to frame the relation between student career development ...

 to frame the relation between student career development and the role of the university

 to frame the relation between career guidance and specific counselling approach (CBT)

 to propose strategies and highlight aspects relevant for the implementation of career
management skills contents in context of the cognitive behavioral approach framework

 to share examples of good practice amongst experts

a. RelevantIntroduction
context Practical part
Conclusions
b. The role of a. Introduction to CBT Career Final words
higher education Counselling Theory
in career References
guidance and b. Supporting development of
counselling CMS - clients in education Sharing
examples
c. Student STAGE 1. Defining goals of good
support at the STAGE 2. BTFA evaluation cycle practice
UNIZG STAGE 3. Cost and benefit
STAGE 4. Problem-solving skills
STAGE 5. STFA blueprint

 The hallmark of the new organisational reality is change

 In the last decade, young people’s transitions from school
to work have become longer, more complex and turbulent

 HE institutions face an increasing pressure to address the employability needs of students in
their learning strategies

 Major goal of modern career guidance is to build the career management skills of all citizens

 In this context we can observe life-long guidance as a lifelong learning process
(‘careering’) within the individual

Many international organisations* have emphasised the importance of
career guidance, particularly in terms of achieving the following goals:

a. Lifelong learning;
b. Enhancing labour market outcomes;
c. Securing social equity and inclusion - strategic goals of the UNIZG
*OECD, the World Bank, the EU and the ILO

Recommendations for developing, implementing and assessing these types of services in HE:
1. Help individuals gain greater self-awareness
2. Connect students with resources
3. Engage students in the decision-making process
4. Assist individuals in becoming active managers of their careers

 the University of Zagreb established the Student Counselling and Support Centre in 2013.
The Centre organizes activities within the following areas:
 counselling related to academic and personal problems (psychological counselling)
 career counselling, academic and life skills development

These activities are conducted through:
 individual and group counselling
 educational workshops and lectures
 academic and career-life skills workshops
 development of educational and self-help material

Office for Students with Disabilities

Cognitive and behavioral approaches have rarely influenced career counselling theories apart
from Krumboltz’s model and social cognitive career theory

There are four propositions of Krumboltz’s Happenstance Learning Theory:

1.The goal - 2. Assessment 3. Learning process - engage 4.Preferred
help clients take process - used in exploratory actions as a outcomes -what
actions instead way of generating beneficial
to stimulate events the client
of making learning accomplishes in
decision
the real world

There are five components of counselling using the HLT

1. Orient 2. Identify 3. Use client’s 4. Sensitize 5. Overcome
client’s the client’s successful past clients to blocks to
expectations concern as a experiences with recognize action
potential
starting unplanned
place events as a opportunities
basis for current

actions

 CB approach to career counselling
provides clients with a range of
techniques to become self-sufficient in
meeting present and future challenges

 CBT is a systematic, action-oriented
and problem-solving approach to
managing thoughts, emotions and
behaviors more effectively –
the 5-areas model

 CB approach has a strong focus on
collaborative problem solving with
clients and joint action planning

Josip is a Math student. He is capable, but with poor working
habits. He has over-caring and -demanding parents.
He was successful in high school, but problems began to rise
during his studies.
He started to procrastinate and at the same time he decided
that he is more interested in programing which was even more
demotivating for him to continue his Math studies.

Therefore, the prospect of changing a field of study doesn’t
make you anxious and sad. However, by thinking that you are a
failure or that your parents will be non-supportive, you make
yourself anxious and sad (feelings). This may lead you to act in a
specific manner – avoiding conversation about studies and going
to lectures in general (behaviour). You may feel pressure in your
chest (physiology) when talking to counsellor about all of this...

The 5-areas model

A. Think of a recent situation that your found particularly challenging – this could be
in the work place or a social situation (over-demanding boss or a client, an
argument with your friend/partner…)

B. Which unhelpful emotion did you feel and what was going through your mind?
C. How did those thoughts and emotions affect your behaviour?
D. Were there any effects on your body?

Use the 5-areas thoughts, emotions, behaviour
and physiology form as part of this exercise

 when people experience unhelpful negative emotions (such as anxiety) often they are
thinking in an irrational, negative manner and as a result act in self-defeating ways

 an individual’s thinking can become biased because of a bias in the way they process
information from their own thoughts and from the interactions with events around them

 examples of these thinking errors include: Josip:
 All-or-nothing thinking
 Fortune-telling ‘I’am a faliure.’
 Mind-reading (Labelling)
 Emotional reasoning
 Overgeneralising ‘They think that I’m
 Labelling just procrastinating.’
 Making demands (Mind-reading)
 Mental filtering/disqualifying the positive
 Personalising

Patterns of thinking

A. Refer to list of your automatic thoughts in the ‘Thoughts’ component of
the 5-areas model (Assignment # 1)

B. Try to categorize thoughts with reference to specific pattern of thinking
C. Is this your typical way of thinking in those or similar situations?
D. What else is pretty common?

Do you have a certain tendency or ‘lenses’?

 There is a useful tool that provides a structure for determining any psychological or
behavioral barriers that clients may be experiencing when seeking to achieve their
vocational goals

 Having determined what the specific barriers are, the model also provides a means
of devising more effective strategies for enabling clients to achieve their goals

STAGE 1. Defining goals

STAGE 2. BTFA evaluation cycle model

STAGE 3. Cost and benefit analysis

STAGE 4. Problem-solving skills

STAGE 5. STFA blueprint

There is a useful tool that provides a structure for determining the
framework within which to use career counselling skills to support
clients in decision making - the FIRST model:
 FOCUS – establish rapport, prioritise client objectives
 INFORMATION – ensure that your client has accurate information
 REALISM – encourage your clients to aim high if they have realistically appraised their chances
 SCOPE – help client to consider cost and benefits of various options and potential strategies
 TACTICS – without action a programme for change is nothing but a wish list

To give clients the best chance of reaching their goals make them SMART
Think of a case that is assigned to your group.
Try to define a SMART goal.

Having agreed which goal to work on it is important to elicit client’s barriers to achievement,
typical thoughts they have contemplating these barriers and emotional, behavioral consequences
of holding unhelpful thoughts in relation to their goal.
While doing this it is very useful to use Socratic questioning and guided discovery.
The overall purpose of Socratic questioning is to help uncover the assumptions and evidence that
underpin people's problematic thoughts in respect of the problem/situation:

 Revealing the issue: ‘What evidence supports this idea?’
 Conceiving reasonable alternatives: ‘What might be another explanation or viewpoint?’
 Examining various potential consequences: ‘What are the worst, the best and the most

realistic outcomes?’
 Evaluate those consequences: ‘What’s the effect of thinking or believing this?’
 Distancing: ‘Imagine a specific friend in the same situation, what would I tell them?’

Counsellor is working with client who is currently experiencing
difficulties in career decision making. Josip is a Math student.

He is capable, but with poor working habits. He has over-caring
and demanding parents. He was successful in high school, but
problems began to rise during his studies.

He started to procrastinate and in the same time he decided that
he is more interested in programing which was even more
demotivating for him.

Here is an example of barriers – thoughts – feelings and action
evaluation problem for Josip. Having agreed which goal to work
on we identified client’s barriers to achievement, typical thoughts
he had contemplating these barriers and emotional, behavioural
consequences of holding unhelpful thoughts in relation to his goal.

BTFA evaluation cycle model

A. Think of a case that is assigned to your group. Try to conduct simple and short role-
play in order to identify challenging aspects in the context of the resilience to
career change or problematic attitudes, rules or beliefs regarding the career goal.

B. Which unhelpful emotion did client feel
(anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy, guilt…)?

C. What was going through his/her mind?
What were the specific thoughts?

D. How did this affect his/her behaviour?

Cost and benefits of: CHANGING MY FIELD OF STUDY

COSTS (disadvantages) BENEFITS (advantages)

Short-term Short-term

 One of the barriers confronting For self: For self:
a client is a lack of sufficient
commitment to achieving that  Revising goals and ambitions is hard work  If I focus on making a decision and
goal or a sense of ambivalence
about the outcome  Sitting through the rest of the exams will be planning I might stop worrying

 Cost and benefits analysis will challenging  If I have some perspective and plan I might
enable clients to evaluate
perceived short-term and long- stop worrying and procrastinating so much
term advantages and
disadvantages of pursuing the For others:
goal
 Parents will have to trust me on this For others:
 This type of strategy is useful
when dealing with decision and we are not in a good place  My parents will be relieved with a fact that I
procrastination and other clients
who generally avoid the short- now made some kind of decision after all
term discomfort or have
problems in impulse regulation Long-term Long-term

For self: For self:
 I might be unhappy with programming too  I’II have more job opportunities open for me
 I’ll study something interesting and fulfil my
For others:
 Handling financing my studies through ambitions and professional interests

another two years will be tough for my For others:
parents  I’ll feel better with myself and be able to

work on improving relations with my
parents

Cost and benefit analysis

A. Think of a case that is assigned to your group.
B. Try to conduct simple and short role-play in order to identify challenges in the

context of the obtaining commitment or motivation to activate regarding the
specific client’s career goal.
C. What are short-time and long-term advantages?
D. What are short-term and long-term disadvantages?

After identifying barriers to achieving a goal it is very important to teach clients
problem-solving skills for dealing with situation and any subsequent challenges they
may encounter.

There are 5 steps involved in this process:
I. Problem Orientation (PO)
II. Problem Definition and Formulation (PDF)
III. Generation of Alternative Solutions (GAS)
IV. Decision Making (DM)
V. Solution Implementation and Verification (SIV)

This is similar process to carrying out the BTFA
evaluation at the stage 2.

Having increased client’s motivation through a cost-
benefit analysis and developed constructive
strategies through problem solving, the STFA
replaces initial vicious cycle with a healthy point of
view and a blueprint for achieving success.

Thinking about things that will help clients
overcome obstacles and investigating constructive
and encouraging thinking style having in mind
appropriate end effective behaviour and
accompanied, preferred feelings are main elements
of BTFA evaluation.

STFA blueprint

A. Think of a case that is assigned to your group.
B. Try to conduct simple and short role-play in order to identify:

 constructive strategies and solutions
 a way to promote and form the healthy point of view
 how to draft blueprint for achieving success
C. Define potential solutions, positive and helpful way of thinking and how will all of this
affect attaining the specific goal

 Economy is changing the way the students
pursue and develop their careers

 University provides students with a space to reflect on
themselves and what they want from their career future

 University services are often the first port of call for
students seeking help with their careers

 It is important to build career management skills
having in mind sustainable empolyment

 CB approach has a strong focus on collaborative problem solving with clients and joint
action planning and can be a valuable tool in the process of career guidance

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