What's the future for careers work?

I was asked today to produce a summary of the changes I anticipate in career practice in the next 5 - 10 years for a university in Finland. Here's what I came up with:

Changes in the world of work

The pace of change. The nature of the changes we have seen in the world of work over the last twenty years have been the subject of some debate. Ideas such as the demise of the ‘job for life’ and the rise of the ‘boundaryless career’ have been much discussed but the consensus which has emerged lately seems to indicate that average job tenure has not changed significantly in the last generation, and that bounded careers are as common and desirable in many fields as they ever were. One thing which does seem to have been widely accepted is the notion that change within the workplace is inevitable and the pace of this change is considerably faster than it once was.  This I imagine will continue, and individuals as a consequence will need to develop the skills to manage and take advantage of these changes in order to be employable throughout their working lives. Qualities such as resilience, adaptability and a commitment to lifelong learning therefore need to be fostered and guidance practitioners can and should play a part in encouraging and engendering these attributes.

Older workers. The aging population and challenges with pension provision mean that workers are having to delay their retirement and are working, either through choice or necessity until well into their 60s or 70s. Despite legislation outlawing discrimination on the grounds of age, research and practice indicate that older workers find it more challenging to secure appropriate work and career practitioners in the coming decades should be specifically equipped to support this cohort of potential clients.

Agency of the individual. One change which has been noted in the psychological contract between workers and employers is that the responsibility for career management now seems to rely on the individual more than on the employer. Increasingly we are seeing that individual workers need to take control of their professional training, put themselves forward for the opportunities they want and craft their own jobs to raise their levels of job satisfaction. Career practitioners increasingly will be working with individuals in organisations to help them develop career management skills.

Meaning . An interesting development which we have seen recently and which to my mind looks set to continue is an increased focus on meaning in work. This is related to the blurring of work and non-work identities and links with the new focus on career as identity which I highlight below. Clients are increasingly looking for work which allows them to ‘be themselves’ and through which they can develop a life purpose. A focus on vocation and meaning in work will become more central to career practitioners work in the future.

Developments in career theory

Career as identity The prevailing paradigm of career theory is in constant flux, but the one theme which seems to be emerging most strongly at the moment (to my mind at least) is the notion of identity. This links closely to the emerging value placed on meaning in work which I mentioned above.  Guidance practitioners will no longer be encouraging clients to ask ‘Which jobs are going to suit me best?’ but rather ‘In which environments can I become who I want to be?’. Career theories are emerging which can support guidance counsellors as they help their clients to address these issues of identity. This ties in with an increased understanding of the holistic nature of careers and career choices seen in recent literature.

Individualisation Career research seems to be going away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach and encouraging practitioners to get their clients to define their own terms. A focus on cross cultural practice acknowledges the different experiences of particular client groups, and an emphasis on guidance as a mechanism for promoting social justice highlights the experiences of different sections within our society. An emerging practical emphasis on narrative approaches to guidance provides practitioners with a mechanism for exploring clients’ experiences as individuals and I believe this individualised approach to guidance will prevail in the years to come.

Changes in Guidance Practice

Diversification Guidance practitioners in the future will need to practice in diverse ways. First, service provision is likely to diversify. In the UK, each school and each University now has its own model for practice with practitioners working variously with groups, one to ones and via technology, and practitioners specialising as guidance practitioners, counsellors, teachers, trainers, coaches or consultants. Some practitioners are becoming more generalist and others, more specialist.

Our client body is diversifying too. Twenty years ago, most practice in the UK focused on first career choices of school and university leavers. We are now increasingly seeing clients at all stages of their careers, and (as I mentioned above) in future there will be more older workers who may seek support. Empirical evidence too is leading us to consider working with children in primary school (ages 5 upwards).  

The theoretical approaches which guidance practitioners will be using will diversify, as we learn from other disciplines. Approaches such as solution focusing counselling, motivational interviewing and coaching will become more mainstream.

Labour market and occupational information Our traditional role as information broker, providing insights into various aspects of the world of work will become less important as the internet and social media become the information providers of choice. Career practitioners instead will need to work with clients to hone their research skills, ensuring that they can manage, synthesise and analyse the vast quantities of information so easily accessible to them now.

Technology As an adjunct to face to face work, career practitioners are going to need to learn to capitalise on the opportunities available to us through new technologies including social media and online learning.