Ideas for Career Practitioners: Celebrating Excellence in Career Practice

Starting from:

AU$64.95

Edited by Mary McMahon & Wendy Patton

This book represents a compilation of ideas that career practitioners use in their everyday work and covers all facets of what is broadly termed career guidance.

Presenting a smorgasboard of 48 ideas from over 50 experienced career practitioners, researchers and theoreticians from six countries, this book is an essential resource for everyday work in the areer guidance field, including counselling, programs, assessment and education.

Practical activities, instruments, methodologies, reviews and ideas are presented in an easy-to-read format suitable for a range of client groups including adults, adolescents, primary aged children, rural and remote communities, and indigenous populations.

Topics include:

• Vocational assessment and counselling

• Career exploration amongst rural disadvantaged children

• Entrepreneurship for university students

• Identifying skills

• Career insight in higher education

• Using narrative with clients in remote areas

• Resilience with youth in high risk settings

• ACT techniques in career contexts

• Organising career fairs

• Self-directed work search

• Career transition

• Structured mentoring for girls

• Medico-legal vocational assessment

From the Foreword

"Ideas for Career Practitioners was first published in 2003 to celebrate Australian career practice and showcased a range of ideas from Australian career development practitioners. The 2003 publication was such a valuable resource that requests by practitioners to obtain copies of the book continued well after it was no longer available. Such demand encouraged us to produce a new edition of the book.

Unlike the original book which comprised only ideas from Australian authors, the current book contains ideas from six different countries that are all witnessing growth in the field of career development. In particular, this book contains ideas from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, China and Singapore and is a timely reminder of the expansion of career development within countries and also to countries where career development has traditionally been less evident. Despite the national settings from which the ideas originate, practitioners will find that the ideas presented in this book transcend national boundaries and thus reflect a truly international discipline.

As two people who have worked as practitioners, researchers and theoreticians, and who continue to teach through our presentations and through university courses, we often hear the call for practical examples in relation to career counselling, conduct of programs, and use of the vast information source in the career area. ”

ISBN 9781922117397

274 pages softcover

Released 2015

Book review

Are you looking for fresh ideas to expand your professional toolkit and re-energize your career sessions with individual clients, groups, and even couples and families? If so, the latest edition of Ideas for Career Practitioners will be a resource to keep within easy reach. With contributions from 55 authors across three continents, the breadth of clients these ideas are designed for is impressive, including children as young as 7 years old, high school and post-secondary students, vocational rehabilitation clients, and adults going through a variety of career transitions. I can’t think of any career practitioners, regardless of work setting, who wouldn’t ﬁnd at least one useful activity in this book. The ‘Ideas Guide’ on pages vi to viii is a helpful starting place; for each of 48 contributions, a comprehensive matrix identiﬁes whether the idea is designed to support adolescents/students, adults, or both, as well as whether it relates to counselling, programmes/workshops, assessment, computer-assisted interventions, theoretical applications, models/frameworks, organisational contexts, or diversity.

I particularly appreciated the respectful attention to cultural differences and the authors’ rationale for their approaches, especially if activities were likely to be impacted by cultural context. For example, Idea 2 examines the role of parents in supporting the career decision-making of female college students in India, Idea 13 offers a relevant approach for supporting Indigenous clients in remote regions, and Idea 39 guides career development work with refugee students. About 20% of the ideas map onto the diversity category in the Ideas Guide matrix.

Editors McMahon and Patton have done an impressive job of organising such a variety of ideas into a fairly consistent format for each contribution. Most ideas provide Aims or Learning Objectives, identify a Client Group, offer relevant Work Setting Recommendations, specify the Recommended Time and Materials/Equipment Needed, offer a Step-by-Step Outline of the Process, and provide References or Background Reading; the background reading and references alone provide a smorgasbord of international resources. Some ideas begin with a Background section; others end with Concluding Observations. Many ideas provide reproducible handouts and resources or facilitator notes in detailed Appendices; in one case (Idea 32), Peter McIlveen, one of the contributors, makes the generous offer to send electronic copies of the tools upon request. Especially helpful is the contact information provided for each author if you would like more information or might want to share ideas for adapting or extending the idea, strengthening a collegial international community.

The ideas range from individual activities or interventions to comprehensive programmes or courses; Idea 9, for example, provides a syllabus complete with a grading rubric for an entrepreneur- ship course. Idea 41 addresses career counselling for couples, Idea 42 describes a workshop for parents as career facilitators, and Idea 43 describes a mentorship programme. Some of the contributions offer creative ways to extend more traditional activities; Idea 45, for example, uses a narrative approach to help clients make meaning from the quantitative results of a values inventory.

Several contributions are theoretically grounded, providing solid support for the design and implementation of the idea. Idea 11 (Career Insight Groups) is one such example, providing a theoretical rationale for both the idea and the facilitation method at the beginning of the Step-by-Step Outline. Ideas 4 and 34 are applications of the Systems Theory Framework, Idea 5 is an application of the Chaos Theory of Careers, and Idea 17 is grounded in a narrative approach. I also appreciated that some of the contributions were linked to external benchmarks (e.g. the Mentoring Checklist in Idea 33).

There are interventions that will appeal to kinaesthetic learners (e.g. Ideas 1 and 10 involve card sorts, Idea 12 creates a paper doll, Idea 14 engages the participant in Origami paper folding, Idea 15 involves Body Mapping, Idea 44 offers a multi-part activity that results in creating a personal news- paper, and Idea 48 results in a collage). As it can be challenging to ﬁnd career resources relevant for working individuals, I was especially pleased to ﬁnd Ideas 19 (Matchmaking Your Career Options), 21 (Winning Talent Commitment), and 22 (Motivate and Move), amongst others that support workforce development and transitions.

As a key role for many career practitioners is within educational settings, not surprisingly there are many contributions relevant to this group. I was particularly delighted to see Idea 30, focussed on primary school students. Other Ideas were suitable for high school and university students. Idea 24, for example, addresses the challenges faced by students who want to change their major (a choice that can be especially difficult in some Asian settings). Idea 25 provides a comprehensive plan for organising Career Fairs; appendices include templates for inviting speakers, student work- sheets, and a detailed preparation checklist. Similarly Idea 36 describes a Careers Expo with alumnae presenters and Idea 43 involves alumni in a mentorship programme for high school boys in Hong Kong.

I ﬁnd very little to criticise, given the comprehensiveness of this resource. Some readers may ﬁnd a few of the Australian terms unfamiliar (e.g. ‘biro’ and ‘Blutack’) as well as regionalised use of such common words as ‘diary’ and ‘butcher paper’. However, this shouldn’t pose much of a problem as the context generally makes the meaning clear. This collection began with Australian contributions (earlier edition) and has now been expanded to include contributions from ﬁve other countries (current edition). I’d encourage the editors to continue the tradition, expanding the next edition(s) to include contributions from other parts of Asia and Africa, and also from Europe, and North and South America. I can envision this as a multi-volume collection, perhaps eventually available online.

Roberta Neault Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, Yorkville University and President, Life Strategies Ltd., Canada rneault@yorkvilleu.caor roberta@lifestrategies.ca