Careers guidance and career coaching – what’s the big idea?

Abstract

Careers work is due for a new start. It will mean more than a realignment or reform of what it has been doing. It calls for an ability to imagine what it would do if it were starting from scratch. Such boldness is necessary because neo-liberal reliance on private-sector marketisation has fatally marginalised public-sector careers work. And, just as importantly, the fit between career-development expertise and career-management experience is increasingly askew. A product of these political and cultural shifts is the global prevalence of a private-sector careercoaching industry. The argument here is that, although careers work’s public-sector past is irrecoverable, an independent careers-work future is within reach.