Remember the 2010 CDAA National Conference? It was titled Greening Career Development, and concerned sustainable workforces and careers. Then the national debate shifted.
My focus is two issues which have implications for career development theory, practice, advocacy and opportunity: global warming and the COVID-19 pandemic. Opportunities exist in transition programs and practice would benefit from tapping a broader theoretical and conceptual base.
During the pandemic we have experienced continuing and variable psycho-social, economic, health, educational and work impacts, that magnified pre-existing issues. Moving into post-lockdown may give a surface “normality”, but this masks ongoing issues affecting career decisions.
The Institute for Integrated Economic Research’s resilience report points out that: “We should not underestimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; it will be extensive, long-lasting, and damaging.” A critical part of being resilient, it says, is to make improvements, to create a better future. How should our profession respond to systemic inequalities that are shaping our society?
In my 2017 CDAA National Conference keynote I advocated for transdisciplinary and advanced discourse analysis. The concept of career is not the property of any one theoretical or disciplinary view. The industry and sector transitions literature provides valuable insights using concepts like skill ecosystems, socio-technical systems, and just transitions. This literature highlights the challenges and opportunities of transition programs, the inter-relatedness of skills and the importance of human relationships skills. It also has implications for the profession’s advocacy - for inclusion of career development stakeholders in transition programs, which is currently missing.
The “future of work” discourse presents the 21st century as special, tends to be overly optimistic or pessimistic, focuses on skills, gives pre-eminence to technology and is driven by privileged voices. Much of the discourse content has been agonised over in previous centuries. Most of the so-called “21st century skills” are not new. Some of the discourse is based on questionable information, and it encourages unhelpful fear-mongering. And yes, technology is changing, but anything digital is not by definition better than non-digital.
Skills are social constructs, assumed to be neutral, readily categorised, one-dimensional. Skills language, particularly that used on official career websites, needs ongoing attention, with more nuanced analysis of skill behaviours and skill inter-relationships. Discourse analysis offers professional development opportunities to support practitioners in helping clients and offering services.
Career development theory suggests practitioners help clients build skills to better handle uncertainty. Uncertainty is a complex, and often ill-defined, concept. Practitioners need a more nuanced analysis that distinguishes improbability, ambiguity, unpredictability, chance events, informed guesses and speculation.
During CDAA’s 2021 event “The Real Future of Work” members questioned the dominant skills narrative, sought useful and usable career information, and wanted career development to be a more influential voice. I have detailed the ideas raised here elsewhere, offering suggestions for action, and providing links to research, reports and resources. These ideas may help members with exploring the skills and future work narratives, improve career information, and identify ways to be more influential, particularly in addressing challenges to human survival.
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