Wednesday 20th March and Thursday 21st March 2013.  Held in Olympia Hall 2, this annual exhibition of over 100 organisations is aimed at professional career guidance advisers, careers teachers, managers and practitioners working with young people, students, graduates and adults.

Barbara and Rebecca will be presenting seminars as part of the event on The Career Thinking Session and Taking the floor: How to give presentations with impact amd aplomb respectively. 

The CCPD stand 93 will give you a friendly welcome if you want to come and say hello and you can find out all about our current offer of courses, programmes and consultancy.

New Publication by CCPD Staff

Hazel Reid and Jane Westergaard are delighted with the recent publication of their new book 'Effective Supervision for Counsellors: An introduction' (Learning Matters / Sage).

The book will be a valuable resource to both supervisors-in-training and those who work in the broad remit of the 'helping professions' and are supervising or being supervised.

Norman Claringbull, the Counselling Series Editor for Learning Matters / Sage says:

"This is an excellent hands-on book that will be of enormous help to supervisors and supervisees alike.  At its heart, the book shows supervisors and supervisees how to get the best out of their working relationships.  This book is full of useful exercises, practical hints, case studies and lots of guidance  about future learning".

Do you wonder what the reality of the post-modern career feels like?

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.

http://www.bordercrossings.org.uk/Productions/Default.aspx

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.

CCPD presentation in Mannheim

Drs Hazel Reid and Barbara Bassot from the Centre for Career and Personal Development recently attended a three-day conference at Mannheim University in Germany.  The Conference was run by the International Association of Educational and Vocational Guidance and had an audience of over 500 delegates.  They came from all over the world - many from European countries.  The conference title was “Career Guidance for Social Justice, Prosperity and Sustainable Employment, challenges for the 21^st Century”.  Mannheim was chosen as the venue as it was the 40^th anniversary of the careers guidance course at that university.

The Water Tower, Mannheim

 

A keynote speech that stood out at the conference was by Professor Ronald Sultana from Malta who spoke on Social Justice.   Professor Sultana highlighted some of the many challenges for career guidance practitioners in promoting equality.

Professor Ronald Sultana, University of Malta

Hazel and Barbara had been invited to present their Model of The Career Thinking Session.  This model offers a reflective space for clients to challenge and question their limiting assumptions about their own career development.  Barbara and Hazel outlined their model and shared the results of recent pilot research into its use.  A question and answer session followed their presentation. 

Barbara said:  “A very vibrant discussion followed our presentation.  Audience members were very interested in the model and how it could apply in their own work settings.”   One delegate said that they found the model “absolutely inspirational”.

Hazel Reid added:  “We will now be putting further articles forward to disseminate this research more widely.”

For more information about all our work please see details of publications on our website at  www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/ccpd

Rebecca Tee

A mild case of Bubonic Plague

Recently, when I was feeling slightly unwell with various symptoms that do not usually appear together, I looked them up on a ‘Diagnose Yourself’ website. I was able to click on a diagram of a body to show where each symptom appeared and then indicate what the symptom was. After only a moment, I had a list of possible complaints to choose from.

 

I felt rather like ‘J’, the narrator of ‘Three Men in a Boat’ (one of my favourite books), who looked through a medical dictionary and concluded that he ‘had everything except Housemaid’s Knee’. He had to go to the library to look this up, but I was able to get my diagnosis on my laptop while sitting in front of the fire at home.

So, how is this relevant to Careers work?

I see a direct parallel between my experience of finding out about my medical condition, and someone searching for information about careers. In the past they would have had to go to a Careers Library, usually in a Careers Centre, School or College, where there would be someone to help them find the information they needed.

Now, it is so easy to look things up online, and young people particularly prefer this means of finding information.  There is almost limitless information available at the click of a mouse. Surely this must be a good thing? Well, yes, but it is often nearly impossible to know how accurate, unbiased and up-to-date online careers information is, and if decisions are made on the basis of inaccurate information, it could have far reaching consequences. Much better that someone is signposted to a trustworthy source of online information – and this requires intervention from ‘someone who knows’, preferably a careers professional.

At a time when the Government is indicating that much of the Information, Advice and Guidance provided by the new All-age service will be online, my concern is about how accessible this will be, and who will be providing the IAG. For me, unmediated careers information is possibly even more dangerous than no information. When people are making decisions which may affect their whole lives, we should not settle for less than the best.

Oh, and my mild case of Bubonic Plague cleared up without treatment the next day.

Alison Fielding

Jane Westergaard's Danish Book

Jane Westergaard, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Career and Personall Development, today gave a seminar on a live link from Canterbury Christ Church University direct to career guidance students sitting in their lecture theatre at Aarhus University in Denmark. Jane outlined her FAAST model which provides a chronology for planning, preparing and delivering personal learning and development group work.

Jane was asked to give this seminar after the course tutor at the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University heard Jane speak at a conference in Bangalore in India in 2010. At her workshop at this conference, Jane outlined the FAAST model as described in her book “Effective Group Work with Young People” published by the Open University. Realising how useful the book would be for her learners, she encouraged its translation into Danish and also invited Jane to address the students.

Jane introduced the model on a live link-up though an interactive session and then the students, who are all Danish trainee career counsellors, went to put the model into practice. Jane said: “This model helps people who have to run group work sessions to feel confident that they have comprehensively thought through their sessions and that they have an effective plan to use which meets the needs of the group.”

One reader said: “Jane’s book has transformed the way I approach and deliver my group sessions with clients. It is an accessible read and the model really works.”

For more information about all our work and publications see our website at www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/ccpd