Graduate Careers Australia
The Graduate Grapevine – Number 4, June 2006
AACC Conference – 18-21 April 2006
Over 550 delegates gathered at the Star City Casino in Sydney in April for the 15th Australian Association of Careers Councellors (AACC) conference. Local and international career practitioners and presenters from the education, private and government sectors joined to share information and ideas over four days.
The conference attracted a range of high profile speakers including a number of international presenters. These included:
- Prof Tony Watts OBE from the UK, discussing the OECD country review for which he was responsible and recent developments in Australia
- Prof Mark Watson from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, looking at the cultural roles inherent in career counselling and the possible reconstruction of career counsellor identity
- Dr. Wendy Hirsh, Institute for Employment Studies and NICEC, UK, discussing why employers should embrace career development for workers and how it can best be incorporated into HR strategies and practices.
Other international keynote presenters included Prof Deborah Bloch from the University of San Francisco and Prof Mark Savickas from the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy, USA.
Among the line up of renowned local keynote speakers was Dr Barbara Pocock, a Research Fellow in Labour Studies at the University of South Australia. Barbara has been researching work, employment and industrial relations for over 20 years and spoke on ‘Young People – the future of work and life in Australia’. She argued that Australian workers are currently living in a work/life collision. This is made up of:
Changes at Work:
- an increasing appetite for work (60 per cent of people would still work if rich)
- shift to the services sector
- increasing hours for full-timers, travelling time is increasing as is work intensity
- common family time being squeezed or lost
- most new jobs created have been part-time but two out of three of these jobs are casual
- inequality through work. In 1989-90, Australian executives earned 18 times that of average workers, by 2005 this had increased to 63 times.
Changes in Households:
- contraction in those at home caring
- reduction in traditional male breadwinner/female carer families
- falling birth rate – 25 per cent of young Australians now unlikely to have children
- less than three per cent of families have men as househusband and women still do two times more housework then men.
The Collision:
- declining quality of life
- loss of community (moved from street to workplace)
- rising levels of guilt
- erosion of relationships and intimacy
- pressure on carers at home and on grandparents
- the ‘marketisation’ of love and care – parents are turning more to the market for more elements of their life, eg. kids parties, Christmas lunch.
What do Young People Think?
- Kids prefer more time with parents than being given more money.
- One parent at home doesn’t make up for the one who’s absent a lot.
- When they start work, they want to have fun.
- They expect to have kids and share parenting – boys will fit that around work where girls will make the work fit.
- Four out of 10 boys think wife will do the housework, but only two out of 10 girls think this will be the case.
- Young women are expecting to make their own way independently.
More detail can be found at www.barbarapocock.com.au.
Other highlights of the conference included the:
- launch of the Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners by the Hon Julie Bishop, Minister for Eduction, Science and Training (she also provided insights into current and new government-funded activity in the career sector). Developed by the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA), the Standards describe agreed terminology, membership of the career development profession, a code of ethics, entry-level qualifications, continuing professional development and competency guidelines. From 1 January 2012, the Standards will be regarded as the minimum required by Australian career development practitioners
- ‘masked ball’ conference dinner, where delegates donned an impressive array of face and head gear, including feathers and sparkles aplenty. A focus of the proceedings was the acknowledgement of Col McCowan, Head of Careers Service at QUT, who was recently awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to tertiary education. The Hon Brendan Nelson was also a guest at the dinner and Judith Leeson provided a warm welcome to the former DEST minister, recognising the time and energy he had devoted to the careers area while overseeing that portfolio.
GCA staffed a trade stand for the duration of the conference and this was well attended with delegates able to browse a wide range of products and services on display at 30 stands.
Workshops and keynotes can be accessed at the AACC website at www.aacc06.com/media/aacc06_proceedings.pdf.
Congratulations to the organisers for an informative and enjoyable conference. The 16th AACC National Conference will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, Perth – 11-13 April 2007.
[An article on the results from the Symposium on Career Development and Public Policy that was held directly after the conference follows.]
Shaping the Future: Connecting Career Development and Workforce Development
Third International Symposium on Career Development and Public Policy Dates and Place
Delegates representing 22 countries and six international organisations met in Sydney on 21-24 April 2006 to discuss the interface between career development and workforce development as part of a growing global recognition of the value of career development for all citizens.
The Symposium’s conclusions and an action plan follow.
Key Principles
The Symposium reaffirmed the international definition of career development as covering services intended to assist people, of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make education, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers. Delegates agreed that:
- career development is a significant contributor to the development of human capital, as an important engine for economic growth and social cohesion
- career development services can play an important role in helping governments to improve labour supply, address skill shortages, raise the level of human capital and improve the quality of human capital
- career development is critical to workforce development, in the areas of workforce preparation, workforce adaptability and sustainability and workforce integration
- if career development is to effectively support workforce development, high-quality career development services need to be available to all citizens throughout their active lives
- a major deficiency in many developed countries is adequate career development support for existing workers
- particular attention needs to be paid to the role of career development services in achieving government policy objectives relating to demographic challenges such as migration and ageing workforces
- career development needs to be linked closely to improved methods for recognising skills and competencies
- the design of career development programs, and the training of career development practitioners, needs to be based on a close understanding of the economic and cultural diversity across countries and across communities
- it is important to recognise that career development in developing countries could be different to the experience of developed nations, and there is a role for public policy in encouraging and supporting research on work, livelihood and career preferences, leading to career development service delivery relevant to the developing world.
Action Plan
Each country team agreed on a national action plan to implement these principles. The importance of continued opportunities for countries to learn from each other was affirmed.
More specifically, the Symposium agreed to:
- encourage the establishment or further development of national centres and other appropriate mechanisms for career leadership in public policy
- support the role of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy (ICCDPP) in providing an international communication network for such national centres and in strengthening the relationship between career development and public policy
- urge the ICCDPP to pay particular attention to:
- fostering ways of developing a stronger evidence base on career development services, including data on their impact
- sharing international experience on the efficacy and relevance of different structures for strategic leadership within countries
- stimulating comparative study across countries of training programs for career development practitioners
- exploring the implications of cultural diversity for career development and public policy
- supporting the development of national leaders at the interface between career development and public policy
- use the next Symposium, to be held in October 2007, to benchmark progress on this action plan
- support the creation of a Developing Countries Network for Career Guidance and Counselling linked to the ICCDPP; working together, they would develop a deeper understanding of the developing world’s career development needs.
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