Embedding Life Design in Future Readiness Efforts to Promote Collective Impact and Economically Sustainable Communities: Conceptual Frameworks and Case Example

This is the first of two sequential papers describing the design and first-year implementation of a collaborative participatory action research effort between Sociedad Latina, a youth serving organization in Boston, Massachusetts, and Boston University. The collaboration aimed to develop and deliver a combined STEM and career development set of lessons for middle school Latinx youth. In the first paper, life design and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals are described in relation to the rationale and the design of the career development intervention strategy that aims to help middle school youth discover the ways that learning advanced-STEM skills expand future decent work opportunities both within STEM and outside STEM, ultimately leading to an outcome of well-being and sustainable communities. In addition to providing evidence of career development intervention strategies, a qualitative analysis of the collaboration is described. The second paper will discuss two additional frameworks that guided the design and implementation of our work. As an example of translational research, the paper will provide larger national and regional contexts by describing system level career development interventions underway using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological and person–process–context–time frameworks.

On the Pathway to an Unforeseeable Future: An Actantial Analysis of Career Designs of Young People

The process of life design in contemporary adolescence is of increasing interest in times of lifelong learning and the knowledge society. The aim of this article was to increase the comprehension of career designs by analysing the two-phase interviews of 31 young people at the ages of 15 and 18. Drawing on actantial analysis, we modelled the plurality of the career designs, analysed who the main actors are in those career designs, and how young people express, exercise, and adjust their designs. We conclude that both the subjects and the objects of the young people’s career designs included multiple actors. People, issues, and circumstances are integral components of the narratives on the career designs of young people. These components bound their agency and are integrated with their orientations to education and work.

In the same boat? An online group career counseling with a group of young adults in the time of COVID-19

An online group of career counseling for unemployed young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic was developed. Twelve participants were involved in online group career counseling intervention, based on the Life Design for an inclusive and sustainable future. Results indicated at post-test on increased scores on career adaptability, resilience, future orientation, and propensity to identify inclusive and sustainable actions for the future than pre-test. Overall, the online group career counseling intervention effectively promoted particular aspects of young adults' life design for an inclusive e-sustainable future.

Facing the Chaos of Today’s World: Life Design as a New Concept of Counselling for New Times

My goal in this paper is to present what is referred to as the life design paradigm as a new, viable approach to career design which takes into account the new contexts cursorily outlined above. Drawing on the notion of chaos as a tool for describing today’s world, I seek to show how the concept can help us conceptualise the changing systems of work organisation, people’s biographies and applicatory potentials of career counselling theories. By doing this, I to make the case for the pertinence and utility of the intervention model proposed by Mark L. Savickas and his collaborators.

The influence of group life-design-based counselling on learners’ academic self-construction: A collective case study

The purpose of this study was to explore how life-design-based counselling can influence young learners’ academic self-construction within a group context. The study involved a qualitative mode of enquiry with 12 participants. Life-design-based intervention strategies, together with various (postmodern) qualitative techniques, were used to gather data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data and identify themes and sub-themes. The findings indicate that the participants exhibited enhanced academic self-construction in general after the intervention. More specifically, they displayed improved future aspirations as they made sense of their current learning. Future research could assess the feasibility and value of life-design counselling as early as the primary school years, as it seems to hold numerous benefits for young individuals that may positively influence their life-long career development.

Internal Medicine–Paediatrics residents’ application of life design principles to career decisions

BackgroundResidency is an important time for career planning. Little is known about how trainees make career decisions during this formative period.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to understand whether ‘design thinking’ activities help to inform Internal Medicine–Paediatrics (Med-Peds) residents’ career decisions.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional survey of a national sample of fourth-year Med-Peds residents in May–July 2019 covering intended career, helpfulness of ‘life design’ strategies used to inform career decision and confidence with intended career plans. Bivariate analyses were performed to evaluate associations between used strategies and confidence with career plans.ResultsA total of 86/145 (59%) of residents responded to the survey. The most helpful activities for clarifying career decisions were immersive exposure to the career during residency, and reflecting on compatibility of careers with their views of life and work. Finding the right mentor was associated with higher confidence in one’s intended career path (p<0.05). There were no significant differences with confidence in intended career plan by gender or career path. Career decisions made during the first 2 years of residency were associated with higher confidence than those made prior to or in the second half of residency (p=0.01 and p=0.004).ConclusionThis national survey of graduating Med-Peds residents reveals that proactive life design strategies were helpful in bringing clarity to their decision and were associated with higher confidence in intended career plans. These data should be of interest to residency training programmes in their efforts to support trainees with their career decisions.