How green is your practice? A process for auditing and reimagining career guidance practice for a greener world

Abstract

This article outlines a method to aid career development professionals in addressing environmental issues through their practice. It is based on a workshop of the same title delivered at the NICEC conference on Career and Sustainability. The result is a facilitated process which supports practitioners to collectively reflect on current practice, acknowledge existing positions, discuss concerns and imagine new, ‘greener’ practice. The workshop takes practitioners through three stages: 1) Audit; 2) Challenges; and 3) Stimulus for change, making use of established typologies of practice and more recent explorations of social justice in career guidance. The audit stage employs Tony Watts’ typology of guidance ideologies to assess practitioners’ current positions and consider criteria for future provision. The five signposts of emancipatory career guidance is proposed as an impetus for the creation of new practice. The workshop is presented here as a tool for others to use and consider.