The road less travelled?

Career development learning and the

higher education curriculum
Tristram Hooley (Professor of Career Education)
www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Work ready (employability) or career ready

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

The importance of career

The chief guide which

must direct us in the
choice of a profession is
the welfare of mankind
and our own perfection.
Marx (1835) Reflections of a Young
Man on the Choice of a Profession

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Redefining career
We need to redefine it as the individuals lifelong
progression in learning and in work Progression can take
place laterally as well as vertically: it can incorporate
elements of "careering about". But it retains the sense of
development, of moving forward: career is more than mere
biography. Learning is the key to progression in work. Our
task is to help all individuals to interweave the two, on a
lifelong basis.

Watts (1999) Reshaping career development for the 21st

century.
www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

What can we take from the careers

literature?

What
outcomes do
we seek?

How can we
learn about
career?

What works?

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

What outcomes do we seek?

Decision making
Opportunity awareness

Transition skills
Self-awareness

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

The Australian blueprint (outcomes)

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Mapping career
learning outcomes to
the curriculum
Australian
Qualifications
Framework
Core skills for work
University strategies
and graduate
attributes
Subject-based
curricula
Etc.

Implications
It is possible to debate the nature of career and argue
about what you need to learn to be successful.
However, there is at least a working consensus on what
the desired outcomes of career learning should be.
Many of these outcomes will overlap with the desired
outcomes of the curriculum.
Calling attention to this overlap and exploiting its
possibilities is valuable.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

How do we learn about career?

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Visions of career learning from Bloom

Creating
Evaluating

Analysing
Applying
Understanding
Remembering

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Visions of career learning from Kolb

Experience

Experimentation

Reflection

Theorisation

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Implications
Career learning is rooted in learning by doing.
But it also has the potential to foster high level conceptual
thinking appropriate to the HE curriculum.
Theory and research can inform personal reflection about
how and why careers work in particular ways.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

What works?
Focus on the
individual
1) Lifelong guidance is
most effective where it is
genuinely lifelong and
progressive.
2) Lifelong guidance is
most effective where it
connects meaningfully
to the wider experience
and lives of the
individuals who
participate in it.
3) Lifelong guidance is
most effective where it
recognises the diversity
of individuals and
relates services to
individual needs.

Support learning
and progression
4) Lifelong guidance is
not one intervention, but
many, and works most
effectively when a range
of interventions are
combined.
5) A key aim of lifelong
guidance programmes
should be the
acquisition of career
management skills.
6) Lifelong guidance
needs to be holistic and
well-integrated into other
support services.
7) Lifelong guidance
should involve
employers and working
people, and provide
active experiences of
workplaces.

Ensure quality
8) The skills, training
and dispositions of the
professionals who
deliver lifelong guidance
are critical to its
success.
9) Lifelong guidance is
dependent on access to
good-quality career
information.
10) Lifelong guidance
should be qualityassured and evaluated
to ensure its
effectiveness and to
support continuous
improvement.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Questions for today

Is it appropriate to view career development as a core
purpose of higher education?
What are you doing already to foster career learning?
What else could you be doing?
What are the barriers and challenges?
How can we build a research agenda around these
questions?

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Bits and bobs

Hooley, T. (2014). The Evidence Base on Lifelong Guidance. Jyvskyl, Finland: European
Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN).
Hooley, T., Hutchinson, J. and Neary, S. (2012). Supporting STEM Students into STEM
Careers: A Practical Introduction for Academics. Derby: International Centre for Guidance
Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby.
Hooley, T., Watts, A. G., Sultana, R. G. and Neary, S. (2013). The 'blueprint' framework for
career management skills: a critical exploration. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling,
41(2): 117-131.
Longridge, D., Hooley, T. & Staunton, T. (2013). Building Online Employability: A Guide for
Academic Departments. Derby: International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of
Derby.
Neary, S., Thambar, N. and Bell, S. (2014). The global graduate: developing the global
careers service. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 32:
57-63.
Taylor, A.R. & Hooley, T. (2014). Evaluating the impact of career management skills module
and internship programme within a university business school. British Journal of Guidance &
Counselling, 42(5): 487-499.

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk

Tristram Hooley
Professor of Career Education
International Centre for Guidance Studies
University of Derby
http://www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
t.hooley@derby.ac.uk
@pigironjoe
Blog at
http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.wordpress.com

www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
www.derby.ac.uk