Fostering career exploration.

Abstract

Individuals across the life span, and particularly children and adolescents, are encouraged to explore the world of work to prepare for full-time employment (e.g., Vondracek & Porfeli, 2003). Career exploration usually occurs through participation in school, leisure, or part-time work activities. Subsequent to making an initial career choice, individuals may still reexamine their career commitments and explore alternatives again (Porfeli & Lee, 2012). Amid rapid workplace changes in the 21st century, people may engage in career exploration at different times of their lives (e.g., Greenhaus, Callanan, & Godshalk, 2010;Niles, Anderson, & Goodnough, 1998). Certain individuals or client groups, however, may lack the motivation and competence to engage in a process of career exploration even though it appears desirable to do so, resulting in the possibility of premature career decisions or prolonged indecision (e.g., Gati & Asher, 2001;Jones & Lohmann, 1998). In these situations, interventions can be designed to foster exploratory behavior to address client needs.Career exploration can be understood as a process of gaining understanding about oneself and the world of work, as well as of how self and environment may interact to produce desirable outcomes (Jordaan, 1963;Porfeli & Skorikov, 2010). The purpose of this chapter is to relate current theoretical developments about career exploration to actual interventions through systematic integration and illustration with a case example.

Perceived Employability of Nonlocal Chinese University Students in Hong Kong

“…In a model for facilitating career exploration, Cheung (2015) proposed that career exploration behaviors are susceptible to contextual influences and affects how one orients to future. Considering the cultural context and experiential outcomes of career exploration, we further examine the relations among acculturation, career exploration, and perceived employability.…”

Career Exploration as Social and Emotional Learning: A Collaborative Ethnography with Spanish Children from Low-Income Contexts

“…Children have identified the social factors that influence their career development (family, friends, and school) [7][8][9][10] through the career exploration process [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] which impacts their social and emotional learning [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. These results have been the product of a qualitative career assessment process [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] using a collaborative methodology in which the voices of the children were the focus [18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…From this standpoint, career exploration is viewed as a "process of gaining understanding about oneself and the labor world, as well as of how self and environment may interact to produce desirable outcomes" (Cheung, 2015, 157) [10]. The self-and-environment exploration can be seen as two aspects of a single process (Oliveira et al, 2016) [11] in which attitudes, cognitions, behaviors, and emotions interact (Oliveira et al, 2015;Taveira and Rodríguez-Moreno, 2003) [12,13].…”

Simulation of vocational activities: experimental evidence of (no) changes in vocational interests

“…One of the goals of career counseling is to provide help and assistance to young people in finding the most suitable vocation or field of study through supporting their vocational exploration (Flum and Blustein 2000;Hamilton and Krumboltz 1969). Vocational or career exploration includes many activities that can enhance knowledge about oneself and knowledge about the world of work (Cheung 2015). While many young people are motivated to gather such information (e.g., through learning about various careers from textbooks, leisure activities, work experience, talking with parents or via the media) and explore their own interests, life goals and values (Porfeli and Lee 2012), this does not apply to all (Cheung 2015).…”

“…Vocational or career exploration includes many activities that can enhance knowledge about oneself and knowledge about the world of work (Cheung 2015). While many young people are motivated to gather such information (e.g., through learning about various careers from textbooks, leisure activities, work experience, talking with parents or via the media) and explore their own interests, life goals and values (Porfeli and Lee 2012), this does not apply to all (Cheung 2015). Numerous interventions have been designed to foster vocational exploration or support career decision-making (e.g.…”