Conference on 5th May 2011

I am on the organising group that is currently planning planning a conference for the centre on 5th May this year. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to ‘blog’ about it. There are some really useful conferences planned for this year around the country and at a time of such uncertainty in the field of careers, particularly in England, such events have never been more important. Many will focus on the emerging all-age guidance service and others on the increased need for expertise in careers education. Although we have included a 'state of the nation' key note from Tony Watts who will reflect on these crucial changes, the focus of the conference is a little different.

The title ‘Vocation, vocation, vocation: placing meaning in the foreground of career decision making’ gives a flavour for this ‘back to our roots’ theme which is rather nicely illustrated on the front of the programme. The thought behind this, when we first began to plan the event in 2010, was that a healthy root system is essential for a plant and also for a profession. No matter how the context for our practice is ‘pruned’ or indeed cut back rather hard, it is the health of the roots, ethics and values of our profession that will ensure that we continue to grow. A quotation from Theodore Roethke ‘Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light’ is used to capture this concept and I certainly can’t think of a better way to say it!

Take a look at the conference brochure via the following link and perhaps I’ll see you there.

Anne Chant

http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/career-and-personal-development/events/Conference2011.aspx

Education as a route to acquiring voice?

In his ‘foreward’ to Paulo Friere’s ‘Pedagogy of the oppressed’, Richard Shaul acknowledges the ‘culture of silence’ and the role of education as a route to ‘acquiring voice’ and a recent interview I engaged with for my EdD, has inspired me to reflect on my role as an educator, as a researcher and as a narrator.  I wonder how much of who I am, how I am and what I think and do promotes the acquisition of voice within others, particularly those who belong to a socially oppressed group. 

Friere refers to ‘conscientizcáo’ and presents that the perceived caveat of procuring forums for these perhaps otherwise unheard voices is that the critical consciousness will instigate anarchy. As the oppressed and the oppressors are engaged in an interchange, this so-called inevitable ‘destructive fantacism’ is just as readily a ‘fear of freedom’.  In reflecting upon my own contribution to and perhaps even my obligation to this, I consider that it is about what we do and also about what we do not do to encourage critical consciousness.  

Referring to a video about racism I saw as part of my basic youth work training many years ago, ‘Me feel it’, much of what restricts and oppresses the voices of others happens silently, covertly and sometimes unintentionally.  The person I interviewed for my study stated that: ‘…me as a black person growing up in a white society and having to experience what I have and a lot of other black people have experienced these things…for me to sit in a class room now and listen to some of these phrases and some of these references, I’m thinking ‘ how out of date is it’ you know and what is it, what makes it right for us to follow these people’s processes by the letter?’. 

A final thought, drawing on Friere’s assertions is the importance of perceiving ‘the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform’.  I hope that my own critical awareness will help to fuel the necessary transformation in my own work, because if education is a route to acquiring voice, then we as educators need to examine the interpersonal, contextual and material in a bid to open the necessary doors to ease this exit.

Jo Oliver

All Change and All-Age

Our Minister of State for Education, John Hayes announced the New All-Age Careers Service on Nov 4th 2010 and during his speech made the following statement:


‘A single, unified careers service would provide major benefits in terms of transparency and accessibility. And a single service with its own unique identity would have more credibility for people within it as well as users than the more fragmented arrangements that are currently in place.

There are a range of other benefits, including the ability to support young people more effectively during their transition to adulthood. And that’s why creating an all-age service will be one of my and my Departments’ most important tasks over the coming months and years.

As we go about this, it’s important to recognise that we’re not starting from scratch. On the contrary, we will build on Next Step, and on Connexions because we must not lose the best of either’.


In advocating this, I am certainly under no illusions about the Spending Review settlement. But if we are going to create the sort of comprehensive guidance service that I and many others think we need, then we will simply have to do more with less’

Fine words—but how does this relate to reality?

Take, for a start, not wanting to lose the best of Connexions. What I actually see is Connexions centres with large CLOSED notices scrawled across their premises, careers advisers pulled out of schools and many receiving redundancy notices. If the careers advisers are not in the schools and the Centres are disappearing, I do wonder how this can be keeping the best of Connexions?

Secondly, there is the ominous ‘doing more with less’. Is this actually possible? Well, given the wonders of modern technology, the Minister may actually be lucky with this one. My own experience of delivering telephone guidance for the Open University opened my eyes to just how effective this can be and it is certainly a more economical option, both for the client and guidance company, than face to face. So with an innovative approach, utilising the latest advances in technology ( I am not suggesting that the telephone falls into this category!) I believe Mr Hayes may ( just) have a chance of genuinely achieving more with less!

During his speech he also emphasised the need to continue to improve the status of the profession and the need for continuing professional development. This has to be good, and is already happening with the new LLUK Level 6 Diploma for adult guidance professionals and the Task Force recommendation of level 7 qualifications as the standard within 5 years.

Another theme was the partnership he expected to see between professional guidance practitioners and the schools who will be able to buy their services in. It was clear that he feels strongly that schools should buy in independent, impartial, professional career guidance for their pupils, however, it also was obvious that who the school purchase this from will be the decision of the individual school. In my opinion this will lead to a very variable provision with only some schools being prepared to pay for quality provision for all pupils, especially if they have to do this out of reduced budgets.

So what do the changes really mean?

John Hayes’ speech demonstrated that he is a champion of change to a better, more professional career guidance provision for all ages of client but the worry is that he may well be thwarted by the present funding cuts and other s in power that do not have his own convictions .

Time will tell.

Please click on the above title to link to the ICG website where you can read or listen to the John Hayes speech in full.

Barbara Shottin

Careers on the political agenda!

Well done Esther McVey MP for getting an adjournment debate in the House of Commons (13 January 2011) on the subject of careers advice in schools. This was set in the context of the wider debate about careers advice for all ages. It was heartening to find that many MPs recognise the need for young people to get high quality, impartial careers advice from professionally qualified Careers Advisers.

Several MPs raised questions about the transition to the new all-age service, specifically about how it can be staffed when so many advisers face redundancy as a result of spending cuts in local authorities. John Hayes, Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, was there to respond. I would like to quote from an exchange towards the end of the debate:

Andrew Miller: Given that the Connexions company locally has effectively been told to wind itself up, it will, by necessity, have to put people on notice of possible dismissal

Mr Hayes: Local authorities will retain a duty to provide the service and the new all-age service will begin to kick in from this autumn, so any hiatus of the kind that the hon. Gentleman suggests is present should not be significant. I hope that local authorities would put in place arrangements to ensure that those people involved could move from one service to the other reasonably seamlessly. If he takes that message to his local authority with my endorsement, it may yield more fruit.

Am I alone in thinking that the Minister is in danger of closing the stable door after the horse has been driven out to pasture? The message to local authorities certainly doesn’t, from what I hear around the country, seem to have got through!

Alison Fielding

Is it just me .....?

Is it just me, or are others out there questioning the sense in decimating services that in recent years have done exemplary work in supporting the most vulnerable young people in our society?

Of course, I am aware that tough decisions have to be made concerning how money is spent at a time when the UK is facing unprecedented levels of National debt. But.... it seems to me short sighted in the extreme, to cut the very services that have been working tirelessly to encourage disengaged young people to take a more proactive role in our society and make their own contributions to the economic growth of the nation.

I’m left wondering what will happen to the numerous young people who have engaged actively with Connexions PAs . Young people who, to a large extent as a result of the hard work of those dedicated professionals, have been enabled to aspire to an alternative life style. A lifestyle that they might previously have thought impossible or not known how to achieve for themselves.

We should, perhaps, remind ourselves of the key reasons that the Connexions service was developed in the first place. Are those young people most at risk of disengagement, anti-social behaviour, criminal activity, long term unemployment, teenage pregnancy or NEET, simply going to disappear with the services that were formed to support them? I think not. And that is why I would urge all those professionals who have worked so hard, with such dedication to encourage the young people in greatest need, to make changes in their lives, not to be discouraged. Take time to reflect on and celebrate the results that you have achieved. And hold on in there. Your skills and expertise have not become redundant. Sadly, as funding continues to be cut across the public sector, the need for qualified professionals able to engage with the hardest to help in our society, is likely to increase in the next few years, not go away.

Jane Westergaard

Reflections on the Jiva Conference in Bangalore - October 2010

In the conference material Gideon Arulmani states “The Jiva conference celebrates the poet, the romantic, the storyteller, the psychologist, teacher, economist and psychometrician, along with the sociologist and historian, all of whose qualities, make up an effective career counsellor”. So multidisciplinary then! The conference provided an extraordinary opportunity to learn from each other about what influences our attitudes toward ‘career’ – in a truly international setting. Established career theory, policy and practice in the ‘West’ has paid scant attention to perspectives on career in socio-cultural and historical environments elsewhere in the world. The papers, presentations and workshops at the Jiva conference were stimulating, challenging and enriched our views on how to support individuals in the career choices they make. Ok, but how?

We began by recognising that it was a ‘hand made’ conference. Hand made as a term retained its true meaning in India, but in the West it might mean something else. In the UK for example we have lost most of our crafts and our manufacturing base, but the importance of traditional craft and craft skills for India and the region was highlighted through many aspects at the conference. Perhaps our term would be ‘hand crafted’ – suggesting careful choice of materials, used by a skilled craftsperson to produce a work of quality, one that is sustainable – possibly unique – something you will keep and treasure. The Jiva conference was, without doubt, hand crafted.

Each delegate would have taken away their own key words and thoughts from the conference – craft may be one, culture, context, diversity, story, narrative, traditions, taking time, listening, grace – were all words on my list. Perhaps the overarching word for me is ‘spirituality’. In ‘busy’ practice there is little time to slow down and pay attention to spirituality – it was central to the Jiva conference. This would not be surprising to those brought up in such a culture, but to most of us from the West, we seldom pay attention to the ways our ‘culture’ influences our outlook and work with clients. In order to see something different we need to change this position and stand somewhere else to look. The Jiva conference provided us all with that opportunity.

Have a look at the photos by clicking on the title above.

CPT – International IAG Developments

I, with colleagues, am involved in a Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project which is now nearing completion. The project brief was ‘Developing an effective tool for career path of secondary school students to prevent unemployment and misemployment.’ The Career Path Test (CPT) brings together Holland’s RIASEC matching model and Dunn and Dunn’s Learning Styles Approach in an online questionnaire. The report is almost instantaneous. There are also curriculum materials to support the inventory, which we have developed as workbooks.

Find out more at the CPT website: www.cpteu.com

CPT is designed to enable young people to start the career planning process and it is especially relevant in countries where IAG in schools is not readily available. Partner countries are Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia and the UK. In piloting CPT, we initially thought that our role in the UK would be more of a ‘benchmarking’ exercise as schools do have IAG programmes and there are already established inventories available.

We are beginning to reconsider this position. Positive feedback, particularly around the learning styles aspect of the inventory, suggests that CPT may have more to offer in the UK than we anticipated. Alongside this, the current economic climate and the possible cuts to Connexions services mean that in some areas the Universal provision will be offered online. CPT may provide a useful starting point for young people, and could support other provision.

We would like to hear from you about how you see a tool like CPT fitting in with your provision of IAG.

Alison Fielding