Challenging times:
Professional resilience
for career guidance
practitioners working in
Ireland’s PES
Professor Jenny Bimrose
Institute for Employment
Research
University of Warwick
Practice
Context
Policy
Response
Overview
CONTEXT
• Transitional labour markets
• Policy: EU 2020 strategy
RESPONSE
• ‘Building bridges’
• ‘Conducting functions’
PRACTICE
• Flexibility, responsiveness & creativity
• Empowering staff with training & tools
Transitional Labour Markets (TLM)
In the context of Public Employment
Services?
Transitional Labour Markets (TLM)
 Interconnection & compatibility of:
 Life & citizenship activities
 Non-market useful social activities
 Traditional, full-time jobs
Social risk <-> Uncertainty
Reference: Gazier, B. & Gautie, J. (2011). The “Transitional Labour Markets” Approach:
Theory, History and Future Research Agenda. Journal of Economic & Social Policy. 14. 1.
Available online: http://epubs.scu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=jesp
Five key decisions (especially women)
Job
Mate
Occupation
Children
House
PES: changing environments
Moving beyond Globalisation………
Greying
Greening
Mismatch
ICT
Vulnerable
groups
Implications for PES?
Within the broader European policy
context?
Changing world of work
‘more people need to work longer & differently’
PES face a number of immediate tasks (related to
the execution of the European Employment
Guidelines):
 Lifting the employment rate
 Reducing the number of bottle neck vacancies
 Investing in a strong & sustainable active mediation
European PES: common future strategy
‘For European Public Employment Services business will
never be ‘business as usual’ anymore…..The social
function of PES is transforming. Today, they have to
transform into ‘work focused gateways to welfare
systems’….Confronted with various uncertainties and
opportunities, as well as with explicit responsibilities and
expectations, PES are in need of a clear and stable view
on the necessary developments they have to succeed in to
stay relevant and effective.’
Ref: EU (2013) Public Employment Services’ Contribution to EU 2020. PES
2020 Strategy Output Paper. Available at:
file:///C:/Users/Jenny/Downloads/PES%20strategy%20EU%202020_EN.pdf
Applying a career/life course approach:
……. new clients, new approaches?
Employers
Role of Labour Market Information?
Profound
understanding
of labour
demand
Demand
orientated
service
Qualitative
assistance for
employers
PES: addressing the 2020 agenda?
Building
bridges
Conducting
PES: building bridges
PES: building bridges
‘A more holistic approach to work…entails a shift
from functioning (only) as service providers
towards functioning (also) as service seekers,
that compose scenarios for the most qualitative,
effective & efficient constellation of services to
meet the needs of the citizens & companies
more flexibly & accurately…..cooperation of
public, private, commercial & non-commercial
agents is facilitated…’
PES: conducting functions
 A customer-orientated
view of the ways services to
employers could be
optimised by ‘conducting’
 Building bridges with
other actors or providing
the necessary service inhouse
 Shift from reactive to
proactive modus operandi
PES: building bridges key principles
 Value driven
 Levelism
 Customisation &
 Social innovation
differentiation
 Digitisation
 Inclusiveness
 Integration &
interoperability
 Evidence based
PES: conducting
 PES services give access to career guidance
services, especially for NEET YP
 Direct towards specific career guidance
services to facilitate LM transitions
 Employment counselling
 Career development counselling
 Rehabilitation counselling
 Career & LM information dissemination
PES: Youth Guarantee
Adopted by Council in April 2013:
Calls on Member States to ensure that all young
people under 25 receive a good quality offer of
employment, continued education, an
apprenticeship or a traineeship within four
months of leaving formal education or becoming
unemployed.
PES capacities: Youth Guarantee
‘PES overall capacities for the implementation of the
Youth Guarantee in Europe are reasonable, leaving
considerable room for improvement.’
‘PES show significant capacity to ensure transparency, to
offer multi-channelled services to all young jobseekers.’
‘Further investment is however required in preventative
services including youth at risk, in promotion of training
and cooperation with relevant labour market actors.’
Ref: EU (2013). HoPES Assessment Report on PES capacities to implement the Youth Guarantee. Available at:
file:///C:/Users/Jenny/Downloads/PES%20strategy%20EU%202020_EN.pdf
PES: managing the change process?
Empower PES’s own staff by offering adequate
training facilities & sufficient career
development tools.
Ref: Public Employment Services’ Contribution to EU 2020. PES 2020 Strategy
Output Paper. Available at:
file:///C:/Users/Jenny/Downloads/PES%20strategy%20EU%202020_EN.pdf
PES practitioners:
Multiple
demands
Professional
Identity
Transformation
EmployID




Funded by the EU (FP7)
Focus: support for PES practitioners
Four years: 2014 – 2018
User engagement – key component
Scalable and cost-effective facilitation of
professional identity transformation in
Public Employment Services
Objectives
www.employid.eu
• to deliver comprehensive,
sustainable, and costeffective support for the
facilitation of professional
identity transformation
• to use a holistic tool suite
that combines and links
eCoaching, reflection,
MOOCs, networking,
analytical and learning
support tools
Professional Identity Transformation
www.employid.eu
Consortium: 10 partners (with 2 PES)
www.employid.eu
Associate Partner Network
www.employid.eu
EMPLOYId: PES practitioners
All about creative solutions for supporting PES:
Using new & emerging theoretical career
concepts – making these accessible to
practitioners
HOW?
PES: 3-fold renewal?
Active
Securities
Anticipatory
Role
Shift in
approach
• Human capital
• Sustainable
employment
• Support ‘work
careers’ – give voice
• Enable change
• Facilitating, coaching
& ‘conducting’
• Exploit ICT
Career adapt-ability: what is it?
‘The capability of an individual to
make a series of successful transitions
where the labour market, organisation
of work and underlying occupational
and organisational knowledge bases
may be subject to considerable
change’
Ref: Bimrose, J., Barnes, S-A., Brown, A. and Hughes, D. (2011) 'The
role of career adaptability in skills supply', Wath-upon-Dearne:
UK Commission for Employment & Skills
Career adapt-abilities: inter-relatedness
EXPLORATION
CAREER
RESILIENCE
DECISIVENESS
CAREER
ADAPTABILITY
Career adapt-ability competencies (2012)
Concern
Control
Curiosity
Confidence
Career Adaptable Competencies (2009)
 CONTROL:
exerting a degree of influence on their
situations
 CURIOSITY:
broadening horizons by exploring social
opportunities & possibilities
 CONFIDENCE:
believing in yourself & ability to achieve
your goal
 CONCERN:
developing a positive optimistic attitude to
the future
Reference: Savickas et al. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st
Century. In Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 3, pp.239-250.
CAAI (UK): Sample statements
24 item inventory: 4 core constructs
Please rate how strongly you feel you have
developed each of the following abilities using the 5 point scale
below.
Strongest Very strong Strong Somewhat strong Not strong
 Taking responsibility for my actions
 Acting in line with my values and principles
 Relying on myself
 Observing different ways of doing things
Adaptability
dimension
Career
problem
Career
questions
Concern
Indifference
Do I have a future? Orientation
exercises
Control
Indecision
Who owns my
future?
Career
intervention
Self management
training
Thank you
Curiosity
Unrealism
Decisional
training
What do I want to Information
do with my
seeking
future?
Confidence
Inhibition
Can I do it?
Self-esteem
building
Career Adapt-ability : research base (UK)
International
• Life Design
Group
• 13 country
study (CAAS) –
Special issue of
JVB (2012)
UK –
qualitative
indicators
UK –
quantitative
CAAI
• Mid-career
workers (N=64)
• Older women
(N=36)
• Confirmatory
factor analysis
• 4 Universities
(N=753)
Key findings
For practice:
 identifies competencies/strategies needed to
survive in a volatile labour market
 belong to the individual, not the employer
 provides a clear indication of relevant
interventions relevant for practice
 raises awareness of self-defeating behaviours
Key findings
 Raises aspiration
 Encourages autonomy
 Relevant across the life-course
 Potential for greater integration of ICT
EmployId – online version of the CAAI UK
Challenging times: PES practitioners
PRESSURE
RESILIENCE
www.employid.eu
EmployID addresses many of the
requirements for the PES contribution to
EU 2020
For further details: https://employid.eu/ or
Contact: jenny.bimrose@warwick.ac.uk
Alan.brown@warwick.ac.uk
deirdre.hughes3@btinternet.com
THANK YOU