Annual Review: Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development—1996

Abstract

The National Career Development Association's (NCDA) Professional Standards Committee (1997) has recently identified 11 competency areas (career development theory, individual and group counseling skills, individual and group assessment, information resources, and program management and implementation, consultation, diverse populations, supervision, ethical legal issues, and research evaluation, and technology). These competencies were used as categories for classifying research on career development and counseling published in 1996. Two primary areas of research activity were identified: making career counseling theory useful for more clients, and emphasizing the role of contextual factors in shaping career development. Four competency areas not addressed sufficiently by researchers were also identified: consultation, supervision, technology, and ethics. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Career Indecision Amongst Prospective University Students

“…The focus has shifted from the individual and age-appropriateness, to the interaction between organism and environment, or person and context (Niles, 1997(Niles, , 1998Raskin, 1998;Séhrnitt-Roderrnund & Silbereisen, 1998;Stead, 1996;Vondracek & Reitzle, 1998). Hall (1992) promoted the use of a broad theoretical frame in which the complexity and growth aspects of career decision-making are accommodated.…”

“…He suggested that the theory of Super would provide such a frame. Super's concept of career stages has had a major influence on career assessment and counselling (Richman, 1993), and his contribution represents an unparalleled legacy in developmental career theory (Isaacson & Brown, 1997;Niles, 1997). Super's Life-Span Life-Space Theory focuses on career development in preference to the concept of occupational choice, advocated by Holland (Super, 1980).…”

“…Beerlall (1997) found the levels of educational and vocational indecision to be high amongst university students of English, Hindi, Tamil, Xhosa and Zulu language groups. Home language may, however, be related to culture (BeerlaII, 1997), and the need for culture specificity regarding career indecision and interventions has been emphasised by various researchers (Niles, 1997;Schmitt-Rodermund & Silbereisen, 1998;Stead, 1996).…”

“…It should also be borne in mind that the values, beliefs and culture of socially disadvantaged individuals may need to be incorporated into such a programme where applicable. The recommendations of previous researchers (Naicker, 1994a;Niles, 1997Niles, , 1998Raskin, 1998;Schmitt-Rodermund & Silbereisen, 1998;Stead, 1996;Vondracek & Reitzle, 1998) could thus be accommodated.…”

Informação profissional e orientação para a carreira mediadas por computador: uma revisão da literatura

“…Segundo Niles (1997), a informação de carreira 2 pode ajudar os clientes a tomar decisões, entretanto, os orientadores devem se certificar de que as mesmas sejam precisas, relevantes e recentes, de modo a aumentar a probabilidade dos clientes obterem informação adequada sobre as carreiras, encorajando-os a usar fontes múltiplas de informação. Como salienta Brown (2003), cada jovem tem necessidades únicas.…”