Final thoughts...

So this is the last blog, I think that this tool has ended up being quite usefull… though I do find it quite hard to keep up to date with uni and work, its good to get into the practice of reflective thinking!
Overall I think that the course has flown by surprisingly quickly! And I cant believe that we’re coming into the final week.
Serious job searching here we come!!!
Im not really to sure which part of career guidance that I would like to work in eventually, I have enjoyed most of the placements and had a good mix.
I think that if I have the option to choose eventually I would like to specialise and quite fancy the key worker type role, not necessarily with careers Scotland, but I enjoyed the idea of getting to spend as much time as needed with clients and also being able to see progress and hearing if all your hard work actually works.
anyway untill then any job would be nice!

Two weeks to go!

Quite scary that this is the last two weeks to go...till we're qualified Careers Advisors
Finding applying for jobs quite disheartening as Ive heard nothing back as of yet for the ones i have applied for, even to get just an interview! although saying that the thought of interviews is quite scary to be honest! whilst on placement i met with remploy and had a 'meeting' with the manager there, was more like an interview though!!
i have to say it really made me quite nervous about any real ones!! during the interview i felt like i was being interviewed for a shop not a guidance and support practice. the manager spoke of targets and hard facts and figures and how he wanted to beat the competition and get more into sustained emplyment...although i dont think that he cared too much about those people that made up the facts and figures!!
when i mentioned the word holistic guidance he said that this was a word which he 'hated'.... !!!

Postmodernism...modernism...darkages!

We were asked quite an interesting qu in class the other day…which practices would we be drawn to in our own practice??? I think that it’s a bit early on to answer this due to really a lack of experience with practice! But I do quite like the idea of the contemporary approaches particularly narrative approaches. However whether as practitioners we will be allowed to use all the knowledge that we have on new practices is another question. In my experience on placement time seems to be quite a precious commodity and realistically practitioners don’t get the time that they need to be able to practice innovative approaches like this. Whilst on my second placement in career Scotland just there, speaking to a few advisors many said that they didn’t like the cpj or using action plans with the clients. When asking them if they would use the new approaches they said that time and space constraints would make it v hard…and whilst sitting on a team meeting there was talk of auditing to make sure that everyone was using the cpj and action plan!
I think that narrative would be a good way to deal with many clients; a lot of interviews I witnessed were very much the practitioner doing ALL of the talking and the clients sitting looking a bit bored at times! Then promising to go out and stick to what they’d been told! I think this type of guidance is v much stuck in the ‘dark ages’ and not really meeting the needs of our clients, sometimes silence can be awkward and it is v tempting to talk and fill the space, but I think a little nudge and clients will eventually open up, when the said advisor left the room, the one who’d been doing all the talking that is, I asked the girl what she was interested in and she told me painting and decorating but that It was a mans job, before this we had sat for half an hour with the advisor telling her about px2- the career Scotland’s new go for it, since the careers advisor had established from the notes on the screen that the girl had no motivation and didn’t know what she wanted to do! The girl told me when the Ca left that all she had ever wanted to do was painting and decorating but that she didn’t like telling people because its not really something girls do!
I think that this is an example of how Career Scotland fails their clients to be honest, the girl was judged before she came in the door from others notes, and although of course prob keeping a file on clients has its uses, one of them shouldn’t be to pre judge!
clients what ever their past should get a chance to tell their story i think, even using things like life space drawing could get some clients slighlty reluctant... like the girl in this interview who the career advisor was adamanet was so shy that she had to do all the talking...to open up in a way personal to them.
i think what a lot of people need is just really to clarify their thoughts and organinse them, obviously client groups ave to be taken into consideration, as some clients are just physically not able to do this, but for those who are i think that its a worth while excersise!
its hard to say that we are in a postmodern era when a lot of us have a long way to go till we even reach the modern one!!

Centigrade....

I found these interviews quite interesting, it was pretty weird having something to go on before you actually met the person…I don’t know whether I preferred it or not! It was actually a bit weird as you have a picture of what the person will be like, and in both my cases the pupils were much different!!
Both of their results had come back with quite intellectual results- but one actually wanted to be a painter??!
So armed with all my knowledge of engineering that I had gathered before hand I was then a bit stuck!!
Think that with these ones it would be quite easy to get carried away with the results before you actually meet the person.
I think I therefore prefer the normal interview where you just meet, don’t know anything about them and nor them about you. Although I do think the centigrade tool is interesting im not overly sure of its value, I think that doing these reports you tend to get a bit bored and answer whatever…maybe that’s just me!
But I think that generally if we as careers advisors need this tool then really we aren’t doing our jobs correctly!

Are we counselors???

Today I sat in a couple of interviews on my placement with .....careers scotland!!! basically the advisor I sat with was a key worker / advisor who dealt soley with young single parents, I got to witness a really good indepth couple of interviews with 2 young mums, who i really have to take my hat off to ......as i dont know how they manage, at nearly 24 i can barley look after myself!
both the clients had been through quite a rough time and both wanted to get back into education, basically the advisor went through all the barriers which may stand in theyre way...it was quite a wake up call! and they also discussed things such as would theyre current partners be better off working or unemployed money wise, i really enjoyed the interviews and found that both clients walked out with what they needed to hear and with a bit a weight off their shoulders as they had discussed their worries and even overcame some.
One of the clients who was coming in for the first time we actually spent an hour and a half with and she spoke about everything that was worrying her and stressing her from career related to everything else!
After the interview the advisor apologised for the lack of structure and said that this had supposed to have been a diagnostic interview....to be honest in my opinion the interview went exactly as the client both needed and wanted to! The advisor also spoke of sometimes her lack of abilty to help with some aspects, as she 'was not a counselor' but I definatley felt that she was undeselling herself, had it stuck to any rigid structure or career planning journey it would have been completley usless to the client, and would not have addressed any of the pressing concerns that she had.
Before I went in the interview I was also told that it wasnt really a 'career guidance' interview, but really i think that this was the perfect interview your career is just one part of your life, which is integrated and not seperated from it and therefore echoing my last post I am now an even stronger advocate of holistic guidance!

Communities....

I recently got a puppy, which i know doesnt really seem revelvant to this post...however it surprising is.....honestly!

He was able to go out walking last week, and i can definatley say that there is without a doubt a dog community! every one who has or had a dog will stop and chat to you for ages, we went to a park and got chatting to a woman who welcomed us there, she said that the park was full of people who all had got to know each other through regularly coming with their dogs, she also said though that she wouldnt recognise them should they pass her in the street without their furry friends by their side!

Being from a small village in ayrshire i have grew up as part of a clos knit comunity, however when i moved to glasgow five years ago, i definatley didnt feel part of any community, i can honestly say that i dont know any of my neighbours...aside now from the guy who lives upstairs with a spaniel that is!

career planning journey- whos journey is it??

I had to laugh when I saw the sheet that career advisors in career Scotland were being assessed on, it’s so ridged, it looked like a school assessment sheet! it sort of seems to depersonalise the clients situation…makes them seem as though they are just part of the system! It denies the advisor the integrity and space to make decisions based on individual interviews of the course that the time spent with client should take, in fact it denies really the client thisl luxury…when its supposed to be his or her interview!!!
Also the fact that the advisor tells the client where he or she is on the ‘career planning journey’ seems to go back to the older theoretical frameworks where the advisor takes all the control. I think that it’s quite sad that advisors if they want to give a really good and worthwhile interview have to deviate from the ridged structure imposed by those above. I heard a few people say that they seen things that should have been going on, good things, it seems a shame that there is not much room for manoeuvre, and if an advisor wants to give a more empathetic full session that he or she could potentially be doing so at the risk of getting into trouble. I agree sort of perhaps assessment should be in place, I quite liked the idea of colleagues doing it and giving feedback. I think that in the kind of assessment where the tick sheet that we were given in class is used only the young person would be the loser, and I witnessed such types of interviews where to be honest the young person looked as though they would have rather have been any where else but there, they seemed to go out none the wiser. I know that there are young people who get sent to career advisors and don’t want to be there before they get in the door, but I think that especially in these cases such a rigid structure would b useless, many of these young people face barriers or have problems that get in the way of getting on with life in general, if we could try and perhaps identify or at least flag these up then surely this would help them help themselves better.

Existentialism...finally get it..i think!

i think that i finally understand how existentialism does affect and can be usefull in career guidance..... as can be seen from my last post i wasnt too convinced!!!

you could say that ive warmed to the approach quite a bit after i now understand that existentialists dont actually deny that human beings are limited or constrained by all sorts of external or internal conditions.

for Satre freedom exists only within specific conditions, and within such given conditions, according to Sartre's philosophy, people always have some sort of decision to make. They arent predetermined like objects or animals; they always live within a space, as it were, of possible alternatives.

Satre would accredit even a man on death row, a person with hardly any choices left, still a man with decisions to make....albeit slightly limited ones!-he can choose to die for example willingly or in some sort of inner rebellion! The point, according to Sartre, is that human beings exist in a fundamentally different way than animals or objects: they exist as beings who, within certain conditions, define themselves and their lives.

I think that one really good point that it makes is that a lot of people fail to be true to themselves, they live in the eyes of others, and deny real selves -- by conforming to what "one" is supposed to do. An authentic life, according to typical Existentialists, can be lived by following the run of any kind of "herd" and its collective beliefs and preoccupations, but only by resolutely living out of a profoundly personal self....i think as guidance practioners in schools or dealing with young people and adults, they should be encouraged to go out and find whats best for them, not someone else, and they should be encouraged to explore different ideas, we shouldnt just be trying to slot them in certain jobs because thats what the government want or our bosses want. this approach looks at people on a micro level and considers whats best for them not society at large, it doesnt court initiatives it simply tries to get to know the person on a real level and get to the crux of their problems.

Having a lot to say on authenticity, it is very relevanct- career is an arena in which the struggle for this is most brought to the fore. In terms of vulnerable/dependent clients, an important consideration is "whose authenticity" is defining the career aspirations: the client's, the career counselor's, or anyone elses for eg parents, peers etc. its important to get to know the client or least help them to get to know themselves, i quite liked the idea of the inner space excerise that we did in class for this. its a very personal excersise which makes you think and sort of puts things in perspective right in front of you on paper in black and white.

considering this approach more in depth this time, i think perhaps not pretending to clients that we live in wolrd without problems is a good way to do guidance, the reality is that we will all face some kind of trauma or problems in ourlives and no matter what someone tells us theres no hiding form this. Getting clients to face up to and acknowledge such things rather than buring or ignoring them, whilst it may in the short term be traumatic, should hopefully help them move on and focus on fighting these barriers. As career advisors it is not our job to solve these issues, we can harldy call ourselves equipped to do so, but ignoring facts that could be hindering a client is denying our resposibilties as career counselors! it may take more time and perhaps be stressfull for not only the client but ourselves, but at the end of the day if u went home knowing that you had chose to ignore an underlying issue so not to, 'open a can of worms' (a phrase ive heard a million times since beging this class) , surely unless you had no concience whatsoever that is, you would lose more sleep than exploring the issue.

i agree with what was said in class about perhaps it might take time and experience to get used to this full guidance approach, but i think that it is a definate must to not avoid issues that could potentially be messy, giving a bog standard careers interview should be challenged and i definately hope to be better than that!

humanism and existentialism

After reading up about humanism and existentialism, they’re actually quite interesting in relation to career guidance; at first I was a bit unsure, having never taken philosophy or sociology I was a bit taken aback by it all!
After reading some more and thinking about it i find it quite interesting, I quite like the attitude that humanism has towards people, there is the recognition that living up to one's potential is hard work and requires the assistance of others. Which is exactly what as careers advisors we will be striving to do .The focus is on doing good and living well in the here and now, and leaving the world a better place for those who come after, the ultimate goal is human flourishing, though it all probs sounds quite airy fairy I think that it does relate well to what a career advisor is trying or should be trying to achieve, to make people make the most of their potential by making well informed realistic decisions

Existentialism on the other hand, seems a bit at odds in my opinion, the dictionary defines it as ‘a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.’ Many people do not have ‘freedom of choice’ so to speak they will be influenced by a variety of factors, and it could be said that some are a victim of their situation so how can they be responsible entirely for the consequences. Humans are not isolated and they’re experiences are often affected by an amalgamation of factors which they have to react to.

Carl Rogers

One of the phrases that Rogers used to describe his therapy is "supportive, not reconstructive," and he uses the analogy of learning to ride a bicycle to explain: When you help a child to learn to ride a bike, you can't just tell them how. They have to try it for themselves. And you can't hold them up the whole time either. I think that this is a really good analogy to consider in career guidance, as overall the underlying goal of career guidanace and education is to assist the client in becoming independent as possible in his/her efforts to find and maintain suitable employment, and to be able to career plan effectivley through out their lives.

In Roger's approach, the use of attending, paraphrasing, mirroring, summarizing and questioning replace diagnosis, in the attempt to have the client arrive at a state of self-actualization. In order for this to happen, a warm and supportive relationship is to be established between the counsellor and the client. I much prefer this apprach to the matching theories such as the seven point plan, where the control of the interview lies with the practioner, the practioner makes assumptions under the folowing areas ; physical Make up, atainments, general inteilligence, special aptitudes, interests, disposition and circumstances. although these areas are still covered in depth during inerviews it is not in such a discriminatory manner.

Although I prefer Rogers apprach i also think that an element of matching or influence is sometimes inevitable, i witnessed this a bit in my placements, at career scotland, and employment opertunities. Even Rogers was aware that practioners would not be able to be completley uninflential to the client, this is why as he became more experienced he changed his theory from 'non directive approach' to the 'client centered'.

Ivan Illich

Illichs paper I had to read a few times!! It’s quite a scary view of professions, accrediting them with a huge amount of power and influence and the ability to manipulate society. He believes that professions dictate our needs, I think that this could be also put the other way, as consumers we expect and want more from our products, we want more intelligent products that can provide a multitude of functions and we will quickly replace what does not and spend our money elsewhere, therefore I guess that professions could be meeting increasingly complicated consumer demands.

Although to some extent you could agree with Illichs point that professions have made us this way, constantly upgrading and making products bigger an better, making a mobile phone bought a month ago out of date alreadys! However this is the way the world works, it constantly changes and evolves and technology is no different. Many changes in technology can hardly be defined as grave advances and have provided great benefits. Medical advances for instance have greatly enhanced the life of many patients who before would have suffered terribly or had their life cut short.

Donald Schon

Had to read this article twice before i could get to grips with it, but after the second reading i found it quite interesting and also an article which there are lessons to be learned from.

The notions of reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action were central to Donald Schon’s analysis of professions. The former is sometimes described as ‘thinking on our feet’. It involves looking to our experiences, connecting with our feelings, and attending to our theories in use. It entails building new understandings to inform our actions in the situation that is unfolding.

He states ‘The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behavior. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation.

I thinks that this is interesting as We test out our ideas and this allows to develop further responses and moves. Significantly, to do this we do not closely follow established ideas and techniques - textbook schemes. We have to think things through, for every case is unique. However, we can draw on what has gone before. Our degrees and training can only take us so far we have to not only ‘think’ but learn on our feet, obviously what has been taught can be applied, but not all cases are textbook ones. i think that this is an important point for professionals to remember, they are not finished learning once they graduate. Professionals working in all areas must react to the imeadiate situation they cannot necessarily always draw upon tried and tested methods, as sitations change and we are often confronted with something unique. They must use and pull elements from what they have leaned bring together different theories and concepts. this is particularly so in a profession that deals with people, no two people are the same.

Schon however attributes the crisis in confidence of professions to this, he states that professional knowledge is ‘ mismatched to the changing character of the situations of practice’….professionals have been called upon to perform tasks for which they have not been educated, the niche no longer fits the education, or the education no longer fits the niche.’ I think that it would be impossible to teach everything about any particular subject, it is a given that any professional during their working life will encounter something that they have not necessarily been taught, it is new discoveries which facilitate learning and make the professional better and more experienced in his or her field. Using theyre own initiative or what Schon terms ‘artistry’ is what makes a professional a professional in a sense. Should professionals merely rely on the training that they received and strive to develop no further then we would probably still be stuck in the dark ages.

With regard to a public crisis’s of confidence in professionals, this is spookily relevant today. With banks collapsing round our feet, and the bad press which many doctors and social workers have received for grave mistakes which they have made. However I think that at large we still very much need professionals, although we can now look up and diagnose ourselves medically through the internet for example, the need for doctors and nurses is not obsolete, and is an invaluable service that we will continue to rely on for a long while. It is unavoidable that obviously some professionals will use their knowledge to their own gain…. ‘Serving themselves at the expense of their clients’, but there are good genuine professionals out there and many of us ourselves will have experienced their help no doubt.

Im not too sure where career guidance and education would fall in all of this, but the advisors that I have met during my placement definitely fall in to the latter category of good, and are genuinely interested in helping and progressing their clients as best that they can.

Blog???

this is the first ive ever really blogged, have to admit that ive never had a bebo or facebook.... almost veryone that i know has one!!
ive just never really found the time, however here goes, hopefuly first attempt at on line blogging will go ok.............................