NICE Network
Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe

"Building Career Management Skills"

Call for Papers (Edited Book and Academy Presentations)

Dear Practitioners, Teachers, and Researchers of Career Guidance and Counselling,

In combination with the NICE Academy in Paris on “Developing Career Management Skills” (April 20-23, 2021), the NICE Foundation wants to prepare an edited book with research articles and reflections on practice concerning the topic. The book will be published as an online, open-access book, meaning that everyone can read it for free. We hereby invite proposals for contributions to the book and presentations to be made at the academy.

A special feature of the planned book is that we are not only seeking scientific articles, but that we would also like to include personal reflections and case studies from career professionals. We encourage you to contribute, even if you have little experience in writing papers: At the Paris Academy, we will also offer a writing workshop to support book contributors.

If you are interested in contributing to the academy and/or the book, please submit an abstract of 100-200 words (excluding references) to paris2021@nice-network.eu by September 30, 2020.

Your abstract should include (1) a preliminary title and (2) relate to the theme of the academy (see below). Please indicate (3) whether you are proposing a “research article” or a “reflection on practice” (see below). Please also indicate, (4) whether you would like to make a presentation at the academy and contribute to the book, or if you only want to contribute to the book or make a presentation at the academy.

We look forward to your proposals together with our large committee of reviewers, including both practitioners and researchers.

Yours sincerely,

Anne Chant, Johannes Katsarov, Jacques Pouyaud, and Laurent Sovet (Editors)


We seek two types of contributions:

  • Research Articles of 4.500 – 8.000 words (10-20 pages) that present theories, concepts, and/or empirical findings on developing, assessing, and train career management skills in detail.

  • Reflections on Practice of 1.000 – 3.000 words (2-6 pages) that describe individual approaches to develop, assess, and train career management skills, reflect on practical experiences, and/or critique theory based on practical experiences.

We hope to gain an equal number of both types of contributions and to engage both academics and practitioners as authors.

Since we value quality, excellence, and a practical orientation (utility), all articles will undergo peer review. You will receive anonymous feedback on your proposal from at least 2 colleagues. All reviews will be conducted in a double-blind fashion, i.e., you will not know whose contributions you are reviewing, and the authors will not know from whom they are receiving feedback. Our board of reviewers includes both practitioners and academics, and is also balanced in terms of gender, and includes colleagues from many European countries.

 

Updated Timeline

  • September 30, 2020: Final date for abstract submission
  • November 2020: Feedback from reviewers
  • April 1, 2021: Submission of manuscript
  • July 15, 2021: Feedback from reviewers
  • August, 15 2021: Submission of final manuscript
  • October: Feedback from proofreading
  • November 2021: Publication and academy presentations

 

Theme

Following Sultana (2012), career management skills can be defined as “a whole range of competences which provide structured ways for individuals and groups to gather, analyse, synthesise and organise self, educational and occupational information, as well as the skills to make and implement decisions and transitions” (p. 229). They have become a key focus for implementing career educational programs and career competence-based curricula across EU countries. NICE (2016) attributes the professional role of Career Education to this important task and defines relevant competence standards for career practitioners.

When its educational component is forgotten or ignored, career guidance and counselling cannot unleash its full potential. By incorporating the promotion of career management skills in our practice, we can empower people to master their career-related challenges autonomously; we can support them in attaining more control over their career development; in becoming more independent.

And we need to do so. While globalization and innovation bring many benefits, they also challenge people to engage in lifelong learning. Organizations, too, are under continuous pressure to adapt, with many of them become less hierarchic, smaller, and more flexible. In this kind of an environment, citizens’ ability to manage their own career development becomes crucial. We need to prepare people to deal with career-related challenges across their lifetime, not only at the beginning of their careers. For this purpose, we need to support citizens’ learning and development of career management skills. However, many questions arise with this realization:

  • What are the career management skills that actually support clients in mastering their career development? How do we know that they work?
  • Does everybody need the same set of career management skills? Or are there meaningful differences between national contexts, labour markets...?
  • How can career professionals effectively support clients in developing their career management skills? What approaches work? Why? And what if time is extremely limited?
  • How and why should we assess career management skills? What techniques and tools are there?
  • How can career professionals work together with educational bodies to promote career management skills? How could the role of career professionals evolve in the future?
  • Are there any risks attached to the promotion of career management skills? Could we be misleading clients in the long run? Could the promotion of career management skills damage our profession?
  • How can career practitioners be trained to build citizens’ career management skills at schools, universities and through further education? What knowledge, skills and competences are needed? How can they be developed?

 

References

NICE (2016). European Competence Standards for the Academic Training of Career Practitioners. Opladen: Barbara Budrich.

Sultana, R. G. (2012). Learning career management skills in Europe: A critical review. Journal of Education and Work, 25(2), 225–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2010.547846