#TheWeekInCareers - Episode 72

Welcome to #TheWeekinCareers ! If you are a first-time reader (and congratulations if so, you are now part of a 3800+ strong community!), this newsletter is my attempt at summarising some of the key #Careers -related news from across the #Careersphere each week, along with some of the talking points I feel are worthy of further debate amongst the #Careers community! So, without further ado, on to the news!

This week, I've struggled to shake off my frustrations regarding the recent BBC documentary, 'Is University Really Worth It?', which I wrote about in last week's newsletter - I think what really irked me the most about the tone of the programme was its maddeningly simplistic take on why young people might make career decisions (e.g. a transactional, money-oriented Return-on-Investment approach) and seeming refusal to openly discuss the subject of 'trade-offs' that exist regarding any career pathways we might choose to take in our lives. I'm an optimist by nature but sometimes all of us need a good gripe, and with that in mind I've taken the decision to kick off a new segment in this week's newsletter, The Careers Room 101, where I'll be expanding on why I want to banish widespread ignorance of trade-offs for good. We are also fortunate this week to have an excellent GUEST BLOG from Emma Hill on the subject of Group Careers Coaching to help balance my more negative overtures in this week's newsletter.

All this PLUS another jam-packed #BestOfTheRest to digest with your weekend coffee (or beverage of choice) - dig in, at your leisure...

I hope you enjoy this week's newsletter and thank you as always for continuing to subscribe, read, comment on and support #TheWeekInCareers! ??

The Careers Room 101 ??

Prompted by my continuing frustrations with the topic of last week's newsletter (a certain BBC documentary which I won't bother namechecking again, just to save my sanity...) and Anne Wilson SFHEA 's recent blog on one of the eternal bugbears of professionals in any industry, bulls**t jargon, I felt this week was an opportune moment to launch a brand-new segment for the newsletter, focusing on the topics and issues across the #Careersphere that really irk me/us as careers professionals:

To do this, I've shamelessly pinched a concept that has had plenty of mileage in the past - Room 101. Whether you recognise it from the terrifying torture mechanism featured in George Orwell's seminal novel, 1984 , or the much less terrifying, Paul Merton-fronted 90s/00s TV show of the same name, the common thread with anything Room 101 related is that it involves something that you fear/despise, which could be a physical object/living thing (in the case of 1984's protagonist, for whom rats were the offenders in question) or a concept/idea (in the case of comedian Rich Hall's submission in the episode below, wherein he selected the entire concept of Disney for banishment to Room 101):

I also need to give a massive shout-out to Claire Guy for leading the way with a careers-themed adaptation of the #Room101 concept way back in 2022 - you can check out which topics Claire felt were worthy of inclusion to Room 101 via her LinkedIn profile and the blog post below, including some of the submissions she received from numerous other careers professionals ??

And thus, a new segment for #TheWeekInCareers is born...

The Careers Room 101!

In this regular/infrequent segment (pending your feedback, readers...??), I'll be selecting topics, issues, pet peeves and bugbears from across the #Careersphere that really grind my gears, explaining why I feel the subject of my ire should be banished to The Careers Room 101 and inviting readers to share or write about their own potential entrants to the titular chamber of consternation. So without further ado, let's talk about trade-offs...

That's right, my inaugural entry to The Careers Room 101 is all about trade-offs, or more specifically the lengths that individuals, organisations and society at large will often go to when it comes to ignoring or underestimating the importance of trade-offs in our career journeys.

So, what do I actually mean by trade-offs? Put simply, I'm talking about the complex array of factors that all of us potentially have to balance when it comes to thinking and making decisions about our professional or personal lives, including (but not limited to...):

• Where we want to live
• Who we want to spend time with
• Our financial / material circumstances
• Our physical / mental health
• Our emotional wellbeing
• Our personal values
• What we want to achieve in life
• Our interests and pursuits
• The skill set we have already
• What we are interested in learning about

To apply this to my own personal context, an illustrative example:

?? In my early 20s, I was working as a teacher in Further Education in the UK when I met my partner, who was completing the CELTA (TEFL teaching qualification), something I'd been considering undertaking for a while in order to pursue my goal of working abroad.

?? As I rented accommodation at the time and had not yet built an extensive career in the field of FE, it was an easy decision for me to make to complete the CELTA part-time and then, with my partner, apply to work abroad in Vietnam and then Japan.

?? Fast forward a few years and we had both hit a crossroads - we enjoyed living abroad but knew now from experience that we didn't want to teach EFL forever, so were forced to confront our next moves. This meant returning to the UK (for my partner, to undertake her Art & Design GCSE) and for me, an opportunity to take stock and consider what I wanted to do next. Reflecting on all of my previous experiences in work and what energised me the most, I realised that the variety, (relative) autonomy and creativity involved in career development work could be just the thing for me, and after a litany of research, I enrolled on the Qualification in Career Development at The University of Huddersfield.

?? Fast forward a few years again and my partner and I had both completed our postgraduate training in our respective fields and were well set up for the start of our careers in Teaching and Career Development. Although we'd originally considered using these qualifications to pursue employment abroad again, a variety of important factors (including wanting to create a life/base in South Yorkshire, my involvement with the Sheffield Giants American Football Academy and a little thing called the Covid-19 pandemic...) forced us to reassess our career trade-offs and take the decision to buy a house in South Yorkshire and remain based in the UK...at least, for now!

?? Neither my partner or I have lost the travel bug, far from it, and still take every opportunity we can to visit new countries (or parts of the UK) - it's just that the circumstances of both our professional and personal lives required us to reassess whether 'working abroad' was the most important thing to us at that period of time, or whether there were now other factors (such as stability in geographical location, building a stronger sense of community, developing a professional identity in our respective fields etc.) that now mattered more.

All of us can probably think back to a number of career decisions we have made in our lives that were the product of weighing up 'trade-offs', but frustratingly this topic is IMO rarely given the airtime it deserves when it comes to the public discourse around career development. For just one example, take the rhetoric used when it comes to extolling the virtues of apprenticeships - 'Earn and Learn' being a particular culprit - which often paints a picture of apprenticeships as a risk-free training pathway for all young people, where individuals essentially get the same educational experience they would in any other route (such as University) but with the added benefit of a salary and valuable practical experience in their industry of choice. Now, much of this is of course true, but many organisations and policy makers (particularly folks like Robert Halfon MP, Secretary of State for Skills, Further and Higher Education) will often neglect to surface the following additional factors when discussing the benefits of apprenticeships:

• Depending on the area of industry you are interested in, finding a suitable apprenticeship (at any level) might necessitate you needing to move to another part of the country. Alan Bullock RCDP 's regular Higher and Degree Apprenticeship blogs provide a cracking example of the supply and demand challenges of the apprenticeship market, and the variability that exists in terms of where apprenticeship vacancies may appear.
• For some industry/subject areas, while an apprenticeship standard might exist in theory, this doesn't necessarily mean it is as of yet an established route into that profession (see: Doctors, Teachers, Graphic Designers etc.) - the following post and comment thread from William E. Donald contains some useful examples from careers professionals regarding the nuances involved when it comes to a young person making a decision about 'University vs Apprenticeships', particularly if they are interested in a career pathway that does not yet have a clear apprenticeship route available.
• Both the application/recruitment process for apprenticeships and the training route itself are very different from what many young people have experienced in their education/lives up to this point, and require a level of maturity and professionalism that not all individuals are necessarily ready for at this stage of their lives (and nor do they need to be, of course, as the option to undertake an apprenticeship will still be there for them later in their lives, if required) - I speak from experience when I say that many individuals I worked with who moved on to apprenticeships took to the environment immediately, whereas for others they weren't quite ready to focus their attention on one area of work (this can naturally vary depending on the apprenticeship provider/employer, but some individuals I've spoken with found the structure and lack of freedom to explore/experiment on their apprenticeships a bit more restrictive, for them).

I should be clear, this point isn't about apprenticeships - as I've written about previously , they are a fantastic option for many individuals when it comes to education/training and a great route into many career pathways, but choosing to undertake an apprenticeship does not come without its trade-offs, whether that is acknowledging the different lifestyle it might provide (for better or worse) or the additional pressures that could arise from balancing full-time work with studying for an academic/professional qualification. Of course, the same logic applies when it comes to selecting any educational/career pathway, whether that be University, T-Levels, A-Levels, BTECs, Traineeships, Skills Bootcamps, Microcredentials, Full-Time Work, Gap Years, Self-Employment etc., or for young people considering what life post-mainstream schooling could look like. Earlier this week, Chris Targett RCDP beautifully illustrated this point with a #CareersImpact story concerning a Year 12 student who was initially ambivalent about the future but through discussion and Chris' expert guidance, was able to recognise that thinking about choices and the consequences of these choices on our lives need not be a prison, but an opportunity to imagine a variety of possible futures and what might be required to make these happen (as a side note, I really like the terminology of 'Punk Action Planning' referenced in Chris' post, particularly as it pertains to the idea of making plans without making plans e.g. a bias to action, without feeling like you're constrained by a narrow series of options):

No career decisions are without consequences and some are not necessarily even within our direct control - the recent World Happiness Report identified that young people in North America and Western Europe are gradually becoming less happy than older generations (a reversal of the trend of the past decade plus, which showed the opposite), and given the financial burden that many young people have had to endure when it comes to cost-of-living, rental/house prices and higher education (to name but a few...) it's perhaps no surprise that we are seeing these types of trends appear with regard to happiness/wellbeing, which could have a significant impact on the career decisions that these individuals make. Indeed, recent social media trends such as 'QuitTok' (where younger workers film themselves resigning from jobs or expose insensitive lay-off processes from the companies they work for) suggest that for younger workers, there is serious frustration with the status quo in the world of work - could this mean we also see individuals in these generations adopting a noticeably different approach to managing career trade-offs, in comparison to previous generations? (many would argue we already are!)

In a recent piece for GQ, the legendary tennis great Roger Federer spoke candidly about his own career trade-offs and what this meant for him as he moved into the next stage of his professional life (not many individuals retire at 40, after all!). In the article, Federer references the trade-off all professional athletes have to make when it comes to deciding when to stop competing but also the fact that some of these decisions are taken away from athletes by time, injury and developments in their personal lives (such as wanting to spend more time with their families), and that ultimately, '...the show goes on' whether you are still playing or not. It's a really interesting exploration of professional identity (albeit not necessarily one that will be relatable to all of us!) and touches on the fact that career trade-offs impact all of us (no matter how elevated our status), and that talking about this subject can be both necessary and cathartic:

As seen in the example above, far from being a negative constraint to our career development, talking about trade-offs can be freeing - the more we understand that 'having it all' is not something that is realistically achievable (and in many cases, not even particularly desirable), the less pressure we put on ourselves when it comes to making this happen.

And of course, what we consider as being important for our career trade-offs may change over time. Speaking with a colleague the other day, she mentioned that her daughters are currently learning in school about how our taste buds change and die off over time , and of course the same is true with our 'career tastes' - when I was in my 20s, there was a point where I couldn't imagine doing anything other than working abroad and teaching English in different countries, but my tastes changed, and with it what I considered important from a trade-off perspective (for example, it can be challenging to develop a consistent sense of community when you are regularly moving from one place to another - although this may not be true for everyone!). None of these changes made me feel that I was betraying some core part of myself and I am open-minded enough to acknowledge that my current priorities may well change again in the future; the important part for me was acknowledging the way I felt at the time and recognising this necessitated a change in what I was doing, which serendipitously led me to the profession that I am in now and the sector/community that I value so highly.

And this, for me, is why 'ignorance of career trade-offs' is my inaugural entry into The Careers Room 101 - as a society, we understand that trade-offs exist in many other facets of our lives (for example, in terms of our health and fitness) but when it comes to public discourse about career development, the subject is often conspicuously absent (see: the simplistic 'earn and learn' rhetoric used with apprenticeships, as referenced above). Talking about career pathways should be fun, inspiring and motivating for individuals of all ages, but it should also be rooted in the realities (and desired possible futures) of that person's life, and that is exactly why we ignore discussions around career trade-offs at our peril.

So there you have it - for me, ignorance of trade-offs when discussing our careers is one of my biggest bugbears (Ed: In case the rest of the newsletter hadn't given that away...) and something I feel is a worthy candidate for our very first edition of The Careers Room 101! But even if banishment of this mindset is not an option in reality, I think this topic is absolutely something we need to talk about more publicly when it comes to career development, whether we are debating the various merits and drawbacks of education/training pathways for different individuals or highlighting why career decisions cannot simply be made in a vacuum. As careers professionals, this may feel self-evident but whether it is seen in TV documentaries, 'thought leadership' posts on LinkedIn or in conversations with our clients, we know that in truth, this subject doesn't always get the airtime it deserves. Let's change that.

What do you think of my first entry into The Careers Room 101? Am I on the money regarding the subject of 'trade-offs' or are there more worthy candidates for our ire as careers professionals? What topics or pet peeves would you choose to enter into The Careers Room 101? Answers, as always, on a #TheWeekInCareers postcard...?? (or more accurately, in the comments thread at the bottom of the newsletter! ??)

GUEST BLOG: Group Coaching...?

As mentioned at the top of the newsletter, this week's GUEST BLOG touches on what is becoming very much a hot topic in the careers space at the moment, particularly within HE careers circles, Group Coaching/Guidance. I'm extremely grateful that the fab Emma Hill has taken the time to share insights from her experiences delivering group coaching with different cohorts of students and what this has taught her about this approach - I hope you enjoy reading Emma's reflections as much as I did!

Group Coaching - The power of the people

Let me take you on a journey. A twisty, turny trip along the road of group career coaching development. There are a few unexpected turns and a couple of bumps in the road, but a whole lot of, “wow look at that amazing view, I need to stop and take a photo of that” moments along the way too.

I started to look into group coaching a couple of years ago and became interested in Susan Meldrum’s work around Group Guidance. We discussed it in our team, and one of my colleagues in The Business School and I decided to create a pilot group career coaching programme for our MBA students. We were both experienced Career Development Professionals with hundreds of hours of coaching and guidance interactions under our belts and an ever-optimistic outlook, so we could do this whole group coaching thing, right? We got a venue organised, promoted the 3-week programme, managed to get a good number of sign-ups, developed a theme for each week, finalised our session plans and gave each other a ‘let’s do this’ motivational high five. We were all set.

To say the first session ran away from us is an understatement. If you picture the session sprinting across the finish line while we were still discussing what running shoes we should wear, then that will give you some idea of how it went down.

We did introductions, we outlined the structure of the programme and even brought a bit of group theory into it. Then came the first question:

“How can I find somewhere to live?”

Ummm, what’s that now?

Then another student:

“Yes, how can we be expected to study when my whole family and I are in a hotel room?”

Wait…this wasn’t following the plan we had. Quick check of the session notes…nowhere does it say, ‘accommodation issues’ and not a single mention anywhere of ‘families crammed into one hotel room’.

What then followed was a lively and honest discussion about the challenges that this resilient, dedicated and hard-working group of International students had faced since moving to Edinburgh.

My colleague and I looked for opportunities to move the discussion in a positive direction and encouraged the sharing of ideas and solutions, but when the session drew to a close, and the room emptied, we were left looking like we’d just got off the Oblivion rollercoaster when we thought we’d queued up for the teacup ride.

Over the following weeks, I could regularly be found sitting with a slightly dazed look on my face muttering, “it’s just a pilot, it’s just a pilot”. We learned a lot in that time, and although the other 2 sessions we ran with that group were a bit more career focused, there was always a slight chaotic feel to it all. I was almost too scared to ask for feedback at the end of the programme and when in the final session we asked for the classic, ‘post-it feedback’ on what went well and what could be improved, I cautiously read them through my fingers:

‘I felt listened to’.

‘I had space to say what was really worrying me’.

‘This has been so valuable’.

‘I don’t know what I would have done without these meetings the last few weeks.’

Then as the group filtered out for the final time, we heard them start to set up a WhatsApp group which they could all be part of as they wanted to keep in touch after the programme finished. They had formed connections that they intended to continue. ?

What had just happened? How could something which I would have seriously questioned running again, turned out to be such an impactful and meaningful experience for the participants? This experience, and these questions, rattled round in my head and I felt I needed to understand this better. I reached out to Ana Paula Nacif , a known expert in this field, to see if she knew of any training opportunities. Fortuitously, Ana’s organisation Quantum Leap had spaces on their Certificate of Professional Group Coaching which started a few months later. I started the course (on my birthday – the perfect gift!) in February 2023 and within the first couple of sessions I had a strong feeling that this work was important, and that bringing groups of people together had real value.

The course, and the fantastic coaches I met through it, gave me the tools, the space and the support to reflect on the coaching I had run previously as well as the confidence to plan future programmes.

I have since co-coached a further 3 group programmes (one for MBAs, one for new graduates and one for PhD students) so I am definitely no expert, but for what it’s worth, I think the key to successful group coaching is all about holding the space, allowing the group to move in the direction it needs to and getting the numbers right.

• The number of participants - around 8 is probably the ideal. There are programmes that run with more or less than this, which work very well. However, from my research and experience, 8 seems to give everyone a chance to speak if they want to, but also provides enough diversity to create the sparkle of differing viewpoints and opinions. I also think group coaching works best when there is a commonality between participants – a thread that links the coachees and creates those, “oh I’m so glad it’s not just me” moments.
• The number of sessions – This largely depends on the topic and theme, but between 6 and 8 is a good number to aim for. This allows relationships and trust to form but keeps focus and momentum as the participants move towards their goal.
• The number of days between sessions – fortnightly or monthly is probably about right here. This means there is a regularity which people appreciate but allows enough time for reflection, action and movement between sessions.
• The number of activities you include – this is very much up to the individual coach. I find a check-in activity of some kind brings everyone in and encourages them to be present. Then a mix of supported discussion with relevant activities when appropriate, seems to work well.
• The number of minutes spent on contracting (ok I was struggling to keep this one in the number theme, but the answer is a lot!) This is where my early programmes probably fell down, and I have learned to give contracting the time and space it deserves.

I should also say that I have been very fortunate to meet Ruth Winden, who is a PhD Group Coaching Queen and has been very generous with her time, advice and support. I have co-coached with my wonderful colleagues Bernie Critchley and Emma Anderson who bring their strengths to the design and delivery of the group coaching programmes and ensure we are always improving what we do. There is also the Using Group Based Career Guidance | Groups | LinkedIn which is worth joining if you have an interest in this area and if you are an AGCAS member, there is a webinar coming up on Wednesday 10th April (13:00-14:00), delivered by Susan Meldrum , Matthew Howard and Cerian Eastwood , which focuses on the related topic of ‘Cultivating the Foundations for Group Career Guidance’ :

A massive thank you again to Emma Hill for sharing her reflections on group coaching with #TheWeekInCareers - if you'd like to learn more about Emma Hill and her work, you can connect with her via LinkedIn or check out her bio below! ??

Emma Hill is a Career Development Consultant with Edinburgh Napier University. She has over 15 years’ experience in careers and employability spanning community projects, Further and Higher Education. Areas of interest include engagement, creativity and group coaching , and she co-ordinates the Careers Bookclub on LinkedIn: https://www.dhirubhai.net/groups/12839228

I'm keen to showcase as diverse a range of perspectives as possible in the newsletter, so if you are potentially interested in putting together a GUEST BLOG on a careers-related topic of your choice at some point in the future, please just drop me a line! ??

The Best of the Rest: My Hot Picks from the wider?#Careersphere???

?? Apprenticeships on the up? - First up this week, two articles in FE News from opposite sides of the pond that could potentially indicate a fruitful period ahead for the apprenticeship space. Firstly, we have Professor Tom Bewick, who provides a fascinating update on the latest reforms to the American Apprenticeships system and what this could mean in terms of future opportunities for British training providers, and to accompany this piece there is news of a major package of government reforms to the Apprenticeship Levy , including a ￡60m investment for young people and SMEs (including a measure that will allow large employers who pay the apprenticeship levy to transfer up to 50% of their funds to support other businesses, including smaller firms, to take on apprentices). Will this lead to the projected 20,000 additional apprenticeships the government projects? And is the expansion of the apprenticeship market in the US a sign that we are entering an 'Age of Apprenticeships'? Time will tell...

?? Work Experience: Beyond the placement - Up next, an excellent article in Wonkhe from Mark Peace (of The Manchester Metropolitan University and Institute for Experiential and Skills Based Learning fame), regarding the options for students when it comes to work-related learning, beyond the typical 'industry placement year' that is so often the focus in relation to work experience opportunities in the Higher Education sector. In the article, Mark surfaces the issues inherent with presenting an industry placement as the 'gold standard' of work-related learning (simply put, supply doesn't match demand) and highlights some excellent suggestions as to how universities can make experiential and work-related learning a much more fundamental aspect of the curriculum, including leveraging virtual WEX opportunities and reducing the boundaries between students, the University and employers when it comes to in-curriculum content.

?? BBC Case Study: A future focused career strategy - #WeAreCareers viewers may remember our previous episode on why career development matters for social mobility, which featured Lorna Macdonald and Rosemary McLean speaking about some of the different careers-related initiatives being implemented by the BBC to support the career development of their staff - if you enjoyed the episode, then you may want to check out this recent piece from The Career Innovation Company , in which Rosemary expands on how their organisation has been supporting the BBC to invest in careers support for its employees, including creating a new brand (myCareer) to help make career development more high-profile/visible, and the development of a CPD programme for coaches and mentors operating within the BBC. A cracking example of how career development work can have a significant impact on organisations, as well as individuals!

?? How to be Remarkable - Next up, a neat set of resources from Canva (in partnership with US author Guy Kawasaki), entitled How to Be Remarkable with Guy Kawasaki , which are designed to help individuals reflect on their career development from the perspective of 'making a difference to the world' - in practice, what this looks like is a suite of nine Canva lessons/slide decks, encompassing topics such as 'understand how to make meaningful impact' and 'transform ideas into reality'. The resources are nicely designed and link directly to a range of associated Canva templates, for those of us who use the platform (such as CV templates, for example), and although the content has a distinctly 'thought leadership' feel to it (and is essentially one big advert for Canva), there are some real gems to discover, including slide deck savant Nancy Duarte providing top tips on how to master the art of creating effective presentations.

?? Why do people join the Career Development profession? - We finish this week's newsletter with news of a valuable research project that is currently being undertaken by staff at 英国诺森比亚大学 , with funding from Jisc - the research, entitled Why do people join the Career Development profession? , is exploring the experience of new entrants into the career development profession, in order to examine the '...initial perceptions, experiences and decision-making processes that led you to your current role'. The research team are looking either for trainee careers professionals who are about to enter the profession or new entrants to the profession who started working in the sector anytime in the past five years - the survey takes around 10 minutes to complete and the insights and feedback from the project will be used to make recommendations regarding marketing and recruitment within the sector, which I'm sure we can all agree is something well worthy of our support! If you meet the criteria above and have 10 mins to share your thoughts, please take a look this weekend...

I'm always keen to hear what people think of this weekly newsletter format (e.g. Is it helpful? Does it add value to what is already out there on LinkedIn? What might make it better/more digestible?) so please do drop me a DM if you have any thoughts!

#TheWeekInCareers will be taking a short hiatus next week in light of the upcoming Easter weekend in the UK but never fear, as we'll be back in business the week after with all of the usual news and views from across the careers landscape!

See you back in the #Careersphere on Friday 5th April for?Episode 73! ??