Vocational guidance requests within the international scene.

This article summarizes the work of a diverse group of researchers and practitioners from 5 continents on "Vocational Guidance Requests Within the International Scene" presented in the discussion group at a symposium of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, the Society for Vocational Psychology, and the National Career Development Association, in Padua, Italy. The role of societal and cultural forces in individuals' vocational decisions, the need to serve a larger percentage of the population with vocational guidance services, and suggestions to address these challenges in the field of vocational guidance were addressed.

Participants in a discussion group of the symposium conducted at a joint meeting of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, the Society for Vocational Psychology, and the National Career Development Association, in Padua, Italy, addressed the theme "Vocational Guidance Requests Within the International Scene." They explored issues related to the current challenges and needs of those working in this area as they strive to meet the needs of a changing clientele. The choice of Galileo, arguably the most famous son of Padua, Italy, as the symbol of the general conference was a particularly good fit for this discussion group at the symposium. Galileo's contributions to science required him to contravene established wisdom and to change the perspective with which his contemporaries viewed the world. The contributions of the presenters in this group, although not as radical as those of Galileo, similarly challenged attendees to change their paradigm of career development.

Whereas each presenter in this discussion group was invited to interpret the theme in his or her own way, there was remarkable agreement among the presentations. Participants all remarked about (a) the role that societal and cultural forces play in a person's vocational decisions, (b) the need to serve a much larger percentage of the population with vocational guidance services, and (c) suggestions to address these challenges in the field of vocational guidance. This article summarizes the discussions related to these themes and offers recommendations for future practice by this group of participants from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Vocational Guidance in Its Current State

Jane Goodman (2005, 2007) began the discussion with a description of several postmodern career counseling techniques. Starting with the premise that many counseling protocols that were effective in the 20th century need to be modified, she described relational approaches that include life planning, spirituality, and meaning making as essential components of the career counseling process. Looking first at barriers to career achievement, such as poverty and prejudice, she proceeded to describe pathways that included instilling hope and optimism and helping clients to develop self-efficacy beliefs. Finally, she described postmodern decision-making approaches, such as positive uncertainty; planned happenstance; and using narrative, integrative, and constructivist techniques to better understand clients' worlds and help them make appropriate decisions about work.

Marcus Gatti then provided an account for participants of the vocational guidance situation in Brazil. Basing his remarks on the paper prepared with Silva and Uvaldo (Gatti, Silva, & Uvalde, 2007), he described an ethnically diverse country where more than 80% of students do not even consider higher education as an option. He also pointed to a lack of fit between the traditional psychoanalytic approach to vocational guidance used by most practitioners and the needs of a population experiencing severe poverty. Gatti described the University of Sao Paulo's response to the need for a more sociological approach that more fully takes into account a person's culture. The university has created a program specifically for psychology alumni who arc dedicated to studying vocational psychology and the theoretical, cultural, and economic issues it generates. This program includes opportunities for alumni to work with a diverse range of students in both individual and group counseling settings. In addition, Gatti spoke about opportunities for alumni to develop career counseling projects for the schools, as well as to develop new approaches that better match the reality of their clients" situations.

Gatti et al. (2007) also pointed out the importance of making public policy that is accessible and usable for the public. Describing this work, he explained that when we, as professionals, are inside a structure, it is difficult to see how it can change. Often, we must put ourselves outside of the structure before we can expect to alter it. Gatti et al. pointed to the need for greater flexibility in our approaches and theories, along with an understanding that for each context a different approach may be needed. The University of Sao Paulo's program offers a challenge to all those who are afraid to change the current system, even when they see individuals suffering under it. Brazil's citizens will greatly benefit as their vocational counselors rise to this challenge.

David Kelly (2007) then described the situation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where only 20% of the labor force is Emirati (UAE nationals) and the remaining 80% of workers are either guest workers (60%) or Western expatriates (20%). He noted the UAE nationals' realization that they cannot rely on oil to stimulate their economy indefinitely and therefore must take steps to position themselves before it runs out. Kelly described a new women's university, Zayed University, where a unique vocational guidance program is being offered to approximately 1,000 young Emirati women. Most of the young women of this university come from families who were poor Bedouin only a generation ago but are now wealthy. Therefore, although it is often not essential that these women work, society greatly needs their professional contributions. Kelly explained that schools like Zayed University have been required to initiate broad-based vocational guidance programs to address the cultural conflict of society's needs versus family expectations.

These conflicting expectations are a challenge for both the women and society at large. Parents feel compelled to send their daughters to a university, yet upon graduation they often balk at their entering the workforce. In addition, whereas more than 70% of the young women express an interest in working, they are often in no rush to find a job because of their financial security. In Zayed University's initial conception of a vocational guidance program, jobs were simply provided to graduates upon graduation. However, because many of the young women had not internalized why they wanted to work, this system was not effective in retaining employees. Kelly (2007) described many changes that have been made to the program, including a lst-year career curriculum with the opportunity for students' self-assessment regarding their values, interests, personality, and goals. In addition, students research career resources, companies, associations, and industry information while also participating in employaability skills workshops on creating curricula vitae, interviewing, job searching, and developing communication skills. Finally, each woman creates a career mission statement before graduation, along with an analysis of her strengths and weaknesses and goals. Kelly noted that whereas Zayed University is trying to move their students toward more independence, society's conflicting needs and values often make this difficult.

Giorgio Sangiorgi (2007) encouraged group participants to think about what he called "wrinkles." Using the normal, or Gaussian, curve as a metaphor, he described normality as the background from which we, as vocational guidance practitioners, must help clients to emerge. Sangiorgi spoke passionately about the importance of focusing on the tails of the curve, or the individuality that each person brings to his or her career development process. In his presentation, Sangiorgi stated that in vocational guidance, we must help persons to "become differentiated" from the background and to "become something like a wrinkle on the fabric of the background." Therefore, in contrast to the forced conformity that the background represents, career counseling's goal should be to help individuals find their own differentiation and self-definition, that is, to become a wrinkle on the background rather than merging into it.

Sangiorgi (2007) also challenged the members of the discussion group to refrain from imposing the values and choices of the Western or developed world on the rest of the earth's population. In his presentation, Sangiorgi described the majority of people who are without choice or who only have "choices created by poverty, ignorance, lack of elementary resources, or diseases." He described the danger of intellectual colonization with solutions, visions, objectives, and methodologies that often are not appropriate for 80% of the world's population. For this reason, he urged us, as professionals, to acquire the skills, knowledge, and competencies to identify and intervene in each person's unique context.

Francesco Pace and Alessandro Lo Presti (2007) reminded participants that careers are losing their linearity and their physical and spatial dimensions--they are becoming "fuzzy," that is, lacking in predictability. They described how linear career models have lost their explanatory power and noted that although these models once suggested an ordered sequence of life roles, their descriptions no longer match the reality of clients1 current life situations.

Pace and Lo Presti (2007) described a new way of thinking about career development that is protean (able to change shape) and bound-aryless. Using this conceptualization, career exploration is viewed in a way that reflects freedom, self-direction, and the ability to make choices based on personal values. It also emphasizes the need to be honest with clients about change as a normal process that affects many facets of work. Pace and Lo Presti noted that a career planning and management model, as opposed to career development models, is better suited to meet the needs of clients because it takes into account the reality that all people will experience periods of employment, underemployment, unemployment, personal entrepreneurship, training, and so forth. This model does not view the career process as simply a once-in-a-lifetime solution but instead focuses on the need for adaptability.

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