Career development and coaching: Straddling two worlds and bringing them together

Abstract

This article distinguishes between the areas of professional practice of ‘coaching’ and ‘career guidance’, reviewing recent change and noting the emergence of ‘career coaching’ as a crossover activity. We argue for further integration of coaching and careers work under this label and note some of the benefits for coaches who are working on career development issues to share a theoretical understanding of career development. We flag some attendant risks of not integrating further and note that a learning focus is a potential shared understanding that could be used as a basis for this ongoing integration.