Chapter 1 - Roots, Growth, and Trends

Career History

  • initial career guidance provided by elders, priests, parents, and families

  • vocational guidance emerged when industrialization brought more opportunities and families and the church were no longer enough

  • the surge of immigrants to the U.S. led to organized efforts to find employment

  • by the 1900’s with the increase of technology, rising poverty, and more types of employment available, guidance programs were established to help people make good career choices

  • Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 supported vocational education training in secondary schools

Vocational Guidance as a Profession

  • Post WWII led to counseling becoming a true profession

  • 1940-1959 career guidance counseling expanded into colleges and universities

  • GI Bill of 1946 funded veterans to go to college and receive job training

  • Psychological testing also went through an overhaul, with the Myers-Briggs Types Indicator being developed and the Strong Interest Inventory being revised

  • career counseling broadened its definition from job placement and training to developing self-understanding and satisfaction

Pope’s 6 Stages of Career Counseling History

  • 1819-1919: job placement services

  • 1920-1939: solidified education guidance in schools

  • 1940-1959: guidance and vocational services in colleges and universities

  • 1960-1979: organized career counseling movement and “meaningful work”

  • 1980-1989: growing number of career counseling in independent practice

  • 1990-present: internalization of career counseling, technology boom, and multicultural considerations

  • Pope saw these 6 stages taking place across 3 periods

    • vocational guidance, career education, and life design

Frank Parsons

  • pioneer of career counseling

  • 3 step approach are the guidelines for all career counseling and the4 basis of the trait-and-factor approach (discussed later)

    • 1 - clear understanding of self

      • aptitudes, abilities, resources, and limitations

    • 2 - knowledge of what it takes to succeed

      • compensations, opportunities, prospects

    • 3 - true reasoning on how these two relate

Evolution of Career Counseling

  • Progressive Education (late 1800s)

    • education was initially for the elite and not to prepare people for careers

    • child labor was still legal so children did not go to school beyond 2-3 years

    • Jesse Davis first to suggest incorporating guidance into school curriculum

    • John Dewey - comprehensive education for all regardless of college/vocational choices

  • Standardized Testing

    • psychometric testing helped to group people in a standardized and objective way

  • Legislation

    • 1958 National Defense Education Act funded and placed guidance counselors in schools

    • 1976 Career Education Incentive Act enabled career development into school curriculum

    • 1994 School to Work Opportunities Act reemphasized the link between school and work

Professional Organizations & Publications

  • these organizations and publications furthered career counseling which helped the overall counseling profession to have professional identity

  • National Vocational Guidance Association became National Career Development Association (NCDA) - what it is known as today

  • primary journal of NCDA is the Career Development Quarterly

  • American Counseling Association was a merge of 3 vocational/guidance associations

  • O*NET (Occupational Informational Network) was previously the DOT or Dictionary of Occupational Titles published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Career Counseling Training

  • career counseling is a required (though seemingly dreaded?) course in all CACREP-accredited programs

  • career counseling is a specialty area in CACREP meaning a program could provide a degree in just career counseling

  • this is a large portion of what counselors do because work is such a huge part of life for people

  • settings for career counseling are community, schools, colleges and universities, private practice and businesses (EPAs)

Career Counseling CACREP Standards

  • career development - studies that provide an understanding of career development and related life factors, including all of the following

    • theories and models of career development, counseling, and decision making

    • approaches for conceptualizing the interrelationships among and between work, mental well-being, relationships, and other life roles and factors

    • processes for identifying and using career, avocational, educational, occupational, labor market info resources, technology, and information systems

    • approaches for assessing the conditions of the work environment on clients’ life experiences

    • strategies for assessing abilities, interests, values, personality, and other factors that contribute to career development

    • strategies for career development program planning, organization, implementation, administration, and evaluation

    • strategies for advocating for diverse clients’ career and educational development and employment opportunities in a global economy

    • strategies for facilitating client skill development for career, educational, and life-work planning and decision making

    • ethical and culturally relevant strategies for addressing career development

Credentials

  • Certified Master of Career Services (CMCS)

  • Certified Career Counselor (CCC)

  • Certified Clinical Supervisor of Career Counseling (CCSCC)

  • Certified Career Counselor Educator (CCCE)

  • Certified School Career Development Advisor (CSCDA)

  • The NCDA is the professional organization of career counselors and provides guidance on competencies and ethics

Career Counseling Today

  • changing workforce

    • diversity in the workplace, mainly women and ethnic minorities

  • structure and meaning of work

    • information age and changing economic structure\

  • technology and social media

    • psychological impacts, changes in human interaction, and business

  • globalization

    • free market capitalistic economy and competition

  • life roles across the life span

    • changes in identity connected to work due to workplace longevity

  • multiculturalism, social justice, and advocacy

    • need for career counselors to become culturally competent to address genderism, ageism, sexism, ableism, and other forms of discrimination at work