Jenny Bimrose

University of Warwick · Warwick Institute for Employment Research

This article reports the findings from a phenomenographic study of career experts’ conceptions of systems development in lifelong guidance settings. The results show that conceptions of systems development in lifelong guidance varied from minimal, aspirational, strategic to systemic. By exploring the logical relationship between qualitatively diffe...

Combining quantitative career assessment with narrative career counselling is a career counselling challenge. The integrative structured interview (ISI) facilitates this integration through the narration of career stories based on quantitative scores, such as those of the self-directed search. The aims of this single case research were to: (a) exam...

The handbook seeks to provide a state-of-the-art reference point for the field of career development. It engages in a transdisciplinary and international dialogue that explores current ideas and debates from a variety of viewpoints including socio-economic, political, educational, and social justice perspectives. Career development is broadly defin...

Careers education and guidance (CEG) can play a key role, not only in supporting young people in their career progression directly while in education and training, but also in engaging parents (including carers and guardians) through various means so that they can better support the career development of their children. The aim of this research is...

Much has been written about the impacts of labor market volatility on societies, organizations, and individuals. One example relates to career transitions. Multiple career transitions into, and through, labor markets are now experienced by citizens throughout the world, across lifetimes, with the shape of these career transitions transformed from t...

The professional identity of career counselling and employment practitioners is somewhat fragile. Balancing tensions like meeting targets that exist around funding, whilst attending to the individual needs of the clients they serve, can prove challenging. Maintaining professionalism is increasingly also challenging for practitioners because they ne...

Much has been written about the impacts of labor market volatility on societies, organizations and individuals. One example relates to career transitions. Multiple career transitions into, and through, labor markets are now experienced by citizens all over the world, across lifetimes, with the shape of these career transitions transformed from the...

Career construction theory (CCT) provides a compelling framework for making sense of the turbulent landscapes in which career transitions take place and a practical tool to facilitate individual adaptation to change. However, the career development and support needs of career counselors in the integration of this theory into their own career develo...

Over the last few years, we have witnessed the largest displacement of refugees in modern history. Among the many challenges faced by refugees, finding employment and navigating the employment relationship are crucial for successful integration into mainstream society. In this editorial, we outline the background of our special issue on the vocatio...

The drivers of learning for mid-career workers with few initial qualifications from the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy and Poland are examined. The focus in this article is upon the learning pathways and experience of the low-qualified drawn from empirical research which gathered and analysed the strategic career and learn...

Brown and Bimrose map changing ideas about the development of identities at work and then outline two models of learning for supporting identity development at work. The most recent model by Brown and Bimrose draws attention to three representations of key factors influencing learning and identity development at work. The first representation views...

Adopting the overall framework provided for an international inquiry into career counseling interventions, this article reports on a qualitative study into the efficacy of a relatively new approach to practice in England. Using career construction interviews as the counseling intervention, research involving two adult participants was undertaken. I...

The research investigation into the career trajectories of low-skilled, mid-career individuals in Europe, on which this symposium focused, has emphasised the importance of career support. Participants sometimes had not even completed their initial school qualifications. Often, though not always, they had significant skill deficits. The majority of...

The precise pattern of how individual career pathways develop are clearly influenced by individual decisions, attitudes and behaviour but they also take place within particular contexts. Careers and identities evolve through the classic dynamic interaction of structure and agency. The focus of this chapter is upon the influence of opportunity struc...

This chapter describes historical perspectives, the current status, and future directions of the counseling profession in England. It also provides information regarding counselor education, counseling practice, and diversity issues in England. Because of the way counseling has developed in England, the particular focus is career counseling, though...

The use of closed private on-line learning programmes (using a MOOC learning platform) to support the continuing professional development and identity transformation of staff in public employment agencies, using user engagement as the key driver.

Increasing instability, particularly in European countries grappling with major socioeconomic consequences of the recent economic crisis, characterises modern labour markets. The paradigm of lifelong employment with a single employer is no longer credible and increasingly individuals face significant challenges in managing their career transitions...

Career decisions are amongst the most important we make. Unsurprisingly, much published research exists on this particular aspect of career behaviour. However, the overwhelming majority of studies have been carried out on young people making initial career decisions. This paper extends our understanding by examining how mid-career adults in three E...

Much progress has been made in integrating information and communications technology (ICT) into careers practice, but there is still room for improvement. An international lens is adopted to examine some key elements that contribute to the successful integration of ICT into careers practice. We start by exploring the role of policy, using the UK as...

Identities are the various meanings attached to an individual by the self and others and are displayed in attitudes, behavior, and the stories we tell about ourselves to ourselves and others. The meanings and stories may be based on social identities, associated with work, family, leisure roles, and so forth, or personal identities, based on person...

Risk and uncertainty have been identified as prominent characteristics of contemporary society (Paton, 2007). People can no longer depend on continuity and stability – rather they have, increasingly, to accommodate uncertainty and change. This is particularly true in times of economic turbulence (Gati & Tal, 2008). In adjusting to this changing con...

The Government’s Industrial Strategy (2012) stresses the importance of stimulating business growth and the need to foster a culture of enterprise and entrepreneurship. A strong education and training system is crucial for developing this culture, as well as fundamental to opening up routes for all individuals to succeed in the labour market, thereb...

Public Employment Services (PES) in Europe are authorities that attempt to match supply and demand on the labor market. Rising unemployment in times of crisis and demographic change are among the main challenges with which PES practitioners, as a direct interface between jobseekers and employers, have to deal. They have to support career adaptabili...

The study, upon which this special issue focuses, used narrative interviews to investigate how learning can support workers' transitions in the labour market in five European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain). The five countries were chosen to represent very different contexts in the way learning can support career and labour ma...

Reflective learning is a mechanism to turn experience into learning. As a mechanism for self-directed learning, it is critical for success at work. This is true for individual employees, but also for teams and whole organizations. Change processes are typical situations in which people question their practices, reflect on how they adopt new practic...

This study shows that learning can support labour market transitions of adult workers by increasing their adaptability to a changing environment. The study offers a colourful mosaic of life and career patterns, and intends to increase awareness of the importance of the various policies – guidance, counselling, and participation in education and tra...

Individual biographies of 100+ workers, aged 25-40, as they moved in and through the labour market; Probes how learning can support workers’ transitions on the labour market; Generating a deeper understanding of the multiple dimensions underlying individual career transitions and learning

Public Employment Services (PES) in Europe are authorities that match supply and demand on the labor market. Rising unemployment in times of crisis and demographic change are amongst others main challenges that PES practitioners, as direct interface between jobseekers and employers, have to deal with. They have to support career adaptability of the...

Institutionalised discrimination continues to perpetuate deep rooted social divisions, with gender inequality persisting as a pervasive feature of labour markets across the world. Despite the depth and breadth of gender inequality, there is limited acknowledgement in career theory that the career support needs of women are distinctive. A qualitativ...

Many individuals experience a number of career transitions. This is a result of the interplay of labor market structure and individual choice such that many individuals are increasingly changing jobs more often during their working lives. Knowledge and understanding of these transitions provide powerful insights into the ways in which learning and...

Despite some progress being made towards gender equality, a pervasive feature of labor markets across the world is that women continue to suffer disadvantage in multiple areas of their lives. In particular, women’s career pathways are constrained by systemic disadvantage, yet there is limited acknowledgement in traditional career theory that the ca...

This chapter explores how individuals who participated in career guidance processes as adults navigated their subsequent career pathways over the subsequent four years. The labour market transitions of these adults were investigated through annual interviews over five years and the transitioning ‘styles’ (strategic, evaluative, aspirational and opp...

The level of similarity of knowledge work across occupations and industries allows for the design of supportive information and communication technology (ICT) that can be widely used. In a previous ethnographically-informed study, we identified activities to be supported to increase knowledge maturing, conceptualized as goal-oriented learning on a...

Emily was in her mid-fifties, married with two adult children. After completing school, Emily accepted a cadetship to work while studying in a technical field. Emily found the work quite interesting, but she dropped out of the formal study component because she felt she had no aptitude for it.

Global economic recession is exerting extreme pressures not only on individuals attempting to move into and through labor markets, but also on those providing support for such transitions. Resilience and career adaptability are increasingly relevant, yet despite being present in the literature for some time, these concepts have been under-represent...

Career adaptability is mediated by personality factors and socio-psychological processes, with learning playing an important role. Using a five-fold career adapt-abilities competency framework (defined here as control, curiosity, commitment, confidence and concern), which was developed from the international quantitative study that is the focus of...

This article reports on an international qualitative study investigating career pathways through the stories of transition and adaptability of older women. Informed by grounded theory, the study explored how this group of women coped with and adapted to changes and transitions related to career. Data were gathered by means of interviews with 36 old...

The practice of career development focuses both on promoting the career progression of people across their life span and on assisting personal choices for meaningful pursuits and occupations. It is about helping individuals achieve their potential and it espouses a strong social justice element. Gender therefore poses something of a challenge. Desp...

This research presentation examines the potential of career adaptability for enabling individuals to become self-sufficient by supporting themselves and by increasing the quality of careers support services. An explicitly qualitative evaluation was undertaken of the career biographies of 64 adults across two different country contexts-the UK and No...

This study examines the potential of the concept of career adaptability for increasing the quality of careers support services and enabling individuals to become self-sufficient by supporting themselves. Career adaptability could also fit with the goal of enhancing high performance working. The inter-relationship between career adaptability and emp...

The complex interfaces created by migration not only challenge core beliefs about the purpose of career guidance and counseling but also about the precise nature and level of the support required for migrants. However, the issue has had little academic attention. While traditional theories informing the practice of career guidance and counseling im...

This paper draws on evidence from a pan-European study of the different patterns of guidance, learning and careers of almost 300 older workers aged over 45 as their careers and identities developed over time. The strategic biographies of these workers were traced, as they responded to the challenges of continuing to develop their work-related learn...

Knowledge work is performed in all occupations and across all industries. The level of similarity of knowledge work allows for designing supporting tools that can be widely used. In this paper an activity-based perspective towards knowledge work is taken. Based on findings from a previous ethnographically-informed study, we identified valuable acti...

This chapter examines how older workers, aged over 45, have moved through different work and learning contexts as their careers and identities have developed over time. The strategic biographies of five older workers are traced, as they responded to the challenges of continuing to develop their work-related learning, careers and identities. These f...

This paper reports findings from a major comparative study of changing patterns of workrelated learning and career development in Europe. The research examined continuing vocational training (CVT) from the perspective of how individual careers are developing across Europe. The research sought to develop a sense of how individuals are putting learni...

This paper reports findings from a major comparative study of changing patterns of workrelated learning and career development in Europe. The study comprised a survey and literature review. The survey involved over a thousand respondents drawn from 10 countries: they were mainly in full-time permanent employment in their mid-career (aged 30 to 55),...

This paper reports findings from a major comparative study of changing patterns of workrelated learning and career development in Europe. The study comprised a survey and literature review. The survey involved over a thousand respondents drawn from 10 countries – they were mainly in full-time permanent employment in their mid-career (aged 30 to 55)...

This paper considers womens career development and the potential contribution of career development theory, research, practice and policy in advancing a social inclusion agenda. In particular, the paper focuses on older women in the contexts of an ageing population, labour market shortages and Australias social inclusion agenda. Supporting young pe...

The evolutionary process in which knowledge objects are transformed from informal and highly contextualized artefacts into explicitly linked and formalized learning objects, together with the corresponding organisational learning processes, have been termed Knowledge Maturing. Whereas wikis and other tools for collaborative building of knowledge ha...

One area of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) that has been increasing in importance has been work-related learning that is grounded in practice at the workplace. Within that area, two significant strands can be identified: collaborative learning and technology-enhanced learning. This chapter will provide examples of substantiv...

The concept of knowledge worker has been around for fifty years and many information and communication technologies have been implemented in order to support this type of work. Workplaces have changed substantially, but information is scarce about how actual knowledge workers handle knowledge in their workplaces. This paper presents the results of...

This paper reports on research currently underway which is investigating employees' responses and strategies as they are required to cope with flexible employment patterns, changing skills requirements and instabilities in labour markets across Europe. Particular foci are the relationships between job profiles, career development and occupational m...

This article discusses the career biographies of four individuals in transition. They were responding to the challenges of engaging in work-related learning, re-shaping their careers and their career identities. The four cases were selected from a larger sample of fifty participants in a five-year longitudinal, qualitative case study, which has eva...

Careers guidance increases the likelihood that adults will engage in learning, gain qualifications (or improve existing ones) and progress into work or within work. An analysis of adult career progression from a longitudinal, qualitative case study in England, highlights how individuals have distinctly different approaches to engaging in profession...

This paper uses interviews with over 100 individuals, mainly working in health care, engineering, IT or telecommunications, in order to construct their ‘strategic biographies’ in relation to their careers and identities. We present cases that exemplify different patterns of strategic action in the development of work-related learning, careers and i...

This paper provides an overview of the work of the Connexions Kent Guidance P.A.s and considers their needs in terms of knowledge maturing and development. It goes on to examine why a PLE could assist in this process and outlines the different functions of a PLE. Then a scenario is outlined illustrating the possible use of the PLE. Finally, a Mashu...

Gender is constructed and defined by societies. It refers to membership of a particular category, masculine or feminine, which aligns more or less to the two sexes and highlights the ways in which being male and being female are valued differently and not equally (Bimrose, 2006a). Whilst distinct sets of attributes are associated with the two sexes...

This paper proposes an initial design study to examine and test some of the key concepts and issues within a large-scale European research project that is exploring and aiming to realise learning as a process of knowledge maturing in the workplace. It will outline some of these concepts, based on a contemporary (or Web 2.0 driven) articulation of h...

The process of introducing a reflective e-portfolio to a UK call centre subcontracted by a major e-learning provider to deliver telephone career guidance provides the focus for this paper. The aim of the e-portfolio was to support the continuing professional development of career coaches providing a service to a wide diversity of callers with a ran...

This development work looks at the role of reflective portfolios and formative assessment in helping establish a 'community of innovation'. Such a community can then play a key role in supporting both continuing professional development and organisational change, whereby guidance practitioners are able to reflect upon their learning and career iden...

This paper will draw upon narrative interviews with over 100 individuals, either working in health care, engineering, IT or telecommunications; having completed mid-career professional development; in permanent relationships involving long-distance commuting; or having accessed adult guidance services. From these data sources it was possible to con...

Distinctive styles of client decision-making have emerged from case study research into the effectiveness of career guidance. This paper explores some findings from the third year of a longitudinal study currently underway in England, which relate to the ways clients approach transitionpoints in their careers and make the decisions that move them o...

This paper will draw upon narrative interviews with over 100 individuals, either working in health care, engineering, IT or telecommunications; having completed mid-career professional development; in permanent relationships involving long-distance commuting; or having accessed adult guidance services. From these data sources it was possible to con...

This paper will provide two UK examples on the importance of technology enhanced learning (TEL) researchers strengthening links with practitioners. The first example looks at how UK research policy is considering how research can utilise the innovation potential of ICT in order to enhance learning. The second example draws upon a particular case wh...

This paper discusses how an education-industry partnership is developing an on-line module to promote workplace learning for guidance practitioners on how to use Labour Market Information effectively with their clients. The module comprises units that make use of a resource database and is enriched by use of social book-marking. It also links to ex...

This paper highlights how workers, aged over 40, in England have been responding to the challenges of continuing to develop their work-related learning, careers and identities.

This paper highlights how workers, aged over 40, in England have been responding to the challenges of continuing to develop their work-related learning, careers and identities. After using the strategic biographies of 19 older workers as illustrative of different types of response to these challenges we will draw out some broader policy implication...

International, European and UK policy documents have recently drawn attention to the strategic importance of career guidance for lifelong learning and the labour market. However, there are gaps in the evidence relating to its positive impacts. A five-year research study is currently underway in England, which is examining the exact nature of effect...

To share ideas about knowledge sharing drawn from the experiences of users on the NGRF website.

A team of researchers and professionals from the UK, Denmark, Finalnd, Greece and Slovenia are piloting the development of a network for guidance and counselling, supported by ICT, to strengthen the evidence base for practice (and therefore its impact) in the area of equal opportunities. The formation and operation of the network (comprising practi...

An interdisciplinary team of researchers, practitioners and professional associations in the UK have worked together to create a comprehensive website for those interested in career guidance research. This has been funded by the Department for Education and Skills in England. Target groups include: practitioners, policy makers, researchers, guidanc...

An important feature of the website is that it provides the opportunity to raise issues, engage in development work and contribute to on-line discussions. This type of collaboration is necessary for active knowledge creation. In this way, it is hoped that we can progress our understanding of guidance issues - as existing available knowledge is comb...

This article outlines the development of a shared web-based knowledge base that seeks to bridge the gap between guidance research and practice. This knowledge base was developed from the contextualised problems that policy makers, managers, practitioners, researchers and trainers face. Six expert groups looked at key areas or problems related to th...

This article outlines the development of a shared web-based knowledge base that seeks to bridge the gap between guidance research and practice. This knowledge base was developed from the contextualised problems that policy makers, managers, practitioners, researchers and trainers face. Six expert groups looked at key areas or problems related to th...

A team of researchers and professional associations in the UK are working together to create a comprehensive website for all those interested in career guidance and counselling research. This will both facilitate and support the development of a community of interest and has the potential to enhance practice. Its overall purpose is 'to bring togeth...

This article outlines the development of a website in the UK that seeks to bring guidance research and practice closer together. The shared knowledge base underpinning the website was created from the contextualised problems faced by potential user groups (policy makers, managers, practitioners, students, trainees, researchers and trainers). Six ex...

This article examines the 'fit’ between policy development regarding gender inequality in employment at sub-regional and national (UK) level, in particular focusing on the experience of women. Drawing on research undertaken in Coventry and Warwickshire, the article explores the question of how policy development at sub-regional leve...

This paper outlines the development of a website in the UK that seeks to bring guidance research and practice closer together. The shared knowledge base underpinning the website was developed from the contextualised problems that policy makers, managers, practitioners, researchers and trainers faced. Six expert groups looked at key issues related t...

An interdisciplinary team of researchers and professional associations in the UK are working together to create a comprehensive website for all those interested in career guidance and counselling research. A key feature of the website development has been the construction of a shared knowledge base, by working with contextualised professional probl...

A shared knowledge base has been constructed, not from an a priori comprehensive blueprint, but by being grown more organically from the contextualised problems that policy makers and practitioners face.

The National Guidance Research Forum Website is designed to facilitate knowledge sharing and transformation for those interested in guidance research and practice, including: practitioners, policy makers, researchers, guidance trainees, tutors and trainers.

A team of researchers and professional associations in the UK are working together to create a comprehensive website for all those interested in career guidance and counselling research. This will both facilitate and support the development of a community of interest that has the potential to make continuing professional development, and subsequent...

Sexual harassment in the workplace poses something of an ethical dilemma for career guidance practice. This is because it is now known that about half of all working women in the UK are likely to be victims at some stage of their employment and that the effects on individuals are invariably negative and can be positively harmful. What, therefore, i...

An important feature of this development, however, is that it is the combination of opportunities to meet and talk through issues, engage in development work and link to continuing on-line discussions that will facilitate the collaboration necessary for active knowledge creation. The created knowledge can thus be regarded as a social product. It re...

The starting point of this paper is that the authors have been involved in research and development of networked collaborative learning for seven years. During this time, it has been very much easier to get funding for program development that approaches this issue from a technicist paradigm rather than one that tries to emphasise the social dimens...

This article reviews the position of women in the UK labour market and the increasing complexity of their employment patterns. It criticises current career theory for girls and women and examines enhancers and inhibitors of women's career development. Finally, some promising developments in theory-building for girls and women are briefly discussed,...

This paper outlines how information and communication technologies are being used for knowledge development of a dispersed community of practice of careers guidance practitioners. The project seeking to achieve this is in the process of developing prototype web-based collaboration and knowledge sharing tools. These will be used in order to provide...

This paper outlines progress towards the development of a learning community to enhance careers guidance practice, through the process of developing web-based collaboration and knowledge sharing tools. These will be used in order to provide a comprehensive telematic platform for interactive and focused knowledge sharing and transformation for Caree...

This paper outlines progress towards the development of a learning community to enhance careers guidance practice. The project seeking to achieve this is in the process of developing prototype web-based collaboration and knowledge sharing tools. These will be used in order to provide a comprehensive telematic platform for interactive and focused kn...

This paper outlines progress towards the development of a learning community to enhance careers guidance practice, through the process of developing web-based collaboration and knowledge sharing tools.