- Career counselling refers to a set of services intended to assist people of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices to manage their careers. Career guidance helps people to reflect on their ambitions, interests, qualifications and abilities. It helps them to understand the labor market and education systems, and to relate this to what they know about themselves. Comprehensive career guidance tries to teach people to plan and make decisions about work and learning. Career guidance makes information about the labor market and about educational opportunities more accessible by organizing it, systematizing it and making it available when and where people need it. (OECD, 2004, p.1 )
- Another definition for career counseling says that it is a process that will help you to know and understand yourself and the world of work in order to make career, educational, and life decisions. In its Guide for Providing Comprehensive Career Guidance Services to Disadvantaged Youth, Luz María Ortega and Gaston Cerda with guidance from Joanna Ramos-Romero and Clara Inés Restrepo from IYF write: "We understand career guidance to be support provided to young people so that they are better prepared to make decisions regarding their education, technical training or career, based on understanding their own interests, aptitudes and abilities, as well as the resources and opportunities around them. Career guidance is: A process which involves much more than taking a test or learning about the selection of careers or occupations available. Rather, it is a well defined process through which youth receive information and support so that they can make realistic
- choices about their future in terms of career, further education and personal goals.Definition of counseling provided by European Commission is: Encouraging someone to take responsibility for a problem or for improving the situation (often personal nature). In other words, to make decision for themselves and empower the client to act accordingly (Counseling Toolkit for Youth Workers, European Commission).
When it comes to counselling and informing young refugees and migrants we can agree that “Information about the career development and career transition issues of immigrants and refugees remains limited, yet career counseling to these populations can be one of the most significant contributors to their positive transition into a new culture” (Yakushko, 2006). “Finding a job and developing a career is central to refugees and migrants getting established in their host contrives, but refugees and migrants experience many difficulties when they arrive in this new country and culture. The difficulties include learning a new language and culture, a loss of professional status, and often working physical labor and low wage jobs“ (Yakushko, 2008). Defining career aspirations and realistically matching personal interests and abilities with job opportunities are big challenges for all young people, even more so for those moving form one place into another. IMPORTANT: For counselors working with immigrants, it is essential to first understand how and why people immigrate, and what challenges they face once they are here. The term “immigrants” could cover a very diverse population of various categories of persons who move to their host countries for very different reasons and under very different circumstances. For example, individuals may leave their countries of origin to escape political turmoil, war, or natural disaster. To escape poverty or to seek a better economic future could be another purpose for moving to another country. Immigration could also be triggered by reasons such as family reunion, studying abroad, exploring a new way of life, and the need for change in one’s personal life and/or worklife. As such, some individuals find themselves being pulled involuntarily into the tide of immigration, while others are intentional in making immigration a voluntary effort in their life-career voyage. For understanding migration please follow this link!
There are several types of counseling that can be conducted with young migrants and refugees. They include:
- Individual counseling. This provides a 1-on-1 exchange with a counselor to talk about needs, wishes, and competences. The counselor will listen closely, express caring concern, ask questions, and offer feedback.
- Group counseling. A group of people with similar concerns may meet together. A counselor leads the discussion and provides support and guidance. Group members learn from the counselor and other members.