Issues In Career Development

This book makes the case that career development practice is a mental health intervention, and provides skills and strategies to support career development practitioners in their work. It explores how practitioners do more than help people navigate career paths, they change people's lives in ways that improve mental health and overall well-being.

Based on the thesis that individuals develop not in isolation, but in a direction consistent with both personal needs and the needs of the surrounding environment, this volume concentrates on the development of adults in their careers within organizations. The organizational and individual perspectives offered provide practical guidance and examples for human resource development specialists to use in the evaluation of their current career development programs and the design of new ones. Key issues receiving prime attention include the necessity of reward systems to the success of any career development program, career transitions, and five critical career development research areas.

This edited collection examines the intersections between career guidance, social justice and neo-liberalism. Contributors offer an original and global discussion of the role of career guidance in the struggle for social justice and evaluate the field from a diverse range of theoretical positions. Through a series of chapters that positions career guidance within a neoliberal context and presents theories to inform an emancipatory direction for the field, this book raises questions, offers resources and provides some glimpses of an alternative future for work. Drawing on education, sociology, and political science, this book addresses the theoretical basis of career guidance’s involvement in social justice as well as the methodological consequences in relation to career guidance research.

The purpose of Career Development in Higher Education is to provide a broad and in-depth look at the field of career development as it applies to individuals involved in higher education activities, in a variety of educational and vocational training settings. The book will examine some of the field’s major themes, approaches and assumptions using the writings of a variety of regional and international experts/authors. Specific emphasis is spent examining issues reflective of today’s challenges in developing and maintaining a workforce that is diverse, flexible and efficient. Readers will be provided with an action based framework built on the best available research information.

This volume will examine the historical emergence of the concept of career including early ideas about the meaning and role of work and how it fits with life. The concept of career development is of relatively recent origin. It was not until the early 20th Century that serious attention was given to the role of work and career as it applied to the common man. While the concept of “vocation” has historical roots that date back centuries, vocation (or calling) was typically only applied to the professions of the clergy, law and medicine. These individuals had careers, while the common man had a job. Perhaps the most significant event that changed both the labor market and the associated socio-cultural values about work was the 2nd World War. The technological advances that were brought about by the war were profound in terms of changing the nature of work, and the war brought about a significant change in the gender makeup of our labor force as millions of women entered the labor market to support the war effort. The combined effects of technology, a radical new value system, and a burgeoning economy changed everything.

This second edition of Career Counseling Across the Lifespan: Community, School, Higher Education, and Beyond is the latest volume in the Issues in Career Development Series, edited by Drs. Grafton Eliason, Mark Lepore, Jeff Samide, and John Patrick, from California University of Pennsylvania and Clarion University of Pennsylvania. The purpose of Career Development Across the Lifespan is to provide a broad and in-depth look at the field of career development as it applies to individuals involved in all areas of community counseling, school counseling, and higher education. The book will examine some of the field's major theories, themes, approaches, and newest models incorporating chapters from national and international career counseling experts. Specific emphasis is spent examining issues reflective of today's challenges in developing and maintaining a workforce that is diverse, flexible, and efficient. Readers will be provided with an action-based framework built on the best available research. This text book is truly the culmination of a decade’s work, compiling comprehensive studies from four previous volumes and updating key concepts in career counseling with the most contemporary theories and innovations. We examine three primary domains of career counseling throughout all of the developmental stages of the lifespan: community, schools K-12, and higher education. We include a specific focus on career history and theories, to prepare students for both the counseling environment and for national exams leading to certification and licensure, such as the (NCE) National Counseling Exam. We also include cutting edge research on contemporary topics, including such areas as: military careers, life after the military, individuals with disabilities or special needs, career counseling in our current socio-economic environment, and current technologies such as virtual counseling. In addition, we have added case studies and key terms as study guides at the end of each chapter. We are fortunate to include many recognized experts in the field of career counseling. Career Counseling Across the Lifespan: Community, School, Higher Education, and Beyond is a comprehensive text, written to address the broad needs of career counselors, educators, and students today.

This book is focused on work, occupation and career development: themes that are fundamental to a wide range of human activities and relevant across all cultures. Yet theorizing and model building about this most ubiquitous of human activities from international perspectives have not been vigorous. An examination of the literature pertaining to career development, counseling and guidance that has developed over the last fifty years reveals theorizing and model building have been largely dominated by Western epistemologies, some of the largest workforces in the world are in the developing world. Career guidance is rapidly emerging as a strongly felt need in these contexts. If more relevant models are to be developed, frameworks from other cultures and economies must be recognized as providing constructs that would offer a deeper understanding of career development. This does not mean that existing ideas are to be discarded. Instead, an integrative approach that blends universal principles with particular needs could offer a framework for theorizing, research and practice that has wider relevance. The central objective of this handbook is to draw the wisdom and experiences of different cultures together to consider both universal and specific principles for career guidance and counseling that are socially and economically relevant to contemporary challenges and issues. This book is focused on extending existing concepts to broader contexts as well as introducing new concepts relevant to the discipline of career guidance and counseling.

This text integrates theoretical material and provides a practical slant. The many discussions and exercises enable readers to explore their own career issues in order to learn practical approaches to career planning. The authors cover basic career concepts and decision making; social conditions affecting career development such as the global economy and organizational culture; and practical information on implementing a strategic career plan. Many books in this area provide an extensive survey of various theoretical approaches to career planning/development. However, this text constitutes a systematically designed course based on the cognitive information processing model of career problem solving and decision making. This model provides a practical and realistic vehicle to inform students about career planning and management interventions and to accommodate students at different levels of decidedness about their career aspirations.