Session Information
22 SES 05.5 A, General Poster Session
General Poster Session
Contribution
The current labour market presents ever-increasing challenges to people entering the workforce, leading to more flexible, but also unpredictable and undefined employment prospects (Savickas, 2013). Holding a degree is no longer a passport to employment (ILO, 2017), and therefore Higher Education institutions, as part of their social responsibility (Brown & Cloke, 2009), are called to intervene, fostering students’ career resources and better equipping them to face those challenges. This is particularly relevant since career resources have shown to be susceptible to being intentionally promoted (Monteiro et al., 2023; Soares et al., 2022).
Distance interventions in the career development context are a particularly interesting way of trying to promote such career resources (Bimrose et al., 2015; Kettunen et al., 2013; Pordelan & Hosseinian, 2022). Distance interventions are particularly adept at reaching diverse publics, and, thus, promoting equity and inclusion by reaching audiences that tend to be excluded from face-to-face interventions, such as working students, adult students, and students with disabilities or learning difficulties, among others. Therefore, they present an opportunity for the inclusion of vulnerable groups, not only in the intervention programmes themselves but also in the labour market.
This poster presents a distance intervention designed to promote career resources, developed and implemented in Portugal, in two public Universities (one based on face-to-face education, and another on distance education) – the Boost 4 Career programme. In the poster, we present the project’s background, structure, and pedagogical approach.
Career resources can be defined as “anything that helps an individual attain his or her career goals” (Hirschi, 2018, p. 4). Such career resources are not limited to individual traits, such as knowledge, motivation, and skills, but encompass an environmental dimension, acknowledging that career development does not happen in a void, but is intrinsically connected with the contexts where individuals develop (Haenggli & Hirschi, 2020).
The Boost 4 Career programme aims to help HE students with diverse characteristics to (a) explore the working contexts where they may wish to enter, and the competencies they will need to succeed at their job and throughout their career; (b) to inform them about the opportunities their HE institutions and the surrounding environment have at their disposal to provide them with knowledge and foster competencies’ development, and; (c) to reflect on their experiences and their competencies, their needs, and mostly, the career trajectory they want to pursue. Based on the diagnosis of needs (Seabra, et al., 2022), the programme focuses on career exploration, job market knowledge, occupational expertise, soft skills, continuous learning, organizational career support, networking, career clarity, and career confidence. Each week includes individual and shared activities and was developed to include the possibility of choice, in line with the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2009). The pedagogical model used is based on the Virtual Pedagogical Model of the Universidade Aberta (Portugal) (Pereira et al., 2007).
Method
This research is funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) within the scope of the project PTDC/CED-EDG/0122/2020 ((Re)Search for Career: Distance career intervention, employability and social equity in the access to the labour market) and the projects UIDB/01661/2020 and UIDP/01661/2020. This study was approved by the Ethical Committees of both universities engaged in the project (CEISCH 076-2021). After a pilot stage, the first round of implementation will begin in February 2023. We will begin with five groups of 60 participants each – a total of three-hundred participants. Future rounds of implementation should be scheduled later this year. Each group will have a dedicated moderator who is a member of the research team, as well as support from a common team of consultants. The programme, which spans 6 weeks, includes activities with different levels of complexity (Anderson et al., 2001; Krathwohl, 2002), which are directed at promoting exploration, reflection, and decision-making. The participants are invited to build a portfolio by gathering, documenting, and reflecting on the learning they developed. The programme is moderated by elements of the research team, who have a pivotal role in keeping motivation, fostering participation, and answering participants’ doubts. The evaluation of the programme will be conducted with the following instruments: Career Resources Questionnaire (QRC) (Monteiro & Almeida, 2021), Career Exploration Survey (CES) (Stumpf et al., 1983, adapted by Taveira, 1997), Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Deci et al., 1994), Basic Psychological Need Scale (BPNS) - Basic Need Satisfaction in General (Deci & Ryan, 2009), Digital Competences of Higher Education Students (adapted by Aires and collaborators from the Internet Skills Scale) (van Deursen et al., 2015), and a sociodemographic questionnaire. A qualitative evaluation of the process, through focus groups, will also be considered. A control group will be compared with the intervention group.
Expected Outcomes
In face of a complex and rapidly shifting labour market, the need for students to develop, not only technical skills, but also career resources, is crucial (Haenggli & Hirschi, 2020), and higher education institutions are gradually acknowledging this as part of their social responsibility. Diverse audiences and matters of social equity are central in this perspective, and promoting career resources through a distance programme intends to address inequality in access to career development programmes. We expect the programme to be socially relevant, promoting greater equity in graduates’ access to the labour market.
References
Bimrose, J., Kettunen, J., & Goddard, T. (2015). ICT – the new frontier? Pushing the boundaries of career practice. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 43(1), 8–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2014.975677 Brown, E. & Cloke, J. (2009). Corporate social responsibility in higher education. ACME, 8(3), 474–483. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1731 Deci, E.L., Eghrari, H., Patrick, B.C., & Leone, D.R. (1994). Facilitating internalization: The self-determination theory perspective. Journal of Personality, 62(1), 119–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1467-6494.1994.TB00797.X Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (2009). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01 Haenggli, M., & Hirschi, A. (2020). Career adaptability and career success in the context of a broader career resources framework. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 119(1):103414. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JVB.2020.103414 Hirschi, A. (2018). The fourth industrial revolution: Issues and implications for career research and practice. Career Development Quarterly, 66(3), 192–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/CDQ.12142 ILO (2017). Global employment trends for youth 2017: Paths to a better working future. ILO. Kettunen, J., Vuorinen, R., & Sampson, J.P. (2013). Career practitioners’ conceptions of social media in career services. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 41(3), 302–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2013.781572 Krathwohl, D.R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2 Monteiro, S., & Almeida, L. (2021). Adaptation and initial validation of the Career Resources Questionnaire for Portuguese – HE Students form. Análise Psicológica, 39(2), 287–298. https://doi.org/10.14417/ap.1841 Monteiro, S., Almeida, L.S., Sánchez, T.G., Quintela, N.R., & Uzquiano, M.P. (2023). Career resources among higher education students: A mixed-methods study. Educacion XX1, 26(1), 93–115. Pereira, A., Quintas-Mendes, A., Morgado, L., Amante, L., & Bidarra, J. (2007). Modelo pedagógico virtual da Universidade Aberta: Para uma universidade do futuro. Universidade Aberta. https://repositorioaberto.uab.pt/bitstream/10400.2/1295/1/Modelo Pedagogico Virtual.pdf Pordelan, N., & Hosseinian, S. (2022). Design and development of the online career counselling: a tool for better career decision-making. Behaviour and Information Technology, 41(1), 118–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2020.1795262 Savickas, M. L. (2013). Career construction theory and practice. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 147–183). Wiley. Stumpf, S. A., Colarelli, S. M., & Hartman, K. (1983). Development of the Career Exploration Survey (CES). Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22(2), 191–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(83)90028-3 van Deursen, A. J. A. M., Helsper, E. J., & Eynon, R. (2015). Development and validation of the Internet Skills Scale (ISS). Information, Communication & Society, 19(6), 804–823. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.107883
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