Careers guidance through relationships

Znt J Adv Couns 5:193-200 (1982) 0165-0653/82/0053-0193 $01.20. @ I982 Martinus Nvhoff Publishers, The Hague. Printed in the Netherlands.

CAREERS GUIDANCE THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS*

ALEXANDER C. RYRIE** Scottish Council for Research in Education

Summary

The present situation of high unemployment raises serious questions about the purpose and value of careers guidance. Uncertainties about careers guidance have, however, always existed. There have been doubts as to whether it is effective, what its purpose is, whether it is of any value in situations where choice is limited, and how it should see its function in relation to that of parents. These continuing uncertainties have been emphasised by the increase in youth unemployment.

One way for those involved in careers guidance to respond to this situation is by re-ex amining the importance of personal relationships with young people. Real personal relationships are not only a prerequisite of good guidance, but an important part of the guidance activity itself. The three main tasks of vocational guidance - helping young people to understand themselves, helping them to make decisions wisely, and helping them to understand the world of occupations and opportunities - all require such relationships if they are to be done adequately. Furthermore, by making and ma&ining real relationships the guidance worker may be engaging in vocational guidance in a real sense even when he is not consciously or directly performing these tasks. This form of guidance is risky for the counsellor because it is invisible and leads to no identifiable outcomes. It is also very difficult to implement in our large impersonal institutions. But an attempt to establish genuine relationships may provide both an appropriate response to the present situation of high unemployment and also an effective means of vocational guidance in all circumstances.

*The views expressed in this paper are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Scottish Council for Research in Education.

**Senior Research Officer, Scottish Council for Research in Education, Edinburgh. Currently completing a six-year longitudinal study of young people moving through the later stages of school and out of it, with special emphasis on curricular and vocational guidance and job opportunities. Published reports of the project: Choices and Chances, 1979, and Routes and Results, 1981 (Hodder and Stoughton). Previously did research into apprenticeships and apprentice training. Published report: Getting a 7kade, 1978 (Hodder & Stoughton).

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Careers guidance appears to be facing a crisis of confidence in Western industrialised countries. After two decades of steady and confident growth, serious questions are now being asked about the purpose, the value and the methods of vocational guidance and careers education in the light of the current situation of high unemployment. What is the point of assisting young people to develop self-awareness and to relate this to a variety of possible occupations, if their chances of getting the job of their choice are small? If we cannot confidently encourage them to make occupational choices, what is the purpose of vocational guidance? And how can its effectiveness be judged?

Before considering what the response of careers guidance to this situation should be, it is worth observing that doubts and uncertainties about the nature, purpose and effectiveness of careers guidance have existed from the start, and have found expression from time to time in various ways. In this paper I consider some of these doubts, and then go on to suggest an approach to careers guidance which could enable it to meet the real needs of young people, particularly in the changed circumstances of today and which, I believe, should be an important element in all guidance.

A first uncertainty which has always existed about careers guidance is whether it is effective. Does it succeed in doing for young people what it sets out to do? In Britain a number of research investigations over the years has attempted to evaluate careers guidance programmes by measuring and assessing their outcomes (see the summarises in Watts and Kidd, 1978; Clarke, 1980a). Quite a number of these studies have indicated that by the chosen criteria the programmes concerned have been reasonably successful; but doubt has remained about the appropriateness of the criteria used in many cases. Should the effectiveness of careers officers’ advice be assessed, for example, by the criterion of whether those who heed their advice tend to stay in jobs longer (Cherry, 1974)? Even more uncertainty about the effectiveness of guidance arises from broader studies which take into account, amongst other things, the view of the recipients of guidance. Generally it has been found that only a minority of school leavers feel they have received useful advice. Surveying a number of studies on this topic, Clarke (1980b) reports that ‘the percentage of pupils who value such advice as the most useful available invariably falls below 20 per cent’. Such uncertainty about the outcomes of guidance can have a debilitating effect on practitioners. Reubens (1977), reviewing services for school- leavers in various countries, comments that ‘an overriding issue affecting enthusiasm for guidance and counselling is the uncertainty about the potential of this activity to benefit individuals’. Altogether it is far from clearly established that careers guidance programmes are successful and effective.

Secondly, there is continued uncertainty about the objectives of vocational guidance. Indeed, a lack of clarity about what exactly it is trying to achieve is one of the reasons why it is difficult to assess its effectiveness. Selecting criteria for evaluation requires a clear understanding of the end in view. To quote Clarke (1980a) again: ‘Before this problem (of criteria) can be solved it seems even more necessary to look more closely at what we are hoping to achieve in vocational

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guidance’. In spite of all the thinking and writing on the subject of the aims of careers guidance there is still no consensus of opinion on the topic. Is it concerned with attempting to ensure that young people enter occupations which will give them satisfaction and in which they will remain, or simply with trying to help them to make decisions wisely, regardless of the outcome? Is its principal object to encourage long-term vocational development through the concept of a career, or to ‘maximise the range of career opportunities from which the pupil can choose’ (Moore, 1970)?

Thirdly, there is uncertainty about the value of attempting careers guidance in situations where school leavers have little real choice. Early writers on guidance and vocational choice often wrote as if young people could choose freely without constraint from the labour market or the schooling process. There is, however, what Daws (1972) calls a ‘transparent phoniness’ in much of the talk about choosing and decision-making, in the light of the ‘impressively rigorous and deterministic child shaping processes that our society has evolved to turn raw infants into employable labour.’ More recently the limitations imposed on choice by the labour market have been given considerable emphasis and have been much debated in Britain (Roberts, 1977). Although the importance of careers guidance even where choice is limited has been asserted in the debate (Daws, 1977) there is no doubt that the increased recognition of the constraints of the labour market has added to uncertainties about its value and usefulness.

Fourthly, an element of uncertainty arises from the fact that young people continue to be influenced more by their parents and family and the community outside the school than by any formal attempts at vocational guidance. This fact, revealed both by research and by day-to-day contact with young people, can be viewed in different ways. Frequently, those involved in careers guidance have regretted the influence of the home on the grounds that parents are ill-informed and give inadequate advice. ‘The advice given to children by their parents is sub- jective and often lacks the expert knowledge essential in career-making decisions’ (Jackson, 1973). If this is so, then professionals have the clear task of providing the ‘essential knowledge and the objective approach’. Others, however, have not only acknowledged but welcomed the influence of the family and the community on young peoples decisions, and have seen the careers counsellor as only a facilitator in a process which owes much to these other influences (Law and Watts, 1977). Recently some guidance workers have gone further and attempted to involve parents and others in an active way in integrated guidance programmes. These varying responses to the influence of home and family reflect a continuing uncertainty about the nature of the task of careers guidance.

Doubts and uncertainties then, about the objects and methods of careers guidance, have always existed. This can be represented theoretically in terms of differ- ing approaches, as has been done by Watts and Herr (1976). They have identified four different approaches - the Social Change, Social Control, Individual Change and Non-directive approaches - to careers education. Having done so, however, they emphasise that frequently those who have drawn up programmes have acted

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‘without being aware of the assumptions and implications’ and without pausing to think about its aims’. The fact that different approaches can be identified does not mean that practitioners are clear as to their objectives.

It is important to remember that the growth and development of careers guidance and education in Western nations has taken place at a time when national economies were expanding and career opportunities for school leavers were improving (Craft, 1973). So long as this situation prevailed it was understandable that the uncertainties and ambiguities which underlay careers guidance practice did not come to the surface in any significant way, The recent dramatic rise in youth unemployment and the increased difficulty experienced by school leavers looking for work, however, have brought the latent confusion over aims and purpose into clearer light, and made it necessary for people concerned with careers guidance to rethink their task in a new way.

Various responses to this new situation are possible. Some have argued that since the causes of the present situation of unemployment are social and political, the way forward is for vocational guidance to move in the direction of what Watts and Herr call the Social Change approach, and that counsellors should assist young people with ‘ways of acting politically in the community’ (Lawton 1980), so as to bring about social change and increased opportunities for employment. Others have suggested that young people should be made aware of the ‘informal economies’, and of ways of developing meaningful lives outwith paid employment (Watts, 1981; Hearn, 1981). In my opinion both these responses, and possibly others, may be right and necessary. But I suggest that there is a response of a different kind which is not inconsistent with these others and which has a bearing on the question of the fundamental nature of guidance. This involves a further development of the non-directive approach. The present uncertainties about aims and purpose can be seen as an indication that, in spite of the widespread emphasis on non-directive counselling, the task of guidance becomes confused when we can no longer be clear about the kinds of futures which await young people. I am suggesting that in attempting to encourage and enable decisions about the future we have tended to overlook the thing that young people need most and which could possibly have the biggest effect on them.

To explain this it may be useful to start by referring again to the part played by parents and family. General experience and research findings agree that these have greater influence on young people than schools and teachers, even where guidance programmes have been well developed. Why should this be? The answer must be that parents and other family members have closer personal relationships with the young people than teachers or counsellors do. Because of this closer relationship they have become ‘signiticant others’ who have great power to influence the thinking and the deciding of young people. This influence may take place even if there is little in the way of direct guidance or advice given. In the course of the relationship, attitudes and values are formed and shaped, adults become models and examples, and ideas are generated often without deliberate intention or even articulation. It is small wonder that ‘young workers generally agree that

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personal relationships with other people have played a very important part in shaping their vocational plans’ (Hayes and Hopson, 1972). What is surprising is that, in spite of the common recognition of the influence of parents and family on young people’s plans, those who write about careers guidance (as distinct from other forms of personal counselling), usuaIly have little or nothing to say about relationships between guidance workers and their young clients.

It is my contention that the first and most important task of those who aspire to offer vocational guidance to young people is to establish real and significant relationships with them; and that such relationships are not only a prerequisite for good guidance but constitute an important part of the guidance activity itself. Real and effective guidance is not in the first place a matter of helping young people to acquire certain understandings, skills or knowledge. It is primarily a matter of giving them whatever support and help they need as they face an uncer- tain future. And this is something which can only be done meaningfully and adequately by means of, and in the context of, a real and significant relationship. The point can be elaborated by relating it to the generally accepted tasks of careers guidance and education. These can be summarized as: (a) helping young people to understand themselves; (b) helping them to learn to make decisions wisely; and (c)helping them to understand the world of occupations and opportunities.

Firstly, then, how do people come to understand themselves? The literature of careers guidance and education has abundant references to ‘developing a self- concept’ or a ‘self-image’ or ‘self-awareness’. Curricula and syllabuses of careers education have been drawn up, and teaching aids, inventories and self-assessment techniques have been developed to assist the careers teacher with this part of his task. Such procedures may well be useful in helping a young person to stand back and reflect upon himself and his abilities and inclinations, but they do not form the basis of personal self-awareness. A person begins to discover himself, who he is and what he is like, as he finds himself reflected back by others who are signiticant to him. People develop by means of what Cooley called the ‘looking-glass self. It is in the course of relationships with ‘significant others’ that they begin to develop a self-image. By seeing himself in the eyes of other people who matter to him and whom he feels to care about him, a person learns about himself. Someone who is not experienced as a ‘significant other’ in the course of a real and meaningful relationship may be able to impart knowledge and information, but will not be able to assist the fundamental process of self-discovery.

Secondly, something similar can be said about decision-making. It is clearly important for young people to acquire the skill to weigh up pros and cons in a wise and rational manner. But there is more to decision-making than individual rational judgement. Deciding wisely includes testing out one’s thoughts and feelings against other people. But such testing out is only meaningfully done with others whom one knows and trusts and who are felt to care and understand. It may need to be done at different times and in different ways as the person’s ideas and feelings come and go. It cannot be expected to take place in any real way in the course of a brief arranged interview with an authority figure. What people need more than anything

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else to help them to practise, and thereby also to learn, decision-making, is the presence and support of other people who know and care for them. A personal relationship of trust and understanding is a fundamental requirement.

The third element in careers education and guidance is that of helping young people to understand the world of occupations and opportunities. Here it is useful to distinguish between the task of developing a general understanding of these things, and the task of giving advice or information to particular young people in connection with their own decisions and their own future. The former or more general activity can appropriately be carried in the classroom as part of a careers education programme, and requires no more and no less in the way of personal relationships than any other form of teaching. In connection with the latter activity, however, the question of relationships is an important one. Not that the giving and receiving of advice or factual information always needs to be done in the context of a meaningful personal relationship. A person needing information of this kind may turn with perfect satisfaction to an impersonal source or an unknown person. But the importance of relationships in this connection lies in the perceived availability of the person who can be turned to. A relationship involves availability - not simply formal availability in the sense of the right of access, but personal availability in the sense of openness and approachability at all times. This is important because advice and information, if they are to be meaningful and effective, need to be given when the need for them is felt. It may well be that one of the main reasons why the advice and guidance of careers teachers and careers officers frequently seems to have little effect is that it is offered at times chosen by the counsellor. More effective advice and information depend on the presence of someone with whom the young person has a real relat- tionship, and who is felt to be available and approachable at times which are right for him. Or, to put it from the point of view of the counsellor, advice or relevant information need to be offered when the appropriate opportunity arises in the course of a relationship, rather than when a set time for doing so occurs.

To say this leads to a further and more fundamental point. It may be that in the course of a relationship between a young person and an adult no such clear opportunity arises for imparting information or assisting with decision-making or self-understanding. It is, however, very important to understand that guidance in the true and best sense may take place without the counsellor consciously or clearly offering help or support. The influence of the counsellor may be brought to bear imperceptibly through the personal support and affirmation which are given, the thoughts and values which are shared, and the self-discovery which develops in the context of a significant relationship; and this is as important for vocational guidance as for other types of counselling.

The problem for the vocational counsellor is that guidance in this sense is scarcely a visible activity and may not have any observable results. There may not be any advice or any movement in a particular direction or any apparent outcome. This is, therefore, from the point of view of the counsellor’s satisfaction, a risky approach to guidance. It is always safer and more satisfying and more administratively justifiable if we can define, specify and structure what he is doing,

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and particularly if he can point to results. The approach to careers guidance through relationships involves abandoning the comfort of the observable, and trusting that the invisible outcome of the real contact between adult and young person may constitute more helpful guidance than defined and structured activities. The hope is that by this approach counsellors will have an influence analogous to that of parents, whose support and guidance is frequently given without any identifiable advice.

In advocating such an approach I do not underestimate the difficulties involved. In our large educational institutions with their elaborate organisational arrange- ments, large numbers of students and heavy demands upon teaching and counselling staff, there is little opportunity for establishing real relationships. Further- more the authority relations between adults and young people can often inhibit their development. Some useful experiments have, however, been conducted in the British context to try and overcome the difficulties, and provide means for bringing caring adults into more meaningful contact with young people. (White and Brockington, 1978; Bazalgette, 1978). Significant developments along these lines will take time and effort; but the first requirement is a more widespread recognition of the vital significance of the dimension of personal relationships as the basis for all guidance activity.

In conclusion, I may recall that this approach to careers guidance through relationships is being advocated partly because the very difficult job market faced by school leavers in many places has called in question some earlier assumptions and activities. If it is not clear what is going to happen to young people after school, the most important response on the part of guidance may be to develop the non-directive approach even further by concentrating on establishing real, open relationships without concern for the direction of the counselling or the outcomes of advice. It may be, however, that this approach will not only provide a suitable response to the needs of the present situation. It may also demonstrate that in all circumstances personal relationships afford the best and most effective means of guidance.

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United Kingdom. London: HMSO. Clarke, L. (1980b). Occupational choice: A critical review of research in the United Kingdom.

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Hayes, J., and Hopson, B. (1972). Careers guidance: The role of the school in vocational development. London: Heinemann.

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Careers guidance through relationships