Supporting student transitions: Integrating life design, career construction, happenstance, and hope

Abstract

This article provides an integrated theoretical approach to conceptualize and support transitions of students in higher education towards their professional lives. The life design paradigm serves as a foundational anchor to the integration of career construction theory, happenstance learning theory, and hope theory. These theories are then applied to the 4S transition model to provide potential avenues for career counselors to follow in their work with students. It is imperative for career counselors to partner with students in higher education in learning how to successfully navigate transitions as they will face a multitude of them throughout their lives.

An Exploration of Strategies for Facilitating Graduates’ Transition to the World of Work: A Case of Technical, Vocational Education and Training Graduates in Uganda

“…Graduates have to manage their own career paths in flexible and creative ways, this implies that school-to-work transition programs should be designed to assist the graduates with skills and knowledge to prepare them to enter the world of work [1]. The evolving world of work requires enhanced skill sets and areas of expertise because individuals are no longer able to look to their employing organizations to help define their career paths, nor can they expect to be with one organization for a large part of their career [2]. The graduates entering the world of work should have good expertise in their area of work; have ability to work with latest technologies; be able to work with interdisciplinary and cross-functional teams to analytically think and solve problems; and have high quality communication skills, flexibility, and emotional intelligence [3].…”

Narrative potential and career counseling under quantity, quality, and mixed interventions: An emphasis on university students

“…As we see it, this is exactly the point where lies the great potential in broadening career counseling practice by using emerging career counseling approaches, either narrative or mixed (integrative). Life and career transitions that university students are confronted with are demanding and narrative career interventions may support them to find consistency and cohesion based on their life narratives, reinstating the element of uniqueness of each individual into play (Peila-Shuster, 2016).…”

Empathy and compassion: towards wellbeing in learning development

“…It highlights the importance of empathising with learners, as opposed to teaching, developing and assessing, as empowering to both the staff member and the student. This paper begins a conversation, where further exploration could be undertaken by the learning development community and an interesting topic for further discussion might be whether the 'imperatives of employability' represent an issue or an opportunity for greater integration of wellbeing across employability and academic skills development (Peila-Shuster, 2016).…”