Career Counseling Process Quality Promotes Reemployment

One-on-one career counseling has been established as the most effective type of career intervention. Prior research results have suggested that process quality determines counseling success. In this multilevel study, career counseling process quality is validated as a predictor of job seekers’ reemployment at three Swiss job centers. Supervisors’ evaluations of the process quality of mandatory counseling sessions predicted faster reemployment of the 444 counseled job seekers by 18.9 working days on average. This effect equals yearly savings of 418 million Swiss Francs CHF (US$ 422 million) in Swiss unemployment benefits. While in many countries, the counseling of the unemployed is predominantly an administrative process, the findings should encourage investments in process quality of career counseling to promote reemployment. Furthermore, the study calls for further research on the underlying factors of career counseling process quality and the respective career counselor behaviors.

The Effect of Career Counselor Behavior on Reemployment

When looking at career interventions, one-on-one career counseling is one of the most effective and firmly established types of intervention. Furthermore, career counseling process quality has been validated as a predictor of job seekers’ reemployment. To elucidate the underlying components of a high-quality counseling process, the effects of counselor behavior in mandatory counseling sessions at three Swiss job centers are investigated. Based on a transfer of psychotherapeutic effectiveness research into the domain of career counseling, three behavior categories are proposed as components of a high-quality counseling process: providing structured guidance during the counseling process, providing personalized support, and activating job seekers’ resources. Scientific observers rated these counselor behavior categories in 32 counseling sessions. The ratings of “providing structured guidance” predicted job seekers’ reemployment speed at a correlation of .58. The measured effect equals yearly savings of 831 million Swiss Francs CHF (US$839) in Swiss unemployment benefits. The correlations with the other two behavior category ratings were in the same direction but nonsignificant.

Scaffolding Undergraduate STEM Majors

Project Engage utilizes a scaffolded approach to strategic mentoring grounded in the social constructivist theory of Vygotsky. Peer mentors, a career counselor, and STEM faculty serve as three scaffolding layers of more knowledgeable others (MKOs) who are responsible for assisting the mentee in achieving his/her zone of proximal development (ZPD), a higher level of learning or understanding than could be achieved alone. Detailed information is shared in this chapter on the selection, training, and responsibilities of the peer mentors, given that they serve as the first level of scaffolding (i.e., primary mentors for the freshmen). The career counselor and Engage faculty members constitute levels two and three of scaffolding. A survey was administered to evaluate the effectiveness of the mentoring program. Results from the survey of the mentees revealed positive perceptions of the mentoring program.

Staying Employable Certifications of Competences in the Era of Real-Time Career Management

This chapter attempts to focus on the topic of career management and its growing importance for students and professionals globally mainly due to the fast pace of change requiring agility and the ability to adapt to changing pressures from the market. It attempts to first provide the current status quo at Universities and Businesses and the challenges they are facing in preparing students for work (Universities) and during work (Businesses). It also attempts to provide possible solutions that relate to making career management a real-time, continuous task to stay employable rather than a ‘one off” or ad-hoc issue. The chapter stresses the importance of certifications and professional titles as a ‘must' in a number of industries and the important role of the career counselor in staying employable and why “employability” is a never-ending process in the twenty-first century.