Assignment: Career Counseling Concerns

Assignment: Career Counseling Concerns
Assignment: Career Counseling Concerns
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Assignment: Career Counseling for Clients with Unique Concerns
Disabled workers
Displaced workers
Economically disadvantaged workers
Delayed entrance to workforce (retirees, military, ex-offenders)
Older Workers
Individuals with Disabilities
Over 80% of disabled people are either not in the workforce or are underemployed
Vocational rehabilitation has been referred to as the process of returning a disabled worker to a state of re-employability
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) passed initially in 1975 and last amended in 2004—school counselors/students in special education
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against disabled clients in the hiring and worker-retention processes.
Other legislation – Workforce Investment Act and Ticket to Work program
Rehabilitation services are provided by a number of professions: psychology, counseling, medical, nursing, social work and others.
Kosciulek (2003) suggests that effective career counselors can empower clients with disabilities by fostering inclusion in the broader workforce and in society.
Career Counseling for Individuals with Disabilities
Process of career counseling should begin before the clients arrives in the counselor’s office by arranging the office to meet the physical, mental and psychological needs of the clients.
Traditional assessment devices may be useful with many disabled clients, but counselors should proceed with great caution and possibly conducted by a person with unique assessment skills.
Qualitative assessment devices may be more useful than traditional instruments.
Work samples and job tryouts may be much more significant indicators of the client’s potential than many assessment devices.
Effective career counselors can empower clients with disabilities by fostering inclusion in the broader workforce and in society.
Appropriate information and experiences such as work-based assessment, internships, job shadowing and sheltered workshop can do much to offset some of the experiential deficits of the disabled.
Displaced workers
Millions of workers have been displaced throughout time due to technological innovations and the relocation of businesses outside the U.S
The U.S. economy has been undergoing its second structural change, the first being from agriculture and farming to manufacturing the second structural change began in the middle of the 20th century as an emphasis on manufacturing goods shifted to one based in offering services. Now we are in the information age.
Career counseling:
Displaced workers may experience depression and loss of self-esteem.
Locating suitable educational and training programs that prepares displaced workers for employment often becomes an important priority.
Economically Disadvantaged
Chronically poor
Unemployed or new disadvantaged
Underemployed
Immigrant (undocumented)
Disadvantaged people need career development programs that address both short-term and long-term goals. Many career-related problems can be confronted with this 4 part program:
Access to basic adult education and specific vocational training
Personal and/or career counseling
Information about the world of work along with the skills to use this information in decision-making
Placement
Career Counseling
Counselors should be prepared to deal with low self-esteem and depression.
Jacobs and Blustein (2008) suggested that clients may be benefit from mindfulness.
Atypical Time of Entrance to the Labor Force
Former Military Personnel
Ex-offenders
Older Workers
Former Military Personnel
Can be divided into 3 groups:
Those who serve 20 to 30 years before retiring from military duty and drawing a pension
Those who incur a service-related disability that prevents them from continuing in the military service
Those who leave after a relatively brief period (3 to 6 years)
Many military occupations have equivalent counterparts and can transfer with little difficulty from military to civilian jobs.
Those who elect not to reenlist or are not eligible to do so and had military assignments that provided no opportunity to develop transferable skills are most like to need career counseling.
The downside for some enlistees many need help learning how to make their own decisions as a result of having lived in a tightly structured environment.
Career Counseling for Former Military Personnel
Be prepared to deal with the same range of problems encountered with any client such as low self-esteem, lack of self-understanding, etc.
Veterans who have been in combat positions may also be suffering form PTSD or depression.
Suicide rates are on the rise and should be a concern for career counselors helping this group.
Psychological problems may be exacerbated by the veteran’s inability to secure employment.
Added complications may be encountered because of stressors in the family and simply returning to the routine of civilian life.
Stein-McCormick and her colleagues (2013) suggest that career counseling draw heavily on the Career Information Processing (CIP) model.
Ex-offenders
State and federal penal institutions vary widely in fundamental philosophy with respect to the goal of rehabilitation versus custodial care.
We must conclude that very few inmates acquire significant occupational training during their imprisonment.
Career Counseling
Many prior offenders need extensive personal counseling before effective career counseling can be initiated.
California Log Model: Evidence-Based Rehabilitation for Offender Success:
Assess risk and target offenders who pose highest risk of reoffending
Assess need by examining factors that are the best predictors of reoffending
Develop a behavior-management program
Deliver cognitive behavioral programs that target offenders’ needs
Conduct periodic measures of progress toward the objectives
Prepare offender for reentry
Reintegrate offender in collaboration with community agency
Follow-up and collect outcome data
Older Workers
Based on a number of surveys and discussions the number of persons older than 60 will continue to increase (the first cohort of baby boomers turned 64 in 2010)
The recession that began in 2007 diminished the funds that many workers approaching retirement planned to use during their retirement years.
Many older retired workers have reentered or are attempting to reenter the labor force. Many of them have discovered that retirement is an unsatisfactory experience.
Changes in Social Security and Medicare are making it mandatory that more workers stay in the work force to protect their economic well-being.
The decision to stay in the workforce is not purely economic—desire to improve the quality of their lives and others, fellowship with other workers, social status, desire to make a contribution to society, maintaining a sense of self worth or simply having something to do are all factors that contribute to people staying in the workforce beyond retirement.
Career Counseling for Older Workers
Career counselors need to help clients dispel the myths surrounding older workers (health issues, inflexibility, less productive, diminished strength and learning capacity)
First task is to help older clients identify and eliminate some of their own beliefs about themselves.
Older workers may require assistance with the development of employability skills.
They need to develop interviewing skills that can help them counteract the misconceptions about older workers.