ajcd_v4_i1_2022_contents.indd https://ajcd.africa open access table of contentspage i of i table of contents original research race and gender in the evolution of career decision-making: a psycho-anthropological review indira pillay african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a53 | 21 april 2022 original research career agility for purposive career exploration: role of adult learners’ career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness melinde coetzee african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a54 | 30 may 2022 original research psychometric properties of the south african career interest inventory – short brandon morgan african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a57 | 22 july 2022 original research efficacy of career guidance and counselling among secondary schools in uganda anne t. otwine, leonsio matagi, john m. kiweewa, herbert e. ainamaani african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a55 | 22 september 2022 original research priorities in 21st century career counselling: implications for counselling psychology training kamilla v. rawatlal african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a59 | 28 september 2022 1 8 15 24 32 vol 4, no 1 (2022) issn: 2709-7420 (print) | issn: 2617-7471 (online)african journal of career development original research their stories: children, exemplary models and career narratives hande sensoy-briddick, william c. briddick african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a63 | 12 december 2022 original research affect as a predictor of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness paul j. hartung, jeannine m. taylor, brian j. taber african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a58 | 11 july 2022 original research ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili’: using indigenous knowledge practices to support first-year first-generation african students in their career transition to higher education boitumelo m. diale african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a62 | 30 september 2022 reviewer acknowledgement african journal of career development | vol 4, no 1 | a69 | 12 december 2022 41 49 55 65 acknowledgements references about the author(s) jean guichard national institute for the study of work and career counselling, national conservatory for applied technologies, paris, france citation guichard, j. (2020). editorial: ‘ecological crisis–anthropological crisis’. african journal of career development, 2(1), a14. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.14 editorial editorial: ‘ecological crisis–anthropological crisis’ jean guichard copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) chair of the university of wroclaw (poland) and the university twinning and networking program (unitwin) project that it has developed (in which the university of pretoria is involved) emphasise the theme of an orientation towards sustainable human development. the death of lucien sève a few days ago (from covid-19) – author of marxism and the theory of human personality and of texts linking ‘ecological crisis’ and ‘anthropological crisis’ – made me come back to this issue. in my view, the question of sustainable development could not be tackled independently without taking into consideration the possibility offered to all human beings to develop the talents that participate in their humanity. to put it in a less abstract way, the destruction of the environment (devastation of natural resources, accumulation of waste, massive pollution, global warming, etc.) and the development of forms of indecent work (sweat shops, precariat, etc.), of subhuman living conditions (e.g. children from poor countries surviving on the rubbish sent by rich countries, forced migration of people who can no longer live where they came into being, etc.), are two aspects of the same crisis. many economists explain that this crisis originated in the emergence of a new form of capitalism – that is, financial capitalism – whose objective is to produce the highest possible dividends as quickly as possible. this race for profit leads to an exploitation of natural resources without wondering about neither the conditions of their reproduction nor the workers’ labor conditions, which are sometimes worse than slavery (because slaves constituted a capital whose value on the market depended notably on the care of their masters) in those of the poor countries that have become the world factories. in europe, this development of financial capitalism has resulted, as alain supiot (2012) has shown, in a rewriting of the european treaties establishing competition between member states, particularly in the area of labour law: maintaining a professional activity involves to gradually liquidate the regulations which were painfully instituted in each state during the 20th century, following the creation of the international labour organization by the treaty of versailles. with the covid-19 epidemic, this interstate competition became manifest. the various european countries engaged in a fierce competition – in which the united states also participated – for purchasing masks, gowns for caregivers and respirators (as described in an article on the france-info s ite [francetvinfo 2020]). as it is more and more likely that this pandemic will last for many months (or even years), i believe that we will soon observe a similar interstate competition in terms of getting back to work larger and larger parts of their populations. in the time of this pandemic, the dividends paid to the great fortunes continue to peak. the weekly newspaper le canard enchaîné of 01 april 2020 (no. 5186) recalls (an example amongst others) that the board of directors (which was scheduled for april 21) of a major multinational in cosmetic industry has planned to pay €785.8 million to the family which holds 33.3% of the shares (a swiss multinational in the food industry holding 23.3%). these staggering sums regularly paid to the wealthiest are behind the widening wealth gap between the wealthy and the excluded that the oxford committee for famine relief (oxfam) report describes each year. at the same time, parts of the shares of these larger companies (a very small one in the case of this multinational in cosmetics) are held by pension funds. indeed, the development of financial capitalism has, in particular, consisted – and consists – in a substitution of the pension fund system for previous systems based on intergenerational solidarity: a levy on the incomes of working people funding pensions for retirees. therefore, modest retirees must now pray for the above-mentioned family earning large dividends so that their own pensions do not collapse. this has a consequence: the increase in the crisis of sustainable and human development that i have just outlined. so this is a very serious systemic crisis. systemic, i emphasise. i do not know if we will be able to cope with it either from above (a fundamental reform of our production and exchange systems based on industry resettlements and short circuits, as, with many others, i have advocated in recent years in various writings) or from below (decimation of a crowd of old people in the northern countries and young ones in those of the south, with the subsequent human regressions). lucien sève’s (2011) analyses of the link between ‘ecological crisis’ and ‘anthropological crisis’ are much more elaborate than what i have just sketched about the double aspect of our systemic crisis. an article he published in french, spanish and german in le monde diplomatique provides a more complete view of his analyses. i don’t know if there is any english translation. it opens a path that, in my view, the unesco chair and the unitwin network should explore. acknowledgements the author wishes to acknowledge that a slightly different version of this editorial also appears on the website of ‘career guidance for social justice’ (https://careerguidancesocialjustice.wordpress.com/?s=guichard) as a letter entitled ‘an open letter from jean guichard following the death of lucien sève’. references francetvinfo. (2020). in intermédiaires douteux, concurrence entre états : comment le coronavirus a transformé l’europe en far west de l’équipement médical [questionable intermediaries, state competition: how the coronavirus turned europe into the wild west of medical equipment]. retrieved april 06, 2020 from https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/coronavirus/intermediaires-douteux-concurrence-entre-etats-le-coronavirus-a-transforme-leurope-en-far-west-de-lequipement-medical_3901029.html sève, l. (2011). sauver le genre humain, pas seulement la planète. le monde diplomatique (pp. 22–23). retrieved november 2011, from https://www.mondediplomatique.fr/2011/11/seve/46912 supiot, a. (2012). the spirit of philadelphia: social justice vs. the total market. london: verso books. ajcd_v1_i1_and_ajcd_v2_i1_2020_contents.indd https://ajcd.africa open access table of contents original research employer requirements and employability mindsets influencing graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter african journal of career development | vol 1, no 1 | a4 | 09 october 2019 12 page i of i table of contents case study a life design-related career development intervention for working adults in the manufacturing, engineering and related sectors nicola taylor, chris beukes african journal of career development | vol 1, no 1 | a2 | 13 june 2019 case study student well-being in veterinary sciences: implications for student support and career agility irma eloff african journal of career development | vol 1, no 1 | a6 | 10 december 2019 1 8 editorial editorial: ‘ecological crisis–anthropological crisis’ jean guichard african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a14 | 07 may 2020 review article prioritising career guidance and development services in post-apartheid south africa anthony l. pillay african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a9 | 30 january 2020 review article factors that influence transition from high school to higher education: a case of the juniortukkie programme petrus lombard african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a5 | 26 february 2020 original research what work should be and bring: representations of decent work in togo pazambadi kazimna, yawo a. holu, akila alfa, masamaésso tchonda, paboussoum pari, jonas masdonati african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a8 | 11 march 2020 original research facets of career agility as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ career adaptability melinde coetzee, marais s. bester, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a11 | 28 may 2020 22 24 29 43 50 vol 1, no 1 (2019) vol 2, no 1 (2020) issn: 2709-7420 (print) | issn: 2617-7471 (online)african journal of career development original research map of self-perceived growth for reviewing user journey and negotiating career transitions xuebing su, victor c.w. wong african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a18 | 15 september 2020 original research postmodern market scenarios and career patterns: challenges for education magdalena piorunek, joanna kozielska, violetta drabik-podgórna, marek podgórny african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a17 | 03 november 2020 original research socioeconomic well-being of orphans and vulnerable children in orphanages within cross river state, nigeria goodness j. okon, ekwuore m. ushie, judith e. otu african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a13 | 20 november 2020 reviewer acknowledgement african journal of career development | vol 2, no 1 | a32 | 19 december 2020 57 66 74 81 https://ajcd.africa open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a user. in order to be considered, please email submissions@ ajcd.africa indicating your intention to register as a reviewer for the journal. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are 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https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za acknowledgement to reviewers ajcd_v3_i1_2021_contents.indd https://ajcd.africa open access table of contentspage i of i table of contents review article trauma-informed career counselling to address work traumas resulting from the covid-19 pandemic jennifer j. linnekaste african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a42 | 30 september 2021 review article the development of coping strategies for young people to construct their identity in times of the covid-19 pandemic valérie cohen-scali, whitney erby african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a38 | 20 october 2021 original research transitioning through management change: the experiences of community learning centre educators roy venketsamy, lucas chauke, keshni bipath african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a20 | 11 january 2021 original research piloting career development: whole school interventions kamilla rawatlal african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a33 | 15 march 2021 original research higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults: a focus on university students and graduates in haiti louise m. vital african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a30 | 29 march 2021 original research the impact of inequality and covid-19 on education and career planning for south african children of rural and low-socioeconomic backgrounds indira pillay african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a36 | 18 may 2021 original research the importance of social emotional learning skills in assisting youth to successfully transition into the professional world gloria marsay, kokou a. atitsogbe, abdoulaye ouedraogo, henry nsubuga, paboussoum pari, enyonam y. kossi, chong m. park, v. scott h. solberg african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a37 | 30 august 2021 1 13 23 33 42 56 63 vol 3, no 1 (2021) issn: 2709-7420 (print) | issn: 2617-7471 (online)african journal of career development original research exploring the construct validity of the career well-being scale for its potential application as a career development tool in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic career space melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a39 | 08 september 2021 original research psychological attachment in the new normal working context: influence of career navigation and career well-being attributes ingrid l. potgieter, melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a48 | 10 december 2021 original research developing a self-directed career guidance intervention for south african high school learners amidst severe covid-19 restrictions michelle jäckel-visser, stephan rabie, anthony v. naidoo, izanette van schalkwyk, francois j. van den berg, chantel streicher african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a40 | 10 december 2021 original research a mixed methods exploratory study of the utility of social cognitive career theory for research into the careers of entrepreneurial emirati women in dubai pamela hawkswell, peter mcilveen, patricia n. hoare african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a46 | 15 december 2021 original research psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as predictors of dual career agility types melinde coetzee african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a47 | 17 december 2021 conference report establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose maria e. duarte african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a35 | 23 april 2021 reviewer acknowledgements african journal of career development | vol 3, no 1 | a51 | 21 december 2021 74 83 91 99 108 116 121 read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement https://ajcd.africa open access acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of african journal of career development. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. brandon morgan christopher beukes johannes katsarov mark watson maximus m. sefotho meenakshi chhabra melinde coetzee paul g. west petro erasmus teresa sgaramella https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za https://ajcd.africa open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for african journal of career development, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// ajcd.africa for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://ajcd. africa/index.php/ajcd 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://ajcd.africa/index. php/ajcd/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to african journal of career development. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 the editorial team of african journal of career development recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of african journal of career development. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. anlia pretorius ann-kathrin dittrich anthony naidoo brandon morgan brian j. taber chris beukes chris myburgh cristina ginevra donna m. san antonio emilie carosin erna gerryts gerry swan henriëtte janse van rensburg kayi ntinda kobus maree louise michelle vital maximus m. sefotho meenakshi chhabra melinde coetzee nicola taylor paul g. west petro erasmus ronald g. sultana ronel kleynhans sonja brink https://ajcd.africa� https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user https://ajcd.africa/index.php/ajcd/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za abstract introduction background to the current study objectives of the study research setting findings conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) irma eloff department of educational psychology, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation eloff, i. (2019). student well-being in veterinary sciences: implications for student support and career agility self-confidence in gaining employment. african journal of career development, 1(1), a6. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v1i1.6 case study student well-being in veterinary sciences: implications for student support and career agility irma eloff received: 23 oct. 2019; accepted: 18 nov. 2019; published: 10 dec. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract this case study investigates the factors that support and hinder the well-being of undergraduate students in veterinary sciences. the study aims to provide textured, nuanced and in-depth qualitative perspectives on the well-being of veterinary science students. the study aims to supplement the growing body of quantitative studies that indicate substantive concerns about the psychological well-being of students in veterinary sciences. the study utilised face-to-face interviews (n = 78) and an in-depth focus group interview (n = 9) within the bounded system of a faculty of veterinary science at a large, urban university. findings indicate that the well-being of students in veterinary sciences is supported by students actively taking ownership of their psychological well-being, and the presence of animals in their social and personal lives. the study also shows that a sense of isolation, both socially and geographically, may be hindering students’ well-being. keywords: veterinary sciences; undergraduate; student well-being; student support; career agility. introduction the mental health and well-being of students of veterinary sciences have received growing attention in recent years (killinger et al. 2017; reisbig et al. 2012). studies report up to one-third of veterinary medical students, surveyed during the first and second semesters, with depression levels above the clinical cut-off and up to 15% of some student samples experiencing an increase in depression of at least one standard deviation (1 sd) (hafen et al. 2008). along similar lines, a 4-year cohort study (siqueira drake et al. 2012) in the us context has pointed out that a large number of veterinary medical students experience clinical levels of anxiety and depression across all 4-year cohorts. findings from this study indicate elevated scores on anxiety and depression, and specifically students in their second and third years had the highest anxiety and depression scores. stressors described to explain the symptoms of depression and anxiety included perceived physical health, difficulty fitting in, heavy workloads, unclear expectations and homesickness. other studies indicate that some veterinary science students with higher-functioning relationships are indeed more likely to report fewer depressive symptoms, and lower stress associated with balancing their university and home lives, but then these same students are simultaneously experiencing more stress from falling behind academically (hafen, ratcliffe & rush 2013). a need for deeper understandings about the well-being of students of veterinary sciences seems evident. background to the current study most of the studies that have investigated the mental health and well-being of students in veterinary sciences utilise psychometric and quantitative measures to collect data. the current study set out to explore qualitative aspects to potentially provide more in-depth insights into the dynamics and complexities at play. veterinary science as both science and profession is linked to several of the sustainable development goals, and therefore the well-being of future veterinarians is of concern for all. objectives of the study the study is aimed to answer the following question: which factors support and hinder the well-being of veterinary science students? the framing of the question to explore the factors that support and hinder well-being was deliberate. it was framed to provide nuanced understandings that could potentially assist the future development of support programmes for students in veterinary sciences in order to enhance their well-being. the study also adopted an open-ended format to allow authentic responses on student well-being that would illuminate the trends evident in quantitative studies of veterinary science students. research setting the study was conducted at the faculty of veterinary science, university of pretoria. it is the only faculty responsible for the training of veterinarians and veterinary nurses in the country. the faculty is ranked highly on numerous international rankings. it is situated on the onderstepoort campus of the university of pretoria, with a world-class animal hospital and state-of-the-art facilities in veterinary sciences. research methodology an instrumental case study was conducted to investigate the well-being of veterinary science students at the university of pretoria. face-to-face interviews (n = 78) and an in-depth focus group interview (time 1:06:08; n = 9) were conducted with undergraduate students of veterinary science. for face-to-face interviews, fieldworkers approached students on campus to ask the following question: ‘which factors support your well-being at the university of pretoria?’ responses were taken down manually on paper. biographic data of respondents were also taken down alongside the written responses. afterwards, all written responses were transferred to electronic format for the purpose of data analysis. interviews were conducted in the first semester of the academic year. the focus group interview was conducted by an experienced researcher in the helping professions (e.g. social work) with a group of undergraduate veterinary science students (n = 9). the focus group discussion was audio-recorded and transcribed. data from both the face-to-face interviews and focus group discussion were analysed by means of theme analysis. participants all the participants (n = 78) of this study were undergraduate students at the faculty of veterinary science (table 1). most students (n = 67) were enrolled for a degree in veterinary science (bvsc) and some (n = 11) were enrolled for a diploma in veterinary nursing. the age of participants ranged from 18 to 34 years, and the mean age was 22.6 years. the modal age was 24 years. most of the participants (n = 37) indicated english as their first language, 27 students indicated afrikaans, 11 students indicated another african language and 3 students indicated ‘other’. table 1: characteristics of participants (interview group; n = 78). all focus group participants (n = 9) were south african citizens and undergraduate students at the faculty of veterinary science, doing bvsc (table 2). their ages ranged between 21 and 40 years, with one missing value (unknown). the mean age of the focus group participants was 24.87 years, with modal ages of 21, 22 and 23 years. five participants indicated english as their first language, and the remaining four participants each indicated afrikaans, isixhosa, sepedi and tshivenda as their first language. table 2: characteristics of participants (focus group; n = 9). ethical considerations the study was conducted as part of a comprehensive student well-being research project at the university of pretoria. ethical clearance (gw0180232hs) was obtained from the ethics committee of the faculty of humanities, as well as the university of pretoria survey organising committee. findings the study indicates three main thematic factors that support and hinder the well-being of veterinary science students. student well-being is supported by the following two factors: students actively taking ownership of their own well-being presence of animals in the social and personal lives of students. student well-being is hindered by the following factor: a sense of isolation. in the next section, each of these thematic factors is discussed by sharing some direct extracts from the data sets. these extracts are illustrative, rather than exhaustive, of the broad theme that has emerged in the data. some data extracts provide confirmation for some of the themes that have been highlightedin other studies (hafen et al. 2013; killinger et al. 2017), but here provide additional nuance at personal level. students actively taking ownership of their own well-being the data from both interviews and focus group show that students’ well-being is supported when students actively take responsibility for their own well-being. many students show high levels of internal locus of control. they embrace healthy coping strategies that support their studies: ‘sporting activities, binge watching series. outings with friends, comfort eating and lots of sleep.’ (interview 20, male, 24 years) ‘balancing academics. socialising with people who can assist me with academics. taking time out for myself and away from academics. exercise to calm down stress during tests or examination.’ (interview 59, male, 21 years) ‘being surrounded by positive people and a good working environment.’ (interview 64, female, 19 years) ‘i think, the best part of studying at op [onderstepoort] is the fact that we have an amazing campus. there is so much to do here, whether you want to go to the gym, for a swim, play some squash or tennis, everything right here on campus. staying in res also helps a lot, you can meet up with friends for coffee and discuss whatever is bothering you. op really helps you have a well-balanced life.’ (interview 16, female, 23 years) ‘… the one that stood out for me the most is relationships at the moment, especially because i’m a res student … i find a great deal of comfort in friends and having that social every two weeks or whatever not even just doing something else just socialising with my peers and the residence takes a great deal of stress off my shoulders so it’s relationships.’ (focus group, response 6) ‘i think, it definitely you as an individual need to understand what aspects of your life you need to work on so that you can have a happy life so that school work is balanced with relationship and that is a very … personal thing, but i think that there should also be facilities to aid you in showing you how to do it, or how to deal with stress, how to deal with anxiety, or if there’s maybe somebody that comes to campus and speak once a week on stress and anxiety and so that’s i feel like there’s a balance between what you should be doing and who can help you to do.’ (focus group, response 130) students take ownership of their own well-being when they purposefully engage in leisure activities, invest in healthy relationships and pro-actively manage their stress levels. this form of personal agency bodes well for the future career agility. correia et al. (2017) have shown similar findings with students who actively engage in activities that reduce stress and depression. presence of animals in the social and personal lives of students perhaps, not surprisingly, the presence of animals is integral to the well-being of the participants in this study, as illustrated below: ‘i live off campus with my dog. i exercise at least four times a week. i have a society at the university focused on wildlife. i have three close friends who study with me and we rely on each other. i have a good support structure when life gets hard. i have a good relationship with my parents, boyfriend.’ (interview 8, female, 22 years) ‘daily exercise, weekly training in jiu-jitsu. being allowed to walk the campus beagles. campus being so close to res, no stress about transport. being given free medical and psychological care. being given the schedule for the whole year, allowing myself to plan ahead of time.’ (interview 13, female, 20 years) ‘walking the beagles, housemates, staying in south africa.’ (interview 18, male, 22 years) ‘housemates. international friendships. walking the beagles at op. being a part of multiple clubs. south african culture. understanding and helpful student peers. ability to travel on the weekends and explore south africa.’ (interview 19, female, 23 years) ‘being able to be constantly around animals and like-minded people.’ (interview 60, female, 24 years) ‘i am a depressive person, small things get me down. sleeping makes me feel best. ultimately, i would go horse riding every day. i see a psychiatrist, a psychologist to help with my issues. my dogs living with me is probably what keeps me going the best.’ (interview 61, female, 26 years) a sense of isolation while the presence of animals in their lives and actively taking ownership seems to support the well-being of the participants of this study, a sense of isolation seems to be hindering their well-being. the sense of isolation emanates from both geographical isolation from the rest of the university and a psychological sense of isolation for some students, as illustrated below: ‘the campus is too isolated from the rest of the university and the academic stress is high, this can decrease well-being, which is why i live off campus. since moving out, my well-being has improved.’ (interview 8, female, 22 years) ‘… they feel isolated right, everyone seems like they coping and they’re fine and they having to hide, the ones who can’t cope with it – am i even meant to be here, is this where i am supposed to be?’ (focus group, response 9) ‘… and then just the isolation is the environment at op … because you’re isolated you’re almost forced to stay in this environment, so if you stay in res, you constantly surrounded by op you’re constantly by the pressure the competitiveness.’ (focus group, response 19) ‘… and then if i can add on like the isolation not on the friends but family as well there’s a lot of people are not from here.’ (focus group, response 15) ‘in terms of facilities also we don’t have … main campus has bookmark has the store for books and stationary and all that our campus doesn’t have that.’ (focus group, response 50) ‘… they’ve kind of been like … you’re a far campus this is gonna be hard …’ (focus group, response 105) conclusion tailored-support strategies for students studying in veterinary sciences seem to be advisable. findings from this qualitative case study indicate that the integration of animals at social and personal levels could potentially enhance the well-being of students studying in veterinary sciences. the study also indicates that increased awareness of personal agency in supporting well-being could be leveraged to optimise their well-being. developing personal agency in improving well-being at individual level also holds the possibility of contributing to career agility over a lifetime. in addition to developing tailored support for students of veterinary sciences during the years of study, active strategies to counter isolation, geographical and personal, also seem to have the potential to improve their well-being. acknowledgements the fieldwork for the interviews was conducted by students in the helping professions from the university of pretoria. the focus group was conducted by a researcher from the department of social work at the university of pretoria, leanne jordaan. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research was funded by the university of pretoria. data availability statement data from interviews and the focus group are available upon request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references correia, h.m., smith, a.d., murray, s., polak, l.s., williams, b., & cake, m.a. (2017). the impact of a brief embedded mindfulness-based program for veterinary students. journal of veterinary medical education, 44(1), 125–133. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0116-026r hafen, m., jr., ratcliffe, g.c., & rush, b.r. (2013). veterinary medical student well-being: depression, stress, and personal relationships. journal of veterinary medical education, 40(3), 296–302. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.1112-101r hafen, m., jr., reisbig, a.m., white, m.b., & rush, b.r. (2008). the first-year veterinary student and mental health: the role of common stressors. journal of veterinary medical education, 35(1), 102–109. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.35.1.102 killinger, s.l., flanagan, s., castine, e., & howard, k.a. (2017). stress and depression among veterinary medical students. journal of veterinary medical education, 44(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0116-018r1 reisbig, a.m., danielson, j.a., wu, t.-f., hafen, m., jr., krienert, a., girard, d. et al. (2012). a study of depression and anxiety, general health, and academic performance in three cohorts of veterinary medical students across the first three semesters of veterinary school. journal of veterinary medical education, 39(4), 341–358. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0712-065r siqueira drake, a.a., hafen, m., jr., rush, b.r., & reisbig, a.m. (2012). predictors of anxiety and depression in veterinary medicine students: a four-year cohort examination. journal of veterinary medical education, 39(4), 322–330. https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.0112-006r conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) maria e. duarte faculty of psychology, university of lisbon, lisbon, portugal citation duarte, m.e. (2021). ‘establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose’, african journal of career development, 3(1), a35. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.35 conference report establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose maria e. duarte received: 18 jan. 2021; accepted: 19 feb. 2021; published: 23 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. i have lived my life in the service of individuals, studying their stratums of meanings and forms and trying to teach the secrets of psychology to my students. i‘ve learned that nothing in our relationships should be taken for granted, in particular, at this moment in history. i’ve learned more from reading the classics and famous writers on the substance of human life than from hundreds of reports or scientific articles. i’ve learned about the limits of some illusions – the futility of total accuracy, of absolute quantification, of complete knowledge. i believe that human experience is always more enriching compared to any interpretation. now, in this globalised world without political or ethical control that ‘weakens’ the foundations of our existence and gives rise to uncertainty, risk, lack of prospects and stability, and when actions to eliminate those same risks are diverted of the real sources of danger, it becomes easier to point out the reasons of uncertainties and risks that we face. therefore, some individuals need ‘interpreters’ who understand the utility of enlarging the small, accommodated or non-existed horizons, by making use of the potential of infinite dialogue with each one’s condition. being useful to an individual, developing one’s ability for entertaining different perceptions of the world and incorporating the other individual’s perspectives on specific challenges may be viewed as an invitation to expand one’s own perceptions. the main goal of counselling dialogue is to achieve coherence considering the individual’s identity, self-concept and agency, and also to integrate events from the past and present and put them into the perspective of the future. i present a different approach that is always under development, and which will probably never be complete: to develop a dialogue so that the counsellor and counselee develop a partnership where the counsellor must be aware of an obligation to support and participate in another individual’s process, or in other words, create something together. for that purpose, i refer to one of the most widely read books in the history of western culture (harari, 2015): the little prince (mały książę) by de saint-exupéry (1943). i will then highlight the dialogue between the little prince and the fox (chapter xxi), which deals with the impossibility of a relationship between two creatures that are not known to each other, one that is in its own environment (the fox), and another that comes from another world (the little prince): come and play with me, proposed the little prince. i am so unhappy. (p. 45) i cannot play with you, the fox said. i am not tamed. (p. 45) this impossibility of establishing a relationship is based on two main arguments: one is the absence of an affective tie or connection between them, and the other is simple: they do not belong to the same world (to the same planet): ah! please excuse me, said the little prince. (p. 45) but, after some thought, he added: what does that mean ‘tame’? (p. 45) you do not live here, said the fox. (p. 45) and, therefore, they do not have the same cultural allusions – whilst the little prince, in a strange world, was in search of people looking for identity ties, or something or someone to play with him (as usual in a human child), the fox fled from these same people because they used guns to hunt chickens (and, by inference, foxes), the fox, consequently, and in a sort of primary syllogism, wondered if that child, being human, would not also be as was implicit, in search of chickens, and of foxes to hunt: what is it that you are looking for? (p. 45) i am looking for men, said the little prince. what does that mean – ‘tame’? (p. 46) men, said the fox. they have guns, and they hunt. it is very disturbing. they also raise chickens. these are their only interests. are you looking for chickens? (p. 46) but in his naivety, which contrasted with the knowledge of the world held by the fox characterised by the use of cunning, acquired by the experience of life, as a survival technique, the little prince guaranteed that what he was looking for was friends, thus not discriminating between people and animals. it was only then, after the little prince used the word friends, that the fox decided to answer the question persistently asked by the prince, ‘what does that mean – “tame”’, as he did not know the concept of ‘tame’. this was a point of argument used by the fox in order not to play with the little prince: the act of playing, assumed here to be a playful act, and also the act of two persons or two objects to articulate with each other to obtain a harmonious result, is possible only between people who are bound by some common ties and these ties, in a large comprehensive way are also affective – something that people tend to neglect: no, said the little prince. i am looking for friends. what does that mean ‘tame’? (p. 46) it is an act too often neglected, said the fox. it means ‘to establish ties’. (p. 46) and the fox continues, these ties allow two people to become special each other whilst maintaining their own identity – the fox will always be a fox, and the little prince will always be a human – because it is the only way they can be happy: to establish ties? (p. 46) just that, said the fox. to me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. and i have no need of you. and you, on your part, have no need of me. to you, i am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. but if you tame me, then we shall need each other. to me, you will be unique in all the world. to you, i shall be unique in all the world … (p. 46) the fox further specifies referring to the distinctive features that allow the members of a group to identify with each other, but in opposition to another group whose elements are also united by distinctive traits – but different distinctive appearances: i hunt chickens; men hunt me. all the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. […] but if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. […] and then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? i do not eat bread. wheat is of no use to me. the wheat fields have nothing to say to me. and that is sad. but you have hair that is the color of gold. think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! the grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. and i shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat … (p. 46) and it is also these ties that infuse in individuals a sense of responsibility for other individuals, especially those with whom they have established connections and who allow them to consider them as unique, similar to what we do since the very beginning of a counselling process: men have forgotten this truth, said the fox. but you must not forget it. you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. you are responsible for your rose … (p. 48) i am responsible for my rose, the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. (p. 48) in brief, de saint-exupéry emphasises, through the voice of the fox, the importance of rituals in people’s lives, insofar as they allow them to organise their lives so that each day may be different from the others, just as people should be in order to retain their identity: those also are actions too often neglected, said the fox. they are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. there is a rite, for example, among my hunters. every thursday they dance with the village girls. so thursday is a wonderful day for me! i can take a walk as far as the vineyards. but if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and i should never have any vacation at all. (p. 47) let us recall and consider some of the basic ideas of these passages, all of them originate from the fact that the two creatures live in a dual reality: on the one hand, both interact with the same objective entities external to them (e.g. ‘man’, ‘flower’, ‘the harvest’); but, on the other hand, these objective entities arouse in each of them subjective reactions resulting from their own experiences. the first of these ideas is the impossibility of communication between ‘individuals’ because they do not belong to the same ‘world’ – i mean, the same environment – (you do not live here), and the lack of a connection between them (i cannot play with you. i am not tamed). the second idea is that the two ‘individuals’ have different cultural references: for the little prince, men are potential friends, whilst for the fox, men are fox and hen hunters. the third idea to be retained is the importance of knowledge as held by the fox and the need to obtain it as embodied by the little prince who asks questions. the fourth idea is clear: only the establishment of ties between individuals makes it possible to overcome problems and to co-construct relationships, which is represented here by reference to ‘rituals’ and by the construction of symbols: the yellow fields, which produce the bread that the fox does not need, will remind of , in a situation of absence, the blond hair of the prince. finally, the fifth idea: the responsibility of the individual before the collective as a result of the establishment of ties: ‘you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. you are responsible for your rose …’ in a technical language: to create something together where meanings are co-created during the conversation, where new dialogues gradually take shape, contain a deeper meaning and rest on a value-based conviction, creating, in that way, a degree of sustainability, trying to connect phenomenology and social constructionism, by placing the concept of meaning at the ‘core business’ of conversation or dialogues. we all read the little prince – after all, it is the fourth most well-read book, excluding religious and doctrinal texts, after don quixote of la mancha (1605) by miguel de cervantes, a tale of two cities (1859) by charles dickens and the lord of the rings (1954–1955) by r.r. tolkien (harari, 2015) – and read it in the category of literature relevant for children and young people, an age group to which tradition almost exclusively attributes the right to imagination and fantasy. indeed, a child that travels freely from planet to planet, each inhabited by a single being endowed with consciousness and the ability to express in a language, amongst them were plants and animals that speak and think like humans (though maintaining the idiosyncrasies of their own species), cannot be possible anywhere else than in a story for children. and yet … from the point of view of objectivity, the ‘worlds’ through which the little prince travels, as well as the ‘characters’ with which he interacts in each of these worlds (the narrator, the flower, the king, the conceited man, the tippler, the businessman, the lamplighter, the old geographer, the snake, the echo, the roses, the fox, the railway switchman, the merchant and of course the lost aviator …) belong to the universe of fable and fantasy – that, by definition, absurd manifestations are treated and understood as normal behaviours. however, in this journey through the little isolated worlds, each of the characters (which, in the case of humans, are defined by their occupations) contributes to the knowledge of the little prince creating a ‘truth’ from which he can see the world. and this truth is not the world that exists, the real world, but the way each character (both the little prince and the interlocutors) understands and assimilates it. given this duality, the reader ‘forgets’ the unlikely of the successive scenes (not even wondering how the prince can travel between asteroids, or if there are life and characters identical to the human ones of the earth), and concentrates on the essential, which is the experience of each one of the characters (inanimate, animated or human, but always referred to the real world – the railway switchman, the sheep that eat little bushes, the fox that does not like hunters) voiced by themselves, helping the child to grow by transmitting the truths that really matter. we could find here echoes of husserl’s phenomenology (1907) and his ideas about communication. dialogue defined as an act of communication. for husserl, interpreted by płotka (2009), university of cardinal stefan wyszyński in warsaw: [c]ommunication motivates others to do something. […] there is no doubt, the communication introduces completely new dimension of human practice. namely, according to communicative acts, i am never alone, and my actions should be grounded on the responsibility for the other. sketched relation is two-sided, but the aim is common: a consensus. (p. 90) therefore, there can be no rigid or standardised models of dialogue, regardless of the situation in which it occurs: in an interview situation, which presupposes a dialogue, the interviewer – who is an integral part of the process and not an external agent interested in obtaining from the respondent a given answer that can be conditioned – is not alone, that is, he has to take into account the view that the other has of the world, and respect it. this is the case with the model proposed by savickas (2015) which fits into this phenomenological concern of husserl, in that it is organised around items that aim not to condition the respondent’s response but to motivate him or her to act – in this case, telling his life story, which will be one of the possible representations of his own unique way of seeing the world and from which, from then on, he will also become a part. by telling the stories, the individual can connect his or her subjective realities to the challenges of social world. as bruner (2002) and gergen and gergen (2006) pointed out, subjective perceptions and resulting personal self-constructs need to be replaced or modified in social discourses that are relived in the counselling dialogue. another selection could be that which can be described as affections. identity simply does not exist without the language of affection, from which inter-personal relationships and people’s relationships with the context in which they find themselves or could find themselves are constructed and developed. the language of affection, which theoretically can be disassociated from other forms of language, for example, cognition in the sense of the selection, storage and treatment of information, implying a choice of object or situation (the object of our affections is never an aleatory choice), can be observed through the manifestation of an individual’s feelings in relation to an object or situation. put another way, this is a manifestation of the emotions which being the individual’s intense affective responses to the stimuli of their surroundings, can also influence the process of choosing new objects and situations that will in turn require new responses. the concept of dialogue, in being complemented by interindividuality, is a fundamental aspect when it comes to the positioning of that which forms the heart of counselling (duarte, 2017). the notion of dialogue becomes theoretically central to the understanding of the various situations that bring something to that which we refer to as life. dialogue implies integrating thoughts into an act of communication: in opposition to the foundationalism view of language, it is the adoption of the hermeneutic or dialogical positions, as reflected in the works of gadamer (1975) and bakhtin (1981) respectively. hermeneutics is concerned with understanding the meaning that people make of their lives. it takes into consideration the historical and psychological reality of the lived experience of the person whose life is being interpreted, and that of the interpreter herself/himself, because ‘an interpreter understands by constant reference to her own perspective, preconceptions, biases, and assumptions that rest, fundamentally, on her lifestyle, life experiences, culture, and tradition’ (tappan, 1997, p. 649). from the hermeneutic perspective, we understand the new in terms of what we already know, and more importantly, in terms of who we are. similarly, bakhtin (1981) has emphasised the dialogical nature of all understanding. understanding pre-supposes (and recognises) the other, with whom one can agree or disagree. bakhtin (1981) argues that: the consciousness of other people cannot be perceived, analyzed, as objects or as things – one can only relate to them dialogically. to think about them means to talk with them; otherwise they immediately turn to us their objectivized side: they fall silent, close up, and congeal into finished, objectified images. (p. 68) contrary to idealistic philosophy, dialogism argues that a fully voiced consciousness (i.e. with its own ideas and points of view) is to be found at the point of contact with another equally-voiced consciousness. this implies that dialogues need to genuinely engage with the context. conclusion are we capable to close the gate and escape from a technocratic perspective of knowledge, and take new roads, which means, pay attention to the new emerging perspectives other than the traditional way to face individual or collective problems and, also, highlight the importance of individual differences as opposed to standardisation, which led us, during the machine age of the 20th century to the mechanisation of behaviours as if all individuals were copies of a lost original …? the reality of globalisation and the concurrent worldwide competitiveness impose a shift on intercultural research towards an integrative background to both common and regional competencies to achieve added value and usefulness of research. it also involves evaluation and its meaning of concerns related with conceptual definitions and the context of its operationalisation, which means the identification of the relevant contents of culture knowledge is also crucial. nowadays, intervention is not a cumulative process of the interpretation of the assessment data: it integrates environmental variables, and also considers the cultural context. regarding the consequences of globalisation, it seems to me that it is important to recognise the desirability of a greater proximity to culture in those issues. guidance and counselling for solidarity, social justice and dialogues in a diverse world are the motto of the conference. i believe it would be possible to put together – united nations eduactional, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) chair on lifelong guidance and counselling and its university twinning and networking programme (unitwin) partners – a narrative collaborative practice, and, in that way, ‘taking part’ in the history of the other and with it being supportive, following the dialogue in which ties were established, so well synthetised in the sentence ‘you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. you are responsible for your rose …’ acknowledgements this article is partially based on the author’s keynote address (duarte, 2018) at the international conference: counselling for solidarity, social justice and dialogues in a diverse world, 24–25 may 2018. the author would like to thank the editor of african journal of career development, prof. kobus maree. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contribution m.e.d. declares that she is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references bakhtin, m.m. (1981). the dialogic imagination. austin, tx: university of texas press. bruner, j. (2002). making stories – law, literature, life. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. de saint-exupéry, a. (1943). le petit prince. english translation: the little prince. new york, ny: reynal and hitchcock. duarte, m.e. (2017). counseling and well-being: on the road to realities. british journal of guidance and counselling, 45(5), 508–519. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2017.1309641 duarte, m.e. (2018). establishing ties: you are responsible for your rose. in international conference: counselling for solidarity, social justice and dialogues in a diverse world, 24‒25 may 2018. (keynote address). the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. gadamer, h-g. (1975). truth and method. new york, ny: continuum. gergen, m.m., & gergen, k.j. (2006). narratives in action. narrative inquiry, 16(1), 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.16.1.15ger harari, y.n. (2015). homo deus. a brief history of tomorrow. london: vintage, penguin books, 2017. husserl, e. (1907). the idea of phenomology. dordrecht: kluwer academic publishers, 1999. płotka, w. (2009). between language and communication: a husserlian approach. lingua ac communitas, 19, 85–93. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1415449/between_language_and_communication_a_husserlian_approach savickas, m.l. (2015). life-design counseling manual. retrieved from www.vocopher.com tappan, m.b. (1997). interpretive psychology: stories, circles, and understanding lived experience. journal of social issues, 53(4), 645–656. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1997.tb02453.x abstract introduction historical issues in south africa consequences of inadequate career planning future concerns and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anthony l. pillay department of behavioural medicine, faculty of medicine, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation pillay, a.l. (2020). prioritising career guidance and development services in post-apartheid south africa. african journal of career development 2(1), a9. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.9 review article prioritising career guidance and development services in post-apartheid south africa anthony l. pillay received: 10 dec. 2019; accepted: 17 dec. 2019; published: 30 jan. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract career guidance and development services must be viewed as a priority, especially given africa’s history of colonisation and deprivation where people of colour were viewed essentially as manual labour. with decolonisation efforts and improved opportunities, the impact of poorly informed career decisions is a concern. this can be quite serious both individually and nationally, and attempts must be made to address this problem. young people and their families affected by ill-conceived or absent career planning suffer economically and psychologically. considering the global and local economic trends, job markets and youth unemployment, career guidance services must take cognisance of the transformed workspace to include the informal employment sector. most importantly, career guidance services must be made available to all, and not just a select few. keywords: career; guidance; counselling; student; work; employment. introduction the idea of career development is in many ways a conception of the modern era, considering that careers were chosen, modified, adapted and even completely changed, based on a variety of factors that did not include the intervention of a career development practitioner. the history of work suggests that in earlier times, individuals went into jobs rather than careers. in this context, it has been argued that a job is something one does simply to earn money, while a career is a sequence of related opportunities and activities that provide the experiences necessary to develop one’s future, and involves going beyond the minimum contractual work obligations (roth, 2008). of course, the two concepts are not mutually exclusive and have bearing and relevance in various employment contexts, more so those where work opportunities are scarce. the extent to which poorer countries are able to offer its citizens the opportunities for careers may appear to be limited – or is that necessarily so? the priority in middleand low-income countries is obviously to provide jobs for all to ensure adequate standards of living, nutrition, housing, schooling and health care, among other necessities. unfortunately, in many nations, those minimum standards are not met because of broader economic and socio-political factors that militate against the development of sufficient formal employment opportunities. south africa has been one of the countries where formal sector employment opportunities have been shrinking quite significantly over many years, resulting in a rather bleak economic and development outlook, especially for young adults. the current economic situation in south africa is rather worrying, with many financial and other indices causing considerable uneasiness. the unemployment rate of almost 30% means much poverty and despair, and this is etiologically related to many social, health and legal problems. worst unemployment rates are among the young with 58.2% of 15–24-year olds and 36.1% of 25–34-year olds unemployed (statistics south africa, 2019). this means that many first-time work seekers are not able to secure a job, let alone develop a career. nevertheless, it is important that both targets (i.e. job provision and career development) are kept high up on the economic and development agenda. with the reduction in formal sector employment opportunities, a certain vibrancy in the informal sector has been evident across the african continent, as well as in asia and south america. commenting on the south african situation, altman (2003) noted several years ago that the main growth trends in employment have been outside the formal sector. of course, many of these initiatives have been individual-based and born out of desperation. notably also in the process of desperately trying to carve out an income generation opportunity, many have demonstrated remarkable ingenuity and creativity, resulting in them surpassing what might have been, had they gained employment in the formal sector. for such individuals and employment contexts, career development is also relevant, perhaps even more so in some ways, considering that these individuals are working on their own without being part of a larger organisational structure that allows for or is geared towards career development trajectories. it is clear that much has changed in the world of work, job supply, job training and preparation, educational curricula as well as the science of careers and career development. with the advent of the career development practitioner as a relatively recent professional specialty, it is important to recognise that this area of focus has a much earlier history, dating to the late 19th century. frank parsons, who is credited with being a founding figure in the field of career counselling, paved the way for much of what was to follow in the area, including innovations such as vocational guidance in schools and the training of vocational counsellors (jones, 1994). he saw this as a service to ‘aid young people in choosing an occupation, preparing themselves for it, finding an opening in it, and building up a career of efficiency and success’ (parsons, 1908, p. 3). in many ways, this reflects some of the contemporary aims of career counselling over a century later. across the world, it is evident that a range of professionals has been involved in providing career development services. these have included psychology professionals, human resource practitioners, education specialists and others. moreover, the professional designations of those involved in providing career counselling and development services have varied over time and place, perhaps creating some confusion for consumers. an australian survey of career development practitioners identified over 90 different titles used to denote the professionals performing this area of work (athanasou, 2012). while the same extent of variation may not be present on the african continent, given the general shortage of specialist skills in the area, it is likely that, where such services are available, there are different service provider designations involved. this is certainly an issue that needs addressing – however, the greater need on the continent lies in the provision of career development services. historical issues in south africa career guidance and counselling services are not new in south africa. in fact, such services have been available for several decades in the country and are well known in certain sectors of the population. unfortunately, the services were available only to a select few, coinciding with the racist apartheid policies that favoured specifically the country’s white minority. like with all other services and privileges, the government of the day ensured that the country’s black majority was denied such opportunities. of course, even long before the creation of apartheid, the colonisers of the african continent and other lands treated locals and those whom they shipped in from other parts of the colonised world as slave labour. these individuals had little or no choice in the work sphere that they entered. the pattern continued even after bondage and indenture ceased, and people in these communities were destined for menial jobs regardless of their abilities and potential. the apartheid system of education, work opportunities and job reservation simply followed that trend, perhaps mildly sanitised in some ways. the social structure and education system of apartheid allowed for children of white parents and those in elite or more expensive schools to have access to some level of career guidance services. commenting on the situation at the time, watts (2009) noted: [t]he gulf between the opportunities available to white people and to black people, and the way in which this was reflected in the structure and nature of career guidance services. (p. 7) apart from not affording children of colour appropriate career guidance services within the wider unequal education system, this served another apartheid goal, namely to ensure that black people were more restricted to menial jobs rather than advancing into professional roles. the government of the day had no interest in furthering the aspirations, goals or career development of black south africans – in fact, to do so would have undermined its policy of oppression of the country’s majority and the suppression of their progress and development. essentially, children of colour had no access within the school system to direction and guidance regarding choice of careers and secondary school preparation. for example, when it was time to select subjects in the secondary school years, most black children had little or no guidance on the choices to make in relation to career preferences or how these would benefit or hinder their career goals. this was compounded by the fact that the vast majority of black parents were not equipped to adequately advise their children on career planning. having been academically restrained by apartheid policies, most were in non-professional careers. in this context, psychologists aided and abetted crimes against humanity by suggesting that black people were not suited to academic education (fick, 1939). parents, therefore, did not have the benefit of higher education and, as a result, had limited knowledge and experience of the tertiary education and vocational training sectors. this meant that many of the country’s young people went into careers and even tertiary education programmes without appropriate advice, resulting in considerable fallout – this is still the situation for many. while access to career counselling services was historically based on variables of privilege, it is crucial that this service should not be viewed as a privilege, especially as it pertains to secondary and tertiary education students. for this group, the consequences of not having proper career guidance can be dire. having to make such significant life-altering decisions can be rather daunting and even paralysing for some. in this context, robertson (2013) argues that career guidance aims to empower individuals to take a proactive approach, and it seeks to arm them with the belief that they have the ability to direct the course of their lives. in other words, career counselling services can promote a feeling of agency in the young person, especially considering that it may be one of the first major life decisions they have to make. such feeling of agency and control over important life decisions can instil much confidence in young people, which ultimately enhances their ability to cope with further education and training. consequences of inadequate career planning in south africa, and elsewhere in the world, it is evident that a great many students embark on higher education and training without a clear idea of their career goals or life plan. for several young people, this is related to the circumstances of impoverishment in which a large portion of our population live. many students, in their desperate attempt to find a way out of poverty, believe that further education is the key, but have little or no idea of the precise path to follow, what they are best suited to as a career or what the job opportunities and market forces are in the field that they are contemplating. these are serious issues, especially considering the developmental stage at which students complete their secondary schooling and have to ponder these career decisions. they could be as young as 16 or 17 years (or even earlier when they select their secondary school subjects), when brain development is hardly complete or sufficiently mature to make major decisions (dumontheil, 2016). at this developmental stage, adolescents have to make rather critical life design decisions that will have long-term consequences affecting their work life and mental well-being. in this context, maree, pienaar and fletcher (2018) argued that interventions in the area of life design are integrally related to identity development, and these are both critical to the young person’s future growth and place in society, enabling successful outcomes. moreover, it is important to recognise that the fallout of poor career decision-making or the absence of career and vocational guidance and counselling services does not only affect the individual. the economic impact for families and the nation are considerable. young people embarking on higher education and training without careful consideration of the longer-term career prospects, the job market and their employability thereafter, or the suitability of the career to their personality make-up can find themselves in a difficult situation later. consequences, including unhappiness in the career or poor performance, are just some of the likely scenarios. an inability to complete the training is another common result. these negative outcomes can come at huge costs both financially and emotionally for the individual and family. in poor communities, such situations can have devastating impact as families count on positive returns from the investment being made in young people’s education. at a national level, poor career decisions have significant economic effect, especially where this impacts on the students’ inability to complete their studies. students failing to graduate during the required time or dropping out of higher education incur greater expense, considering that many programmes are government funded or subsidised to some extent. in countries where opportunities for higher education and training are limited, every student dropping out of a course corresponds to a lost opportunity for another. in addition, it reflects a loss of funding that could have been used elsewhere including vital services such as health care. in the case of students on government funding and financing schemes, such a situation could mean significant national debt that can be ill-afforded in poorer economies. a further, more serious consequence of poor career decisions is the mental health sequelae for young students. apart from the financial and other setbacks and difficulties, there are psychological sequelae. it is true that students who are unable to cope with higher education suffer significant emotional reactions to failure in their academic work. investigating depressive symptoms in a sample of students attending a historically disadvantaged tertiary institution, a recent south african study revealed that almost one-quarter reported feeling overwhelmed by their studies and 7% had thoughts of killing themselves (pillay, thwala, & pillay, 2019). depressive illness is currently regarded as a serious threat in tertiary education students and has been found to be higher than in the general population (ibrahim, kelly, adams, & glazebrook, 2013). suicidal behaviour among students has increased concern about the well-being of this group and has intensified calls for mental health support and intervention (njilo, 2018). while not all depression or suicidal behaviour in higher education students is necessarily because of difficulty with academic work or poor selection of courses of study, this area of stress features strongly among student concerns (pillay et al., 2019). the literature and research into career guidance and planning have noted their importance in assisting individuals, and especially young people, in developing their life plan and facilitating healthy adjustment. robertson (2013) has urged the career guidance community to engage in more research into its value in promoting well-being, arguing that even though the evidence base is in its early stage, there is much reason to support the profession’s role in health and well-being promotion. in the context of life design counselling, maree (2015) pointed to its significance in promoting adjustment, especially in its ability to help people better understand themselves and enhance their career decision-making abilities. future concerns and recommendations adolescents make decisions about careers in various ways and based on many factors that may not be as relevant to the final outcome. among these is the growing use of the internet and related material to influence their decisions. recent research showed significant correlation between internet use and effective career decision-making (sinkkonen, puhakka, & meriläinen, 2018). with young people increasingly reliant on online platforms for information and contemplating their future, it is important that formalised, reliable and effective career guidance services are available to help them make the best possible choices. while online career guidance resources appear to have proliferated remarkably in the digital era, cautions have been raised against the reliance on a purely online career guidance approach. the need for individualised, in-person support in the context of assessment procedures has been noted, considering that this facet can be a significantly absent variable in some of the assessment and guidance formats. it has been advocated that online assessments are best supplemented with support from a career guidance professional (nelson, 2013). importantly, career development services should be made available to all who need it, unlike in the past. it is also critical that these opportunities are available to those involved in activities outside the formal sector. considering the creativity and innovative thinking that is needed in a fairly saturated formal job market, younger people seeking to carve out a niche for themselves are in need of much support and encouragement. therefore, career guidance models and theoretical frameworks may need adjustment and repositioning to ensure that all are catered for, especially in lowand middle-income countries. counsellors are compelled to innovate and contextualise their career counselling service in a way that will enable people to retain, promote and, in some instances, regain their employability in the gig economy (maree, in press). like the criticisms levelled at psychology and psychotherapy models amidst the need for transformed approaches relevant to all who need care, it is vital that career guidance, development and counselling practice are cognisant of the transformation agenda and are geared towards providing appropriate services. in time, the profession may well be judged, like psychology, on its ability to provide contextually relevant services. it has been suggested that any intervention that can serve to help people overcome social exclusion and marginalisation can have a positive impact on health and well-being (robertson, 2013). it has become evident that with global developments, economic challenges and competitive job markets, job insecurity is likely to be a common thread through the lives of workers. equally, the possibility of job stability and permanence may decline. for these reasons, it has been argued that adaptability is going to be a critical ‘survival skill’ that people need to develop within the work environment (maree, 2015). the more young people are taught about and coached in developing this ability, the better able they will be to sustain themselves in future unstable job markets. this may be one of the ‘future-proofing’ capacities that can enable workers to cope with the economic challenges they could face in the years ahead. conclusion against the background of severe deficiencies in career guidance and counselling services for south africa’s majority, it has to be said that many of those deficiencies are still prevalent in numerous schools. furthermore, the general state of many schools, especially those in non-urban communities, is very poor despite the country’s transition to democracy a little over 25 years ago. considering also the shrinking job market, education costs and other challenges facing the youth, the need for career guidance for the country’s young people is as great as ever. children at secondary school level are in dire need of career counselling and guidance services to enable them to make the best possible choices, thereby reducing the shortand long-term fallout that occurs with ill-considered decisions. it is critical to remember the vast inequality in south african society which sees some children growing up in homes with highly educated, professional parents who are able to offer advice on career options, not to mention educate their children in expensive private schools that provide various levels of career advice. on the other hand, the majority of the country’s children have none of these opportunities, with many attending dilapidated schools that lack even the barest essentials, and some grow up in child-headed households without any parents or adults to guide them. these children face challenges that some of us cannot imagine, but which society, government and the education system must work towards eradicating – they need and deserve a brighter future and a better life. helping africa’s children gain a foothold into a decent work opportunity must be a priority, and it is the least that the continent must strive to give them. acknowledgements competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references altman, m. 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(2009). the role of career guidance in the development of the national qualifications framework in south africa. in south african qualifications authority (ed.), career guidance challenges and opportunities (pp. 7–13). pretoria: south african qualifications authority. abstract introduction research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) lindokuhle m. ubisi department of psychology, faculty of human sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa wandile tsabedze department of psychology, faculty of human sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa eduard fourie department of psychology, faculty of human sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation ubisi, l.m., tsabedze, w., & fourie, e. (2023). intersections of gender and sexual diversity in the career trajectories of lgbtqia+ individuals. african journal of career development, 5(1), a81. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.81 original research intersections of gender and sexual diversity in the career trajectories of lgbtqia+ individuals lindokuhle m. ubisi, wandile tsabedze, eduard fourie received: 20 apr. 2023; accepted: 04 july 2023; published: 22 aug. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in searching, entering and adapting into a career, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other non-conforming (lgbtqia+) individuals must consider how an organisation’s cultural norms will not only affect their work but also their gender and sexual identity. this includes actively seeking welcoming workspaces, employing coping strategies against minority stressors or having to exit a work environment because of prolonged homophobia. however, it is not constructive to immediately assume that this will be the career trajectory of all lgbtqia+ individuals. objectives: this review sought to explore how lgbtqia+ individuals navigate intersections of gender and/or sexuality diversity in varied work environments. methods: a desktop review of qualitative and quantitative studies was conducted to search for publications to answer the following question, what are lgbtqia+ individuals’ experiences of gender and sexuality diversity within various work environments? results: given limited scholarship in this area in south africa, local and international studies were consulted to further the body of knowledge. evidence suggests that while lgbtqia+ individuals have found much visibility and accommodation within most organisations, they still encounter discriminatory practices including minority stressors, such as racism, queerphobia and marginalisation. conclusion: as such, it is suggested that most lgbtqia+ individuals will either exit or risk experiencing strain or burnout under such conditions of multiple oppressions. contribution: an immediate call for mental health services is required to buffer adverse wellbeing for lgbtqia+ individuals in the work environment. anti-discriminatory guidelines are recommended to promote gender and sexual diversity for lgbtqia+ individuals in the work environment. keywords: career trajectory; gender and sexuality diversity; lgbtqia+ individuals; queerphobia; homophobia. introduction south africa is said to have africa’s most protective rights for minority groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other gender, and sexuality non-conforming (lgbtqia+) individuals (andam & epprecht, 2019; beatriz & pereira, 2022; ibrahim, 2015). for example, de vos (2000) maintains that south africa is among the first to have an equality provision in its constitution (section 9(3)), which forbids discriminatory practices such as genderism, sexism or exclusion based on sexual orientation (the bill of rights of the constitution of the republic of south african, 1996). however, as it stands, many workplace organisations still have a culture of prejudice such as racism, misogyny, queerphobia or prejudice based on several overlapping social categories (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). these attitudes might cause fear, anxiety and uncertainty for marginalised groups such as lgbtqia+ individuals when searching, entering or choosing to stay within a particular career (eliason et al., 2018; maree, 2014; uttarapong et al., 2021). the work environment does not operate in a vacuum devoid of any pre-existing gender or sexuality norms (lupton, 2006; o’connor, 2015; simpson, 2004). as butler (1990) has previously asserted, conformity to gender performativity is rewarded, while deviance to normativity often results in marginalisation. as such, it is commonplace for most organisations to adopt a compulsory heterosexuality, culture within their policy strategies (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). compulsory heterosexuality refers to the overpreference or overreliance of heteromasculine or feminine roles, identities or experiences at the neglect of other non-normative gender or sexualities (francis, 2021). a similar pattern is evident when cisgendered men enter female-dominated occupations such as nursing, early childhood education and social work. kalemba (2020), khunou et al. (2012) and petersen (2014), for example, reported that genderism still ‘pushes’ cisgendered men out of female-concentrated professions. genderism involves drawing gender binaries, such as assumed gender roles for men and women based on biological sex. at the same time, williams’ (2013) glass escalator strategy suggested that cisgendered men enter the work environment with privilege, which they may use to gain more status, higher positions and better employment conditions over women in the same occupation. however, this was not applicable to non-white and gay men (williams, 2013). more importantly, it is important to note that global movements, such as the hashtags: (1) #metoo, (2) #blacklivesmatter, and (3) #blackqueerlivesmatter movements, have caused transformations for the world of work to reconsider their stances towards disenfranchisements such as racism, misogyny and queerphobia (zeng, 2020; zulli, 2020). for instance, mara et al. (2021), medina-martínez et al. (2021) and cech and rothwell (2020) systematic reviews of entry of lgbtqia+ individuals into the labour force suggest that the absorption rate has gradually increased in entry level but not significantly within management or senior positions. as such, it may be necessary to also explore whether lgbtqia+ persons may enjoy greater visibility and acceptance within certain workspaces (maake et al., 2021). for this reason, this review asked, what are the experiences of lgbtqia+ individuals in navigating gender or sexuality diversity in various work environments? research methods and design a desktop review was consulted to peruse for literature within this area. publications (e.g. special issues, journal articles, books, chapters, briefs, editorials, workplace guidelines, annual reports and so on) from multiple search engines (google scholar, psychnet, world of science journals, online journals, provincial and governmental departmental websites, among others) were consulted to search for studies available within this body of knowledge. selection criteria the search for both qualitative and quantitative publications utilised certain keywords, such as ‘gender and sexuality diversity’, ‘lgbtqia+’, ‘work environment’, ‘homophobia’, ‘transphobia’, ‘queerphobia’ and other variants of similar key terms. reference lists from consulted publications were followed to snowball for more publications. because of the scope and word limit of this review, the search was limited to publications from the period of 2000–2023. data were analysed using braun and clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis as well as the population (or participants), concept and context (pcc) framework (pollock et al., 2023). table 1 shows how the pcc framework was applied during the data analysis process. data saturation was reached after finding a duplication of themes from the authors individually analysing the retrieved data with a cross-checking of an external moderator. all in all, 800 articles were retrieved, but only 239 sources could be included based on this selection criteria for analysis. as such, the study might have missed publications outside the stipulated time period, keywords or consulted search engines. table 1: how the population (or participants), concept and context framework was applied during the data analysis process. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of south africa college of human sciences’ research ethics review committee (no. 90352025_june_crec_chs_2023). results table 2 presents findings reported as clustered themes reporting on the experiences of gender and sexual diversity during entry, adjusting and choosing to stay in various work environment by lgbtqia+ individuals. the gaps identified from the review are that few studies (both qualitative and quantitative) are available locally around the intersection of gender and sexual diversity regarding the career trajectories of lgbtqia+ individuals. for example, no studies were available of how lgbtqia+ individuals experience the interviewing process. there were no available research that studied the phenomenon from a longitudinal approach to understand the problem from entry to exit. another gap was few studies that focused on the positive experiences of entering, coping and staying in tolerant and accommodating work environments for lgbtqia+ individuals. for this reason, the study opted to consult with local and international literature around the intersection of gender and sexuality diversity in the work environment. table 2: experiences of gender and sexuality diversity during entry, adjusting and choosing to stay in various work environments by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other gender, and sexuality non-conforming individuals. discussion the review established that there are various challenges encountered by lgbtqia+ individuals as they attempt in seeking employment, coping while in the job, or in some cases had to leave an unfavourable work environment. the findings showed that stigma and discrimination are still a reality faced by lgbtqia+ individuals during various phases of employment. the discussion is separated into these various phases, namely: (1) entry into the work environment; (2) adjusting to the work environment; and (3) exit or remaining in the work environment. entry into the work environment in terms of searching different work environments, although most work environments have attempted to address gender and sexual diversity in their recruiting, hiring and workplace cultures (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022), the results show that not all work environments are accommodating for lgbtqia+ individuals to enter (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). one reason for this is that certain career fields (e.g. medicine, engineering and nursing) are heteromasculine or feminine in nature (kalemba, 2020; khunou et al., 2012; petersen, 2014). in turn, their job descriptions are designed with gender roles in mind (lupton, 2006; o’connor, 2015; simpson, 2004). for example, kalemba (2020), petersen (2014) and khunou et al. (2012) posit that certain job roles have built in assumptions based on gender binaries, such as the ability to make decisive decisions (e.g. medicine), showing physical strength in harsh conditions (engineering) or possessing compassion to care for others (nursing). as the evidence shows, these assumptions serve to discourage and exclude non-normative gender and sexual identities from entering such fields (eliason et al., 2018; maree, 2014; uttarapong et al., 2021). however, because being gainfully employed plays an integral role in our lives, such misconceptions force individuals such as lgbtqia+ individuals to respond by denying, hiding or delay ‘coming out’ about their gender and sexual identity, especially during the entry phase of their careers (astle et al., 2023; cheng et al., 2017; thuillier et al., 2022). adjusting to the work environment lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other gender, and sexuality non-conforming individuals are aware that most workplaces operate within a system of entrenched discriminatory practices such as homo-, trans-, queerphobia, or a combination of transphobia and racism to maintain their reputational and organisational standing (lupton, 2006; o’connor, 2015; simpson, 2004). as such, astle et al. (2023), cheng et al. (2017) and thuillier et al. (2022) suggest that most lgbtqia+ individuals will enter such organisations aware of the microaggressions (e.g. hateful comments, insults, assaults) faced by minority groups such as lgbtqia+ individuals. francis (2021), kalemba (2020) and khunou et al. (2012) maintain that because voluntary disclosure of gender and sexual identity is often seen as a lessor or secondary option to obtaining employment, non-disclosure prevents strategic dialogue and intervention to accommodate individuals who identify with non-normative gender and sexual identities. with the lack of organisational support, kalemba (2020), khunou et al. (2012) and petersen (2014) state that lgbtqia+ individuals become compelled to develop coping strategies (e.g. adopting a passive-aggressive attitude, absenteeism, substance abuse) to manage psychosocial stressors such as fatigue, strain and burnout, which present from such toxic work environments (cheng et al., 2017). for this reason, prolonged psychosocial stressors may force lgbtqia+ individuals to reconsider whether they wish to stay or exit such work environments (astle et al., 2023). exiting or remaining in the work environment as table 2 shows, one of the reasons for lgbtqia+ individuals in exiting queerphobic work environments was, among others, to avoid psychosomatic symptoms such as exhaustion, depression and other stress-related medical conditions (zeng, 2020; zulli, 2020). according to mara et al. (2021), medina-martínez et al. (2021) and cech and rothwell (2020), the inability of securing organisational support, work stress affecting well-being and hopelessness remained among the common motivations for leaving queerphobic workspaces. within certain conditions, the dual experience of racism and queerphobia was reported as provocations for not staying within such work environments (maake et al., 2021). for those who chose to stay within these unfavourable work environments, similar strategies aligned to butler’s (1990) gender performativity of regulating the body according to the expected gendered and sexualised norms were reported. for example, mara et al. (2021), medina-martínez et al. (2021) and cech and rothwell (2020) systematic reviews reported how lgbtqia+ individuals regulated aspects of their mannerisms, dress and body movements by ‘passing’ or ‘acting straight’ to avoid being ‘outed’. however, such denial of their gender and sexuality presented with other complications such as feeling disconnected to their colleagues or organisational goals (maake et al., 2021). conclusion this review attempted to explore the experiences of lgbtqia+ individuals in navigating gender or sexuality diversity in various work environments. findings suggest that despite global strides to increase the visibility and accommodation of lgbtqia+ persons, homo-, trans-, queerphobia remain significant experiences encountered by most gender and sexuality conforming individuals during entry, adjusting or deciding to exit certain work environments. for lgbtqia+ individuals, the study suggests that a combination of racism may further exacerbate their experiences. furthermore, the study showed that those who remain within these workspaces relied on regulating their gender and sexuality to avoid being sidelined. a limitation of this study was the given word cutoff and limited scope of desktop reviews; only certain studies and their findings could be elaborated. future research could explore the phenomenon from a triangulated approach such as a mixed-methods approach reporting on both quantitative and qualitative findings. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.m.u. perceived the idea and, together with w.t. and e.f., edited the drafts. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references andam, k., & epprecht, m. 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(2020). evaluating hashtag activism: examining the theoretical challenges and opportunities of# blacklivesmatter. participations, 17(1), 197–215. abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) paul j. hartung department of family and community medicine, northeast ohio medical university, rootstown, united states of america jeannine m. taylor department of counseling, kent state university, kent, united states of america brian j. taber department of counseling, oakland university, rochester, united states of america citation hartung, p.j., taylor, j.m., & taber, b.j. (2022). affect as a predictor of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. african journal of career development, 4(1), a58. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.58 original research affect as a predictor of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness paul j. hartung, jeannine m. taylor, brian j. taber received: 18 may 2022; accepted: 21 june 2022; published: 11 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: cognition and reason have received substantial and inordinate attention relative to emotion and intuition in understanding and intervening to promote vocational behaviour and career development. objectives: towards redressing this situation, the present study examined positive affect (pa) and negative affect (na) as proxies for emotion with regard to their relationship with three career decision-making (cdm) variables. method: a total of 250 university students (183 women, 65 men; mean age = 23 years; 88% caucasian) responded to measures of affect, occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. results: the study results supported hypothesised positive interrelationships amongst the three cdm variables. as hypothesised, regression analysis indicated that pa positively predicted the three cdm variables. contrary to expectations, na also positively predicted occupational engagement and career decidedness, albeit to a lesser degree. conclusion: the present results indicate that emotions, both positive and negative, seem to be linked to important vocational processes and should be considered in career theory and intervention. keywords: career decision-making; career adaptability; occupational engagement; career decidedness; positive and negative affectivity. introduction various calls have been made for studies of emotional and intuitive processes in career development and decision-making (e.g. hartung, 2011; hartung & blustein, 2002; kidd, 1998, 2004; krieshok, black, & mckay, 2009). such calls, dating back to the work of parsons (1909), recognise that cognition and rationality have received substantially greater attention relative to emotion in the career literature (hartung & blustein, 2002; krieshok et al., 2009; mitchell, levin, & krumboltz, 1999). this fact exists despite the integral link between cognition and emotion generally in human behaviour and development (eds. dalgleish & power, 1999, 2008). the prizing of reason over emotion in career decision-making traces its roots to ancient and modern philosophy (solomon, 2008) and relegates emotion and subjectivity to lesser roles in human decision-making and behaviour (cacioppo & gardner, 1999). conventional wisdom and scientific inquiry suggest that emotion must be dampened and cognition amplified when it comes to making good and satisfying decisions. the belief is that higher-order processes such as thought, rationality and decision-making must not be ‘hijacked by the pirates of emotion’ (cacioppo & gardner, 1999, p. 194) that can compromise objectivity and adaptive behaviour. such a belief likely helps relegate emotion to a lesser role in vocational behaviour and particularly in career decision-making (cdm) processes, wherein reason likely gets favoured over emotion. yet a significant body of conceptual and empirical work supports the role of emotion in cdm (e.g. hartung & blustein, 2002; hartung, 2011; kidd, 1998, 2004; krieshok et al., 2009; porfeli, wang, & hartung, 2008; rottinghaus, jenkins, & jantzer, 2009). therefore, the present study sought to examine positive and negative emotions as predictors of three cdm variables: career decidedness, career adaptability and occupational engagement. these outcome variables were chosen because of their prevalence in the cdm literature and fundamental roles in the career choice and development process. positive and negative emotions generalised emotional expression comprises two independent dimensions: positive affect (pa) and negative affect (na) (watson, clark, & tellegen, 1988). positive affect is a generalised form of positive emotion reflecting enthusiasm, activity and extraversion (watson & clark, 1997). negative affect is a general form of negative emotion indicated by distress and displeasure and associated with anxiety, depression and neuroticism (clark & watson, 1991; silvia & warburton, 2006). personality research and theory suggest that individuals develop trait affect leading them to respond to situations with typically more pa or more na (e.g. bagozzi, 1993; cropanzano, james, & konovsky, 1993; thompson, 2007; wright & staw, 1999). emotion in career studies theoretical (e.g. hartung, 2011; young & valach, 1996) and empirical works (e.g. brown, george-curran, & smith, 2003; porfeli et al., 2008; rottinghaus et al., 2009; young, paseluikho, &valach, 1997) have gradually offered more concerted responses to calls made for considering emotion in career theory and intervention. for example, rottinghaus et al. (2009) found evidence for career-decided college students reporting significantly less depressed moods than undecided students. while neither pa nor na related significantly to career choice status, pa predicted significant variance in self-efficacy consistent with prior research. some research particularly considers the role of emotion in cdm (bubany, krieshok, black, & mckay, 2008; krieshok et al., 2009; porfeli et al., 2008; saka, gati, & kelly, 2008) and the affective component of subjective well-being (uthayakumar, schimmack, hartung, & rogers, 2010), involving a hedonic balance between positive and negative emotions that complements a cognitive dimension entailing global life satisfaction judgements. in much of this research, investigators have primarily used scales that measure affect as an indicator of emotions from individual differences and social-cognitive perspectives. more long-standing in the literature is attention to job satisfaction (eggerth, 2015; fritzsche & parrish, 2005). when emotion has been explored, it is typically from a work adjustment perspective, focusing on the emotions of workers in occupations. the present study aimed to redirect attention to the point of cdm and thereby examine emotion from the perspective of individuals facing career transitions and choices. to the authors’ knowledge, no other studies have specifically examined emotion with regard to the variables of career decidedness, career adaptability and occupational engagement as examined in the present study. emotion and career decision-making contemporary work in vocational psychology increasingly recognises the role of emotional and non-conscious factors in cdm. for example, krieshok et al. (2009) advanced adaptive decision-making as a trilateral process involving reason, intuition and occupational engagement. in this model, the adaptive decision-maker draws upon conscious rational thought, nonconscious intuitive emotion and exploratory behaviours and enrichment experiences that promote optimal engagement in the world generally and in the world of work specifically. such engagement has been found to promote effective cdm and career success. similarly, other theory and research advances career adaptability (savickas, 2011; savickas et al., 2009) as a construct central to effective cdm and career development. like adaptive decision-making, career adaptability involves developing and possessing the resources to willingly and ably make changes in self and situation to effectively navigate work and career (savickas, 2013). long-standing amongst these constructs of adaptivity and adaptability in the cdm literature is career decidedness. a principal life task for emerging adults involves deciding about career goals. such decidedness has been linked to outcomes such as lower levels of depression (rottinghaus et al., 2009) and increased subjective well-being (uthayakumar et al., 2010). research suggests that being decided about career goals has important vocational and overall mental health outcomes (paul & moser, 2009). purpose of the study in the present study, we examined engagement, adaptability and decidedness in terms of their relationships to each other and to pa and na as proxies for emotion as a factor in cdm. based on prior studies implicating a role of emotion in cdm, we expected that affective states would be related to important cdm processes of occupational engagement, career adapatability and career decidedness. occupational engagement refers to the level of involvement in exploration and enrichment activities that contribute to an individual’s fund of information and experience of the world that may contribute to making both imminent and future career decisions (krieshok et al., 2009). career adaptability means the extent of an individual’s resources for actively managing current and anticipated career-related tasks (e.g. exploring occupations), transitions (e.g. from school to work) and work traumas (e.g. job loss). career decidedness denotes the extent to which an individual is settled on his or her career choice or experiences indecision. using these three constructs, along with positive and negative affect as proxies for emotion, the present study’s aim was to test two hypotheses. firstly, as variables conceptually related to effective cdm, it was expected that occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness relate positively to each other. secondly, it was expected that pa positively predicts and na negatively predicts occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. method participants participants were students recruited from two educational institutions in the midwest united states of america. one institution was a large public university, including its branch campuses. the other institution was a small private college. a total of 340 students volunteered to participate in the study. of these, 90 students provided incomplete data and thus were not included in the analyses. therefore, the final sample consisted of 250 participants. most participants (n = 197) were students at the public university, and the remainder (n = 53) attended the private college. combined, the total sample comprised 183 women and 65 men, with two participants not indicating their gender. the age of the participants ranged from 17 to 58 years (mean [m] = 23 years, standard deviation [sd] = 7.05). with regard to ethnicity, 221 were european-american, 11 were african-american, three were asian-american, three were hispanic, 11 identified themselves as ‘other’ and one did not report ethnicity. in terms of college rank, 45 were freshmen, 50 were sophomores, 67 were juniors and 88 reported that they were in their senior year of college. all participants were undergraduate students enrolled in both universities, which served as the sole criterion for eligibility to be included in the study. no inclusion or exclusion criteria were based on age, gender or racial or ethnic origin. no participants characterised as vulnerable were included in the study. measures affect the positive and negative affect schedule (panas; watson et al., 1988) was used to assess participants’ affect. the panas consists of 10 positive and 10 negative emotional adjectives. for example, pa items include adjectives such as ‘excited’, ‘attentive’ and ‘proud’, whereas na items include adjectives such as ‘upset’, ‘guilty’ and ‘hostile’. respondents are asked to rate ‘how they felt the past week’ with regard to the adjectives on a likert scale ranging from 1 (slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). the cronbach’s α for the current sample was 0.92 for the pa scale and 0.85 for the na scale. the positive and negative affect schedule has demonstrated construct validity evidence (watson et al., 1988). career adaptability career adaptability was measured with the career adapt-abilities scale (caas; savickas & porfelli, 2012). the caas contains 24 items and uses a five-point likert response format by which respondents rate the extent to which they have developed various abilities, ranging from 1 (not strong) to 5 (strongest). the caas items measure the four dimensions of career adaptability with six items per dimension: concern (ability to plan an occupational future), control (ability to make career decisions), curiosity (ability to explore occupational options) and confidence (ability to deal with barriers to cdm). a sample item for each dimension includes, respectively, ‘thinking about what my future will be like’, ‘making decisions by myself’, ‘investigating options before making a choice’, and ‘performing tasks efficiently’. only the total scale score was used as an index of career adaptability in the present study. internal consistency reliability estimate (alpha) for the total scale in the present study was 0.92. the caas has demonstrated construct validity evidence (öncel, 2014; savickas & porfeli, 2012). career decidedness the level of career decidedness was measured by scores on the decisional process inventory (dpi; hartung, 1995; hartung & marco, 1998; marco, hartung, newman, & parr, 2003). the dpi contains 25 items designed to measure the level of career decidedness defined in terms of progress and problems in moving through the gestalt career decision making cycle (cdmc; hartung, 1995; hartung & marco, 1998). respondents rate all dpi items on a five-point scale with two anchors (e.g. ‘as far as being able to make a career decision, i am: unprepared 1 2 3 4 5 prepared’). exploratory factor analysis (hartung & marco, 1998) indicated the dpi assesses three latent dimensions of the gestalt cdmc: cdm orientation (cdo; 11 items dealing with readiness to make a career choice), cdm closure (cdc; seven items dealing with action to make a career decision) and cdm resistance (cdr; seven items dealing with thwarting the decision-making process). in the present study, scores on items 1–18 (cdo and cdc) were summed and added to the reverse-scored sum of items 19–25 (cdr) for a dpi total score, which could range from 25 to 125. higher scores indicate higher levels of career decidedness. prior research (hartung & marco, 1998; marco et al., 2003) suggests that the dpi demonstrates good convergent validity with other established measures of career decision status. occupational engagement the occupational engagement scale – student (oes-s; cox, krieshok, bjornsen, & zumbo, 2014) was used to measure participants’ engagement in experiential activities to enrich their knowledge about self and occupations. the oes contains 15 items and uses a likert response format ranging from 1 (not at all like me) to 5 (very much like me). sample items include statements such as ‘i am actively involved in groups or organisations’, ‘i pursue opportunities in life because i just know they will come in handy’ and ‘i have contact with people working in fields i find interesting’. internal reliability estimate (alpha) for the scale was 0.89. the oes-s has demonstrated criterion-related validity evidence (cox, 2008; cox et al., 2014; mckay, 2008). procedure after obtaining requisite institutional review board approvals, web-based surveys containing all measures and a brief demographic questionnaire were e-mailed to a total of more than 2000 undergraduate students at the two institutions involved in the present study. enrolment was sought for a minimum of 150 respondents in order to meet the criteria for data analysis. follow-up e-mails were sent 7 and 14 days after the initial invitation letter. the follow-up e-mails reiterated the invitation to participate in the study, the purpose of the study and what their participation would involve. respondents who chose to participate in the study logged on to a secure website that contained the survey on a computer of their choice. there, they completed the informed consent document by clicking a box and then responded to the survey, which required approximately 30 min of their time. participants were informed that the survey would only be accessible for a 3-week period. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results table 1 lists descriptive statistics for all variables examined in the present study. it was first hypothesised that the three cdm variables of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness relate positively to each other. as shown in table 1, the results indicated positive correlations amongst the three variables: with r = 0.37 (p < 0.01) between career decidedness and occupational engagement, r = 0.43 (p < 0.01) between career decidedness and career adaptability and r = 0.46 (p < 0.01) between career adaptability and occupational engagement. these results support hypothesis 1. table 1: means, standard deviations and correlations of study variables. the second hypothesis indicated that pa positively relates and na negatively relates to each one of the cdm variables. as shown in table 1, the results indicated that pa is moderately related to career adaptability (r = 0.45, p < 0.01), career decidedness (r = 0.36, p < 0.01) and occupational engagement (r = 0.46, p < 0.01) in the expected direction. to a lesser degree, na related significantly to the career variables of occupational engagement (r = 0.13, p < 0.05) and decidedness (r = 0.20, p < 0.01). however, these relationships between na and the cdm variables were also positive and not in the expected direction. negative affect was not significantly related to career adaptability (r = 0.09, ns). these results lend partial support to hypothesis 2. to further test the hypothesis that pa would positively predict occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness, separate linear regressions were conducted. these analyses provided another way of examining the relationships amongst the variables and indicated amounts of variance that could be accounted for by them. as hypothesised, pa predicted occupational engagement (β = 0.46, p < 0.001), career adaptability (β = 0.45, p < 0.001) and career decidedness (β = 0.36, p < 0.001). positive affect accounted for 20%, 21% and 13% of the variance, respectively. contrary to the hypothesis, na positively predicted occupational engagement (β = 0.13, p < 0.05) and career decidedness (β = 0.20, p < 0.01). negative affect accounted for 4% and 2% of the variance, respectively. negative affect did not predict career adaptability (β = 0.09, ns). even though the results run counter to what was anticipated, it appears that na has a positive, though rather negligible, influence on occupational engagement and career decidedness. discussion recent years have witnessed increased calls for studies of emotion and intuition in career development and decision-making (e.g. hartung, 2011; hartung & blustein, 2002; kidd, 2004; krieshok et al., 2009). in response, conceptual work and some empirical research continue to make forays into understanding the role of emotion in vocational behaviour. the present study aimed to advance this line of inquiry by examining positive and negative emotions as predictors of three prominent and conceptually consistent cdm variables of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness amongst a sample of college students. these three variables were chosen for the study in relation to emotion because of their overlapping conceptual relationships and their prominent roles in cdm. consistent with the first hypothesis, the three cdm variables all proved positively and significantly interrelated. the present data indicate that individuals reporting higher levels of occupational engagement likewise report higher levels of career adaptability and career decidedness. thus, the present findings support empirically obvious conceptual links amongst engaged decision-making, ability to adapt by making changes in self and situation to promote one’s own career development and feeling more decided about one’s career choice. individuals more involved in career exploration and enrichment activities to increase self-knowledge and world-of-work knowledge also evinced more resources for coping with current and anticipated career-related tasks and transitions as well as more closure about their career choice. these results support prior studies indicating links between emotion and cdm processes (e.g. porfeli et al., 2008; rottinghaus et al., 2009). consistent with the second hypothesis, the present data indicated that positive affect. predicts greater levels of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness. thus, individuals who reported more positive emotions also reported more engagement in activities to explore self and occupations, ability to plan, decide, explore and deal with barriers to their career choices and decisions, and also feel more settled on their career decisions. inconsistent with expectations and contrary to the second hypothesis, negative affectivity also positively predicted occupational engagement and career decidedness. it could be that negative emotions assessed by the panas, such as feeling upset, distressed and afraid, could serve as drivers of exploratory behaviour and also lead to more decidedness about career choices. perhaps negative emotions serve as a motivating force in the case of occupational engagement, leading to action to quell such feelings. negative emotions may, in effect, contribute to a state of tension about making a career decision that individuals seek to resolve through action. this interpretation seems consistent with the hedonic model of emotion that views emotions as having intrinsic motivational properties (hansell, 1989). future research, perhaps with mixed methods designs that include qualitative components, could further investigate this possibility and also examine individuals’ thought processes and experiences in responding to the affectivity and cdm measures. from a practical standpoint, the present data further support attending to emotion in career assessment and counselling (hartung, 2011; kidd, 2004). emotions may not so much represent barriers to vocational development. rather, they may benefit the motivational process of goal-striving whereby people seek to move from a place of tension (experienced anger, fear, guilt, sadness, inferiority, confusion and passivity) to a place of intention (purposefulness and goal-directedness) and ultimately to a place of retention (self-reintegration and new meaning). perhaps individuals use emotion to balance personal needs and environmental demands in a homeostatic process of organismic self-regulation. if so, it may be that, as damasio (1999) stated: at their most basic, emotions are part of homeostatic regulation and are poised to avoid the loss of integrity … emotions of all shades eventually help connect homeostatic regulation and survival ‘values’ to numerous events and objects in our autobiographical experiences. (pp. 54–55) the present study is certainly limited by a rather circumscribed sample and problems such as social desirability effects that are inherent in using self-report measures. notwithstanding these limitations, the present study offers some needed data about links between emotion and key cdm processes. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions each author contributed towards the development, design and implementation of the study. p.j.h. principally made contribution to the conceptual background of the study. j.m.t. was mainly involved in data collection, and b.j.t. principally led the data analysis. all authors contributed to the final manuscript to be published. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data used in this study are available from the first author upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references bagozzi, r.p. 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(1997). the role of emotion in the construction of career in parent-adolescent conversations. journal of counseling and development, 76(1), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1997.tb02374.x abstract introduction conceptual framework methodology results data from key informant’s interview discussion implications for research and practice study limitations conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) goodness j. okon department of sociology, faculty of social science, university of calabar, calabar, nigeria ekwuore m. ushie department of sociology, faculty of social science, university of calabar, calabar, nigeria judith e. otu department of sociology, faculty of social science, university of calabar, calabar, nigeria citation okon, g.j., ushie, e.m., & otu, j.e. (2020). socioeconomic well-being of orphans and vulnerable children in orphanages within cross river state, nigeria. african journal of career development, 2(1), a13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.13 original research socioeconomic well-being of orphans and vulnerable children in orphanages within cross river state, nigeria goodness j. okon, ekwuore m. ushie, judith e. otu received: 11 mar. 2020; accepted: 29 sept. 2020; published: 20 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the social and economic needs of a growing child are paramount to his or her entire well-being. as the number of orphans and vulnerable children in the country keep increasing, their socioeconomic challenges are also expanding. this research work investigated the socioeconomic well-being of orphans and vulnerable children (ovc) in two orphanages within calabar south local government area, cross river state, nigeria. objectives: four objectives were highlighted to include unearthing the level of ovc school enrolment: school attendance, vocational training, educational challenges and possible solutions. method: the study adopted a descriptive research design and used simple random sampling technique to select respondents for the survey. a sample size of 64 was obtained using taro yamane’s formula. the respondents comprised 26 males and 38 females, within the age range of 2–18 years. instruments for primary data collection were structured questionnaire for the children and key informant interview for the caregivers. data were analysed with statistical package for social sciences computer software and presented thematically, using simple percentages, frequencies, frequency polygon, bar chart and pie chart. results: the study revealed that a greater number of ovc were enrolled in school, more than average maintained regular school attendance, few children obtained vocational training and many experienced educational challenges. conclusion: it was recommended amongst others that the government should provide adequate educational materials to ovc in orphanages, vocational education should be considered as basic education for all children, and individuals and private or public organisations should also provide the ovc with basic support to ameliorate their educational challenges. keywords: school enrolment; school attendance; academic performance; orphans and vulnerable children; educational challenge; vocational training. introduction there has been escalating rate of orphans and vulnerable children (ovc) since early 21st century. it was reported in 2008 that about 145 million children globally have lost at least one parent (who & unaid, 2008). in nigeria, the federal ministry of women affairs and social development reported that nigeria has approximately 17.5 million ovc (federal ministry of women affairs and social development, 2012). the united nations agency for international development (unaid) defines an orphan as a child, under 18 years of age, who has lost one or both parents. those children experiencing unfavourable conditions such as malnutrition, morbidity, loss of education, chronic illness and disability are known as vulnerable children (the joint united nations programme on hiv and aids [unaids], 2011). socioeconomic indices such as education and career development are seen as basic human right for all children. these are catalyst for national development and also set foundation for individuals’ productive and healthy living (unesco, 2019). a child who can access quality primary education has the basic foundation for continued learning in lifetime. educational well-being in this context implies the school enrolment, attendance and performance of a child. vocational training is such training that endows children with various skills so they can work as artisans, technicians or tradesmen. pepfar (2006) noted that schools not only benefit the children but can also serve as a powerful tool for meeting the developmental needs of the community. it is also observed that school attendance enables children who are traumatised to recover from psychosocial effect of their experiences and regain a sense of normalcy (usaid & crs, 2008). miller (2019) assumed that vocational education prepares learners to be useful to themselves and their community by equipping them with both practical and manual skills. it is a training ground that gives people assurance concerning their lifetime career. orphans and vulnerable children encounter several challenges that impact negatively on their socioeconomic well-being. studies conducted by crs and csn (2008) revealed that orphans have lower school attendance than non-orphans. fleming (2015), who carried out a study on education for orphans or vulnerable children affected by human immunodeficiency virus (hiv), discovered that paternal orphans are less discriminated against in accessing education than maternal or double orphan. orphans experience financial constraints and as such cannot afford the cost of education. the study conducted in kenya by subbarao, maltimore and plangemann (2010) disclosed some inhibiting factors to ovc’s accessibility to quality education are lack of educational capacity, additional cost of education, low quality of education and inability to attend school on full time basis. in addition, richter (2004) demonstrated that some orphans are deprived of their education in event of parental death, whilst some live in households with food insecurity. despite the execution of free primary education policy in nigeria and donations made to orphanages by non-governmental organisations (ngos), individuals, private and public organisations, ovc are at higher risk of being dropped out of school. this poses short-term, medium-term and long-term socioeconomic threat to national development. most ovc are seen hawking or playing on the streets during school hours. this study became necessary after a careful observation of alarming rate of street children in calabar south local government area. some of these children were seen on uniforms still parading the streets instead of being in school. several studies have been carried out on the needs and psychosocial support given to ovc in nigeria. however, no research work has been carried out on the assessment of educational well-being of ovc in calabar south local government area. paucity of this knowledge has inhibited the development of adequate strategy to ameliorate educational challenges encountered by the ovc. this study aimed at unearthing the socioeconomic situation of ovc in calabar south local government area, cross river state, nigeria. the study sought to answer the following research questions: what is the level of ovc’s school enrolment in calabar south local government area? what is the level of ovc’s school attendance in calabar south local government area? what is the academic performance of ovc’ in calabar south local government area? what is the height of ovc’s vocational training in calabar south local government area? what are the educational challenges experienced by the ovc in calabar south local government area? what strategies can be used to mitigate these challenges? conceptual framework amartya sen’s capability approach the capability approach is associated with amartya sen, an indian economist and a philosopher. it focuses on the capability of individuals to achieve the kind of lives they can value. ‘poverty’ here is seen as a deprivation in individuals’ capability to live a good life. in his capability approach, sen (1999) argues that it is imperative whilst evaluating well-being to consider what people are really able to be and do. according to sen, the well-being of people is about expansion of capabilities. his capability approach is concerned with expanding the real freedoms people enjoy. his core concepts are functioning, capabilities and agency. those things people value being and doing are known as functioning; capabilities are the opportunities exposed to individuals and ability to achieve the desired results, whilst agency entails the interactive role played by individuals in the society, such as political, social and economic roles. in sen’s perspective, ‘poverty’ which is seen as deprivation should be taken away from the ovc. their capabilities should be developed to enable them access various opportunities and make choices. as observed by hossain (2013), most ovc live in abject poverty, and consequently, they are dropped out of school because of their inability to pay fees and purchase educational materials, and they are also bereft of the vocational skills, which could provide them with manual jobs. this situation compromises the ovc’s access to the necessary opportunities for improvement of their life chances. it, therefore, becomes necessary for possible interventions to emerge to reduce ovc’s educational challenges because education provides a child with hope for work and life, and also serve as a strong protection against sexual abuse and exploitation. through quality education, the capabilities of ovc can be expanded, exposing them to various alternatives they can choose from, thereby, enabling them to live valuable lives and also achieve their goals. sen’s capability approach has been criticised for laying much emphasis on individuals’ freedom without considering communal values and life patterns (gore, 2007). it is also noted that sen’s concept of individuals’ freedom is vague and cannot explain how a person’s freedom affects others (nussbaum, 2003). notwithstanding, this approach is still very relevant to the understanding of people’s well-being. methodology research design and study area this study adopted a descriptive research design. the choice of this design was based on the researcher’s intention to analytically describe the educational and vocational situation of ovc in orphanages. it was conducted in two orphanages within calabar south local government area, namely uwanse motherless babies home and infant jesus orphanage home. calabar is the capital of cross river state, southern nigeria, and lies along the calabar river and cross river delta. calabar is divided into calabar south and calabar municipal local government areas with an area of 406 square kilometers and a population of 3 71 022 at 2006 census. respondents and setting the study population is made up of children within school age (2–18 years) living in the two orphanages. uwanse motherless babies home had 40 children and infant jesus orphanage home had 36 children, making it a total of 76 children. simple random sampling technique was used to select respondents for the survey whilst the sample size of 64 was obtained using taro yamane’s formula. sociodemographic characteristics of respondents table 1 and figures 1–4 demonstrate the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents. as shown in figure 1, 21 (32.8%) respondents belonged to the age range of 2–6 years, 10 (15.6%) respondents belonged to the range of 7–11 years and 33 (51.6%) respondents belonged to the age range of 12–18 years. distribution of respondents by sex reveals a greater number of female respondents 38 (59.4%) as compared with male respondents 26 (40.6%) (see figure 2). responses on educational level specify that 18 respondents representing 28.1% were in nursery schools, 17 respondents representing 26.5% were in primary schools, 21 respondents representing 32.8% attended secondary schools and four respondents representing 6.3% were in tertiary institutions whereas the remaining four respondents representing 6.3% were not in any school (see figuer 3). figure 4 indicates that five (7.8%) respondents were living with disability, 25 (39.1%) respondents were paternal orphans and eight (12.5%) respondents were maternal orphans, whilst 26 (40.6%) respondents were double orphans. figure 1: distribution of respondents’ responses on age. figure 2: distribution of respondents’ responses on sex (female respondents 38 [59.4%] as compared with male respondents 26 [40.6%]). figure 3: distribution of respondents’ responses on educational level. figure 4: distribution of respondents’ responses on orphans and vulnerable children status. table 1: socio demographic characteristics of respondents. instrumentation instruments used for data collection were structured questionnaire for the children and key informant interview (kii) for the caregivers. the caregivers assisted in filling questionnaire for children between 2 and 8 years old. the questionnaire was divided into two segments: the first segment was made up of sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, whilst the second segment was designed to divulge information on the study variables, such as school enrolment, school attendance, academic performance, vocational training and educational challenge. a nominal scale with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ options was used to design the questionnaire. whilst developing a coding key, ‘yes’ option was assigned with a nominal value of 1, and ‘no’ option was assigned with 2. key informant interview schedule for caregivers was designed based on the five variables under study. the qualitative data obtained were tape-recorded to enhance proper analysis. the fieldwork was carried out with the help of two research assistants who guided the children in the process of filling questionnaire. data analysis quantitative data from questionnaires were coded and analysed through descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 22.0; qualitative data from the interviews were thematically analysed using a procedure by braun and clarke (2019). ethical consideration ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the ministry of health, cross river state. the research team went through all the necessary criteria to fulfil ethical requirements such as obtaining ethical clearance from the ministry of health ethical committee, seeking informed consent of the respondents, ensuring voluntary participation and anonymity. results participants’ responses on school enrolment, school attendance and academic performance table 2 shows the distribution of respondents’ responses on school enrolment, attendance and performance. responses on ‘are you enrolled in school?’ point out that 60 (93.8%) respondents maintained being enrolled in school, whilst only four (6.3%) respondents were of negative response. on the question ‘how many days do you attend school in a week?’, more respondents 40 (62.4%) claimed attending school for all the 5 days in a week, four (6.3%) respondents attended 4 days in a week, another four (6.3%) respondents attended 3 days in a week and 12 (18.7%) respondents attended 2 days in a week, whereas the remaining four (6.3%) respondents had not been to school. responses on ‘what was your academic performance in the last examinations?’ revealed that 14 respondents representing 21.8% reported having a very good performance, 34 respondents representing 53.1% maintained having good performance, nine respondents representing 14.1% reported fair performance and three respondents representing 4.7% maintained poor performance. a total of four (6.3%) respondents were those who had no school enrolment. table 2: distribution of respondents’ responses on school enrolment, attendance and performance. participants’ responses on vocational training table 3 describes the distribution of respondents’ responses on vocational training obtained. as displayed in the table, 27 respondents representing 42.2% reported obtaining vocational training, whilst 37 (57.8%) respondents had no such training. on the question ‘what type of vocational training have you obtained?’, two (3.1%) respondents learned carpentry, three (4.7%) learned hairdressing, five (7.8%) tailoring, another five (7.8%) artwork, three (4.7%) masonry, five (7.8%) practical nursing and four (6.3%) respondents learned other skills, which were not listed by the researcher. table 3: distribution of respondents’ responses on vocational training. participants’ responses on educational challenge table 4 illustrates respondents’ responses on educational challenge experienced. on the question ‘have you encountered any educational challenge?’ a total of 47(73.4%) respondents reported going through educational challenge, whilst 17(26.6%) respondents reported not having any challenge. on ‘what is the nature of educational challenge?’, it can be observed in table 4 that out of the 64 respondents, five representing 7.8% reported non-payment of school fees as their educational challenge, 33 respondents representing 51.5% reported lack of educational materials, four respondents representing 6.3% reported hunger as their challenge, another four respondents representing 6.3% reported illness as their challenge and one (1.6%) respondent reported emotional abuse, whereas 17 respondents representing 26.5% reported no educational challenge. table 4: distribution of respondents’ responses on educational challenge. data from key informant’s interview two senior caregivers were interviewed in the two orphanages, one from each orphanage; the results are presented below, according to the major themes in the study. orphans and vulnerable children’s school enrolment the study participants reported that the ovc within school age were all registered in school, except those with disabilities. below are statements from the interviewees: ‘all the children within school age have been enrolled except those with disability, we need more support to enable us send them to a school which takes care of children with disabilities.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1) ‘they are all registered in school, only those ones who cannot talk are yet to be registered.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2) orphans and vulnerable children’s school attendance the interviewees generally reported that the ovc attend school on regular basis. illustrative statements from the participants are given below: ‘they all attend school on regular basis, some are boarders, and they just came back because of mid-term break.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1) ‘they attend school regularly except when they are ill or have some minor challenges. although there are some who don’t like going to school on daily basis, we do our best to make sure they attend school.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2) orphans and vulnerable children’s academic performance some of the ovc brought their examination results that were used to rate their performance; a greater number of the children had excellent performance. also, the interviewees reported that most ovc’s academic performance were good. illustrative statements from the caregivers are given below: ‘most of these children are very brilliant; two of them who performed excellently got admission into the university of calabar.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1). ‘some of them are very good academically; others are still coming up.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2). vocational training the participants reported that those children who were of age to learn skills were trained, but their major problem was the inability to establish these children after vocational trainings. below are statements from the participants: ‘it is only the older ones that are allowed to learn handwork, mostly when they are on long-break; these skills can help them to earn income even without ‘white-collar job.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1). ‘some of them have learnt vocational skills, but there is no money to buy the necessary equipments or machines for them, only few have been established after vocational training.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2). educational challenge the participants reported insufficient educational materials as the ovc’s major educational challenge. the interviewees’ illustrative statements are given below: ‘though the church takes care of their school fees, we need supports to enable us provide the necessary educational materials to them.’ (key informant #1, female, 49 years old, orphanage 1) ‘some well-minded individuals, organizations, and the government do take care of their school fees. yet there are some serious educational demands that must be addressed such as uniforms, shoes, books, etc.’ (key informant #2, female, 53 years old, orphanage 2) discussion from the given results, it can be deduced that a greater number of ovc in orphanages are enrolled in various schools ranging from nursery to higher institution. only four out of 64 children were not enrolled in school and these four children were either disable or sick. this finding is contrary to the erroneous belief that ovc in orphanages lack educational background. the study lends credence to the work of mutiso and mutie (2018) who studied the challenges affecting ovc in embu county and found that 74.9% of orphans were schooling, whereas 21.1% were not schooling. it is further supported by the work of okon and ojua (2018) on psychosocial support and well-being for ovc as a strategy for poverty reduction in cross river and ebonyi states. this study revealed the percentage of ovc enrolled in school within cross river and ebonyi states to be 89.2% and 76%, respectively. as it relates to school attendance, majority of the children attended school regularly. only 31.3% maintained irregular school attendance. as explained by the caregivers, such irregular attendance is because of educational challenges experienced by the children. in consonance with this finding, olanrewaju, jeffery, crossland and valadez (2015), who carried out a study on access to education for ovc in uganda, observed that 79.1% of ovc attended school within 3-year period. this particular result contradicts the finding of okon and ojua (2018) who maintained the percentage of ovc with regular school attendance to be a little above average (56.8%) in cross river state and less than average (39.9%) in ebonyi state. with regard to the children’s academic performance, a lesser number of the ovc (18.8%) did not perform well, whereas a greater part of them (74.9%) had better performance. this demonstrates that most ovc in orphanages perform well academically. to buttress this point, okon and ojua (2018) exposed in their work that 58.6% and 66.7% of the children aged 0–9 years progressed in school over time, in cross river and ebonyi states, respectively, whilst 83.3% and 66.7% of children aged 10–17 years progressed in school correspondingly in cross river and ebonyi states. this finding contradicts the outcome of the study carried out by pillay and nesengani (2006) on educational challenges facing ovc. their study found that most ovc experienced poor academic performance because of the inability to complete their school tasks and poor academic performance. with reference to vocational training, only 27 respondents representing 42.2% reported learning some vocational skills. this set of respondents belonged to the 12–18 age group, as confirmed by united nations children’s fund (unicef, 2009), which positioned that 90% of the beneficiaries of community harnessed initiatives for children’s learning and development (child) programme in rwanda were ovc between 15 years old and above. the 27 respondents learnt skills such as carpentry, hairdressing, tailoring, masonry, nursing, arts and others. this finding agrees with that of benjamin (2015) on ‘provision of vocational skills education to orphans’; his study revealed that 21 (52.5%) ovc learnt tailoring, nine (22.5%) computer, one (2.5%) welding, four (10.0%) driving, one (2.5%) arts, three (7.5%) carpentry and one (2.5%) gardening. most of the ovc who were school dropped out had another chance of improving their lives through these skills acquisition trainings. in terms of educational challenges, table 2 reveals that more children (73.4%) experienced educational challenges. few of them experienced non-payment of school fees, whilst a greater part lacked basic educational materials. as explained by the caregivers, some of these challenges include inability to meet daily school (financial) demands, buy books, uniforms, shoes, etc. it was observed by mwoma and pillay (2016) in a work titled ‘educational support for ovc in primary schools: challenges and interventions’, that factors such as low self-esteem, hunger, lack of concentration amongst ovc, absenteeism or lateness to school and poor hygiene are the challenges, which can have a negative impact on ovc academic performance. pillay (2012) noted that most ovc find it difficult to read or do their homework when it gets dark because of poor power supply and inability to acquire alternatives. this situation has an adverse effect on the children’s academic achievement. implications for research and practice the socioeconomic well-being of ovc is a topical issue that necessitates a lot of research; the results of this study, therefore, add to the existing literature on this topic and as such expand knowledge. practically, this study unearths the educational and vocational situation of ovc in orphanages. this will send alarming signal to the government organisations and ngos and the general public on ovc educational and vocational challenges, thereby opening more doors for vocational and educational support. moreover, the recommendations of this study, when implemented, will contribute to the formulation and implementation of policies, which will improve the socioeconomic well-being of ovc in nigeria. study limitations few respondents’ academic report sheets/booklets were not accessible at the time of carrying out this study. also, it was difficult to obtain full concentration from the children whilst filling research questionnaire, as such the process was not void of mistakes. those children living with disability could not report accurately. it is also worthy to state that the response from kii may not be completely free from bias because of the fact that the two key informants were caregivers and are bound to project a good image of the organisations (orphanages) they belong to. conclusion and recommendations most ovc in orphanages are enrolled in school and also maintain regular school attendance. this could be because of the close monitoring and guidance of their caregivers. a small number of the children obtained vocational training. the respondents maintained high and encouraging academic performance, although very few had poor performance in school. according to the caregivers, this poor performance is attributed to educational challenges experienced by the children in terms of lack of funds to acquire the necessary educational materials and also offer other school-related provisions. the study, therefore, recommends that: the government should provide adequate educational materials to ovc in orphanages. individuals, private and public organisations should help in providing the basic support to ovc in order to ameliorate their educational challenges. non-governmental organisations, as well as the government should create a conducive environment with frequent power supply for the ovc in orphanages. orphans and vulnerable children living with disability should be assisted by both private and public individuals/organisations to be enrolled in school of the disability children as well as monitor and encourage their sustained school attendance. vocational education should be seen and treated as basic education for all children, especially the ovc, who may not have the opportunity to go higher in academics. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank reverend joseph okon ibok for financial, moral, spiritual and physical support; assoc. prof. agba for moral and academic support; and dr e. etobe for moral, spiritual and academic support. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions the corresponding author did the whole work through the guidance of other authors. funding information the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references benjamin, m.m. 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(2008). children and aids: third stocktaking report. new york, ny: united nations children fund. abstract background research objective method results discussion research limitations and directions for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa marais s. bester department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., bester, m.s., ferreira, n., & potgieter, h. (2020). facets of career agility as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ career adaptability. african journal of career development, 2(1), a11. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.11 original research facets of career agility as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ career adaptability melinde coetzee, marais s. bester, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter received: 20 feb. 2020; accepted: 16 apr. 2020; published: 28 may 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the fast-changing industry 4.0 employment conditions require employees to be highly adaptable and resilient in their career self-management. more insight is needed regarding the manner in which facets of career agility (as indicators of adaptive readiness) explain the activation of career adaptability (as an indicator of self-regulated career management resources that help employees proactively respond to the demands of the modern-day technological-driven work context). objectives: the study explored the career agility facets of technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation as potential explanatory mechanisms of individuals’ career adaptability. method: the study utilised a cross-sectional research design which involved a convenience sample (n = 177) of employees (mean age = 34 years; sd = 10.14) from various industries on managerial (39%), staff (38%), and professional consultant (23%) level positions across the globe. the sample was mostly represented by individuals employed in the south african organisational context (72%). results: multiple regression analyses revealed that technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation function as facets of adaptive readiness that explain higher levels of the career adaptability resources embedded in individuals’ career concern, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence. conclusion: the findings contribute new insights into the construct of career agility and extends research on antecedents of career adaptability. modern-day career counselling practice may find the results useful in helping clients be nimble in their adaptation to the changing career and job conditions of the digital era. keywords: adaptivity; adaptive readiness; career adaptability; career agility; technological adaptivity; agile learning; career navigation; broaden-and-build theory. background employees’ career adaptability is an important self-regulative personal resource that aids in the proactive adaptation to changing work situations. modern-day work conditions involve, inter alia, more frequent transitions between jobs, organisations, and occupations which require enhanced career adaptation capabilities (rudolph, lavigne, katz, & zacher, 2017). the capacity to adjust and display adaptability has become desirable to deal nimbly with the digital era’s unprecedented economic and technological forces that are reshaping work opportunities and conditions (johnston, 2018; lent, 2018). career adaptability reflects four transactional psychosocial strengths or capacities (i.e. career concern, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence) that function as career self-management resources in the adaptation process. these resources facilitate successful alignment with, and proactive adaptation to shifting environmental conditions (hirschi, herrmann, & keller, 2015; rudolph et al., 2017). adapting responses, enabled by individuals’ career adaptability, is reflected in proactive career behaviours such as, career planning and decision-making. proactive career behaviours generally lead to positive outcomes such as career satisfaction, life satisfaction, and job satisfaction (johnston, 2018; rudolph et al., 2017). career agility has emerged as an important construct in popular media to assess individuals’ adaptive readiness or willingness to adapt and proactively respond to change (konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020). the career construction theory (savickas, 2013) postulates that adaptation starts with adaptive readiness, moves to the use of adaptability resources, then to adapting responses which result in outcomes of adaptation. the extant research on antecedents of career adaptability explored career optimism, future work self, learning goal orientation, goal pursuit and personality traits in the form of core self-evaluations and proactivity as indicators of adaptive readiness (hirschi et al., 2015; johnston, 2018). however, more empirical insight is needed regarding the manner in which facets of career agility (as indicators of adaptive readiness) explain the activation of career adaptability. research (see, for example, hirschi et al., 2015; johnston, 2018; perera & mcilveen, 2017) indicates adaptive readiness as an important antecedent of individuals’ career adaptability. adaptive readiness appears to activate the self-regulated career management resources of career adaptability. these resources were shown to help employees proactively respond to the demands of the modern-day technological-driven work context (savickas & porfeli, 2012). career agility denotes the willingness or adaptive readiness to proactively adapt to technological change and to engage in continuous learning which may help to trigger the use of career-adaptability resources. research objective the aim of this research is to explore career agility as a potential antecedent or explanatory mechanism of individuals’ career adaptability. popular media (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020) have started to discuss the importance of career agility in career self-management. however, empirical studies on the construct are lacking. to our knowledge, the present study is the first empirical study that provides more insight into the construct of career agility and its link with the well-researched construct of career adaptability. it is postulated that the adaptive readiness to change, reflected in the three facets of career agility (i.e. technological adaptivity, agile learning, career navigation), positively explain individuals’ adaptability resources of career concern, career control, career curiosity and career confidence. career agility in the career development and employment space, career agility refers to the adaptive readiness or willingness to adapt to, and proactively respond to changes that influence one’s future career wellbeing and satisfaction (konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020). the capacity for career agility is deemed important in the context of the fourth industrial revolution (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020). industry 4.0 is argued to bring new occupations, new industries and fundamentally new ways of work because of technological innovation (hirschi, 2018). coetzee, ferreira and potgieter (2020) identified three facets of career agility (i.e. technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation) that describe individuals’ adaptive readiness for proactive career self-management in the technological-driven digital era. these three facets stemmed from a comprehensive review of the research literature on career adaptive behaviours (which informed the development of the career agility scale), and a preliminary exploratory factor analysis on a south african-based pilot study (coetzee et al., 2020): technological adaptivity denotes a sense of optimism and positive affect toward accelerated technological development and the possibility of new and exciting job and career opportunities these bring. generally, such individuals feel that technologically evolving job roles optimise their creativity, growth and happiness. they generally seem eager to search for job roles that evolve with the changing technological conditions because of the growth opportunities these offer. individuals who display high levels of technological adaptivity generally deem it important to update their knowledge and skills in order to capitalise on the new job opportunities created by technological developments. they are confident in marketing their unique brand of values and portfolio of skills across digital networks (coetzee et al., 2020). popular media suggest that career agility is built on the coordination of personal strengths and resources that can be leveraged for career success. creating a diverse network of professional relationships often help to create meaningful new career pathways in uncertain, changing contexts (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020). agile learning alludes to the willingness to set and manage the achievement of career goals. individuals who display high levels of agile learning generally feel alive and full of energy; they are eager to search for opportunities to learn new skills that will improve their career and job success (coetzee et al., 2020). popular media regards the investment in learning as an important facet of career self-management which helps people to acquire an intelligent know-how that accelerates their career development. an agile learning mindset encourages people to consider projects and opportunities that build, leverage and maximise their knowledge, skills and style preferences (andersen, 2020; konstant, 2020). career navigation reflects individuals’ willingness to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in their job and career environment. individuals with high levels of career navigation are willing to scan the environment for new career opportunities and to take advantage of changes in the job and career environment. such individuals are highly flexible in their capacity to adapt to change (coetzee et al., 2020). andersen (2020) regards career navigation as an important mindset to remain informed of changes and opportunities in the market. career navigation fosters environmental awareness which helps individuals leverage and apply changes with confidence to their own careers and jobs. the three facets of career agility denote positive affective states which function as internal adaptivity signals to approach or continue in the advent of technological change. the career construction theory posits in this regard that adaptivity fosters the development and activation of adaptability resources that facilitate the approach to the adaptation process (perera & mcilveen, 2017; savickas, 2013). the broaden-and-build theory (frederickson, 2004) explains that individuals have the capacity for broadening their mindsets which carry the indirect and long-term adaptive benefit of facilitating the building of enduring psychosocial resources for adaptation purposes. theoretically, it is argued that the facets of career agility function as motivational energisers of adaptivity that promote the building of personal resources needed to achieve career goals. the broaden-and-build theory (frederickson, 2004) posits that experiences of positive emotions prompt engagement with the environment and the intrinsic motivational drive to actively partake in activities that may often be adaptive for the individual in an evolutionary sense. the positive affective states embedded in adaptive readiness provide the offset to willingly exhibit the adaptive bias to approach and explore novel objects, people or situations (frederickson, 2004). research shows that individuals with high adaptability profiles generally demonstrate high levels of adaptivity, that is, flexibility, willingness and readiness to change (hirschi & valero, 2015; perera & mcilveen, 2017). generally, popular media argue that the positive affective states inherent to career agility enhance individuals’ career fitness and motivation to succeed (andersen, 2020). in this regard, popular media further suggest that the capacity for career agility increases motivation, confidence and resilience. individuals with high levels of career agility seem more confident in their career decision-making; they are eager to develop career action plans, develop new perspectives on the job search process, and are able to identify a wide range of professional options and possibilities that they are eager to pursue (konstant, 2020; ubc, 2020). it therefore stands to reason that the dispositional flexibility and positivity inherent to the three facets of career agility may function as formative adaptive readiness contributors to the process of adaptation by activating the drive to use career adaptability resources. career adaptability career adaptability involves a set of four psychosocial career self-management resources (i.e. career concern, career control, career curiosity, career confidence) that help individuals adapt to changes in the job market and job conditions (ginevra, pallini vecchio, nota, & soresi, 2016; savickas & porfeli, 2012). career adaptability and its set of resources are deemed important for people’s interaction with the world of work (johnston, 2018). mcmahon, watson and brimrose (2012) found that the four career adaptability resources emerge in the evaluation of the career self in relation to external circumstances and internal subjective experiences of the world of work. career concern reflects career-related forethought and preparation to respond to the demands, challenges and changes of the future work environment. career control refers to the degree of responsibility that an individual assumes for their vocational future; it further implies the use of self-regulation strategies to adjust to the needs of different settings. career curiosity implies the intrinsic motivation to explore possible future selves and associated vocational prospects and options. career confidence relates to the belief in one’s ability to attain career goals; one feels confident to stand by one’s own aspirations and goals despite difficulties (ginevra et al., 2016; rudolph et al., 2017). these four career adaptability resources appear to be activated by a predisposition to positively and proactively approach new stimuli (savickas, 2013; savickas & porfeli, 2012). adaptive-ready individuals generally report significantly higher levels of career adaptability than those who are more rigid toward change (perera & mcilveen, 2017). research shows that positive emotional dispositions, career concerns, learning orientation and hope do predict adaptability (johnston, 2018). it therefore stands to reason that the career agility facets of technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation will positively predict the activation of individuals’ career adaptability, embedded in the resources of career concern, career control, career curiosity and career confidence. whereas career agility denotes adaptive readiness and a dispositional willingness to adapt and change, the activation of the career adaptability resources actually connects them to the environment (see hirschi et al., 2015). taking theory and empirical research together, we formulated the following research hypothesis: h1: scores on facets of career agility positively predict scores on facets of career adaptability. method participants the sample involved a cross-sectional, convenience sample (n = 177) of adult workers (mean age = 34 years; sd = 10.14) employed in various industries in managerial (39%), staff (38%), and professional consultant (23%) level positions across the globe (south africa: 72%; western europe: 12%; eastern europe: 6%; africa: 6%; australia/new zealand: 2%; usa: 2%). in terms of ethnic origin, white/caucasian people represented 67% of the sample. people from african origin comprised 18% of the sample. the sample was also represented by people from asian origin (5%) and of mixed race (3%) origin. male participants represented 46% and females 54% of the sample. measuring instruments career agility the career agility scale developed by coetzee et al. (2020) was used to measure the following three constructs of career agility: technological adaptivity (seven items; e.g. ‘i search for job roles that evolve with changing technological conditions because they offer opportunities for growth and creativity’); agile learning (five items; e.g. ‘i continually search for opportunities to learn new skills that will improve my career and job success’); and career navigation (six items; e.g. ‘i am able to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in my job and career environment’). respondents rated each item on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability (α = 0.90) on the career agility scale. the internal consistency reliability for the subscales ranged between 0.73 and 0.89 (coetzee et al., 2020). career adaptability the well-established career adapt-ability scale of savickas and porfeli (2012) was applied to measure respondents’ overall career adaptability and their career concern (six items; e.g. ‘thinking about what my future will be like’) ; career control (six items; e.g. ‘keeping up to date with the latest developments in my occupational field’), career curiosity (six items; e.g. ‘becoming curious about new opportunities’), and career confidence (five items: e.g. ‘working up to my ability’). respondents rate each item on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). the career adapt-ability scale has proven construct validity and internal consistency reliability (savickas & porfeli, 2012; uy, chan, sam, ho, & chernyshenko, 2015). procedure data were collected via the professional, online social media platform, namely linkedin. the invitation to participate in the study targeted (n = 1000) individuals with an electronic link to the questionnaire. a total of (n = 177) usable questionnaires were returned and thus a response rate of 18% was achieved. the participants received an electronic link via email. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an spss file for data analysis purposes. ethical consideration ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the management of the university of south africa (ethics certificate reference: erc ref#: 2019_cems/iop_010). the participants were invited to voluntarily engage in the research study. the online questionnaire included an informed consent form. the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants were ensured and honoured. the participants gave informed consent that the data could be used for research purposes. data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis were performed by using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). tolerance (< 0.1) and the variance inflation factor (vif above 2.5) were utilised to assess any concerns about multicollinearity. results were interpreted at the 95% confidence level interval. results table 1 shows that the internal consistency reliability coefficients for all the constructs were acceptable (≥ 0.75 to ≤ 0.92). the correlations between the three career agility constructs and the career adaptability constructs were all positive and significant (r ≥ 0.39 to r ≤ 0.59; p = 0.0001; moderate to large practical effect). table 1: descriptive statistics, internal consistency reliability, and bivariate correlations (n = 177). as shown in table 2, all five the anova models were significant: model 1 (career adaptability): f = 16.34; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.43 (large practical effect); model 2 (career concern): f = 8.28; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.30 (large practical effect); model 3 (career control): f = 12.91; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.37 (large practical effect); model 4 (career curiosity): f = 15.54; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.41 (large practical effect); model 5 (career confidence): f = 9.75; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.30 (large practical effect). the tolerance values for all the models were greater than 0.20 and the vif values were lower than 0.20, which showed that multicollinearity was not a threat to the findings. table 2: results of multiple regression analysis (n = 177). table 2 shows that the three career agility constructs (technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation) were all statistically significant positive predictors and explained a large amount of the variance in overall career adaptability, career control, career curiosity, and career confidence. career navigation was a statistically significant predictor of overall career adaptability (β = 0.29; p = 0.001), career control (β = 0.28; p = 0.01), career curiosity (β = 0.31; p = 0.001) and career confidence (β = 0.25; p = 0.01). technological adaptivity was a statistically significant predictor of overall career adaptability (β = 0.28; p = 0.001), career control (β = 0.25; p = 0.01), career curiosity (β = 0.23; p £ 0.01) and career confidence (β = 0.24; p = 0.01). agile learning was a statistically significant predictor of overall career adaptability (β = 0.24; p = 0.001), career control (β = 0.18; p = 0.05), career curiosity (β = 0.26; p = 0.001) and career confidence (β = 0.20; p = 0.01). technological adaptivity (β = 0.26; p = 0.01), and agile learning (β = 0.18; p = 0.05) were also both statistically significant predictors of career concern. the results provided supportive evidence for our research hypothesis h1: scores on facets of career agility positively predict scores on facets of career adaptability. discussion the present study explored career agility as an antecedent of career adaptability. the results confirmed our hypothesis that the three facets of career agility, namely technological adaptivity, agile learning, and career navigation would positively predict individuals’ career adaptability. it was evident that the facets of career agility explained individuals’ cognitive awareness of the career self-management resources inherent to their career adaptability. the findings corroborate savickas’s (2013) view that the four resources of career adaptability (i.e. career concern, career curiosity, career control, and career confidence) are activated by individuals’ adaptive readiness. generally, our findings highlighted technological adaptivity, career navigation and agile learning as important facets of adaptive readiness that seem to positively activate the resources of career adaptability. technological adaptivity implies a cognitive openness and positive affective state toward technological change. agile learning denotes an eagerness to expand one’s skills and knowledge through new job and career opportunities. career navigation reflects the willingness to proactively navigate and adapt to change (coetzee et al., 2020). it appears from the findings that the sense of optimism and positive affect toward accelerated technological development, as well as the energy and positive affect underpinning agile learning, activated the career adaptability resources needed for proactive career planning (concern), career decidedness (control), career exploration (curiosity) and career self-efficacy beliefs (confidence). the findings are in agreement with research showing that positive emotional dispositions and learning orientation positively predict adaptability (johnston, 2018). the strong explanatory power of especially technological adaptivity and career navigation regarding all the career adaptability resources could be attributed to the basic premise of the broaden-and-build theory (frederickson, 2004) that positively affect generally broadens individuals’ thought-action repertoires or mindsets, and calls forth specific personal resources and strengths that facilitate adaptation to changing and challenging circumstances (frederickson & branigan, 2005). the willingness to scan the environment and adapt to career changes (career navigation) was especially relevant to activating the resources of career control (i.e. taking responsibility for one’s future and keeping up to date with new developments in their occupational field), career curiosity (i.e. displaying the intrinsic motivation to explore alternative futures and actions that may lead to new futures), and career confidence (i.e. belief in one’s ability to attain their career goals and overcome obstacles). the findings support previous research showing that highly career-adaptive ready individuals characteristically display important proactive career self-management capabilities, such as those embedded in their career adaptability resources (see johnston, 2018; rudolph et al., 2017; savickas & porfeli, 2012). the study findings have noteworthy implications for theory and practice. the study extends current theory on the antecedents of career adaptability by its exploration of the construct of career agility. drawing from the reasoning of johnston (2018), the career agility facets denote individuals’ adaptive readiness (i.e. willingness to change and adapt), which, in turn, seemingly triggers the intrinsic motivation to draw on career adaptability resources (i.e. self-regulated career management strengths and capabilities) to deal nimbly with current and anticipated changes in the industry 4.0 employment environment. popular media argue that people with high levels of career agility are resourceful in identifying and pursuing professional options and possibilities; they succeed in the job search process, and are able to design careers that are meaningful and fulfilling (andersen, 2020; ubc, 2020). the present study’s findings empirically corroborate arguments made by popular media that individuals’ capacity for career agility increases their motivation and confidence, and helps them to be more confident in their decision-making and develop better career action plans (ubc, 2020). the findings may be used to inform contemporary career counselling practice concerned with raising individuals’ career self-management capability and adaptive career response-ability. an initial assessment of clients’ career agility may prove useful in evaluating their cognitive openness and positive affective state toward technological change, their eagerness to engage in learning new skills, and to navigate the career environment of industry 4.0 for new opportunities to craft meaningful professional lives. an assessment of career agility may help trigger the use of career adaptability resources which are essential for proactive career self-management and successful career outcomes. research limitations and directions for future research our study employed cross-sectional data to test the research hypothesis. no causal claims can therefore be made. the research design was appropriate for the exploratory nature of the research, because little is known about the link between the three career agility and the career adaptability constructs. future research should replicate the study and include a wider range of career constructs in order to assess the construct and predictive validity of the career agility scale. longitudinal designs and intervention studies could be conducted to test whether training individuals to be more career agile can, in turn, raise career adaptability and contribute to career satisfaction across the lifespan. the sample also scored very high on all the career agility scale constructs; there was also little variability on the career adaptability scale scores. the mean scores could have been attributed to the sample being predominantly recruited from a professional social media platform. future research should replicate the study in more diverse samples from various job levels and occupational groups. conclusion the study contributed to research on the relatively new construct of career agility. the study showed that the positive affect and career-related thought-action repertoires embedded in the construct of career agility positively explained the use of career self-management resources inherent to individuals’ career adaptability. the study advances research on antecedents of career adaptability and the findings can help inform modern-day career counselling. acknowledgements all authors contributed to the data collection. m.c. assisted with the data analysis and interpretation. all authors contributed to the conceptual framework and writing up of the research article. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references andersen, m. 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(2015). proactivity, adaptability and boundaryless career attitudes: the mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness. journal of vocational behavior, 86, 115–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.11.005 abstract introduction inner career orientations research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) margaret m. ngope department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation ngope, m.m., & coetzee, m. (2023). internal career orientations guidance for emerging adults in a university of technology. african journal of career development, 5(1), a75. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.75 original research internal career orientations guidance for emerging adults in a university of technology margaret m. ngope, melinde coetzee received: 05 feb. 2023; accepted: 18 apr. 2023; published: 19 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: schein’s career orientations inventory (coi) is known to help undergraduate emerging adults develop deeper insight into the master career values that drive study and career choices. objectives: the study’s objective was to assess the inner career orientations of young emerging adults in a university of technology setting. method: the study had a cross-sectional design and involved a random sample (n = 368) of black african university of technology students (mean age = 20.76 years) enrolled for further studies at the faculty of humanities. an exploratory factor analysis of the coi was applied. results: four inner career orientations emerged labelled as security and stability (highest mean score), specialised creativity and problem solving (second highest mean score), entrepreneurship (third highest mean score), and general managerial autonomy (lowest mean score). conclusion: the findings of this study highlight the importance of uncovering the inner career orientations denoted by the career anchor factor structure of the coi for young emerging adults in a specific setting to ensure relevant and useful career guidance. contribution: the study contributed to career guidance in the african context by providing new insights into the inner career orientations of black african emerging adults. keywords: career anchors; career orientations; career guidance; emerging young adults; university of technology students. introduction university of technology students are young emerging adults confronted with the critical vocational development task of identity exploration through study and career decision-making (arnett, 2015; doyle & o’donnell, 2022). as such, young emerging adults (approximate age of 18 to 29 years: arnett, 2015) inevitably engage in the exploration of study and career options that will promote their chances of pursuing a meaningful future working life and career path (arnett, 2015; arnett & mitra, 2020; doyle & o’donnell, 2022; ludwikowski et al., 2020). furthermore, post-matric studies help emerging adults gain knowledge about the work world and occupational choices; they generally exhibit enough autonomy in deciding on future life paths. by valuing their independence, they seek out help and guidance to translate their self-concept into viable study and career interest preferences and choices (arnett, 2015; doyle & o’donnell, 2022; savickas, 2013). career interest assessments are generally used to support emerging adults who are actively engaged in the process of career-related decisions (ludwikowski et al., 2020). schein’s (1990, 1996) career orientations inventory (coi) is known to help undergraduate emerging adults develop deeper insight into the master career values that drive potential career interest preferences and choices (coetzee, 2012; coetzee & schreuder, 2009; matjie & coetzee, 2018). the coi (schein, 1990, 1996) identifies individuals’ master career values in the form of career anchors that depict individuals’ inner career orientations (abessolo et al., 2017, 2021). generally, work and life experiences throughout the lifespan help to crystallise the career self-concept with dominant career anchors starting to stabilise by the age of 30 years (barclay et al., 2013). individual career anchors continue to evolve over time depending upon the career stage, career transitions, and work-life context (costigan et al., 2018; rodrigues et al., 2013). the predominant inner career orientations reflected by individuals’ career anchors are characterised by master career values that pull them towards specific career choices and career path interests (abessolo et al., 2021). emerging adults are at a life-stage during which they may be willing to accept responsibility for their choices and independently decide on their beliefs and values, which they optimistically express in their personal life choices (doyle & o’donnell, 2022). being at an age of possibilities (arnett, 2015), emerging adults’ inner career orientations and concomitant master career values may evolve over time; however, introspection on these by means of a coi assessment exercise may raise initial awareness of such master career values to help foster the crystallisation of the career self-concept (coetzee et al., 2022). however, before applying the coi (schein, 1990) in career guidance, it is important to first assess whether the coi factor structure postulated by schein (1990, 1996) holds true for the target audience. empirical factor analyses on the coi have shown that the coi items may load on different career anchor factors yielding either more than eight career anchors or combinations of the career anchor factors resulting in fewer (or more) than eight career anchors in diverse sample-specific contexts (coetzee & schreuder, 2009; costigan et al., 2018; danziger et al., 2008; erdoğmus, 2004; lambert et al., 2020; leong et al., 2014; marshall & bonner, 2003). therefore, the study’s objective was, through an exploratory factor analysis (efa) of the coi (schein, 1990), to explore the inner career orientations that emerge for the sample of university of technology students who were identified for career guidance support. uncovering the factor structure that emerged for the sample may not only extend research on the coi but also ensure a more reliable application of the coi in career guidance support interventions for university of technology students. effective career guidance for emerging adults generally relies on psychometrically sound and target-audience relevant assessment instruments (costigan et al., 2018). inner career orientations the basic premise of schein’s (1990, 1996) career anchors concept is that they reflect individuals’ inner (subjective) career orientations as a significant component of the career self-concept (abessolo et al., 2017, 2021; coetzee & schreuder, 2009). inner career orientations are supported by master career values that guide individuals’ career interest preferences and choices (abessolo et al., 2017, 2021). schein (1990, 1996) describes eight career anchors that each reflect a unique inner career orientation with its characteristic master career values: (1) technical and functional competence (tf), (2) general management (gm), (3) security and stability (sec), (4) entrepreneurial creativity (ec), (5) pure challenge (pc), (6) autonomy and independence (au), (7) service and dedication to a cause (sv), and (8) lifestyle (ls). a tf career anchor reflects an orientation towards careers that allow the development of functional and expert skills. the core master values that drive the tf inner career orientation pertain to the need for expressing one’s talents and achieving expert status among peers (coetzee, 2012; feldman & bolino, 2000). the inner career orientation of the gm career anchor reflects an aspiration for a position that facilitates the utilisation of managerial skills. the master values of the gm career orientation pertain to a self-perceived talent for solving organisation-wide problems and an aspiration for managerial authority in decision-making (coetzee, 2012; feldman & bolino, 2000). identifying new businesses, products or services and opportunities for creativity are predominant master values of the ec career orientation (i.e. expressing one’s talent in personal projects involving the creation of something new: coetzee, 2012; feldman & bolino, 2000). needs-based master values pertain to the sec, au and ls career anchors. the sec inner career orientation towards job security is driven by the valuing of the financial security and benefits offered by long-term employment. the au career orientation is a need to be free of organisational constraints in the pursuit of professional competence. exercising personal freedom in choices of job content and settings are some of the master values reflected in the au career orientation (coetzee, 2012; feldman & bolino, 2000). the master values of the ls career anchor are reflected in the desire for careers that promote the coherent balancing of work commitments with personal and family welfare (coetzee, 2012; feldman & bolino, 2000). the pure-challenge (pc) and service and dedication to a cause (sv) career anchors relate to the expression of personal (intrinsic) skills and values (feldman & bolino, 2000). the pc career orientation reflects the aspiration for a career that allows the testing of one’s abilities in solving single-handedly a variety of challenging, complex problems. the master values of the pc career orientation are reflected in the desire for risky, challenging and competitive work projects that test one’s personal endurance and problem-solving capability (coetzee, 2012; feldman & bolino, 2000). the sv career orientation reflects the desire for jobs in which personal skills and values can be applied towards helping society and make the world a better place to live in. the sv career orientation is supported by the master value of working for the greater good of organisations and communities (coetzee, 2012; feldman & bolino, 2000). empirical research on the commonality of master values embedded within the coi career anchors highlights values of achievement reflected within the au, pc and ls career orientations; values of power within the au, pc, ec, sec and tf career orientations; values of conformity within the sec and sv career orientations, values of hedonism within the au, pc, ec, gm and tf career orientations; and values of tradition within the sec career orientation. the au, pc, ec and tf career orientations were also associated with values of self-directedness (abessolo et al., 2017). exploratory factor analyses on the coi (schein, 1990) provide evidence of the ec career anchor including two separate career orientations, namely that of creativity (i.e. enjoyment of creating new products or services) and entrepreneurship (i.e. setting up a new business: costigan et al., 2018; danziger et al., 2008; marshall & bonner, 2003). other exploratory factor analyses studies revealed combinations of coi career anchors into a new type of career orientation. for example, erdoğmus (2004) and coetzee and schreuder (2009) discovered a combination of gm and pc items loading onto a single factor. coetzee and schreuder (2009) found a combination of gm and ec items loading onto a single career anchor factor. lifestyle and autonomy items also loaded onto a single career anchor factor (coetzee & schreuder, 2009). the divergent research findings on the factor structure of the coi (schein, 1990) suggest that the meanings attached to career orientations may be sample-specific and context dependent. people’s master career values may further combine to form a combination of career orientations denoted by schein’s (1990) career anchors (coetzee & schreuder, 2009; cortés-sanchez & grueso-hinestroza, 2017; costigan et al., 2018). this phenomenon led to the following research question: what are the inner career orientations of university of technology students as denoted by the efa of the coi? research methods and design participants the study involved a random sample of (n = 368) university of technology black african students who were enrolled for post-matric studies at the faculty of humanities. the sample comprised 35% male and 65% female south african students with a mean (m) age of 20.76 years (standard deviation [sd] = 2.47). the participants were enrolled for qualifications such as bachelor of education (maths, science & business education: 32%; intermediate phase teaching: 7%; technology & vocational studies: 6%; foundation phase teaching: 5%) and national diplomas (local government management: 30%; correctional services management: 11%; policing: 2%; road traffic & municipal police management: 2%; language practice: 3%; integrated communication design: 1%; legal assistance: 1%). seventy-two per cent (72%) of the participants indicated that their choice of qualification was based on their career and job interests, while 28% declared little alignment between their choice of qualification and their career and job interests. measure the 40-item coi (schein, 1990) was applied to measure participants’ career anchors as an expression of their dominant career values and motivations (abessolo et al., 2017; igbaria et al., 1991; lambert et al., 2020; yarnall, 1998). the coi measures eight career anchors on a six-point likert-type response scale (1: not true of me at all; 6: always true of me): security and stability (5 items: e.g. ‘i seek jobs in organisations that will give me a sense of security and stability’). technical and functional competence (5 items: e.g. ‘i dream of being so good at what i do that my expert advice will be sought after continually’). general management (5 items: e.g. ‘i dream of being in charge of a complex organisation and making decisions that affect many people’). autonomy and independence (5 items: e.g. ‘i dream of having a career that will allow me the freedom to do a job my own way and on my own schedule’). entrepreneurial creativity (5 items: e.g. ‘building my own business is more important to me than achieving a high-level managerial position in someone else’s organisation’). service and dedication to a cause (5 items: e.g. ‘i am most fulfilled in my career when i have been able to use my talents in the service of others’). pure challenge (5 items: e.g. ‘i dream of a career in which i can solve problems or win out in situations that are extremely challenging’). lifestyle (5 items: e.g. ‘i dream of a career that will permit me to integrate my personal, family, and work needs’). the coi (schein, 1990) has proven construct validity and reliability (cronbach’s alpha coefficients above 0.70) for black africans in the south african higher education context (see coetzee, 2012; coetzee & schreuder, 2009). procedure participants received a url link to the research questionnaire via a no-reply email, which invited them to participate voluntarily in the research. data analysis exploratory factor analysis with principal component analysis (pca) was performed to uncover the underlying coi factor structure relevant to the participants. varimax with kaiser normalisation was used to calculate the rotated component matrix. descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations were then calculated. data analysis was performed with the ibm corp. (2021) spss statistics version 28.0 software package. the jasp software version 0.16.3 (jasp, 2022) was used to test the discriminant and convergent validity of the factor structure. ethical considerations the study obtained ethical clearance from the research institution (erc ref: 2021/cems/iop/012) and permission from the university of technology. participants were informed that completion of the questionnaire was anonymous, voluntary, and confidential. furthermore, they provided informed consent that the data may be used for group-based research purposes. results table 1 summarises the final four career anchors that emerged for the sample of participants. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy was 0.93 (bartlett’s test of sphericity: p = 0.000) and thus above the recommended threshold value of 0.60 for adequate common variance among items in factor analysis (kaiser, 1970). the pca revealed the presence of eight components with eigenvalues exceeding one. the scree plot revealed a clear break after the fourth component. the first four factor components accounted for 30.33%, 7.79%, 4.01% and 3.79% of the variance, respectively, cumulatively 45.92%. the remaining four components accounted cumulatively for only 11.57% (3.24%; 2.98%; 2.81%; 2.54%) of the variance. table 1: exploratory factor analysis: rotated component matrix. the rotated component matrix was then inspected to retain item loadings of ≥0.50. items loaded mostly onto the first four components. the remaining four components had numerous item cross-loadings with the first four components with the loadings being lower than 0.50. each of the four remaining components had only one or two items with loadings more than 0.50. drawing from the guidelines of tabachnick and fidell (2013) and lambert et al. (2020), the decision was to retain only the first four factors because of the researchers’ assessment of their interpretability and utility. table 1 shows that factor one (five items) included two ec items, two pc items and one tf competence item from the original coi (schein, 1990) factor structure. inspection of the items suggested the use of specialised skills to solve challenging problems in the building of one’s own products or ideas. factor one was labelled as specialised creativity and problem solving. as shown in table 1, the second factor (labelled as general managerial autonomy: five items) included three (au) items and two gm items from the original coi (schein, 1990) factor structure. the combination of items suggested autonomy and freedom in a general managerial role. the third factor retained four items of the original coi (schein, 1990) factor structure for the sec. the combination of items suggested a strong focus on financial and employment security and stability. the fourth factor (labelled as entrepreneurship) retained three items of the original coi (schein, 1990) ec anchor. the combination of items suggested a strong focus on creating one’s own business or enterprise. in table 2, the four career orientations that emerged from the efa had, for large group research purposes (hair et al., 2019), acceptable (entrepreneurship: 0.55) to high internal consistency reliability (>0.70). the composite reliabilities (cr) for construct or factor-level reliability was high for all four factors (>0.70). the bivariate correlations among the four factors were positive and significant (r ≥ 0.39 to r ≤ 0.55). all four factors correlated positively and significantly with the overall career anchors construct (r ≥ 0.69 to r ≤ 0.82). participants scored the highest on security and stability (mean [m] = 4.99; sd = 0.97) and specialised creativity and problem solving (m = 4.97; sd = 0.99). participants scored the lowest on general managerial autonomy (m = 4.20; sd = 1.29). table 2: descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations. table 2 and table 3 show evidence of acceptable convergent validity (hair et al., 2019) with cr coefficients of >0.70 and the average variance extracted (ave) estimates either close to 0.50 (general managerial autonomy and security and stability) or >0.50 (specialised creativity and problem-solving and entrepreneurship). table 3 shows acceptable discriminant validity among the factors (except for security and stability [sic = 0.57] with the ave estimates being greater than the squared inter-construct correlations [sic]). all the inter-construct correlations were less than 0.90, which indicated that multicollinearity did not pose a threat to the findings (hair et al., 2019). the harman’s single factor test further revealed that the four factors explained only 28% of the variance, which indicated that common method variance was not a major problem in the data. table 3: average variance extracted and squared inter-construct correlations. discussion given the importance of career guidance to university of technology students, the study focused on uncovering the inner career orientations relevant to the sample of participants in support of their vocational development. the results corroborated research evidence of the coi (schein, 1990, 1996) yielding different combinations of career anchors that depict inner career orientations relevant to the sample (coetzee & schreuder, 2009; cortéz-sanchez & grueso-hinestroza, 2017; costigan et al., 2018; danziger et al., 2008; marshall & bonner, 2003). the results elicited three main outcomes to consider in the career guidance of the sample of university of technology students. the first of these pertains to the security and stability (highest mean score) career orientation that signals a need for long-term, steady employment in organisational settings that offer financial and employment security (schein, 1990). the security and stability career orientation reflects extrinsic-oriented master career values alluding to jobs that offer long-term job security and financial rewards and benefits (coetzee, 2021). in this regard, ackerman and kanfer (2020) argue that young emerging adults place a high premium on the financial and career rewards associated with steady employment because they are at a stage of establishing an independent, viable livelihood. the second outcome pertains to the separate themes of creativity and entrepreneurship associated with the ec career anchor (costigan et al., 2018; marshall & bonner, 2003). marshall and bonner (2003) and danziger et al. (2008) also observed in their coi efa studies the split between the creativity and entrepreneurship aspects of the ec career anchor. in this study, the career orientation items of specialised creativity and problem solving (the second highest mean score) corroborate empirical research pointing to the desire to draw upon the application of specialised skills and talents in order to solve challenging problems in creative, entrepreneurial pursuits. research by lambert et al. (2020) shows that some individuals may aspire to careers that support a blend of motives and values associated with ec, pure challenge, and tf competence. in this study, the participants further seemed to embrace entrepreneurship (the third highest mean score) as a separate career orientation in the desire to create their own business or enterprise. this finding supports schein’s (1978, 1990) original conception of ec as an aspiration towards self-employment. the technical specialisation, pure challenge and ec career orientations further seem to be prevalent among african emerging adults (17 to 28 years: arnett, 2015; matjie & coetzee, 2018). the third outcome for career guidance is the career orientation that captured a mix of the autonomy and independence and gm career anchors (schein, 1990) which, in the present study, appeared to be centred on the need for autonomous working and the personal freedom that a managerial role may bring in terms of job content and position. in the present study, both the career orientations of specialised creativity and problem solving and general managerial autonomy (lowest mean score) reflect intrinsic-oriented master career values of self-expression (i.e. jobs that require creativity and innovation while giving one the freedom and position of power to set one’s own goals and schedule as sources of career satisfaction: coetzee, 2021). implications for career guidance schein (1978, 2006) proposed that the notion of career anchors (as measured by the coi) helps individuals to make sense of the master inner career-oriented values that guide their career aspirations and choices. career guidance interventions should especially consider the need for security and stability in employment and jobs that offer creative self-expression in the solving of challenging problems. the findings corroborated previous research that multiple career anchors have complementary, congruous master career values depicting an inner career orientation that guides career choices for a specific sample (barclay et al., 2013). the present study’s findings support research on the importance of uncovering the career anchor factor structure of the coi (schein, 1990) for the target population in which the measure is applied for career guidance purposes. as such, career guidance services may be more relevant and useful to the targeted audience. the findings of the present study should be considered while scoring the coi for the sample of university of technology students to ensure sample-relevant career guidance. the unique master career values that make up the inner career orientations of the sample of students may be keys to successful job search, career decision-making and vocational development activities. career guidance activities should be supplemented by a career discussion to further uncover the master career values deemed important for the emerging adult. such a discussion may reveal narratives concerning the career self-concept and deepen insight into the career orientations that manifested for the sample. limitations and future research it is important to interpret the findings in the light of the sample characteristics. the chosen qualifications in the humanities field may have contributed to the career anchors that emerged for the sample. the findings cannot be generalised to all university of technology students. the participants were still in the emerging adult or school-to-work transition phase with no real experience of the work world. schein (1990) posits that the real career anchor emerges after work experience and approximately at the age of 30 years. in this regard, the sample’s mean age of 20 years (age of career exploration for job security and developing specialised skills) could have attributed to the predominant career anchors that emerged in the study. it is acknowledged that the present study findings reflect early career aspirations and that ideally, longitudinal studies should track the career journeys of university of technology students in the humanities field to assess whether the career anchors evolve over time with the gaining of work experience. conclusion overall, the findings of the study extended research on the coi (schein, 1990) and provided new insights into the inner career orientations of black african emerging adults. considering the master career values of inner career orientations is critical for satisfying, congruent career choices and decision-making when providing career guidance to university of technology students. although the coi (schein, 1990) is a proven useful, reliable career assessment instrument, the study’s findings highlighted the importance of first establishing the underlying factor structure of the coi relevant to the sample context. such an approach may yield more reliable, congruent, and useful career guidance information to the specific group of emerging adults. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the participants of the study and their consent to use their data for research purposes. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to the writing of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data availability only upon approval of the corresponding author’s research institution’s research ethics committee and upon formal reasonable request to the corresponding author m.c. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abessolo, m., hirschi, a., & rossier, j. 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(1998). career anchors: results of an organisational study in the uk. career development international, 3(2), 56–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620439810207536 abstract background method results ethical consideration discussion limitations and recommendations for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) nicola taylor centre of research excellence, jvr psychometrics, johannesburg, south africa department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa chris beukes south african career development association, pretoria, south africa citation taylor, n., & beukes, c. (2019). a life design-related career development intervention for working adults in the manufacturing, engineering and related sectors. african journal of career development 1(1), a2. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v1i1.2 case study a life design-related career development intervention for working adults in the manufacturing, engineering and related sectors nicola taylor, chris beukes received: 21 may 2019; accepted: 28 may 2019; published: 13 june 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract this study examined the potential usefulness of a life design-related career development intervention to enhance the career adaptability of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. participants were employed at a manufacturing workshop in a south african correctional centre. a mixed-methods intervention study design was implemented. the participants completed a number of career-based assessments during the intervention. the results indicated that the participants were well prepared to face the career challenges presented by industry 4.0 and that the intervention shows promise in improving career adaptability in working adults. more longitudinal research with diverse participants is needed. keywords: group career construction counselling; mixed-methods intervention study; integrated qualitative–quantitative approach; career interest profile; maree career matrix; career adapt-abilities scale; self education employability device. background according to deloitte’s (2019) latest survey on the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0), there is a growing gap in the skills that employees are required to have to face the demands of industry 4.0. the threat (or promise) of digitalisation and automation means that manual labourers, technicians and artisans may have to learn different skills to remain relevant by functioning as an expert in guiding the activities of robots and other automated processes, rather than doing the work themselves (deloitte, 2019). this would require reskilling or retraining of the workforce to develop these new skills, which implies a need for a certain readiness on behalf of the workforce to accept a change in the nature of their work. what is promising is that leaders in organisations are looking to train existing employees rather than hiring new ones when introducing task automation and increased digitalisation into the business. while they do provide training opportunities for their employees, leaders also expect employees to take control of their own career trajectories (deloitte, 2019). this means that, like it or not, many more people may experience mid-career changes than have ever before. as new types of jobs emerge, so will new career paths, and various sectors of industry may need to prepare for upskilling employees for jobs that have not previously existed. employees will also need to develop an element of career adaptability to navigate the changes in the new world of work (savickas & porfeli, 2012). one of the major roles that sector education and training authorities (setas) play in the south african context is to provide education and training opportunities to develop the necessary skills to be able to work in the sector that they represent. one of the setas likely to be hard hit by automation is the manufacturing, engineering and related services seta (merseta). in its 2015/2016–2019/2020 strategic plan, merseta committed to an ‘[i]ncreased publication of research products that inform cutting edge solutions in the sector’ (merseta, 2014, p. 35). to meet the demand set by industry, merseta has set out the following objective: ‘career development, advice and support for the flexible labour market implied by the advent of advanced manufacturing and industry 4.0 must be put in place to empower current and new entrants manage their career aspirations and development’ (merseta, 2018, p. 58). subsequently, the merseta initiated a feasibility study in collaboration with the south african career development association (sacda) and the university of south africa (unisa), termed ‘indigenous career management interventions for youth and adults’. up until now, career development interventions implemented by the setas have been primarily focused on the youth. while youth development is a critical focus area, setas have not yet addressed the career development needs of working adults in their various sectors. this study forms part of the merseta initiative to begin providing possible seta-supported career development interventions for their organisations in partnership with sacda. this case study is also part of a larger feasibility study with two main objectives: firstly, to determine the effectiveness of an integrative south african-based career development intervention for employees in the form of a life design-related intervention; secondly, to validate the use of non-psychological instruments that can be used by entry-level career development practitioners (cdps). aim of the study the aim of this study is to examine the potential usefulness of a life design-related career development intervention to enhance the career development of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. method participants and context a purposive and criterion sampling was used in the study. the participants consisted of 72 employees in a south african correctional services manufacturing workshop (33 officials and 39 inmates), who participated in a life design career development intervention. they completed the south african version of the career adapt-abilities scale (caas; maree, 2012), the maree career matrix (mcm; maree & taylor, 2016a, 2016b), the career interest profile (cip; maree, 2017a) and the self education employability device (seed; beukes, 2010). research design a mixed-methods intervention with the implementation of a quantitative and qualitative data construction design was used (qualitative and quantitative data were constructed simultaneously). the cip and the mcm were used to facilitate the intervention and provide career development guidance to participants. the caas was used to test the research hypothesis that the intervention improves career adaptability, while the seed was implemented to assist individuals in exploring their employability skills. instruments career interest profile the cip (maree, 2017a) is a south african-developed career assessment instrument that helps individuals identify: (1) their central career–life themes, (2) their main career-related interests, issues and concerns and (3) their advice from within as to how they can turn issues and concerns into themes of hope that can advance their individual life projects. the cip is a qualitative (storied or narrative) career-story questionnaire, not a psychological test. respondents are asked to select five areas of interest that they like and five areas that they dislike from a list of 19 career categories. they also answer a number of self-reflection questions and incomplete sentences. research indicates that the selection of cip interests is relatively stable over time, and that the career categories are related as expected to other career interest questionnaires. being a qualitative assessment instrument that facilitates qualitative career counselling interventions, the cip does not have psychometric properties as such, but has been demonstrated to be an effective career counselling instrument (maree, 2017a). maree career matrix the mcm (maree & taylor, 2016a, 2016b) reflects individuals’ attraction to 19 job categories by asking them to rate their interest and skill levels in 152 different occupations. the results are then combined and represented on the mcm. the psychometric properties of the mcm were deemed to be acceptable (maree & taylor, 2016a, 2016b), with good reliability and validity evidence. career adapt-abilities scale the caas was developed by savickas and porfeli (2012). it is a multi-factorial self-rating measure comprising 24 items (four scales, each with six items) that describe the career adaptability of the individual. the four scales measure concern, control, curiosity and confidence as psychosocial resources for managing transitions, developmental tasks and work traumas. the 24 items make up four subscales used in south africa by maree (2012), demonstrating good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.91) and satisfactory factor structure. self education employability device the seed (beukes, 2010) is a 60-item self-exploration assessment instrument that can be used to assist individuals in exploring their employability skills. each item represents a employability skill. the items cluster together to provide feedback on 12 scales relating to employability. the 12 scales measure attitude, service, creativity, barriers, foundation, core, sectors, career, work, goals, network and transitions. procedure the strategy used in the current study is based on the paradigm and associated strategy explained by savickas (2011). career construction counselling (for life design) techniques from different sources and authors were used (maree, 2015, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2018; savickas, 2015a, 2015b, 2015c, 2016; savickas et al., 2009). two workshops were held in gauteng in march and april 2019, each lasting 2 days. on day 1, participants began by completing the caas, followed by completing the cip, the mcm and the seed. the administration was supervised by registered psychology professionals. on the afternoon of the first day, career construction counselling-related interaction was conducted between the attending psychologist and the different groups, using the power of the audience technique (di fabio & maree, 2013a, 2013b). individual groups of participants were given approximately 90 min to reflect on their career stories in their groups. thereafter, participants and the psychologist discussed and integrated participants’ mcm, cip and seed outcomes in the larger group. to facilitate these discussions, the psychologist and participants used an ‘integrated career choice and construction conversation template’ to capture their identity, values, themes and interest patterns. on day two, participants were invited to reflect on their outcomes individually (to the bigger group), while the others (the audience) reflect on prompts by the psychologist and the participant (counsellee) without addressing the counsellee directly. they concurrently self-reflected on the psychologist’s questions to the counsellee. this enabled the counsellees to identify not only central career–life themes but also other significant aspects (e.g. values or areas for development) that might emerge through the counsellees’ responses to questions in the mcm, cip and seed. in addition, counsellees were guided to differentiate between their career interest patterns as revealed by a comparison of the overlap between mcm outcomes in terms of their career interests and confidence, the interest category patterns that emerged from part two of the cip, as well as the seed. next, the focus shifted to reflections on how to potentially convert painful themes (e.g. never having been ‘good enough’ in the eyes of others) into themes of hope and of inspiration – all the while advancing their individual career–life projects. by asking counsellees what they believe they could do to address ‘areas for growth’ and ‘messages’ they took from their favourite quotations, and why they regard certain happenings as their biggest successes, they were prompted to draw on their inner advice to themselves to advance their self-awareness, clarify their career identities, choose careers and clarify their unique career–life projects (di fabio & maree, 2013a, 2013b). ultimately, career choice and life design-related recommendations were finalised. in addition, based on responses to questions in the cip and, especially, their reflections on these responses, relevant psycho-educational and psychosocial information was dispensed. in essence, participants did not only receive ‘traditional’ career counselling. by acting as audience and soundboard for counsellees’ reflections and providing them with a safe space in which they could express themselves unreservedly, they also advanced their fellow counsellees’ sense of self, self-awareness and critical consciousness. sessions were concluded by the completion of each participant’s summary of fields for job analysis and, ultimately, his or her vision and mission statement. after the caas was administered for a second time, participants were requested to reflect on how they experienced the sessions. results the assumption checks that were performed found that there were minor issues with normality and some outliers were present within the groups. when working with smaller homogenous samples, violations of the basic assumptions that underlie parametric statistical analyses tend to occur. an effective way of dealing with assumption violations is to use robust statistics because they are not drastically impacted by deviations in assumptions (erceg-hurn, wilcox, & keselman, 2013). robust statistics are reported for the internal consistency reliability coefficients for each instrument. participants were asked to rank their five preferred interests on the cip, which were counted and summed to give an indication of the five most preferred interests. practical–technical was the highest rated interest, with 64 candidates ranking it in their top five interests. this was followed by engineering and the built environment (43); entrepreneurship, running and maintaining a personal business (34); social, caregiving and community services (26) and executive and management practice (23). only participants in the first workshop intervention (officials) completed the mcm (n = 32). the internal consistency reliability estimates were still all satisfactory for both the interest scales and confidence scales (table 1). the five highest interest scales for this group were engineering and the built environment; executive and management practices; entrepreneurship; practical–technical; and social, community services and teaching. these are in line with the nature of the work done by the participants and the interests indicated in the cip. these five also make up the top five confidence scales for the participants. table 1: internal consistency reliability and descriptive statistics for the maree career matrix (n = 32). the internal consistency reliability coefficient for the total caas scale was 0.90 (table 2), which is comparable to the reliability obtained for a previous south african sample (maree, 2012). the reliability coefficients were acceptable for all subscales, except for curiosity, which was lower than 0.70 for the pre-test, but higher for the post-test. the test–retest reliability of the scores was calculated (correlations corrected for attenuation), but we expected them to be lower, as it was expected that scores would change before and after the intervention. there were statistically significant mean score differences before and after the intervention on all scales of the caas, except for control (table 3). the effect sizes were small, with an average increase in scores of one raw score point per subscale, and three raw score points overall. table 2: internal consistency and test–retest reliability for the scales of the career adapt-abilities scale (n = 68). table 3: related samples t-test for career adapt-abilities scale. the internal consistency reliability coefficients for the seed scales were all satisfactory, apart from the attitude, foundation and fields scales, which fell below 0.65 on both cronbach’s alpha and mcdonald’s omega values. it is possible that the reliability is lower because of the fact that these scales contain only four items each. the content of these scales will be reviewed for future assessments. on average, participants rated the seed scales relatively high (close to 4.00 for most responses), with the highest average item scores on the core and career scales (table 4). table 4: internal consistency reliability and descriptive statistics for the self education employability device (n = 68). ethical consideration ethical approval for this study was granted by the university of johannesburg’s college of business and economics rec (cberec18gen01). participants were recruited using a first-come first-serve offer, as there were limited spaces available. participation was voluntary, and participants were assured that their individual responses would be kept confidential, and that they could withdraw from the study at any time without negative consequences. they continued to receive remuneration while participating in the career workshop, and received a certificate of participation that would add credibility towards inmates’ parole applications. all data are stored in secure, access-limited folders and will be anonymised once everything has been collated at the conclusion of the larger study. discussion this study represents a response to repeated calls for research on group-based career counselling (see, e.g. whiston, li, mitts, & wright, 2017). the aim of the study was to examine the potential usefulness of a life design-related career development intervention to enhance the career development of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. the below findings are related to the literature on the influence of group career construction interventions on people’s ability to manage changing occupational contexts. the findings are consistent with the positive outcomes of earlier studies that examined the value of a life design-related intervention using a quantitative and qualitative approach (di fabio & maree, 2013a, 2013b; maree, 2019; rehfuss & di fabio, 2012). the results also align positively with whiston, brecheisen and stephens’s (2003) finding that career counselling-related interventions frequently encompass a general counselling component and that a structured group intervention approach seems to yield more effective outcomes than an unstructured approach. the interests elicited from both the cip and mcm instruments were very closely aligned. it makes sense that engineering and the built environment and practical–technical interests would come to the fore, given the nature of the work that the participants do on a daily basis. what was enlightening was the endorsement of the executive and management practices and entrepreneurship interests. this suggests a desire to either start and run their own business, or to give direction and manage others’ activities. there is a need in some sectors in the automotive trade (e.g. panel beating and automotive spray painting) to support the development of small businesses in the industry (redflank, 2018), and the results of this case study support the assumption that there is at least an appetite for entrepreneurship in the existing workforce. the social, community services and teaching interest was most likely linked to the officials involved in the study who had teaching experience and degrees, and offers an alternative route in the sector for individuals who are passionate about teaching and skills development. with regard to career adaptability, it was promising that this group of employees scored slightly higher on average on the pre-test on the caas (item mean = 4.00) than the south african standardisation sample (item mean = 3.88; maree, 2012) and other employed south african adults (item mean = 3.71; coetzee, ferreira, & shunmugum, 2017). this suggests that this group is well on their way to being ready to face the challenges of industry 4.0. the lower than desired internal consistency reliability coefficients for the pre-test score on the curiosity scale of the caas was corrected in the post-test, and may have been a function of the small sample size. the lower test–retest reliability scores are expected, as career adaptability is intended to improve after such a career intervention. in fact, the differences in scores from the pre-test to post-test are encouraging, as they provide an indication of the success of the intervention in enhancing participants’ career adaptability and, consequently, their employability (savickas, 2019; urbanaviciute, udayar, & rossier, 2019; van der horst & klehe, 2019). it would also equip employed adults with an enhanced ability to face the challenges posed by industry 4.0 to their career path trajectory. the only scale that showed no statistically significant difference in preand post-test scores was the control scale, which can be understood given the context and nature of the sample – no matter the intervention, it is unlikely that people would have any greater control over their current circumstances if incarcerated. in conclusion, it seems plausible to state that the outcomes of the study confirm the findings of maree (2016a, 2016b), del corso and rehfuss (2011) and others regarding the constructive influence of inspiring feedback during and after an intervention (confirmed by the qualitative findings, which are reported on elsewhere). in addition, the findings provide support for peng and chen’s assertions (2014) that career construction-related interventions can provide good support to people who lack a sense of purpose in their lives. in terms of the seed, it is hypothesised that the higher scores on most items could be because of a lack of understanding of each of the skills. to test this hypothesis, a description of each of the 60 employability skills will be provided together with the context surrounding employability skills. the need for honest answers to ensure a true reflection of current skill levels for the purpose of effective personal development will also be communicated. limitations and recommendations for future research results should be interpreted with due circumspection because this was a small, limited study. moreover, we used a pre–post design without a control group. future studies should involve larger groups of diverse participants, using quasi-experimental designs (with alternative treatment and no-treatment control groups). in addition, it is essential to conduct regular follow-up to determine the longer term effectiveness and sustainability of the benefits of the intervention to enhance the generalisability of the findings. other quantitative and qualitative instruments could also be considered in future research. it seems key, too, to assess participants’ sense of self, self-worth and career–life identity. lastly, the development of instruments similar to those used in this study and their implementation in localised and, particularly, in group contexts is essential. conclusion the results of the first phase of this research project show great promise for the feasibility of the intervention to enhance the career development of working adults in a business sector most likely to be disrupted by technology and robotics. the findings also confirm savickas’ (2019) assertion that life design-related intervention revitalises people’s suppressed dreams, advances their career adaptability and enables them to convert their pain into hope-filled prospects. while the initial sample is small and limited to a single working environment, preliminary findings indicate that the intervention holds value in enhancing the career adaptability of working adults in the manufacturing, engineering and related (mer) services sector. the psychometric results also show promise for the use of these assessments with workers in skilled trades and related occupations. while this case study is simply a pilot for the larger feasibility study, these early results provide motivation to continue with the project. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the project collaboration partners, namely, merseta, unisa and sacda, for supporting this research in the manufacturing, engineering and related services sector, with special thanks to ms ester van der linde for her contribution to the career development profession; dr erna gerryts, ms gillian schultz and ms thandeka langa for facilitating the career development interventions; mr brett gregory and ms kerry martin for data analysis assistance; and the team at jvr psychometrics for their unfailing support throughout the data collection and capturing processes. competing interests n.t. is a director of jvr psychometrics, which received payment for the use of some of the assessments used in the study, and for the time spent on data collation and analysis. she did not personally benefit from any payment. n.t. is also a statistical editor for the african journal of career development (ajcd). c.b. is the ceo of sacda, which received funding for the study, but as a non-profit organisation, he does not personally benefit from the funding. he is also a member of the editorial board of the ajcd. authors’ contributions n.t. was responsible for gaining ethical approval, data analysis and the compilation of the case study. c.b. was responsible for project management and the delivery of the intervention, and contributed to the case study write-up and final sign-off. funding this research was funded by merseta. data availability statement the data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author. the data are not publicly available due to the nature of the sample and certain ethical restrictions due to the nature of the data. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references beukes, c. j. 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(2017). effectiveness of career choice interventions: a meta-analytic replication and extension. journal of vocational behavior, 100, 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.010 abstract introduction method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m. (2022). career agility for purposive career exploration: role of adult learners’ career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness. african journal of career development, 4(1), a54. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.54 original research career agility for purposive career exploration: role of adult learners’ career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness melinde coetzee received: 04 jan. 2022; accepted: 28 apr. 2022; published: 30 may 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on the role of individuals’ career orientations, digital-era world of work awareness and career agility mindset in purposive career exploration. objectives: the objective of this study was to assess the extent to which career orientations and awareness of the digital-era world of work contribute to a career agility mindset. method: the cross-sectional quantitative survey involved a sample of 486 adult learners (65% women; 35% men; 85% black learners; 15% white learners; and mean age 34 years) in the economic and management sciences field. results: regression analysis revealed the protean-type career orientations of technical and functional competence, autonomy and independence, and pure challenge career orientations as significant predictors of digital-era world of work awareness. digital-era world of work awareness and the technical and functional competence, pure challenge and general management career orientations acted as significant antecedents of the career agility mindset. conclusion: the associations between the study constructs offer promising support for applying principles of career exploration theory in digital-era purposive career exploration counselling. keywords: protean-like career agility mindset; career exploration; career orientations; purpose-enhancing career development; digital-era world of work awareness. introduction the digital-era world of work offers increased opportunities for exploring new and alternative forms of careers, jobs and occupations made possible by technological innovation (brown et al., 2018; coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021a; deloitte, 2021; lent, 2018). modern conceptualisations of career exploration (jiang, newman, le, presbitero, & zheng, 2019) explain intrinsic and extrinsic career exploration as a hallmark of self-regulatory career adaptive functioning throughout all stages of the modern-day more uncertain and turbulent career. as an adaptive mechanism of personal agency, intrinsic and extrinsic career exploration enable individuals to purposefully cultivate their career agility and adaptability for career adaptation and renewal in their vocational development (jiang et al., 2019; rudolph, lavigne, & zacher, 2017). career exploration fosters individuals’ confidence in the intentional crafting of a meaningful, life-enhancing career future aligned to intrinsic career values, interests and life-career aspirations and goals (bates, rixon, carbone, & pilgrim, 2019). the career exploration process endorses a protean-like career agile mindset that guides agency in the management of a sustainable career in today’s turbulent and complex world of work (bates et al., 2019; coetzee et al., 2021a; hall, yip, & doiron, 2018). thus, career-agile individuals demonstrate adaptive readiness to meet the unfamiliar and unknown career phenomena and options presented by the digital-era work environment (coetzee, 2021a; hirschi, 2018; lent, 2018). a career agile growth mindset is associated with personal resilience in challenging times, job and life satisfaction, self-efficacy in career goal achievement and career well-being (caniels, semeijn, & renders, 2018; coetzee, 2021b; ting & datu, 2020). career exploration involves a purpose-driven exploration and evaluation of internal attributes such as career interests and values and external opportunities and constraints in relation to a career-relevant context (flum & blustein, 2000; jiang et al., 2019). the present study explored the associations between three constructs of career exploration, namely, career orientations, digital-era world of work awareness and career agility. career orientations are intrinsic career values that guide career decision-making and satisfaction (abessolo, hirschi, & rossier, 2021; schein & van maanen, 2016). research indicates individuals’ career orientations as an intricate aspect of selfand environmental exploration that contributes to job satisfaction during the initial stages of employment (jiang et al., 2019; werbel, 2000). individuals’ digital-era world of work awareness alludes to purposive extrinsic career exploration behaviour and cognitions that afford access to information about the changing nature of work, and new occupation and job opportunities, and the fit of these with personal career values and interests (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021b; jiang et al., 2019). digital-era world of work (extrinsic) career exploration facilitates coherent, purpose-enhancing career plans, the pursuit of a personally meaningful work–life career, and the management of career–life transitions and changes (jiang et al., 2019). intrinsic and extrinsic career explorations build career-related capabilities, resources and knowledge, and enhance individuals’ career adaptability (guan et al., 2015; jiang et al., 2019). the objective of this study was twofold. firstly, it explored the extent to which intrinsic career orientations inform individuals’ digital-era world of work awareness. secondly, the study explored whether individuals’ intrinsic career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness contribute to the career agility mindset. research by jiang et al. (2019) shows that intrinsic and extrinsic career explorations assist individuals to develop adaptive positive cognitions, attitudes and behaviours that benefit their careers. however, it is not clear how career exploration in the form of intrinsic career orientations and extrinsic world of work awareness relates to a career agility mindset. research by cai et al. (2015) shows that career exploration explains the process by which intrinsic attributes lead to the development of positive mindsets about the career future and career adaptability. however, there is currently a lack of research on the constructs of digital-era world of work awareness and career agility in the career exploration context. career agility as a mindset of adaptivity anchored in savickas’s (2013) model of psychological career adaptation, career agility denotes a mindset of adaptivity which is the psychological readiness to embrace the complexities and ill-defined occupational and work challenges of the digital-era world of work (coetzee, 2021a; hirschi, herrmann, & keller, 2015; savickas, 2013). career agility (i.e. individuals’ willingness to speedily and proactively adapt and respond to changes that influence their career success) acts as a precondition for the active use of the career adaptability resources needed for agentic career exploration and self-regulatory career management (coetzee et al., 2021a; savickas, 2013). individuals’ career adaptivity is reflected in the mindset states of technological adaptivity (i.e. optimism and problem-solving orientation towards seeking out new occupational and upskilling opportunities made possible by technological advancement), agile learning (i.e. energetic positivity towards searching out continuous learning and growth opportunities) and career navigation (i.e. self-efficacy in adapting to the changing career environment, and identifying gaps in the employment market that one could fill in unique ways; coetzee, bester, ferreira, & potgieter, 2020; coetzee, 2021b). these mindset states allude to the protean-like agentic aspects of openness to new experiences, volition, personal autonomy and control over one’s career that facilitate the use of career adaptability resources such as active career planning, career decidedness, extrinsic career exploration and career self-efficacy beliefs (coetzee et al., 2020; hall et al., 2018; hirschi et al., 2015). research has shown links between openness to new experiences and higher levels of productive career planning and exploration (ting & datu, 2020). theoretically, it appears that the assessment of career agility may be useful as a tool in career exploration counselling to elucidate individuals’ adaptive readiness to confidently and intentionally engage in extrinsic career exploration. however, individuals need a strong internal compass (i.e. a meaningful value-driven passion towards a career domain) to not only guide their career decisions and development, but also to activate their career agency in extrinsic career exploration (hall et al., 2018). in the present study, schein’s (1990) concept of career orientations is explored as a component of intrinsic career exploration that activates individuals’ extrinsic career exploration in the form of digital-era world of work awareness and career agility. career orientations research suggests that individuals’ personal values (i.e. desirable goals and life aspirations) have become essential for career decisions and choices, and lifelong agentic career development in times of uncertain career prospects (abessolo, rossier, & hirschi, 2017). in this regard, individuals’ career orientations provide purpose and meaning to their career choices and behaviour (abessolo et al., 2017; coetzee & schreuder, 2014; rodrigues, guest, & budjanovcanin, 2013; schein & van maanen, 2016). the master motivational values that underpin individuals’ career orientations serve as criteria for subjective career success that act as an internal cognitive compass pulling individuals towards specific career choices and decisions (abessolo et al., 2021). schein’s (1990) eight types of career orientations (anchors) denote four clusters of career-values mindsets (wils, wils, & tremblay, 2010): careerist mindset (associated with the general managerial competence career orientation), protean mindset (associated with the technical and functional competence, entrepreneurial creativity, pure challenge, and autonomy and independence career orientations), social mindset (associated with lifestyle and service and dedication to a cause career orientations) and bureaucratic mindset (associated with the security/stability career orientation). the careerist mindset of the general management competence orientation denotes self-enhancement as basic value (i.e. professional success, influence and power). the protean-mindset-associated career orientations allude to openness to change and agency (self-regulatory) values, a readiness for change and to autonomously pursue new challenging occupational and career challenges for personal growth and development. the social-mindset type of career orientations subscribes to human values of self-transcendence that emphasise social needs and benevolent connections. the bureaucratic mindset of the security and stability career orientation is associated with the basic human value of conservation (i.e. continuity, stability and bureaucratic links with others in the organisation; abessolo et al., 2017; schwartz et al., 2012; wils et al., 2010). career orientations guide intrinsic career exploration which evokes a feeling of curiosity towards the type of job and career that would bring the most fulfilment and career success (schein, 1990; su, 2020). assessment and conversational exploration of career orientation mindsets enliven or activate the epistemic curiosity needed to intentionally (purposefully) engage in extrinsic career exploration to not only gain more information about the digital-era world of work career options that fit one’s career orientations but also to be career agile by proactively adapting and responding to changes that influence one’s career success (coetzee et al., 2021a; grossnickle, 2016; su, 2020). digital-era world of work awareness like career agility, digital-era world of work awareness is a person-in-environment construct of extrinsic career exploration (jiang et al., 2019). in the present study, individuals’ world of work awareness denotes their conscious, purposive cognitions that afford them access to information about the nature of work, occupations and jobs in the digital-era world of employment. such information includes an understanding of the impact of technological advancement on job and employment opportunities, and the changing nature of work (brown et al., 2018: deloitte, 2021; deloitte insights, 2019; mckinsey global institute, 2015, 2016). individuals’ awareness of the changing world of work helps them gain information on potential new digitally driven occupational opportunities in their field of interest, and the new type of skills and knowledge they need to qualify for new forms of jobs and occupations (brown et al., 2018; coetzee et al., 2021b; deloitte, 2021). it stands to reason that individuals’ cognitions and feelings about their preferred career orientations will be positively associated with the extrinsic career exploration cognitions of world of work awareness. schein and van maanen (2016) suggest that the protean-type career orientations technical and functional competence, entrepreneurial creativity, pure challenge and autonomy and independence career orientations may be especially open-minded towards and curious about the new career opportunities proffered by the digital-era world of work. however, research on links between individuals’ career orientations and the construct of digital-era world of work awareness is non-existent. the following research question ensued from this research gap: research question 1: do individuals’ career orientations predict their digital-era world of work awareness? in the present study, it was also assumed that individuals’ world of work awareness will enhance their career agility because of the information and knowledge they have about the world of work. world-of-work-aware individuals recognise the need for rapid upskilling, reskilling and continuous learning for optimal adaptation to, and functioning within the digital-era employment market (coetzee et al., 2021b; kohl & swartz, 2019). digital-era world of work awareness is characteristic of the career agile mindset; individuals are able to rapidly learn, unlearn, relearn and adjust their personal worldviews, beliefs, career goals, interests and behaviour for re-achieving optimal person–environment congruence (brown et al., 2018; kohl & swartz, 2019). it further appears that some of the career orientations, such as the protean mindset type of career orientations, may also show a stronger link to individuals’ career agility than, for example, the careerist, social and bureaucratic type of mindsets because of the underpinning values that direct career cognitions and actions. individuals who ascribe to the protean-type career need for technical and functional competence (i.e. opportunities for continuous upskilling of one’s expertise through challenging work), autonomy and independence (i.e. self-reliant navigation of world of work for self-expression), entrepreneurial creativity (i.e. readiness to discover and pursue new self-expression opportunities) and pure challenge (i.e. the pursuit of new self-challenging career opportunities) generally tend to demonstrate a career-agile interest in and awareness of changes in the world of work (schein & van maanen, 2016). however, research on the associations between individuals’ career orientations, digital-era world of work awareness and career agility is non-existent. the following research question was posed: research question 2: do individuals’ career orientations and their digital-era world of work awareness predict their career agility? method participants the participants were a randomly selected sample (n = 486) of south african distance learning undergraduate adult learners in the economic and management sciences field. the participants comprised of women (65%) and men (35%) with a mean age of 34 years (standard deviation [sd] 9.12 years). in line with the south african employment equity act categorisation of race groups, the sample was represented by 85% black learners (african: 73%; coloured: 7%; indian: 5%) and 15% white learners. seventy-two per cent of the participants had full-time employment and 28% were unemployed. measuring instruments career agility the 18-item career agility scale (cas; coetzee et al., 2021a) was utilised to measure the participants’ career agility (e.g. ‘i am updating my knowledge and skills to capitalise on new job opportunities created by accelerated technological developments’). participants’ responses are measured on a seven-point likert-type scale (where 1: strongly disagree and 7: strongly agree). the cas has proven internal consistency reliability (> 0.80) and construct validity (coetzee et al., 2021a). career orientations schein’s (1990) 40-item career orientations inventory (coi) was applied to measure the perceptions of the career self-concept. the coi measures responses on a six-point likert-type scale (where 1: not true at all for me and 6: always true for me). the coi identifies eight types of career orientations (schein, 1990): (1) technical and functional competence (five items; e.g. ‘i will feel successful in my career only if i can develop my technical and functional skills to a very high level of competence’); (2) general management competence (five items; e.g. ‘i am most fulfilled in my work when i have been able to integrate and manage the efforts of others’); (3) autonomy and independence (five items; e.g. ‘i dream of having a career that will allow me the freedom to do a job on my own way and on my own schedule’); (4) security and stability (five items; e.g. ‘security and stability are more important to me than freedom and autonomy’); (5) entrepreneurial creativity (five items; e.g. ‘i am always on the lookout for ideas that would permit me to start my own enterprise’); (6) service and dedication to a cause (five items; e.g. ‘i will feel successful in my career only if i have a feeling of having made a real contribution to the welfare of society’); (7) pure challenge (five items; e.g. ‘i dream of a career in which i can solve problems or win out in situations that are extremely challenging’); (8) lifestyle (ls: five items; e.g. ‘i would rather leave my organisation than to be put into a job that would compromise my ability to pursue personal and family concerns’). the coi is a well-established instrument with demonstrated construct validity and internal consistency reliability (coetzee, schreuder, & tladinyane, 2014). digital-era world of work awareness the 16-item measure of the digital-era world of work awareness scale (dwwas: coetzee et al., 2021b) was utilised (e.g. ‘i have a clear picture of jobs and occupational opportunities made possible by new technological advancements in my field of study’). responses are measured on a seven-point likert-type scale (where 1: strongly disagree and 7: strongly agree). research by coetzee et al. (2021b) indicates construct validity and internal consistency reliability coefficients of α > 0.78 for the wwas. procedure the university’s internal lime survey facilities were utilised for data collection. the participants were invited via their student emails with a url link to the research questionnaire to voluntarily complete the online survey for research purposes. data analysis descriptive statistics, reliability coefficients and pearson’s product–moment correlations were calculated and analysed using ibm corp. (2020) statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 27. linear regression analysis was done by using hayes’s (2018) process procedure for spss version 3.5.3. the bootstrapping stringent lower level confidence interval (llci) and upper level confidence interval (ulci) range not containing zero was used to interpret significant direct (prediction) effects at the 95% confidence interval (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). ethical considerations ethics clearance for the research (erc reference: 2020_cems_iop_031) and permission to conduct the survey among the students (ref #: 2020_rpc_051) were granted by the university. participation was voluntary, anonymous, confidential and with informed consent to use the data for group-based research purposes. results descriptive statistics table 1 shows that all the scale variables had good reliability coefficients (α ≥ 0.74) except for the technical/functional competence (α = 0.60), autonomy/independence (α = 0.65) and lifestyle (α = 0.69) career self-concept orientations. the correlations between career agility, world of work awareness and the career self-concept orientations were significant and positive (r ≥ 0.16 and ≤ 0.53; p ≤ 0.001; small to large practical effect). however, the general management career self-concept orientation had no significant correlation with the career agility variable. table 1: descriptive statistics, reliability estimates and bivariate correlations (n = 486). career orientations as predictor of digital-era world of work awareness the linear regression f-statistic estimate (see witten, hastie, & tibshirani, 2013) reported in table 2 was significant. the f-statistic model explained 32% (r² = 0.32; large practical effect) of the variance in the construct. table 2 shows that the technical and functional competence (β = 0.32; p = 0.000; llci = 0.21; ulci = 0.45), autonomy and independence (β = 0.13; p = 0.01; llci = 0.03; ulci = 0.19) and pure challenge (β = 0.14; p = 0.01; llci = 0.03; ulci = 0.24) career orientations significantly predicted world of work awareness. in terms of research question 1, the results provided evidence that individuals’ career orientations predict their digital-era world of work awareness. table 2: results of prediction effects on digital-era world of work awareness (n = 486). career orientations and digital-era world of work awareness as predictors of career agility the f-statistic in table 3 was significant. the f-statistic model shows that digital-era world of work awareness and eight career orientations as predictor variables explained 34% (r² = 0.34; large practical effect) of the variance in career agility. in terms of research question 2, the results provided evidence that individuals’ career orientations and their digital-era world of work awareness predict their career agility. table 3: results of prediction effects on career agility (n = 486). table 3 shows that the world of work awareness variable (β = 0.42; p = 0.000; llci = 0.31; ulci = 0.48), the technical and functional competence (β = 0.13; p = 0.04; llci = 0.01; ulci = 0.24) and pure challenge (β = 0.20; p = 0.000; llci = 0.09; ulci = 0.28) career orientations significantly predicted career agility. the general management competence career orientation (β = −0.11; p = 0.01; llci = −0.12; ulci = −0.02) had a significant and negative prediction effect on career agility. discussion the study revealed important insights regarding the career orientation types technical and functional competence, autonomy and independence and pure challenge as explanatory antecedents of participants’ digital-era world of work awareness. in addition, the results provided an in-depth understanding of the contributory effect of the technical and functional competence, pure challenge and general management, including digital-era world of work awareness on participants’ career agility. the career values underpinning the technical and functional competence, autonomy and independence and pure challenge career orientations allude to the protean mindset values of openness to change and agency (self-regulatory) values, a readiness for change, and to autonomously pursue new challenging occupational and career challenges for personal growth and development (abessolo et al., 2017; wils et al., 2010). schein and van maanen (2016) argue that in the digital era, work for individuals who endorse the values of the technical and functional competence career orientation will be central to the development of their technical expertise and talents. for the autonomy and independence and pure challenge career orientation types, technological advancement will uncover future jobs that provide more challenging and exciting problem solving, growth and development opportunities than ever (schein & van maanen, 2016). the findings suggest that individuals who attach meaning to the underpinning values of the protean-type career orientations are more prone to engage in extrinsic career exploration (i.e. actively gain knowledge of the impact of the digital era on job and employment opportunities, the need for continuous learning, reskilling and upskilling because of changing job requirements, and the need for career agile adaptation (coetzee et al., 2021b). contrary to the protean-type career orientations of technical and functional competence and pure challenge, the professional success and self-enhancement values of the careerist mindset (general management competence) seemed to explain lower levels of career agile behaviour. this may be attributed to the careerist need for power and responsibility and rapid upward career progress which may be somewhat more diffused and unpredictable in the virtualised, digital-era workplace (reyes, luna, & salas, 2021; schein & van maanen, 2016). participants’ awareness of the digital-era world of work offered additional insight into the career agility mindset. the positive associations elucidated participants’ propensity for epistemic curiosity into the world of work changes, resulting in career agile external career exploration, self-efficacious career goal setting, and intentional and optimistic career navigation of new chance career and development opportunities proffered by technological advancement (coetzee, 2021a). the findings corroborate career exploration research showing an interplay between self-insight into career values and extrinsic exploration of the career environment that may produce positive career and work outcomes (jiang et al., 2019; lent, ireland, penn, morris, & sappington, 2017). self-environment career exploration is viewed as an adaptive behavioural attribute that leads to positive career outcomes (jiang et al., 2019; lent & brown, 2013; savickas, 2013). implications for purpose-enhancing career exploration counselling practice the central implication for purpose-enhancing career exploration counselling from this study is the challenge to help individuals translate the intrinsic exploration of, and insight into, career orientation values into self-regulatory extrinsic career exploration activity. such actions involve gaining knowledge about the changing nature of jobs and careers in the digital-era world of work and the career agility mindsets they need to successfully craft new, unplanned career opportunities for sustainable employability. although individuals who subscribe to protean-mindset career orientations (technical and functional competence, pure challenge and autonomy and independence) may be more susceptible to such activity, career counselling should focus on guiding individuals not acquiescing to protean-like career values to become more world of work aware and career agile. career research suggests that the combination of both career values and self-regulatory agency (e.g. career agility) has a stronger prediction effect on positive responses to change than either attribute alone (briscoe, hoobler, & byle, 2010; hall et al., 2018). inadequate self-regulatory agency with a strong career values drive may result in a rigid career orientation and inhibit career proactivity (briscoe & hall, 2006). individuals may, through purpose-driven intrinsic and extrinsic career exploration techniques, learn to explore apart from a dominant career orientation also their secondary and tertiary career orientations, and how these career values either enable or thwart their world of work awareness and career agility. the new insights and contributions of the current study should be seen in the light of the exploratory, cross-sectional research design. no causal effects could be established between the variables, only the direction and magnitude of associations. the sample was limited to adult learners in the economic and management sciences field. future research may investigate the associations across different occupational fields and in longitudinal studies of true causal processes. future qualitative studies may also investigate the application of the coi, dwwas and cas in career exploration counselling and report on client narratives around the usefulness of these assessments in purpose-driven career development. conclusion the present study introduced three constructs relevant to intrinsic career (career orientations) and extrinsic career (world of work awareness and career agility) exploration in purposive career exploration. the empirical evidence of direct associations between these constructs offers promising support for applying principles of career exploration in today’s digital-era career counselling sphere. acknowledgements the author wishes to thank the adult learners who participated in the study. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data for this study are available only upon approval of the research institution’s research ethics committee, with formal reasonable request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references abessolo, m., hirschi, a., & rossier, j. 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(2013). an introduction to statistical learning: with applications in r. new york, ny: springer. abstract introduction methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) pazambadi kazimna department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo yawo a. holu department of career counselling, university of lomé, lomé, togo akila alfa department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo masamaésso tchonda department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo paboussoum pari department of applied psychology, faculty of human and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo jonas masdonati institute of psychology, faculty of social and political sciences, university of lausanne, lausanne, switzerland citation kazimna, p., holu, y.a., alfa, a., tchonda, m., pari, p., & masdonati, j. (2020). what work should be and bring: representations of decent work in togo. african journal of career development, 2(1), a8. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.8 original research what work should be and bring: representations of decent work in togo pazambadi kazimna, yawo a. holu, akila alfa, masamaésso tchonda, paboussoum pari, jonas masdonati received: 09 dec. 2019; accepted: 23 jan. 2020; published: 11 mar. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: little is known about workers’ and students’ perceptions and views of decent work in the african context. objective: the purpose of this study was to understand the perceived characteristics of decent work and the needs that work is expected to satisfy in togo, a country in which a significant number of workers experience job insecurity. method: twenty-nine semi-structured interviews were carried out with workers in the formal and informal sectors, and college and university students. a thematic consensual qualitative analysis was applied to the interview transcriptions. results: the representation of decent work covered four key components: to be considered decent, work should entail some basic conditions, enable one to develop professionalism, and make one feel productive and be a source of pleasure. moreover, participants mentioned five types of needs that work should meet: vital, psychological, social, busyness and statutory needs. these results indicate the existence of both universal and culture-specific features of decent work. conclusion: the study results suggest that career counsellors should take into account counselees’ specific representation of work and the needs work is expected to satisfy. vocational and career practices should then place greater emphasis on the adequacy between the occupations to which people are oriented and the social and personal representations of decent work. keywords: togo; decent work; representations; need satisfaction; formal sector; informal sector; career counselling. introduction the challenges of accessing decent work accessing decent work is a major issue around the world. in 2002, the international labour organization (ilo) advocated for everyone to have the opportunity to work in conditions of freedom, equity, safety and human dignity. moreover, the challenge of accessing decent work concerns not only employees in the formal economy but also workers in the informal sector, the self-employed and those working at home (ghai, 2003). some 10 years later, given the persistent dehumanisation of work, the ilo (2013) reiterated that decent work is not only a basic human right but also one of the biggest challenges that the world is facing. the concept of decent work covers many facets, such as employment, social protection, workers’ rights and social dialogue (ilo, 2013). according to the ilo, in order to be considered decent the work must protect employees from physical or interpersonal threats, guarantee them a fair wage, provide access to healthcare, enable adequate leisure time and schedules, and advocate values that are aligned with those of the individuals and their communities. based on these principles, scholars in vocational psychology and career development have recently suggested a psychosocial understanding of the concept and characteristics of decent work (blustein, masdonati, & rossier, 2017; blustein, olle, connors-kellgren, & diamonti, 2016; pouyaud, 2016). these reflections led di fabio and maree (2016) to propose the following definition: decent work helps all workers attain a sense of self-respect and dignity, experience freedom and security in the workplace, and (as far as possible) is afforded the opportunity to choose and execute productive, meaningful and fulfilling work that will enable [workers] to construct themselves adequately and without restrictions and make social contributions. (p. 9) this definition completes the decent work criteria suggested by the ilo with additional and more subjective indicators, such as the opportunity to carry out meaningful, satisfying and socially useful work. the psychology of working theory the psychology of working theory (pwt) (duffy, blustein, diemer, & autin, 2016; duffy et al., 2019b) is among the most comprehensive career development theories for identifying the issues of decent work. it is anchored on the psychology of working framework (pwf) (blustein, 2013), which postulates that work is a central life sphere having a direct influence on the well-being of workers and people who aspire to work. the pwf also stresses that people have unequal opportunities to access decent jobs. based on these assumptions, the pwt postulates that access to decent work is determined by contextual variables, such as marginalisation and socio-economic constraints. in addition, psychosocial variables, such as work volition and career adaptability, are involved in this process. according to the pwt, doing decent work satisfies three basic human needs: survival, social contribution and self-determination (autin et al., 2019). survival needs refer to access to housing, water, food and social capital; social contribution needs refer to a ‘sense of connecting to the broader social world via contributing to the welfare of communities’ (autin et al., 2019, p. 196); and self-determination needs cover relatedness, skills and autonomy. research based on pwt has proliferated over the past five years (e.g. duffy et al., 2017, 2019b). an example is the recent publication of a thematic issue of the journal of vocational behavior on this topic (duffy, blustein, allan, diemer, & cinamon, 2019a). this issue addresses the cultural particularities of decent work assessment, bringing together contributions from europe (e.g. dodd, hooley, & burke, 2019; masdonati, schreiber, marcionetti, & rossier, 2019), south america (ribeiro, texeira, & ambiel, 2019) and asia (nam & kim, 2019). however, very few studies have investigated the characteristics and challenges of decent work in african countries (cohen-scali et al., submitted). in this context, mattos (2015), summing up the reflections of several contemporary authors on decent work, asked three questions that remain valid: (1) is there a single form or multiple types of decent work?, (2) to what extent does working operate differently in different contexts? and (3) is there one or more ways to achieve the same goal through work? furthermore, if there are scales that allow assessing the extent to which work can satisfy the above-mentioned three basic needs (autin et al., 2019), to our knowledge, no qualitative research has investigated how workers describe and perceive these needs. objectives and context this study addresses the lack of research regarding applying the pwt in the african context and qualitatively investigating the needs that decent work is expected to meet. our general objective, then, is to understand the perceived characteristics of decent work in togo, a country in which a large number of workers experience job insecurity. this general objective is divided into two specific objectives: (1) to explore the representations of decent work in togo and (2) to understand the needs that work is expected to meet in order to be considered decent within the togolese context. these specific objectives target two key components of the pwt: decent work and its characteristics, and the needs that people can fulfil through decent work. togo has a population of 8 million inhabitants, with an annual growth of 2.6%, with 60% of the population being under the age of 25 years (united nations, 2018) and with an incidence of poverty of 55.1% in 2015 (république togolaise, 2018). employment in togo has recently increased, and unemployment has declined by 3.1%, from 6.5% in 2011 to 3.4% in 2015. however, the underemployment rate remains high and rose from 22.8% in 2011 to 25.8% in 2015. the informal sector dominates the supply of jobs and is largely characterised by low productivity and low-quality employment. moreover, togo’s doing business rankings remain modest: in 2020, it was ranked 97th out of 190 countries. finally, smalland medium-sized enterprises face difficulties in accessing financing. the togolese context then lends itself to an analysis in terms of decent work, as most togolese workers seem to be at risk not only of experiencing difficulty in finding a job, but also of having access to quality jobs. grasping what characterises ‘quality jobs’ from the workers viewpoint thus contributes to a better understanding of the issue of decent work within this context. methodology as this research was exploratory in nature, we adopted a qualitative approach through semi-structured individual interviews. this approach is indeed appropriate for obtaining in-depth information to understand real-world problems as experienced by the people directly affected by these problems (moser & korstjens, 2017). a qualitative approach is also suited for the exploration of populations and phenomena that are still little studied, which is the case in our research (levitt et al., 2018). participants in total, 29 people participated in the study. the sample comprised 11 women (38%) and 18 men (62%) living in lomé, the capital of togo, with a mean age of 34.9 years (standard deviation [sd] = 11.2 years). twenty-four participants spoke french, two spoke ewe, two spoke kotokoli and one spoke kabye. the sample covered four categories of profiles: (1) six students, including three high school pupils and three university students (mage = 19.3); (2) seven workers in the formal (wage-earning) public sector (mage = 42.0); (3) eight workers in the formal private sector (mage = 37.4); and (4) eight workers in the informal sector (mage = 37.9), including self-employed entrepreneurs (owners of unincorporated businesses, small businesses or workshops), sellers and craftsmen (sheet metal worker, designer, electronics engineer and electrical technician). data collection data collection was carried out by means of purposive sampling, a sampling strategy used in qualitative research to target people who are ‘best placed’ to talk about the study topic (elo et al., 2014). the study’s inclusion criteria were as follows: the participant must be pupil/student or active worker, must have lived in togo for the last 10 years and must have togolese parents. the students were recruited at the university of lomé and the secondary schools of the city of lomé. workers in the formal private and public sectors were recruited at the national social security fund and among the employees of the university of lomé, respectively. informal sector workers were approached at the roadside surrounding the university of lomé. the researchers visited these sites, presented the research and its objectives to possible participants, and requested that they take part in an interview. participation in the study was voluntary, and participants were informed that the interview would be recorded and that confidentiality of the data would be ensured at all stages of the process. the interviews took place at participants’ workplace or school, lasted for 40 min on average and were recorded and fully transcribed in french. interview guide the interview guide for workers was divided into five sections: (1) career path up to the current work situation, (2) perception of the current situation, (3) representations of decent work, (4) meaning of work and (5) sociodemographic information. the interview guide for students did not include the first two sections. for the present research, we focussed on the third and fourth sections and more specifically on the answers to the following questions: (1) what characterises decent work for you?, (2) to what extent do you consider that your work is decent?, (3) what functions do work plays in your life? and (4) basically, why are you working? through these questions, we were able to collect information on two key components of the pwt: the characteristics of decent work (third interview section, questions 1 and 2) and the needs decent work is expected to satisfy (fourth interview section, questions 3 and 4). data analysis a thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) integrating the principles of consensual qualitative research (cqr) (hill, 2012) was carried out on the interview transcriptions. the research comprised six researchers: two professors in work and organisational psychology, a career counsellor, two phd students in psychology and a research associate. a professor in vocational psychology who is an expert in cqr was the auditor. the research team went through the six steps suggested by braun and clarke (2006). each step comprised a research team meeting, and the auditor intervened three times throughout the process: familiarisation with data. the two phd students went through the entire set of material and cut it into units of meaning. a team meeting that included the auditor was organised to retain the general themes related to the specific objectives of the research, that is, representations of decent work and the needs that the work is supposed to meet. generation of initial codes. the two phd students systematically coded the units of meaning related to the two general themes. search for themes. the research team identified specific themes within the general themes. each specific theme was divided into categories. this resulted in a first consensual thematic map, which was submitted to the auditor. review of themes. based on the feedback from the auditor, a final thematic map was defined. the two phd students then coded all the material based on this final map. definition and naming of themes. the general themes, specific themes and categories were defined and described, including exemplary and illustrative quotes. production of the report. the research team members and the auditor collaboratively reported the results of the analysis. this step consisted of describing each theme and category, selecting the most vivid and compelling quotes, ensuring the overall consistency of the presentation of the results and addressing the research objectives. the criteria suggested by morrow (2005) for post-positivist qualitative research were taken into consideration to ensure the trustworthiness of the study: exchanges among the research team members allowed to attain credibility; transferability was addressed in the description of the study context and limits within the present article; dependability and confirmability were guaranteed through both the step-by-step description of the data analysis and the inputs from the auditor. finally, we adhered to ethical principles by guaranteeing participants’ confidentiality and anonymising the interview transcriptions. also, interviews were conducted preserving the dignity, integrity and privacy of the interviewees. ethical consideration this study was conducted in conformity with the swiss 810.30 federal act on research involving human beings (human research act, hra) of 30 september 2011 (status as of 01 january 2014). results in line with our objectives, the findings of the consensual thematic analyses are divided into two parts, covering the representation of the components of decent work and the needs that work is expected to satisfy. the general themes, specific themes and categories are presented in table 1. table 1: overview of themes and categories. representation of decent work our analyses revealed that the representation of decent work includes four key components, corresponding to four specific themes. to be considered decent, a job must indeed satisfy some basic requirements, allow having fun, allow developing professionalism and inculcate a feeling of being productive. satisfying basic requirements for 20 interviewees, a job is decent when it meets some basic working requirements and standards. these requirements cover seven categories: a fair compensation, activities not threatening workers’ security and health, an adequate work environment, the availability of working instruments (i.e. equipment and tools), the respect of legal norms, activities respecting traditions and customs, and an appropriate working schedule. in this respect, participant 1 believed: ‘decent work is essentially characterised by good working conditions, material conditions, availability of offices that meet standards, acceptable salary conditions to enable the person to be happy, to flourish and to dream; this is the only way a person can work and be efficient.’ (p1, male, jurist, 35 years old) participant 7 had similar feelings: ‘… decent work is any work that is carried out respecting the norms and the social laws.’ (p7, female, management controller and accountant, 35 years old) regarding working schedule, participant 6 stated: ‘… our working conditions are good, but we would like to organise our shop better and to have the possibility to avoid returning home late.’ (p6, female, retailer, 39 years old) in general, students seemed to mainly focus on legal norms and physical security, as emphasised in the following quote: ‘… it is work that does not threaten the physical integrity of the individual.’ (p21, male, student, 20 years) employees in the formal and informal sectors tended to focus more on fair compensation. having fun the second component of the interviewees’ representation of decent work refers to the pleasure that workers should be able to experience when performing their tasks. five interviewees mentioned this specific theme, including: ‘… decent work is a job we love.’ (p14, male, special education teacher, 35 years old) ‘… decent work is a job that gives us pleasure, satisfies us on all levels, and makes us want to go there.’ (p17, male, school supervisor, 32 years old) developing professionalism four participants said that a decent job must enable workers to build their professionalism. the specific theme covers the possibility of learning and training and the opportunity to develop skills. participant 8 evoked the first category as follows: ‘… decent work is a learned and mastered job.’ (p8, male, welder-sheet metal worker, 34 years old) the exercise of an activity must then always be preceded not only by a training phase but also by professional actions, as illustrated: ‘… it’s a job that requires serious and determined efforts.’ (p9, male, student, 11 years old) feeling productive according to three participants, decent work must enable workers to feel productive. to do so, the efforts invested in work must result in tangible, positive and valued outcomes. this was explained by participant 7: ‘… decent work can be summed up in productive work … and is characterised by good performance.’ (p7, female, management controller and accountant, 35 years old) needs that work should satisfy the general theme of needs that the work is supposed to meet was addressed through five specific themes, consisting of five different needs: vital, psychological, social, busyness and statutory needs. vital needs all interviewees stated that work should satisfy vital needs. these needs are divided into two categories: daily necessities (to eat, dress, drink, heal: in short, to take care of oneself) and residential needs (housing). participant 14 stated, for example: ‘… my work allows me to eat, to take care of myself, to get dressed.’ (p14, male, cleaner, 29 years old) this element was particularly important for two interviewees whose work did not meet the needs of survival, such as: ‘… work enables me to eat but does not allow me to be housed, to look after me, to get dressed, to take care of myself.’ (p20, woman, executive secretary, 28 years old) psychological needs according to 20 interviewees, work must satisfy three categories of psychological needs: independence, self-esteem and meaning. for example, participant 5 stressed her need for independence: ‘…work brings freedom; through work, you can do what you want, be self-governing and independent.’ (p5, female, designer, 35 years old) participant 12 gave an example of how work should increase self-esteem: ‘… work is essential because it is the job that makes the man.’ (p12, male, teacher and translator, 48 years old) finally, work is expected to give meaning to life: ‘… work is unavoidable, and i cannot imagine my future without work.’ (p21, male, student, 20 years old) social needs social needs are the third type of needs that work is expected to satisfy. these needs were mentioned by 17 participants and divided into two categories. firstly, work must make it possible to feel useful to others, concretely and in everyday life: ‘… decent work makes it possible to help others.’ (p5, female, designer, 35 years old) secondly, decent work should make it possible to feel useful in a broader way, allowing people to feel that they contribute to society. this was stated, for example: ‘… work is important because it enables me […] to participate in the development of my country.’ (p1, male, jurist, 35 years old) busyness needs the fourth specific theme refers to the need to be and feel busy, which was mentioned by seven participants. beyond its contents, work thus serves to provide people with an occupation and prevent idleness, whatever work consists of. in this respect: ‘… work enables me not to be idle.’ (p15, female, human resource [hr] manager, 48 years old) ‘… work enables me to keep myself busy, to make myself useful.’ (p16, male, director of studies, 39 years old) statutory needs finally, six participants mentioned that decent work should also make it possible to assume a valued status in society, to benefit from a certain social recognition or prestige. participant 3 mentioned, for example: ‘… work enables me to be someone.’ (p3, male, forwarder/cook, 41 years old) whereas participant 5 stressed: ‘… through work, you are respected and considered.’ (p5, female, designer, 35 years old) the study analyses also indicated that most participants mentioned several representations of decent work and associated several needs with work. for example, participant 1 expected work to satisfy vital, social and psychological needs: ‘… decent work is a job that enables us to take care of ourselves and our family; it is a work that enables a man to realise his potentials.’ (p1, male, jurist, 35 years old) discussion our analyses showed that, in participants’ minds, to be qualified as decent, work should entail some basic conditions, enable one to develop professionalism, make one feel productive and be a source of pleasure. in addition, work should ideally meet five types of needs: vital, psychological, social, busyness and statutory needs. between cross-cultural and specific components of decent work the study results tend to confirm the statements of the ilo (2013) on the characteristics of decent work. indeed, the first specific theme of participants’ representations (‘satisfying basic requirements’) covers categories that refer to workers’ protection from dangers and threats (‘health and safety’, ‘adequate work environment’ and ‘availability of working instruments’), fair wages (‘fair compensation’), health (‘health and safety’) and values aligned with those of the person and his or her community (‘respect of traditions’). however, participants did not mention the ilo indicator of adequate leisure time and work schedule. an explanation of this absence could be that the issues related to the working time and work–life balance are culturally situated and do not equally concern workers across contexts. moreover, our findings show that decent work is not limited to certain basic ‘objective’ requirements. participants added to these requirements other specific themes, such as the opportunity to develop professionalism, feel productive and have fun. this result tends to corroborate the pertinence of completing the definition of decent work with additional psychosocial components (blustein et al., 2017). in this regard, the definition by di fabio and maree (2016) is particularly relevant because it refers more or less explicitly to these three additional specific themes. indeed, in their definition, these authors included the possibility of carrying out work that is productive (which corresponds to our specific theme, ‘feeling productive’) and fulfilling (which is close to our specific theme, ‘having fun’) and that enables workers to construct themselves (which is close to our specific theme, ‘developing professionalism’). however, at this level too, participants did not mention all of the elements of di fabio and maree’s (2016) psychosocial definition of decent work: the issues of freedom in the workplace are indeed not put forward in the togolese context. these findings seem to corroborate our interpretation of a distinction between relatively universal components of decent work and other components that might be more specific to particular cultural contexts. towards new work-related needs? regarding our second general theme, our results confirm the relevance of the pwt (duffy et al., 2016), and more specifically the existence of three needs that decent work is expected to satisfy (autin et al., 2019). in the togolese context, survival, social contribution and self-determination needs are indeed referred to as vital, social and psychological needs, respectively. however, two needs mentioned by our participants are not explicitly addressed in recent literature emanating from the pwt. firstly, according to our data, work is supposed to also confer a status. the existence of this need tends to update the relevance of the initial theorisation of the pwt (duffy et al., 2016) and its original framework (blustein, 2013). in this first theorisation, the need for survival was associated with a need for power, implying that ‘working has the potential to enhance one’s power in the world, via material acquisition as well as the attainment of status and prestige’ (blustein, 2013, p. 11). the togolese data seem to confirm then that work is not only expected to guarantee people’s survival but also to ensure a certain position and social recognition. busyness is the second need suggested by our participants, which is not addressed in the pwt. interestingly, the need to be busy and to avoid idleness was evoked in recent research on the meaning of work and more specifically on work purposes (e.g. fournier et al., 2019) and orientations (willner, lipshits-braziler, & gati, 2019). moreover, this need is indirectly mentioned in the comparative study by cohen-scali et al. (submitted), which investigated representations of work of low-qualified young workers in several cultures. in this research, some young adults mentioned that work should enable them to feel and be occupied. our results might then constitute an invitation to combine research on decent work with studies on the meaning of work. this could lead to a systematic integration of the busyness need among the needs that decent work should satisfy. practical implications the results of this study have implications for career counselling and vocational guidance in togo, which may contribue to the promotion of decent work for all social and occupational strata. according to our findings, these practices should focus on the fit between the occupations suggested to people and the social and personal representations of what defines decent work. this would not only mean taking into account jobs that are valued within the togolese society but also fostering the enhancement and revalorisation of occupations that are considered indecent or do not meet the needs highlighted in our results. more explicitly, it appears that career counsellors within the togolese context might play a double role. firstly, they can relay to decision-makers the information on the perceived and expected characteristics of decent work, which would allow them to set up qualifying and inclusive vocational education and training programmes. secondly, counsellors should foster adolescents’ and young adults’ career maturity through career education interventions that take into account the characteristics of decent work as a criterion for sound career choices. given the importance of work conditions and characteristics providing vital needs, career counsellors should also promote a more attractive, guaranteed minimum inter-professional wage. moreover, they can be active in the implementation of a universal system of health and safety at work. furthermore, the strengthening of vocational education and training – as well as its social and economic recognition – can contribute to the promotion of jobs that could meet all the characteristics of decent work beyond basic conditions and the satisfaction of survival needs. effective and recognised vocational education and training would indeed facilitate access to jobs in which workers could develop their professionalism, feel productive and have fun. limits and perspectives the main limitation of this study concerns the specificities of the context and the population interviewed. indeed, this research was limited to the city of lomé, and interviewees did not cover all of the occupational categories of the togolese society. in that respect, the study results cannot be generalised to the togolese situation as a whole. for example, the representations of work in rural areas of the country may be different from those shown in our study. further research is needed to complement this study and provide a more comprehensive portrait of the representations of decent work – and the needs that the work is expected to address – in the togolese society, with all its complexity and nuances. further studies could also quantitatively assess decent work, for example, by validating a togolese version of the decent work scale (duffy et al., 2017) and the needs satisfaction scales (autin et al., 2019). conclusion this study is amongst the first ones based on the pwt that help researchers understand decent work in the african context and the first to do this in togo specifically. although further research is needed to complete this portrait, this study seems to confirm the existence of universal criteria defining what decent work entails and the needs it should meet. it also corroborates the relevance of a psychosocial understanding of decent work, which is not limited to guaranteeing material conditions that make it possible to survive but is also a source of personal and social achievement. other criteria, however, seem specific to the togolese context and thus stress that representations of work are culturally situated. the needs of social status and feeling busy are examples of needs that appear to be specifically salient in the togolese context and that are not necessarily mentioned in other contexts. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to kokou a. atitsogbe, abdoulaye ouedraogo and jérôme rossier for their contribution to the conception of the interview guide. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research was conducted within the research for development (r4d) programme, financed by the swiss national science foundation and the swiss agency for development and cooperation (grant number izo8zo_177295). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as this could potentially compromise participant privacy. disclaimer the views and opinions 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(2019). construction and initial validation of the work orientation questionnaire. journal of career assessment, 28(1), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072719830293 abstract introduction research question research methodology race and career development gender and career development conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) indira pillay department of anthropology and archaeology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation pillay, i. (2022). race and gender in the evolution of career decision-making: a psycho-anthropological review. african journal of career development, 4(1), a53. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.53 original research race and gender in the evolution of career decision-making: a psycho-anthropological review indira pillay received: 24 dec. 2021; accepted: 10 mar. 2022; published: 21 apr. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: on 12 july 2021, riots broke out in the kwazulu-natal and gauteng provinces of south africa. regardless of the various political theories, the issue surrounding these riots had the theme of inequality and poverty below the surface. the reality is that many people live in poverty, have no jobs and are desperate. it is, therefore, necessary for us to look at the issue of work and career development in a way that addresses the deepening poverty crisis in south africa. specifically, it may be helpful to consider how the evolution of career development led to the deep-seated inequality that we see today, with race and gender being key considerations. objectives: in this article, the author draws primarily from the existing literature to explore how evolutionary developments and globalisation influenced career decision-making and the roles that social forces and agents of power have played, especially in the context of race and gender. method: the author conducted a brief literature review. issues relating to the social, political and systemic influences in the evolution of career development and decision-making were incorporated into this review, with special focus on race and gender. results: as the historic literature was analysed, the role of social factors such as race and gender on the evolutionary path of career development came to the fore. colonisation, apartheid, race and gender discrimination were dominant. conclusion: race and gender issues played significant roles in hindering career-development, with especially destructive consequences. as we proceed further into the 21st century, focus needs to be on advancing career-development initiatives for marginalised groups. keywords: career; career development; evolution; gender; race. introduction on 12 july 2021, the lives of people in kwazulu-natal and gauteng provinces in south africa were drastically disrupted for at least a week. following the #freezuma protests, which began shortly after the arrest of former president jacob zuma, riots and civil unrest broke out across the two provinces under the guise of protesting the imprisonment of the former president because of his failure to testify at an anticorruption commission of enquiry (ericsson, 2021). after the looting and destruction of several shopping malls and warehouses in these provinces, and as the dust settled, we are able to think critically about the events. among these reflections must be concerns about poverty, unemployment and how the bleak career development prospects affected communities. people who were involved in the looting told journalists that they were looting because of a lack of income, the inability to find decent work, and one made it clear that she resorted to looting to get food for her child (mlaba, 2021). granted, not all the individuals who took part in the #freezuma riots lived in poor communities, because news footage revealed a few people loading their stolen goods into luxury cars, such as the man loading stolen goods into a mercedes-benz coupe (sonjica, 2021). however, there is little doubt that factors such as poverty, unemployment, race and gender inequalities, other social ills, and coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) contributed to the civil unrest. it is important to note that little focus has been placed on the socio-political issues that influence career development within minority groups. research question the author was interested in the evolution of career development and the major demographically related factors (such as race and gender) influencing career development over the centuries. these may possibly relate to the riots that affected kwazulu-natal and gauteng in july 2021, given the underlying role that poverty and unemployment appear to have played. the author was also concerned about how marginalised communities in south africa and similarly placed economies were affected. because this is a vast area, the focus was mainly on race and gender. where possible, connections were also made to similar communities in a global context. research methodology to answer the research question, the author conducted a brief review of relevant literature, using the internet, google scholar and google (siddaway, wood, & hedges’, 2019). databases were searched for information on the broad demographic factors influencing career development over history. all published and unpublished articles that aligned with the author’s research question were located and read for relevance. the author was interested specifically in the effects race and gender have on career development. the author also took into account the socio-economic and political issues that influence race and gender have. the obtained data were critically examined and analysed in terms of their possible relevance and contribution to thematic areas. the emerging themes are presented below. race and career development the july 2021 riots and earlier experiences showed the themes of unemployment and racism as contributory factors to poverty. if we consider race and employment, we see that statistics south africa (2021) cites the expanded unemployment rates as 48.7% for black african, 36.7% for mixed race, 19.5% for indian or asian people, and 8.6% for white south africans. this inequality has resulted from years of apartheid and colonialism. racial discrimination severely affected the career opportunities of black people for hundreds of years. as colonialism by european settlers gained momentum globally, the marginalisation of african, asian, native american and south american people intensified. as a way of securing better jobs for the settler groups, the racist strategy of career demarcation and job reservation was born. it was described as one of the worst apartheid laws that hung over the heads of hundreds of thousands of south africans of colour, and was a threat to their economic security (hepple, 1963). history reveals many examples of career demarcation and job reservation. for example, in the early 1930s, while in the eighth grade at school, the american political activist malcom x was discouraged by his teacher from becoming a lawyer because of the colour of his skin (duncan, 2005). the teacher, encouraged him to rather pursue a trade-like carpentry, in order to align with the sociopolitical reality of the society in which he lived, and especially the stereotyped role prescribed by the authorities. later, malcom x reported having heard the same teacher encourage white students to pursue any career field they wanted, regardless of the fact that many were not as intellectually endowed as malcom x. despite his academic ability, this destructive interaction and the prevailing expectations dampened his dreams, and led to him dropping out of school. this is an understandable response, having been told categorically that there was no point in black children pursuing higher education (biography.com editors, 2014). it is important to note that the north american and european countries that are considered to have more stable economies also have significant race issues. for example, studies conducted in france and germany revealed little intervention with ethnic minorities with regard to assisting with career development and decision making (al ariss, vassilopoulou, özbilgin, & game, 2013). south africa witnessed the same type of experience suffered by african americans and people elsewhere who were marginalised through colonisation and imperialism. riots relating to poverty and economic opportunities, hinged on race, are well known in history, for example, the riots of the 1960s in the united states of america where the deeper causes were identified as poverty, unemployment, racism and related social factors (emeka, 2021). the july 2021 riots in south africa need to be viewed in a similar way, given the historical marginalisation suffered by black south africans and the hardships endured to this day. both the colonial rule and apartheid stringently opposed the advancement of people of colour by systemic educational deprivations and job reservation. pillay (2020) observed that psychologists actively participated in the process, promoting this ideology using biased ‘psychological tests’ to suggest that black people were unsuitable for professional, academic and intellectually-oriented careers. this strategy was used to keep black people in manual labour positions and exclude them from professional careers. psychologist martin fick (1939) used flawed methodologies to suggest that ‘intelligence tests’ proved that black south africans would not benefit from academic education and should be considered only for manual labour. this is one of many examples in history, of how so-called ‘scientists’ misused the scientific method to achieve their own aims and support the ideologies of an extremist government. tucker (2007) observed that the most common way in which science has been used to further the policies of oppression and racial discrimination has been through claims that certain groups in the society are inherently deficient in some way, whether it is in terms of cognition, behaviour or some other characteristics. this type of rationale is then presented as ‘evidence’ representing a scientific approach, whereas it is not. the american sociologist du bois (1939) observed a similar discrimination in the united states of america where african americans were considered less capable of academic and professional education and careers. he noted that ‘[t]here was a time when the ability of negro brains to do first-class work had to be proven by facts and figures …’ (p. 332), and that even though he was part of the movement to put forward the accomplishments of african americans for the world to see, it was a ‘disbelieving white world’ (pp. 332–333). clearly, the historical situation demonstrated that people of colour had their life scripts given to them and they had little say in it, including their career path. the lack of choice in the occupational sphere among marginalised groups started centuries ago by the colonial and imperialist powers through slavery and similar labour practices (pillay, 2020). we must also consider here the large groups of indentured labourers taken by the british and other colonisers, often under false pretenses, to labour in other parts of the colonised world, including south africa, kenya, uganda, mauritius, trinidad, guyana, malaysia, ceylon, and fiji. according to anitha and pearson (2013), these individuals, who were recruited from india, china and the pacific, ‘signed’ a contract (usually using a thumb print because of illiteracy) that many did not understand, and were meant to receive wages, a piece of land, and some were promised a return passage home after the contract, but not all promises were kept. for example, indians were taken under the guise of a better life to work as labourers on sugar plantations; however, their lives and living conditions were little more than that of slaves, with 14–16 h work-days, corporal punishment and restricted movement even after working hours (persad, 2008). in a variation of slavery and indenture, south africa’s western cape region saw the dutch wine farmers, led by jan van riebeeck over 350 years ago, giving alcohol to workers as part payment for their labour. this came to be known as the dop system, and was outlawed only after the fall of apartheid. commenting on south africa’s alcohol abuse problem, vice (2020) noted that the problem goes back centuries, to the dutch settlers’ treatment of slaves in the colony: ‘the first cargo of slaves brought to the cape – 174 souls stolen from angola – arrived on the dutch east india company ship amersvoort on 28 march 1658. eleven days later, jan van riebeeck wrote in his journal of the pressing matter of the education of the newly acquired property. “to animate their lessons and to make them really hear the christian prayers, each slave should be given a small glass of brandy and two inches of tobacco, etc. within a few days these slaves will be brought under a proper sense of discipline and become decent people”’. (online) the dop system was a cunning attempt by employers to further systemic racism and domination. it was aimed mainly at workers identified as ‘coloured’ who were resident in the western cape region and who were dependent on the wine farms for employment and an income. the destructive system worked in conjunction with colonial forces and apartheid policies, and served to strengthen the racist ideology characterizing people of colour inferior by encouraging substance abuse. in fact, the system was developed and implemented as a form of social control (london, 1999). it increased alcohol dependency, employer profits and was designed to keep the labourer a loyal servant who would come back for more. the employers, who were expert in alcohol production and its addictive properties, were obviously very aware of the effects the system would have on workers, their family lives and their communities. the dop system created a dependency that intensified the power dynamic that existed between the worker and the employer, especially within the existing racial power imbalance, resulting in workers feeling a sense of powerlessness (falletisch, 2008). even though the system has now been outlawed, the inter-generational effects of this human-rights abuse are still evident over three centuries later. the impact on the region’s communities is significant, with the incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder reported to be the highest in the world (may et al., 2019). in their efforts to produce some best wines in the world, employers deliberately exploited workers, damaged their health and family lives, and because the workers were people of colour, the prevailing governments allowed these abuses to continue. the extent to which the july 2021 riots in parts of south africa was fueled by poverty-related desperation, inadequate food and health care, must be considered, as the country moves forward in its analysis of the unrest. vhumbunu (2021) observed that while the cause of the riots included a combination of social, economic and political factors, the enabling conditions were the levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality that are rife in south africa. these are just some examples of how race influenced the world of work and career development, and constitute forms of systemic violence that impede the educational and career aspirations of marginalised groups (epp & watkinson, 1997). they show the kind of thinking that characterised colonial, imperialist and apartheid forces in creating and enforcing job reservation practices and suppressing the career aspirations of marginalised groups. although career opportunities for people of colour have increased today, the structural inequalities in many parts of the world continue to hold people back. weller (2019) noted that, in the united states of america for example, despite some improvements in educational and career opportunities, african americans continue to struggle to get good, well-paying jobs. in south africa, the legacy effects of educational disadvantages and a depressed job market mean unemployment and poverty for many. we must remember that south africa is the most industrialised economy on the african continent, but it is now regarded as having the highest unemployment rate in the world among 82 countries monitored by business analysts (naidoo, 2021). in addition to racial prejudice, we find discrimination occurring on the basis of social class in many parts of the world. often referred to as classism, it is ‘the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups to advantage and strengthen the dominant class groups. it’s the systematic assignment of characteristics of worth and ability based on social class’ (class action, 2021). in rural india, for example, the caste system, dictated the type of occupation that citizens were allowed to enter and the career paths to which they could realistically aspire (anderson, 2011). the broader effect of such a discriminatory system is poverty and social deprivation that inevitably affects the lower classes. as a result, this becomes a vicious cycle with the lower classes remaining poor and this pattern continuing through the generations. although rooted in a religious belief system that is over 2000 years old (meharia, 2020), the practice is a serious violation of the rights of people to determine their future, and to live in a just and equal society. gender and career development in the times of cave dwellers, work conditions appeared relatively straightforward, apparently designated by strengths, weaknesses and gender. however, contrary to earlier notions that women were assigned work as gatherers (while men were hunters), based specifically on perceived physical strength, recent research suggested that women were also hunters (elsesser, 2020). while women performed duties of caring for children and the elderly, gathering plants and fruit, they also performed some of the duties that men engaged in, namely hunting. milks (2020) noted that this idea goes against the old ‘man-the-hunter’ model, which suggested that big-game hunting was primarily undertaken by men. fairly recent discoveries have challenged those early ideas on gender and work. researchers in the peruvian andes uncovered a burial site that would change the thinking about ancient hunter-gatherer communities. hidden in one of the burial chambers of a woman, the archaeologists and anthropologists found tools used for hunting (muzdakis, 2021). this discovery changed the thinking about ancient gender roles and challenged the way we think about gender and specific jobs in history. of course, the extent to which this finding applies to other ancient communities in the global context is not yet known. what is known, however, is that gender played a significant role in career opportunities, which is still evident today in most parts of the world, sometimes to great disadvantage to women. despite these findings that challenged our thinking about women and work in early history, the role of women as carer and nurturer in families has been a traditional one that dominated history. this is also related to the patriarchal system in which many societies evolved, with girls being more located within the ‘feminine’ service roles of caring and nurturing (hadjar & aeschlimann, 2015). for example, yellen (2020) points out that historically many women had to leave work after getting married as a result of the sociocultural norms, as well as the types of jobs that were available to them. she noted that even today we must examine to what extent structural issues such as the challenge of combining family responsibilities and work may be hindering the progress of women in their career development. at the turn of the 20th century changes in ideas around the traditional roles of women began to strengthen. traditional gender roles such as being a homemaker and primarily being viewed as child rearers were beginning to be questioned by women (herr, 2001). since early in history, conversations gained momentum about moving into the workforce outside of the home and pursing previously ‘male only’ careers, with protests for the equality of women and human rights taking place. even the ‘job’ of fighting for human rights, was one that women took on eagerly and quickly. they did not leave this important ‘job’ solely in the hands of men, and also did not view their role as a purely domestic one. even though in the early years women were kept out of leadership positions in the liberation struggle, they came forward as activists, and as their husbands and children were arrested or killed they took on leadership roles (ardoin & hartnett, 2020). one protest, in particular, in south africa stands out, namely the 1956 women’s march in pretoria. thousands of women of all races and backgrounds protested against the pass laws that affected black women, men and their families. their protest, which shocked the apartheid government and its prime minister, who took cover elsewhere to avoid receiving the women’s petition, reflected the determination of women to fight for human rights. unlike the many protests seen through the years in south africa, and the recent (july 2021) civil unrest, this protest took on a rather unusual form. anti-apartheid activist, lillian ngoyi suggested that the group of women stand together in silence for a half an hour (south african history online, 2011). this small act spoke wonders about the power that the women possessed and demonstrated the women’s determination to fight for freedom and rights. it is protests like these by women that made significant strides for the upliftment of women and girls across the world, including the world of work and career development. the brave stand taken by young girls for the right to education is another example of the state of the world with respect to women’s education and we have seen that several celebrities have joined this fight (rodriguez, 2018). michelle obama, and singers meghan trainor, jennifer hudson and others have added their voices to the call for girls’ rights to education. we need to see this in the context of the way that girls’ education and career aspirations have been given a back seat in many countries, including in africa, asia and elsewhere (unicef, 2021). in many countries, girls are prevented from receiving education and they are discouraged or not allowed to enter a career and the world of work outside of the home. in india and certain other countries, the birth of a girl is not necessarily a joyous occasion, because the girl child is seen as a financial burden for the family in terms of marriage traditions, the absence of work prospects to support the family, and hence, they are not prioritised for education. a report published in the lancet has shown an increase in the selective abortion of girls after a first-born girl in india (jha et al., 2011). the world knows very well the story of malala yousafzai of pakistan who, together with her friends, protested for the rights of girls to get an education. she was shot in the head and severely injured by an extremist group because of her activism for girls’ rights to be educated and have a career (malala fund, 2021). the fight for the education of girls is a sad reality and a fight that should not be needed in 2021. however, it is still happening and unicef (2021) reports that about 129 million girls around the world are not in school. they also note that 49% of countries in the world have achieved gender parity in primary schooling with only 24% having gender parity in upper secondary schooling. this is a shocking statistic and contributes to the huge disparity in career development between men and women. according to jang, pak and lee (2019), gender inequality shows itself early into a new career path as it serves to test all preconceived ideas of ‘appropriate’ career paths for men and women. girls and women are often disadvantaged in the early stages of their education and career, where they face prejudice and stereotyping regarding what their role should be. we are still quite a distance from creating an equal world for men and women, where women are not having to work twice as hard as men to prove their capabilities or to access decent work opportunities. yellen (2020) points to the absence of mentors, discrimination and unfavourable attitudes that hinder women’s success in work contexts. in 2014, the national gender summit was held by the south african commission for gender equality to look at some of the issues. although celebrations were held to commemorate just how far the country has come since the fall of the apartheid government, prioritisation of the hurdles left to climb in attaining the gender equality is yet to take place (aschman, 2014). during the hiv epidemic, many girls ended up leaving school to take care of household chores and to look after younger siblings in what became known as ‘child-headed households’. pillay (2016) argued that children from child-headed households are faced with serious challenges, including being marginalised, socially disadvantaged and discriminated against with respect to their dignity and human rights, because they do not have parents or other adult caregivers. this experience has resulted in their education and career prospects diminishing, together with their hopes of moving out of poverty. in addressing the ‘make poverty history’ campaign in london, nelson mandela (2005) said ‘overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. it is an act of justice. it is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life’ (webpage). in this context, we must consider the situation of girls having to leave school to be an injustice. this injustice occurs because women are traditionally viewed as nurturers, and results in society pushing them into this role, even when they are too young to assume the responsibility, while encouraging boys to continue their schooling. by girls having to leave school, they are deprived of a childhood and the related protections of childhood (mkhatshwa, 2017). the automatic removal of the girl child from the school seems to suggest a belief that boys are not capable of performing caring, nurturing roles, that they should be prioritised for education and career development, and that girls’ education and career aspirations can be sacrificed. all of these assumptions are flawed. apart from having to leave school, the burden of having to provide food for the family falls more on the shoulders of girl children. many spend their days trying to source food, and their education takes a back seat. this has been found in research in africa, south asia and elsewhere (international hiv/aids alliance in india, 2006; mkhatshwa, 2017). it is almost as if girls in these contexts have been transported back in time to the role of being the ‘gatherers’ again, while boys have been allowed to continue educational pursuits. it is one of the many examples of structural violence that hinders the education of girls, and significantly hampers their progress and career development (osler, 2006). covering the july 2021 riots enquiry, shange (2022) discussed reports of the role of children in gathering food and other goods in the looting. although this phenomenon is subject to various interpretations, it again reveals how poverty forces children into positions that are not consistent with their developmental level. women have been under-represented in various careers, which has been a concern globally, although in some spheres of work there has been attempts at addressing the problem (avolio, chávez, & vílchez-román, 2020). a good example is in the healthcare fields such as medicine, psychology and others where these professions were historically dominated by men. women had to fight quite a battle to level the playing field and get a foot in the door. as an example of the extent to which women fought to qualify and work as medical doctors, dr miranda barry posed as a man using the name james barry, and worked for many years as a medical doctor in britain without her gender being discovered (hurwitz & richardson, 1989). it was the only way that she was able to get accepted into the profession. even though women have been involved in healing roles, mainly informally throughout history, they were not formally allowed into the medical training programmes and, hence into the profession of medicine until the late 19th century (jefferson, bloor, & maynard, 2015). these authors observed, however, that there has been a ‘feminization’ of the medical profession in recent years, with women now constituting the majority of medical students and general practitioners in the united kingdom. this is similar to the south african finding of pillay and kramers-olen (2014) who reported a substantial increase in the proportion of women trained in clinical psychology, from 50% to almost 80% over a 30-year period up to 2010. this is an interesting development is various ways. firstly, it is a positive step in increasing the numbers of women in the profession. secondly, however, it has ‘feminised’ the profession to the point where not many men are entering the field, and the broader impact of such a development is yet to be seen (richter & griesel, 1999). thirdly, there is the risk of perpetuating the stereotype of women in the caring and helping roles. the career aspirations of girls and women is an issue that needs attention, together with the broader opportunities that are available for women in the workplace (hadjar & aeschlimann, 2015). there is no doubt that more opportunities must be made available for women in the workplace, and that programmes of equal opportunity are promoted. these developments must work to strengthen the place of women in careers, without negatively impacting women’s career status in the professions. conclusion the way that career development and work opportunities have evolved over the years is interesting and also concerning, especially considering the extent to which they are entwined with critical demographics, such as race and gender. as the literature shows, although the world has come some way in addressing the issues of gender and race within the context of career development, there is still a very long way to go. like with so many other aspects of life, race and gender are influencing factors in social, economic and work life. systemic and structural barriers affect the education and career development opportunities for women, people of colour and marginalised groups. it is important that these issues be kept under the spotlight so that governments and society are constantly aware of the difficulties faced by certain groups in attaining education and the pursuit of decent work. it is also necessary that we are not blinded to the fact that countries with economic stability also have serious 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(2021). psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as predictors of dual career agility types. african journal of career development, 3(1), a47. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.47 original research psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as predictors of dual career agility types melinde coetzee received: 14 oct. 2021; accepted: 04 nov. 2021; published: 17 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on the construct of career agility and the relevance of dual career agility types in the technological-driven workplace. objective: this study aimed to adopt a person-centred approach in assessing the link between dual career agility types and individuals’ psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment. method: the cross-sectional survey involved a sample of (n = 298) managers (71%) and staff (29%) employed in the human resource and financial services industry. the sample comprised of men (54%), women (46%), including black people (62%) and white people (38%) with a mean age of 38.58 years. results: the results provided deeper insight into the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment that accounted for the personally-autonomous motives that are embedded in the three dual career agility types. conclusion: the findings brought a more holistic understanding of the nature of person-centred career agility motives and the psychological states that elucidate these motives. the findings bring new insights that might foster optimal career development and employees’ adaptation to the post-covid pandemic digital era workplace. keywords: career agility; dual career agility types; career wellbeing; affective commitment; autonomous motives. introduction people’s career agility matters in today’s more turbulent world of work. career agility denotes individuals’ appropriate and speedy responsiveness to technological-driven change (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021a; giulioni, 2021; konstant, 2020; paulino, 2020). career agility matters because individuals strive for career satisfaction and success that are engendered when they sustain their employability and are able to autonomously craft meaningful careers that support a sustainable livelihood (coetzee & schreuder, 2021; konstant, 2020). despite the disruption that the covid-19 pandemic brought to people’s career trajectories, the pandemic also gave rise to new opportunities for career exploration, change and development because of changing work arrangements and skills upgrades made possible by new technological developments (akkermans, richardson, & kraimer, 2020; alisic & wiese, 2020; nilforooshan, 2020). career agility enables individuals to embrace and capitalise on the new work and career opportunities offered by the digital era employment market (coetzee et al., 2021a; giulioni, 2021; konstant, 2020). however, along with changes in the work environment, the relationships between individuals and organisations as spaces offering work and career development opportunities are becoming more complex (mcelroy & weng, 2016). whilst individuals are becoming more career agile in the autonomous pursuit of career goals for continued career growth and success, organisations also recognise the need for providing career development support that will facilitate commitment and career wellbeing for optimal employee and sustainable business performance in a technological competitive global market (coetzee & bester, 2021; mcelroy & weng, 2016; sungu, weng, & kitule, 2019). relationship motivation theory, a mini-theory of self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 2014; gore, bowman, grosse, & justice, 2016) explains the tension between individuals’ personally-autonomous reasons (or motives) for career agility and their relationally autonomous reasons for remaining committed to an organisation’s goals. individuals’ career agility is promoted by the social context as a mechanism for the satisfaction of their basic psychological need for autonomy (gore et al., 2016). autonomy is fundamental to individuals’ sense of self and wellbeing because it denotes the degree to which individuals perceive themselves as agents of their own actions and goal attainment successes (deci & ryan, 1991). organisations are important relational career development spaces that help individuals feel connected, competent and engaged in self-endorsing autonomous activities (coetzee & engelbrecht, 2020). coetzee (2021) found that certain states of career wellbeing predict facets of career agility. however, it is unclear to which degree the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment jointly (as relationally-autonomous motives for career development) predict dual career agility types (i.e. unique personally-autonomous motives for career development). the present study fills this gap in research. the aim of the study was to firstly adopt a person-centred approach by using coetzee’s (2021) theoretical combinations of three dual career agility types as outcome variables denoting individuals’ personally-autonomous motives for career development. however, empirical research on the three dual career agility types has not yet been conducted. secondly, the study goes one step further by exploring the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment as joint relationally-autonomous motivational antecedents of the dual career agility types (i.e. personally-autonomous motivational outcomes of career development) on a different sample of employees. taking a person-centred approach to psychological constructs has been advocated by scholars because it allows for ‘a more holistic understanding of how combinations’ of psychological variables relate to other variables of a psychological nature (meyer, morin, rousseau, boudrias, & brunelle, 2021, p. 2). this approach enriches career development research and gives a better understanding of the psychological motives that drive career agile states and behaviour. the anticipated new knowledge is deemed essential for enhancing organisational career development support practices in the technological-driven world of work. dual career agility types career agility is a contemporary construct that denotes individuals’ career adaptivity readiness or willingness to adapt to and proactively respond to technological-driven changes for sustainable career growth, success and employability (coetzee et al., 2021a; giulioni, 2021; konstant, 2020; paulino, 2020). coetzee et al. (2021a) describe three facets of career agility, namely technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation. technological adaptivity denotes an optimism towards technological advancement and change, including an eagerness to update one’s skills and knowledge to adapt to, capitalise on, and search out the new job and career opportunities made possible by technological advancement. agile learning refers to the intrinsic motivational drive to set and manage the achievement of career goals, including goals for continuous upskilling and development opportunities. career navigation describes personal confidence in one’s ability to adapt to change, and to navigate and search out new job and career opportunities in a changing work and career environment (coetzee et al., 2021a, p. 356). based on the arguments of menatta, consiglio, borgogni and moschera (2021) and meyer et al. (2021), the notion of dual career agility types is based on the theoretical assumption that individuals simultaneously experience different forms of the three career agility facet motives to varying degrees. coetzee (2021) argued that the three career agility facets can be combined into three meaningful combinations that denote certain shared motivational commonalities. these shared motivational commonalities describe unique specificities associated with psychological states of career adaptivity readiness. coetzee (2021) differentiates between the dual career agility types of the future-fit career adapter (combination of technological adaptivity and agile learning motives), the agentic adapter (a combination of technological adaptivity and career navigation motives), and the open-minded career adapter (a combination of agile learning and career navigation motives). future-fit career adapters exhibit agency in career adaptivity. they actively respond to changing technology-driven career/socioeconomic changes; search out new career/job opportunities; actively market their personal brand/portfolio of skills across digital networks; and energetically set and manage career goals for continuous learning and growth in the changing employment and socioeconomic market (coetzee, 2021). agentic career adapters are in a state of activating their career adaptivity; they actively respond and adapt to taking advantage of technological change for upskilling, and optimising personal creativity, growth and happiness; they are confident in navigating and looking out for technological-driven new job roles and career opportunities for growth and creative self-expression (coetzee, 2021). open-minded career adapters are in a state of career adaptivity ideation; they are energetic and positive about searching for new and better growth opportunities; they also feel confident in their ability to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in the career environment (coetzee, 2021). drawing from relationship motivation theory (deci & ryan, 2014; gore et al., 2016), it is argued that the dual career agility types represent personally-autonomous motives. such motives reflect core self-endorsed traits, goals and life narratives that facilitate the self-regulated (autonomous) long-term and satisfying attainment of goals which are personally important to the individual. personally-autonomous motives are associated with positive outcomes such as creative learning and engagement, greater energy and vitality, higher wellbeing and rewarding socialisation and relationships (weinstein, przybylski, & ryan, 2012). personally-autonomous individuals are open to and interested in self-exploration and able to utilise awareness of their needs, values, interests, and feelings to act in a self-regulated, congruent fashion (weinstein et al., 2012). in the career agility context, personally-autonomous motives promote reasons for exhibiting career adaptivity (i.e. a readiness to adapt to the changing work and career environments). research further shows that personally-autonomous motives produce better outcomes when integrated with relationally-autonomous motives (gore et al., 2016). according to the relationship motivation theory (deci & ryan, 2014; gore et al., 2016), relationally-autonomous motives provide reasons for goals based on the needs, desires and commitments within a social relational context. in the career development context, relationally-autonomous motivational states provide reasons for why individuals join and stay committed to an organisation. scholars agree that organisations provide an important supportive and instrumental context for career goal attainment, career growth and development, and career satisfaction. organisational career development supportive conditions have also been associated with wellbeing and commitment (coetzee & bester, 2021; dahling & lairicella, 2017; sungu et al., 2019). in the present study, the constructs of career wellbeing and affective commitment are treated as relationally-autonomous motivational states that support and enable the personally-autonomous motives embedded in individuals’ career agility type. psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment career wellbeing alludes to an ongoing state of positive experiences of, and feelings about the career in the career-situated context (coetzee, 2021; coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021b; kidd, 2008). career wellbeing often reflects affective judgments about the state of relationship between the employee and the organisation. evaluations of the state of the relationship include emotional judgments about the meaningfulness of the organisational career, the nature of the career, the resources and opportunities for career development support and growth, and the availability of personal networks for career development support (coetzee, 2021; kidd, 2008). research by coetzee (2021) shows that positive evaluations of the state of career networking and social support in the organisation, and the meaningfulness of the organisational career explain the motives of technological adaptivity. positive feelings about the meaningfulness of the organisational career and the resources and opportunities for career growth and development are associated with agile learning motives. positive feelings about the state of the career networking and social support in the organisation also explain career navigation motives (coetzee, 2021). affective commitment elucidates a psychological motivational state of being emotionally attached to an organisation (meyer et al., 2021). the emotional bond with the organisation denotes relationally-autonomous motives whereby employees generally strongly identify with the organisation, feel that the organisation has personally meaning to them, and that they would be content to spend the rest of their career in the organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). previous research showed that the relationallyautonomous motivational state that underpins affective commitment positively explains individuals’ general wellbeing and satisfaction (meyer & maltin, 2010; meyer et al., 2021). the question remains whether there are significant associations between the psychological relationally-autonomous motivational states of career wellbeing and affective commitment, and the personally-autonomous motives represented by the three dual career agility types described by coetzee (2021). the next section outlines the research method employed to answer this research question. method participants a convenience sample of (n = 298) managers (71%) and staff (29%) level employees in the south african (70%), zimbabwean/nigerian (15%) and elsewhere in europe’s (15%) financial and human resource services industry participated in the cross-sectional survey. the mean age of the sample was 38.58 years (s.d. = 9.34). the sample comprised of men (54%) and women (46%), including 62% black people (african: 42%; coloured/mixed race: 6%; indian: 14%) and 38% white people. measuring instruments dual career agility types. the career agility scale (cas) (coetzee et al., 2021a, p. 356) measures three facets of career agility (technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation) on a 7-point likert-type scale (1: strongly disagree; 7: strongly agree). coetzee et al (2021a) reported construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the cas. the present research used participants’ scores on combinations of the three facets of career agility as described by coetzee (2021, p. 38). each of these combinations represents a specific psychological state of career adaptive readiness (coetzee, 2021): (1) future-fit career adapter (a combination of scores on agile learning and technological adaptivity); (2) agentic career adapter (a combination of scores on technological adaptivity and career navigation); and (3) open-minded career adapter (a combination of scores on agile learning and career navigation). examples of items represented by each of the three psychological states include the following: future-fit career adapter (e.g. ‘i continually search for new opportunities to learn new skills that will improve my career and job success’/‘i feel being responsive to change is important for my career success’); agentic career adapter (e.g. ‘i feel that evolving job roles as a result of new technologies optimise my creativity, growth and happiness’/‘i take advantage of changes in my job and career environment’); and open-minded career adapter (e.g. ‘i feel alive and full of energy’/‘i am able to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty in my job and career environment’). the results section of this article reported good internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity for these combinations of the career agility facets. career wellbeing. the cws(coetzee et al., 2021b, p. 5) measures three states of career wellbeing on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree): positive affective career state (6 items: e.g. ‘i feel satisfied with my career progress and growth’); state of career meaningfulness (4 items: e.g. ‘my job and career contribute to a bigger picture’), and career networking/social support state (4 items: e.g. ‘i have a network of people that support me in my career’). coetzee et al. (2021b) reported high internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the cws. affective commitment: the affective commitment subscale of the organisational commitment scale (ocs: meyer & allen, 1997) measures the construct on a 7-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). four items of the affective commitment subscale were included in the measurement model (e.g. ‘i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career in this organisation’). the ocs has good reported internal consistency reliability and construct validity (meyer & allen, 1991). procedure the participants were invited via the professional linkedin online platform to complete the research questionnaire. a url link to the research questionnaire was included in the invitation. considerations of ethics the university of south africa (ethics certificate reference: erc ref#: 2020_cems/iop_014) provided ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research. the research questionnaire included a cover page that ensured the voluntary participation, privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants. informed consent for the group-based data to be used solely for research purposes was obtained from all participants. data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and multiple regressions were performed by using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). results descriptive results table 1 shows that the mean scores ranged from 5.07 (agree slightly: career networking/social support state) to 6.04 (generally agree: future-fit career adapter). the internal consistency reliability coefficients of the scale variables were acceptable to high (≥ 0.69 to ≥ 0.91). the bi-variate correlations between the three psychological states of career adaptive readiness (i.e. career agility facet combinations) and the career wellbeing constructs were positive and ranged between r ≥ 0.29 and r ≤ 0.51 (p = 0.000; small to large practical effect). the career wellbeing constructs had positive correlations with affective commitment (r ≥ 0.47 to r ≤ 0.52; p = 0.000; moderate practical effect). affective commitment had small practical effect positive correlations with the future-fit career adapter (r = 0.14; p = 0.01), the agentic career adapter (r = 0.19; p = 0.01), and the open-minded career adapter (r = 0.29; p = 0.01) career agility facet combination constructs. table 1: descriptive statistics and bi-variate correlations (n = 298). discriminant validity of the measurement model table 2 shows that the career agility facet combinations cfa model had an acceptable fit with the data suggesting evidence of discriminant validity amongst the three psychological states of career adaptivity readiness (i.e. career agility facet combinations): chi-square/df = 3.66 (p = 0.0001); rmsea = 0.09 and srmr = 0.06; cfi = 0.87 (close to 0.90). to test discriminant validity of the measurement model, a one factor cfa was first tested to assess whether the three career agility facet combinations, three career wellbeing constructs and the affective commitment construct loaded onto an overall factor. table 2 shows that the one-factor cfa did not have good model fit. a multifactor cfa was then tested with the best fit items of the career agility facet combinations, the items of the three career wellbeing constructs, and the items of the affective commitment construct loading each onto their respective constructs. table 2 shows that the overall measurement model had a good fit with the data and that discriminant validity was thus evident: chi-square/df = 2.39 (p = 0.000); rmsea = 0.07; srmr = 0.07; cfi = 0.90. table 2: discriminant validity of the measurement model (n = 298). the final cfa overall measurement model for the career agility facet combinations showed a specific combination of the facets’ items that specify the unique personally autonomous motives of the relevant dual career agility type: future-fit career adapter: included the facet combination construct of technological adaptivity (actively respond to change for career success) and three items of the agile learning construct (actively sets and manages career goals, sees oneself as continually learning, growing, improving, and continually searches for opportunities to learn new skills that will improve career and job success). agentic career adapter: included two items of the technological adaptivity construct (feels that evolving job roles as a result of new technologies optimise one’s creativity, growth and happiness, and that the acceleration of technology brings new, exciting job and career opportunities), and one item of the career navigation construct (is confident in taking advantage of changes in one’s job and career environment). open-minded career adapter: included one item of the agile learning construct (feels alive and full of energy to learn and grow for career success), and three items of the career navigation construct (is comfortable with change, and is confident in one’s ability to easily adapt to, and navigate changes and uncertainty in one’s job and career environment, and one’s career situation). multiple regression analysis table 3 shows that the three analysis of variance (anova) models were significant (p = 0.001). the anova of the future-fit career adapter explained 25% (r² = 0.25; moderate practical effect) of the variance in the construct. the anova of the agentic career adapter explained 20% (r² = 0.20; moderate practical effect) of the variance in the construct. the anova of the open-minded career adapter explained 27% (r² = 0.27; large practical effect) of the variance in the construct. the tolerance values for all three anova models ranged between 0.38 and 0.69 whilst the variance inflation factor (vif) values ranged between 1.45 and 2.63. these values indicated that multicollinearity was not a major concern in the interpretation of the findings. table 3: regression of career wellbeing and affective commitment upon the career agility facet combinations. across all three regression models, the positive affective career state (career wellbeing) contributed the most in explaining a significant positive variance in the three career agility facet combinations: future-fit career adapter (β = 0.35; p ≤ 0.001), agentic career adapter (β = 0.31; p ≤ 0.001), and open-minded career adapter (β = 0.33; p ≤ 0.001). affective commitment showed a significant negative prediction of the three career agility facet combinations: future-fit career adapter (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01), agentic career adapter (β = −0.21; p ≤ 0.001), and open-minded career adapter (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01). state of career meaningfulness (β = 0.22; p ≤ 0.01) had a stronger prediction effect on the open-ended career adapter mindset than affective commitment (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01). state of career meaningfulness was not a significant predictor of the agentic career adapter. affective commitment had a stronger prediction effect on the future-fit career adapter (β = −0.19; p ≤ 0.01) and agentic career adapter (β = −0.21; p ≤ 0.001) than the career networking/social support state: future-fit adapter (β = 0.16; p ≤ 0.01); agentic career adapter (β = 0.17; p ≤ 0.05). discussion the results provided deeper insight into the psychological states that accounted for the personally-autonomous motives that are embedded in the three dual career agility types. table 4 summarises the core findings in answering the research question whether there are significant associations between the psychological relationally-autonomous motivational states of career wellbeing and affective commitment, and the personally-autonomous motives represented by the three dual career agility types described by coetzee (2021). table 4: dual career agility types and their psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment. table 4 shows that a positive affective career state and low identification with the organisation explained the personally-autonomous motives that are exhibited by the three dual career agility types. the findings suggest that positive feelings about career development support and resources for achieving career goals, making career progress and having upskilling opportunities to find new employment easily (coetzee et al., 2021b), are important relationally-motivational-states that translate into activated self-regulated, autonomous career agility motives. it further appears from the findings that the career agility motives are strengthened when individuals feel less emotionally attached to the organisation, that is, they become more willing to explore new job and career opportunities that the external employment market offers as a result of technological advancement. this mindset seems especially true of the future-fit career adapter and the agentic career adapter and to a lesser extent the open-minded career adapter. the finding can be attributed to the notion that motives of autonomy relate to the centrality of the self-regulated career in the individual’s life. autonomous individuals experience themselves as the authors of their career behaviour, values, needs and interests, not the organisation (weinstein et al., 2012). the organisation only provides the social context for opportunities for self-expression, growth and upskilling (coetzee & bester, 2021). self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 2014; janssen, van vuuren, & de jong, 2013) explains in this regard that both contextual (career supportive work environment) and intrapersonal factors facilitate the internalisation of external requirements (i.e. technological-driven employment market) into autonomous motivations, which explains the positive association between states of career wellbeing and the dual career agility types. a positive state of career networking/social support seems also an important enabler of the three sets of dual career agility motives. this finding is in agreement with research that shows positive associations between networking and career optimism. networking is generally seen as an essential career self-management strategy that enhances people’s access to supportive resources and career success (janasz & forret, 2008; volmer, shulte, handke, rodenbücher, & tröger, 2021). positive feelings about social support were also shown to improve adaptivity, self-efficacy and social adaptation capabilities (wang & fu, 2015). a positive state of career meaningfulness was positively associated with the future-fit career adapter and open-minded career adapter but not the agentic career adapter. the finding could be attributed to the relationally-autonomous motivational need for the career to be a personal choice, and experiencing the career as interesting, worthwhile and contributing to a larger purpose in a particular social context (coetzee, 2021). both the future-fit career adapter and open-minded career adapter are associated with motives of agile learning. research by coetzee (2021) also shows positive associations between a state of career meaningfulness and agile learning. a sense of the job and career being meaningful is also associated with positive career outcomes such as satisfaction with career development (lysova, allan, dik, duffy, & steger, 2019). practically, career counsellors and human resource practitioners should recognise the importance of autonomy motives in self-regulated career development. the findings suggest that the satisfaction of employees’ career wellbeing needs through supportive organisational career development practices will facilitate important self-regulated career agility motives that enhance employees’ readiness to adapt to the rapidly changing work contexts. individuals should learn that although the organisation provides an important space for career development, they need to discover the personal meaning of their careers beyond the organisation. career development practices could include support in the form of career discussions on employees’ feelings about the nature of their careers, their need for career growth and upskilling, including the resources they need to become more agile in their career. these career supportive practices foster positive affective career states that enhance individuals’ career agility. the results of the study suggest that career development support could focus on assessing the current state of career adaptivity readiness as exhibited by individuals’ dominant dual career agility type. for example, individuals with a dominant open-minded career adapter attribute express their career adaptivity readiness as being open to change and being confident in their ability to navigate and adapt to changes in their career and job environment; that is, they are still in a state of ideation. individuals with a dominant agentic career adapter attribute are in a state of activating their agency in self-regulated career management. they express their career adaptivity readiness as agentic (self-regulated) confidence in their ability to take advantage of changes in the job and career environment. they are optimistic that technological-driven evolving job roles bring new exciting job and career opportunities that will promote their creativity, growth and happiness. individuals with a dominant future-fit career adapter attribute are in an active state of agency. they express their career adaptivity readiness as self-regulated responsiveness to change for career success; they actively set and manage career goals and search out opportunities to learn new skills that will enhance their chances for career and job success. their career agency is supported by a strong drive for continual learning, growing and improving themselves. although all three states of technological adaptivity, agile learning and career navigation are important attributes of career agility that individuals need to cultivate in today’s world of work, the assessment of dual career agility types provides deeper insight into the current state of readiness to be actively career agile. in this regard, the study findings provide deeper insight into the extent to which the relationally-autonomous motives of career wellbeing and affective commitment influence individuals’ dominant state of career agility. the study findings should be interpreted in the light of the limitations of the research design. the study was a cross-sectional survey involving staff and managers in the human resources and financial industry. this may limit the generalisability of the study findings to other occupational contexts. cause-effect associations could also not be established. notwithstanding the limitations, the research provides a new direction for research on the modern-day construct of career agility. future studies may adopt a longitudinal research design and consider further investigating the presence of dual career agility types in relation to other career constructs in different occupational contexts. such studies may help to further illustrate the benefits of a person-centred approach in the career development context. conclusion in sum, the findings allowed for a more holistic understanding of the nature of career agility motives in relation to the psychological states of career wellbeing and affective commitment. career counsellors and human resource practitioners should recognise that people’s career agility can vary in autonomous motives and consider carefully how they might foster optimal career development and employees’ readiness for agency in adapting to the post-covid pandemic digital era workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions m.c. is the sole author of this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data availability only upon approval of the unisa research ethics committee upon formal request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references akkermans, j., richardson, j., & kraimer, a. 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(2012). the index of autonomous functioning: development of a scale of human autonomy. journal of research in personality, 46, 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.03.007 abstract introduction results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) magdalena piorunek department of social counselling, university of poznań, poznań, poland joanna kozielska department of social counselling, university of poznań, poznań, poland violetta drabik-podgórna unesco chair on lifelong guidance and counselling, departement of counselling studies, institute of pedagogy, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland marek podgórny unesco chair on lifelong guidance and counselling, departement of adult education and cultural studies, institute of pedagogy, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland citation piorunek, m., kozielska, j., drabik-podgórna, v., & podgórny, m. (2020). postmodern market scenarios and career patterns: challenges for education. african journal of career development, 2(1), a17. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.17 original research postmodern market scenarios and career patterns: challenges for education magdalena piorunek, joanna kozielska, violetta drabik-podgórna, marek podgórny received: 08 june 2020; accepted: 06 aug. 2020; published: 03 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article grows out from the realisation that glabal crises caused by the depletion of natural resources, pollution, climate change, migrations, conflicts, unbridled consumption and increasing poverty have made current socio-economic concepts inadequate in the world that is enmeshed in multi-layered and interconnected relationships and interdependencies. objectives: in an age that is governed by the demands of the economy based on sustainable development, it is expedient and exigent to examine future anticipations concerning scenarios of market transformations, career patterns for individuals in these changeable market realities and the challenges which these processes produce for education. this article aims to provide such urgently needed insights. method: to achieve this objective, we rely on research explorations using the method of document analysis. the studied documents included future scenarios developed by the infuture institute and the future of the work, a report that contains a range of futurist depictions of what may happen with our world, with a special focus on work. the visions outlined in these documents are metaphorically described as working forever, the useless class, people per hour, through the glass door and there are no jobs on a dead planet, or are portrayed as the blue world, the orange world and the green world. the study of these reports triggered our reflection on related challenges in education. results: the findings yielded by this study include a set of developmental shifts in education which we outline in the article, showing the passage from traditional education based on the teacher–student knowledge transfer to personalised, community-oriented education; from directive education to life design education; from institutional education to education at workplace and in the community; and from education for competition to education for collaboration, sustainable development and decent work. conclusion: in conclusion, the article spells out implications for competencies, directions of development and learning, the forms of career and counselling or guidance interventions as resulting from the futurist vision of the world pictured in the discussed scenarios for the labour market. keywords: market scenarios; biographical scenarios; sustainable development; education; counselling. introduction materials and methods in an age that is governed by the demands of the economy based on sustainable development, it is urgent to examine future anticipations concerning scenarios of market transformations, career patterns for individuals in these changeable market realities and the challenges which these processes produce for education. at the moment, the entire world is grappling with the pandemic caused by coronavirus, and it is difficult to predict what our lives will be like in months and years to come. what is certain, however, is that the labour market has already been heavily affected. multiple studies looking into the economic consequences of the pandemic say that the economy is sinking even lower than in the great depression and that, as far as work is concerned, the impact of the pandemic is most acutely felt by vulnerable individuals and groups, such as young people and the low-educated and ethnic minorities (bell & blanchflower, 2020). scholars also conclude that working conditions are radically transforming, with about 37% of work tasks performed remotely from homes (dingel & neiman, 2020). such profound changes in the forms of work generate new risk groups, for example, those who are less adapted to online working, for example, because of inadequate education (mongey & weinberg, 2020). as more or less distressing post-pandemic visions (coibion, gorodnichenko, & weber, 2020) are proliferating, we would be particularly well advised to scrutinise some of them and reflect on the responsibilities of education and lifelong guidance and counselling in this emergent context. this article aims to identify changes in and offer recommendations for the world of work and education in terms of indispensable knowledge and key competencies in today’s postmodern world, possible directions of development and learning, the forms of career and counselling or guidance interventions. exploring a range of probable futurist vision of the labour market, this conceptual project relies on the method of document analysis, which makes it possible to offer a scholarly interpretation of the data they provide to illustrate change tendencies in the world of work (apanowicz, 2002). as the study is based on formal documents, the conclusions pertain to the social context as perceived from the macro-perspective (łuczewski & bednarz-łuczewska, 2012). specifically, our argument in this article is based on two reports: praca: scenariusze przyszłości [work: future scenarios], developed by the infuture institute, and the future of work: a journey to 2022, developed by pricewaterhouse coopers (pwc). the former provides five scenarios for the future of work based on the findings of a research study using the computer-assisted web interview (cawi) method (i.e. responsive electronic surveys posted on websites and sent via email). the study was carried out between 09 and 14 september 2016 and collected questionnaires completed by 1022 internet users. an analytical weight was employed to correct the structure of the user sample to match the structure of polish internet users aged 15 years old and older in terms of gender, age and the size of the place of residence. solely, the complete surveys were included in the analysis. additionally, the analysis for the people per hour scenario used in-depth interviews with people who define themselves as ‘digital nomads’. change factors were analysed within the sociological – technological – economic – environmental – political (steep) model. the future of work: a journey to 2022, the other report we rely on in our study, is based on a questionnaire-based survey involving 10 000 respondents from china, india, germany, the united kingdom and the united states. the respondents were asked to say how the labour market was going to evolve and how this would affect employment perspectives and people’s future work lives. additionally, questionnaires were administered to 500 human resources (hr) specialists worldwide who offered their insights into their preparations for the coming changes. as the reports represent neither determinist nor static models, they serve us as a starting point and an inspiration for inquiries. we have singled out, explored and interpreted their constituent components to outline possible educational scenarios. research including more reports of this kind would certainly help in the further planning of long-term educational strategies in terms of possible future opportunities and risks. results change scenarios for the labour market: from early signs to predictions at the moment, we are beset by multiple crises of a global magnitude. as a result of the depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution, climate change, migrations, conflicts and, additionally, the coronavirus outbreak, we are now facing challenges that compel us to urgently redefine our thinking and revise our actions (guichard, 2018). whilst unbridled consumerism has been abruptly halted by the worldwide freezing of economies, unemployment rates have increased, which is bound to contribute to the expansion and exacerbation of poverty. with human lives at stake, the dramatic attempts to curb the spread of the virus have involved restrictive lockdown measures, as a result of which production and supply chains have been disrupted, and crucially, networks of relationships have been ruptured and massively ‘digitalised’ as a consequence of isolation and social distancing. prior socio-economic frameworks have proven inadequate in the world entangled in multi-layered and intersecting relationships and interdependencies (barua, 2020). in an age that has come to be called the anthropocene (crutzen & stoermer, 2000), we need a new economy that promotes the implementation of ideas such as dialogue, solidarity, social justice and sustainable development. the present conjuncture calls for new economic, political and social concepts to increase people’s prospects of and access to decent work and decent life, especially in the most disadvantaged regions of the world (guichard, 2016a, 2016b). the notion of decent work as defined by the international labour organisation (ilo, 2001, 2008) envisages long-term work that prevents the marginalisation of employees and helps societies alleviate poverty in a sustainable way (maree, 2018). when envisioning and designing the future of education, it is worthwhile to examine how changes on the labour market affect human biographies, requirements for new knowledge and expectations of new competencies that could promote the common good in the world that requires re-modelling. early signs of necessary transformations have already surfaced in social and economic processes, enabling us to predict possible directions of changes. for quite a while now, people have observably tended to relinquish traditional employment preferences and opt for careers understood to be individualistic, boundaryless and devoid both of clear divisions into jobs and working as well as of distinctions between family and public areas or specialist and non-specialist activities (arthur, inkson, & pringle, 1999). traditional human skill-based capital has been replaced by a new kind of capital based on competences (drzeżdżon, 2011; kang & snell, 2009). the authors of the future of work: a journey to 2022 have identified three possible scenarios of transformations within the world of work and metaphorically referred to them as a blue world, an orange world and a green world. in the blue world, big companies have turned into mini-states and taken the leading role in societies, whilst still strongly competing with one another. the employees, lured with a promise of high salaries, need to demonstrate considerable efficiency to ensure profits for their companies. the orange world means that companies have fallen apart and transformed into networks of specialist collaborators. central jobs remain in place, peripheral jobs are outsourced and work performed on the project or contract basis is performed online (virtual collaboration). the green world comes closest to implementing actions for sustainable development on the global scale. as social and environmental concerns are prioritised, business strategies become thoroughly revised to foster a new organisational culture, which serves as the foundation of social responsibility (podgórny, 2018). in praca: scenariusze przyszłości, hatalska (2016) outlines five futurist scenarios of the labour market, including the position of employees, with each of her scripts responding to a specific change factor. besides the technological aspect, her forecast takes into consideration social, economic, political and environmental factors, which entail a series of challenges and dilemmas at the macro-societal and the individual levels (hatalska, 2016). the working forever scenario describes changes driven by the social factor, involving an ageing society and the increasing life expectancy. on the one hand, birth rates tend to sink, and on the other hand, the generations born after 2007 may get to live longer than 100 years of age. consequently, they are not likely to (be able to) retire aged around 60 (as is the tendency now) but will (have to) continue in one or another form of employment far longer. even with this not being a full-fledged development yet, the ‘grey-haired revolution’ is already underway. this stirs a number of questions, for example: how can the well-being of the oldest members of society be secured past their period of vocational activity in the times of sub-replacement fertility? how can the expectations of the strikingly different ‘end-of-the-alphabet’ (x, y and z) generations and of the seniors be reconciled on the labour market (multigenerational work teams)? how can their diverse motivations for and expectations of work–life be squared? how should work environments be organised to meet the needs of the oldest participants? how can lifelong learning and vocational training programmes for the elderly be designed to sustain their employability? based on the technological factor, the useless class scenario assumes that the accelerating pace at which the use of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence (ai) spreads will cause human labour to acquire a completely different quality. this vision of the future begs a question about what will happen to the ‘useless’ ones who do not fit in with the automated competences of the labour market? the situation may trigger identity crises, lowered self-esteem, excessive demands or passivity when facing personal difficulties. even now, the most desired skills for the year 2020 have been identified as complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, human resources management, collaboration, emotional intelligence, decision-making, service-oriented attitude, negotiation and cognitive flexibility (according to the future of jobs report, world economic forum, 2016). such skills are expected to help people survive in precarious socio-economic conditions. the economic factor (known as the freelancer economy) is reflected in the people per hour scenario (interestingly, it was, as a matter of fact, quite a long time ago that beck addressed the de-standardising of the place and time of work and work-related regulations [beck, 1992]). in the context of work, the younger generations (the millennials and generation z) opt for flexibility, mobility and work–life balance. often working as freelancers, remotely and/or from home, they are inclined to set up their own businesses. such a scenario poses challenges both to potential employees, for whom flexibility and entrepreneurship have become particularly important, and to future employers, who will have to figure out how to re-organise work ‘in the cloud’ and how to co-ordinate and manage the collaboration of independent, autonomous entities. related to the notion of transparency, the political factor underpins the through the glass door scenario. companies and employees must learn to operate in an environment in which whatever they do or say will potentially take place in the public domain. in terms of education, this stirs reflection on ethical issues and necessitates learning how to distinguish real from fake news. finally, the environmental factor contributes to changes in social thinking and action. climate changes call for adopting the low-emission economy. the growing public environmental awareness requires implementing the there are no jobs on a dead planetscenario, which ties in with the notions of sustainable development, solidarity and justice, all of them remodelling the labour market, employment forms and in-company communication. while the working forever and through the glass door scenarios represent the possible realities of the blue world, and people per hour and the useless class are more aligned with the orange world, there are no jobs on a dead planet is quite an imaginable scenario for the green world. actually, all these scripts (or at least their parts) can be expected to simultaneously shape the future labour market, life trajectories and patterns and education models devised to prepare people for life and for work. the individual vis-à-vis changes: identity dilemmas and biographical scenarios observably, to incorporate work careers into linear life narratives is becoming more and more challenging. the mutating cultural and economic contexts generate new conditions in which individual identities are forged and scripts of work biographies are constructed. the pandemic in which we are all mired at the moment (not knowing whether it is only beginning, peaking or perhaps winding down) has already put many careers on hold (and, sadly, shattered some of them). for multiple individuals, the course of work–life has become de-standardised, their work activities have been transferred online and the procedures of job seeking, job performance and job quitting or loss have changed. several careers have plateaued, career planning has been severely thwarted and career development is a major unknown in many cases. as shown by qualitative studies (piorunek, 2009, 2016), which do not offer sufficient grounds for statistical analyses, individuals’ activities are becoming increasingly dispersed, distributed across several spaces at the same time and multidirectional. they do not feature a clear division of roles, their particular episodes of educational and vocational engagement are not enclosed within any defined timeframes and the mosaic-like career scenarios are enacted by multiple groups of labour–market participants with an increasing frequency. as a range of traditional competences and resources have been invalidated, getting by on the dynamically transforming labour market forces individuals to engage in repeated re-evaluations. this certainly does not promote the sense of coherence (antonovsky, 1995), understood as an individual’s overall significant and lasting, though dynamic, confidence that the world is understandable (comprehensibility as a cognitive component), that it makes sense (meaningfulness as an emotional and motivational component) and that he or she has access to resources for facing up to the demands produced by stimuli coming from the world (manageability as a cognitive-cum-instrumental component) (antonovsky, 1995). noticeably, all the dimensions of coherence take shape in confrontation with permanent discontinuity (drucker, 2008), which is characterised by a disjointedness of social structures and processes, making the labour market incomprehensible, inconsistent and meaningless to many of its participants. this engenders people’s belief that they have no agency and are unable to influence both the external reality and their own lives. such feelings are only made more palpable by the unpredictability of the pandemic crisis, which is fundamentally altering everyday life patterns and work routines, aggravating stress, reducing the sense of agency and undermining people’s belief in their coping capacities and resourcefulness. consequently, the experience of the pandemic is yet another factor that enhances the complexity of the postmodern conjuncture by fashioning novel conditions for individual identity formation, where individuals are expected to celebrate change and exhibit maximum flexibility across spheres of life. given this, biographical scenarios cannot presuppose vocational maturity as the ultimate outcome achieved once and for all by answering the question ‘who am i and what will i be in the future?’ – a query typical of identity construction in adolescence. rather, such scenarios should ‘frame maturity as a process that recurs several times over a lifetime, along with the wearing off and renewal of career capital’ (bańka, 2006,p. 31). in the context of individuals’ existential problems and emotional responses, macro-scale market scenarios may help construct successful biographical scenarios that use the opportunities afforded by the developments in the world of work, but they may also catalyse: a moratory identity, involving independence, anxiety and rebellion against work commitments or a dispersed identity, characterised by alienation, the lack of purpose in life, a tendency to withdraw from activities on the labour market or they may prompt an unreflective adoption of a pre-ordained identity, which is associated with the denial of conflict, an extensive reliance on defensive strategies and the performance of enforced, often random work commitments (marcia, waterman, matteson, archer, & orlofsky, 1993). even people who possess work skills may lack work identities (standing, 2011), especially if they have no moral or behavioural commitments, do not enjoy an elementary income stability and cannot construct predictable day-to-day lives. such a permanent uncertainty about the present and insecurity about the immediate future have fuelled the emergence of the precariat. not all members of this new class are exactly victims, because freedom from commitments is a life-changing opportunity and a conscious choice of some of them. nevertheless, the majority tend to find such an insecurity and the impossibility to achieve coherence uncomfortable at best, resulting in chronic indecision and reluctance to take responsibility for their lives. to be able to get on despite unpredictable market scenarios, individuals must engage in lifelong experiential learning and situational cognition (dominice, 2006), develop a thorough awareness of their biographical needs and recognise the resources that enable them to understand and navigate in the world, acknowledging particular aspects of such a personal investment as meaningful and warranting the effort. this requires the following skills: biographical thinking, objectively taking stock of one’s own behaviour (taking into account the past, the present and the future), assessing one’s life as a totality and putting it into perspective, identifying one’s position on the developmental trajectory and co-creating one’s own biography in a deliberate way (tokarska, 2011). biographical thinking helps people understand themselves, the world and the world–individual relationships, as well as encouraging them to engage in such relationships (sense of resourcefulness) and to make them meaningful. as such, biographical thinking also fosters the sense of coherence, whilst at the same time, it is conditioned by it. all this is predicated on the skill of defining strategic biographical goals, on flexibility in decision-making and on active engagement in searching for varied, individual ways of working (rather than just a job). to be able to do this, people must understand external constraints and re-assess their notions of the quality of life not only in the context of the economic pressure of incessant growth. bańka (2016) notices the exigency of ‘abandoning the algorithmic design of career paths and embracing the design of work identity based on heuristics developed in the experience the reality’ (bańka, 2016, p. 26). for their part, savickas, guichard, duarte et al. focus on developing and refining the life design concept (savickas, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013; savickas et al., 2009), in which designing a career is based on reflexivity and involves combining multiple life episodes and activity streams into an integrated, prospectively oriented biographical structure. besides skills such as transdisciplinarity, command of new technologies and virtual collaboration, key competencies for the labour market of the future also include: critical reflection on reality, making sense of and attributing meanings to things, unconventional and adaptive thinking and social intelligence (future work skills, 2020). transdisciplinary reflection on possible market and biographical scenarios can and should be undertaken across disciplines (including the social, economic and medical sciences), as they work towards the common goal of facilitating optimum behaviours amongst the (future) participants of the labour market and preparing individuals for living in the anthropocene as agents furnished with the sense of coherence and capable of constructing their lives in conformity with their personal values, of actively setting their goals and of achieving a synergy of their personal and work lives. discussion the future of work vis-à-vis the future of education the study of reports listing futurist visions of the labour market yields a range of conclusions concerning the desirable development directions in education, requisite knowledge and competencies and the concepts of helping individuals in the realisation of their work careers. by bringing together the future scenarios, the biographical scenarios and the identity dilemmas discussed above, we can more effectively reflect on the meaningfulness and relevance of education, learning, knowledge, competence acquisition, career models and concepts of helping that correspond and are pertinent to these future anticipations. as quantifiable technological knowledge reigns supreme in the blue world, education retains its traditional character and is provided within dedicated institutions, preserving the dominant position of the teacher in the transfer of knowledge. the goal of education is to promote people’s adjustment to the world as it is and to develop competitive and winning skills. careers associated with this pattern involve climbing up organisational hierarchy ladders for as long as employers need them to last. support in vocational decision-making is provided in the form of classic directive vocational or employability guidance, whereby the factors resulting from economic statistics and labour market needs are given precedence. in the orange world, education is emancipatory and more individualised because its goal is to educate ‘freelancers’, who will exhibit entrepreneurial skills, be able to run their own businesses and, at the same time, readily co-operate within projects collaboratively implemented by networks of equally autonomous individuals. pivotal in this arrangement, expert knowledge and negotiation skills are acquired via people’s independent pursuits and online, rather than in institutional settings, and only confirmed and certified by external validating bodies. in this context, careers resemble a mosaic or a patchwork, are boundaryless and, depending on circumstances, tend to be haphazard and changeable (domecka & mrozowicki, 2008). securing work–life balance is one of the central priorities. as career development professionals presuppose that individuals are self-reliant, their chief responsibility lies in assisting people in this process, and thus, their interventions are aligned with liberal counselling. finally, in the green world, personal, highly individualised knowledge matters most. given this, education should be lifelong, holistic, global and responsive to the needs of the surrounding world and the social environment (podgórny, 2018). its goals include helping people develop a sound understanding of the self and the surrounding world, enhancing the empowerment of individuals and nurturing their awareness of initiatives dedicated to transforming the world towards sustainable development and dignified, decent work (guichard, 2018). careers of the green world are reflective projects, consciously constructed in response to global crises (podgórny, 2018), and work–life integration is one of the values they are designed to pursue. thus-conceived careers are best supported by the life design paradigm (savickas et al., 2009), a holistic, dynamic and non-linear helping model that recognises a multiplicity of perspectives and action patters. the insights outlined above are synthetically presented in table 1. table 1: future scenarios and education. at the moment, it is difficult to assess which of these scenarios is most likely to happen. it looks that educational systems worldwide would be most eager to implement the blue scenario because it is consistent with the current, commonly shared educational and counselling practices. it preserves the dominant position of the teacher or counsellor or lecturer and educational institutions as experts and sole owners of knowledge. in the other two worlds, education requires radical changes not only in the structures of schooling and the fashions of knowledge transmission, but, above all, in the actors involved in the organisation, management and provision of education as well. it requires changes in thinking and in attitudes, alongside reassessing and recasting teacher–student relationships. thus, it is expedient to shift away from traditional education based on the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student to personalised education oriented on interpersonal relations; from directive education to partnership-based education; from institutional education to education at the workplace and in the community; from education for competition to education for collaboration; and from education for profit to education for sustainable development and decent work. when pondering education of the future, one should examine it through the lens of divergent prognoses and heightened anxieties fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic. pessimistic appraisals of the post-pandemic developments envision a severe collapse of the world economy (the future is worse than i expect) and a global crisis of the magnitude exceeding the debacle of 2008–2009. should this indeed be the case, we may have to add a black world to the three potential worlds described above. the hallmarks of the black world would include a drastic decrease in jobs, a financial meltdown and education reduced not just to the transfer of knowledge but also to testing, all of them precluding any prospects of career development. at the same time, other, more or less optimistic anticipations proliferate. some of them envisage the curbing of humankind’s destructive impact on the natural environment (the future is just what i expect). this would demand both adopting and enforcing the observance of careful and comprehensive legal regulations to forbid the use of technologies and products harmful to our planet (e.g. limiting, if not banning, plastic and combustion engines). yet, another option is future growth (the future is better than what i expect), but that would require a (currently unavailable) technology of clean energy production. such an innovation would boost further economic development, enhance consumption and perhaps even help solve several problems that are haunting the humanity now. the last version involves a transformation of our attitude to social development (the future is different than what i expect) and hinges on acknowledging that the quality of our world can no longer be gauged exclusively by the economic indices. an unlimited growth on a limited planet with limited resources is simply impossible. more and more emphasis is being put on the urgency to found evaluations of well-being and prosperity on non-economic factors, such as security, health, satisfaction from life, social engagement, education and so on. such re-assessments will only be viable if mindsets are re-modelled, attitudes are changed and a new approach to living in the world is disseminated (hatalska, 2020). the latter option seems feasible in the green world, where context-sensitive education furnishes future generations with new perspectives on reality. conclusion in our postmodern chaotic, mosaic-like, unpredictable, precarious, pluralist and opportunity-rich world, individuals are often left to fend for themselves. as the notion of a whole is disappearing, communities are formed by individualised atoms and relationships are exclusively formal. efforts for sustainable development must comprehensively combine multiple dimensions (environmental, cultural, social, spatial, economic, etc.), and at the same time, they demand a degree of social integration. given this, new education should be grounded on interaction and the implementation of collaborative projects. it should not so much facilitate students’ adaptation to the existing world as rather teach them how to flexibly adjust to constant changes. by fostering reflection on reality as it is and as it could be, education should trigger critical thinking, instil in students an awareness of responsibility for the world around them (drabik-podgórna, 2018), make them responsive to the needs of others (especially of the marginalised and the underprivileged), promote inventiveness and prepare young people for living active lives and implementing reflectively designed careers in the green world. for such education to be at all possible, people’s attitudes must be change. this will improve the chances of making decent wok, decent life and fair and humanitarian development a reality (guichard, 2018). acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references antonovsky, a. 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(2016). the future of jobs: employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. global challenge insight report, retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_future_of_jobs.pdf abstract introduction method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, tshwane, south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, tshwane, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, tshwane, south africa citation potgieter, i., coetzee, m., & ferreira, n. (2021). psychological attachment in the new normal working context: influence of career navigation and career well-being attributes. african journal of career development, 3(1), a48. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.48 original research psychological attachment in the new normal working context: influence of career navigation and career well-being attributes ingrid l. potgieter, melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira received: 22 oct. 2021; accepted: 05 nov. 2021; published: 10 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the new normal working context, characterised by fast changes, rapid upskilling, adoption of technology, and remote working, requires employees to remain psychologically attached to their organisations. more insight is needed regarding how career navigation (as an attribute of career agility) and career well-being attributes explain the psychological attachment of employees in order to invest in their career development amidst the chaos and demands driven by the new normal working context. objective: the study explored career navigation and career well-being attributes (i.e. positive career effect, career networking/social support, and career meaningfulness) as potential explanatory mechanisms of individuals’ psychological attachment. method: the study used a cross-sectional research design, which involved a convenience sample (n = 177) of national and international employees (mean age = 34 years; standard deviation [sd] = 10.14), represented by 39% managerial employees, 38% staff, and 23% professional consultants. most of the participants (72%) were employed by south african organisations. results: multiple regression analysis revealed that career navigation explains higher levels of psychological attachment (including affective, normative, and continuous attachment). positive career effects significantly predicted continuous attachment, whereas social support/career networking positively predicted overall psychological attachment and affective and normative attachment. career meaningfulness was found to explain higher levels of overall and affective psychological attachment. conclusion: the findings contribute new insights into the construct of career navigation and career well-being attributes and extend research on the antecedents of psychological attachment in the new normal working space, characterised by remote working and technology. keywords: post covid-19 career space; new normal working context; remote working; career well-being; career agility; career navigation; psychological attachment; organisational commitment. introduction in the new normal career context, uncertainties, complexities, and drastic changes have been a disturbing shock for many employees; these changes have presented complex social and economic challenges, prompting the employees to seek specific career-life counselling and career development guidance (coetzee, 2021). hooley (2020) noted that people are doing intense reflections about their values and their approach towards their lives, careers, and work. editorial (2020) suggested that anxiety and fear about jobs, career opportunities, remote working, and the new normal working context were some of the predominant challenges of career development. fear and anxiety resulting from the challenges posed by the new normal working context may be restored through career development interventions (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021a). career development interventions involve conscious guidance towards perceived self-efficacy and competency in coping with and adapting to the new normal working context (radel, pelletier, & sarrazin, 2013). organisations face substantial challenges in retaining valuable employees within the exceedingly unstable and competitive global market (ruvimbo & hlanganipai, 2016). the covid-19 pandemic and the new normal working context have significantly increased global competitiveness. as a result, employees’ psychological attachment to their organisations remains an important topic of enquiry for organisations that strive to retain their valuable employees and improve their talent management practices (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2019; kontoghiorghes, 2016). several research studies found that psychological attachment to the organisation results in job satisfaction, decreased turnover, and career well-being (ferreira, 2019; qureshi, frank, lambert, klahm, & smith, 2017). ferreira (2019) also found that psychological attachment significantly correlated with career adaptability. for decades, flexible working arrangements and working from home were only possible for a few and elite employees (hill et al., 2008). the global covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns forced many employees to adapt and work from home. as employees settled into the new normal working context of working remotely, what was once considered a benefit (i.e. the flexibility to work from home) now imposed new challenges for both employees and organisations. anderson and kelliher (2020) emphasised that the positive outcomes of working remotely were carried out amongst those employees who chose to work from home. working from home because of the new normal working context or lockdown regulations offered no choice to employees. consequently, many employees did not feel a sense of gratitude or optimism for being required to work remotely. therefore, remote working negatively influenced their well-being and attachment to the organisations. although many studies focused on the positive effect of remote working, such as enhanced productivity and better work-life balance (allen, golden, & shockley, 2015; martin & macdonnell, 2012), other studies found remote working to have negative outcomes, such as stress (moore, 2006), anxiety (allen et al., 2015), reduction in employee interactions, social connectedness, and creativity (thorgeirsdottir & kelliher, 2017). anderson and kelliher (2020) found that remote working in the new normal post-covid-19 career space resulted in lower levels of psychological attachment. they found work-family conflict as the most significant contributor to lower levels of psychological attachment to the organisation. popovici and popovici (2020) suggested that technology-enabled employees work from anywhere in the world. employees around the globe have been connected for many years. with the accelerated adoption of technology as a result of enforced working from home practices and the emergence of the right tools to support telework, employees were provided with boundaryless opportunities to work for any company abroad or at satellite offices. although this is a positive outcome for many employees, employees became less attached and committed to their current organisations because of attractive opportunities to work for international organisations (porter, 2020). keeping valuable employees attached and committed to the organisation thus became an essential human resource practice within the new normal working context. whilst numerous studies report the importance of psychological attachment, no study was found on the mechanisms accounting for individuals’ psychological attachment in the new normal working context. to address this research gap, the present study focuses on career navigation (as an externally driven psychological state) and career well-being (as an intrinsic driven state) as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation in the new normal working context. psychological attachment using the organisational attachment theory (st. clair, 2000), this study explores organisational commitment as an aspect of individual’s psychological attachment (an individual’s psychological and emotional bond between the individual and the organisation). organisational commitment relates to the emotional attachment of an employee to an organisation (affective commitment), feeling obligated to remain with the organisation (normative commitment), and concerns about the perceived loss or cost of leaving an organisation (continuance) (coetzee et al., 2019; meyer & allen, 1991; qureshi et al., 2017). employees’ organisational commitment reflects the attitudes and behaviour of an employee towards the organisation and the foundation of the psychological attachment that a person has towards a specific course of action, such as intention to stay within an organisation (st. clair, 2000). meyer and allen (1991) distinguished between attitudinal and behavioural commitments. attitudinal commitment involves the process that individuals follow in establishing relationships and connections with their organisations. conversely, behavioural commitment involves the inability to leave the current employment because of several reasons and how individuals deal with the situation or reasons. according to potgieter and ferreira (2018), affective commitment originates from emotions and feelings in the workplace (such as loyalty, belongingness, pleasure and affection). affective commitment can be enhanced by fulfilling basic psychological needs for feeling competent, feeling that one belongs and has close connections with and support from others (meyer & allen, 1991, 1997). continuance commitment is a psychological state or mindset about the perceived threat of leaving an organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). perceived threats may include the perceived costs of leaving (such as loss of salary, seniority, pension, loss of social connections, and job-specific competencies). employees may not want to lose some of the advantages or benefits offered by the organisation; therefore, they may choose to stay attached to the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). however, employees may feel obligated to remain attached to an organisation (normative commitment). according to meyer and allen (1997), normative commitment is associated with the perceived responsibility to remain with the organisation, internalised through socialisation processes (familial and cultural) that occur both before and after the start of employment. meyer and herscovitch (2001) found that affective commitment generates emotional attachments that can result in employees developing a sense of obligation (normative commitment) to remain with the organisation. employees may, however, display normative commitment but have very low levels of affective commitment towards the organisation. exploring organisational commitment through the lens of attachment theory (st. clair, 2000), the psychological states of affective, continuance, and normative commitment, are temporary mindsets influenced by conditions and experiences in the organisational attachment system, which either support employees’ sense of employment security or give rise to perceived threats to their employment security. the constructs of career navigation and career well-being represent psychological needs that associate with an employee’s sense of psychological security within the organisation. career navigation career agility (as an attribute of career adaptability) is an attribute needed by individuals to display proactive career planning, make career decisions, explore career opportunities, and display career self-efficacy beliefs (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2021b; nilforooshan, 2020). alisic and wiese (2020) suggested that career agility is an important externally driven psychological attribute needed to effectively adapt to career insecurity and engage in career self-management behaviours. coetzee et al. (2021b) described career navigation as a facet of career agility where individuals can efficiently and positively display problem-solving behaviour, scan the environment for new career opportunities, and are aware of opportunities and challenges within the job market. individuals with a high career navigation ability are open-minded career adapters and actively seek new jobs or career opportunities within the changing labour market context (coetzee et al., 2021b). chamanifard, nikpour, chamanifard and nobarieidishe (2015) found that career agility significantly influenced organisational commitment. research by coetzee, bester, ferreira and potgieter (2020) showed that career navigation is an important career coping behaviour that influences an individual’s ability to display career self-management and career development behaviour. career well-being career well-being (as an intrinsic driven and positive psychological condition) reflects an individuals’ long-term contentment with their career outcomes, achievements, success, and changes, and commitment amidst the complexities of the new normal working context (bester, coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2019). coetzee et al. (2021a) differentiated between three facets of career well-being, including positive career affect (which involves feelings of career growth and satisfaction), career networking/social support (positive feelings about career and social support), and career meaningfulness (positive feelings about the value and worth of one’s career). positive career affect refers to positive emotions resulting from psychological states. individuals with high positive career affect mostly feel satisfied with the given conditions to achieve their career goals. typical positive affective career states of well-being include feeling satisfied with one’s chosen career and the achievement of career goals, feelings supported within one’s career, and feeling that necessary resources are available to support achieving career goals (engelbrecht, 2019). tugade and fredrickson (2004) found that positive emotions decrease stress. reich, zautra and hall (2010) found that positive emotions are coping mechanisms that can effectively suppress negative emotions and increase innovative thinking and problem-solving behaviour. career networking/social support refers to the perceptions of an individual that they have a network of people that supports their career goals and that this support network can easily be approached to assist in achieving career goals. potgieter (2019) noted that individuals with a high career network/social support psychological state believe that feedback from the social support network may enhance their strengths. several authors found social support to be an essential coping mechanism to deal with stressful conditions and situations (ferreira, 2021; potgieter, 2021; reich et al., 2010). career meaningfulness alludes to the belief that one’s career has meaning, and being involved in this career is a matter of personal choice. according to coetzee et al. (2021a), individuals with high career meaningfulness experience their career as worthwhile and valuable, and believe that their careers contribute to the bigger picture and enhance lives (allan, rolniak, & bouchard, 2020; coetzee et al., 2021a). li (2018) found that a sense of purpose (which is related to career meaningfulness) is an essential coping mechanism in stressful working conditions. reich et al. (2010) suggested that career meaningfulness significantly predicted career resilience, job satisfaction, and career well-being. believing that one’s career has meaning, creates optimism about the future and denotes motivation to cope with stressful working conditions (masten & wright, 2010). whilst numerous studies report the importance of psychological attachment, no study was found on the mechanisms accounting for individuals’ psychological attachment in the new normal working context. to address this research gap, the present study focuses on career navigation (i.e. externally driven psychological states) and career well-being (i.e. intrinsic driven states) as explanatory mechanisms of psychological attachment. method participants a convenience sample of employed adults (n = 177, average age: 34 years, standard deviation [sd]: 10.14) participated in this research study. the majority of the participants were employed within south africa (72%), although the sample was represented by adults across the world (western europe: 12%; eastern europe: 6%; africa: 6%; the usa: 2%; new zealand: 2%). participants on the managerial level (39%) and staff level (38%) were almost equally represented. the sample consisted of predominantly white people (67%) which were mostly women (54%). measuring instrument career navigation participants’ career navigation as a facet of career agility was measured by the career agility scale (coetzee et al., 2021b). the facet of career navigation consisted of six items (e.g. ‘i regularly scan the environment for new career opportunities’). the items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research (coetzee et al. 2012b) indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability for career navigation (0.81). career well-being the three facets of career well-being were measured by the career well-being scale (coetzee et al., 2021a). the scale measures three states of career well-being: affective career state (6 items; e.g. ‘i regularly feel i am making progress towards accomplishing my career goals’); career networking/social support state (4 items; e.g. ‘i have a network of people that support me in my career’); and state of career meaningfulness (4 items; e.g. ‘my job and career contribute to a bigger life purpose’). the 14 items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability of the career well-being scale (coetzee et al., 2021a). the internal composite consistency reliability coefficients for the subscales were as follows: affective career state (0.86), career networking/social support state (0.85), and state of career meaningfulness (0.87). psychological attachment participants’ psychological attachment was measured by the organisational commitment questionnaire (meyer & allen, 1997). the scale measures three components of organisational commitment: affective commitment (8 items; for example, ‘i do not feel a strong sense of belonging to my organisation’), continuance commitment (8 items; for example, ‘right now, staying with my organisation is a matter of necessity as much as a desire’), and normative commitment (8 items; e.g. ‘one of the major reasons i continue to work for this organisation is that i believe that loyalty is important and therefore feel a sense of moral obligation to remain’). the 24 items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary research indicated construct validity and high internal consistency reliability of the organisational commitment scale (coetzee et al., 2019). the internal composite consistency reliability coefficients for the subscales ranged between 0.75 and 0.86. procedure data were collected via the professional linkedin online platform. an electronic link to the questionnaire was sent to all participants. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an statistical package for the social sciences (spss) file for data analysis purposes. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of south africa cems/iop (erc ref#: 2020_cems/iop_014). research ethics review committee (no. 2019_cems/iop_010). data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multiple regression analysis were performed using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). tolerance (less than 0.20) and the variance inflation factor (vif exceeding 4.0) were utilised to assess any concerns about multicollinearity. results were interpreted at the 95% confidence interval (ci) level. results descriptive results table 1 shows that the internal composite consistency reliability coefficients for all the constructs were high (≥ 0.64 to ≤ 0.91). the well-being facet of affective state significantly and positively correlated with career navigation (r ≥ 0.18; p = 0.01; small practical effect), affective commitment (r ≥ 0.36; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), and normative commitment (r ≥ 0.28; p = 0.01; small practical effect). affective state was also found to significantly and negatively correlate with continuance commitment (r ≥ –0.33; p = 0.001; medium practical effect). table 1: descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations (n = 177). social support/career networking as a facet of career well-being significantly and positively correlated with career navigation (r ≥ 0.34; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), affective commitment (r ≥ 0.30; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), and normative commitment (r ≥ 0.23; p = 0.01; small practical effect). social support/career networking was also found to significantly and negatively correlate with continuance commitment (r ≥ –0.16; p = 0.05; small practical effect). career meaningfulness significantly and positively correlated with career navigation (r ≥ 0.29; p = 0.001; small practical effect), affective commitment (r ≥ 0.38; p = 0.001; medium practical effect), and normative commitment (r ≥ 0.22; p = 0.01; small practical effect). career meaningfulness was also found to significantly and negatively correlate with continuance commitment (r ≥ −0.16; p = 0.05; small practical effect). career navigation significantly and negatively correlated with continuance commitment (r ≥ −0.17; p = 0.05; small practical effect) and normative commitment (r ≥ −0.19; p = 0.05; small practical effect). table 2 shows that all the three organisational commitment models were practically significant: model 1 (affective commitment): f = 9.10; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.19 (small practical effect); model 2 (normative commitment): f = 7.23; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.15 (small practical effect) and model 3 (continuance commitment): f = 6.08; p = 0.0001; r² = 0.13 (small practical effect). the tolerance values for all the models were greater than 0.30 and the vif values were lower than 0.26 which showed that multicollinearity was not a threat to the findings. table 2: results of multiple regression analysis (n = 177). as shown in figure 1 and table 2, affective organisational commitment was positively and significantly predicted by career meaningfulness (β = 0.26; p = 0.008). career navigation was a statistically and negative predictor or affective commitment (β = −0.21; p = 0.004). figure 1: career navigation and facets of career well-being as positive predictors of the organisational commitment attributes. normative commitment was positively and significantly predicted by career networking/social support (β = 0.20; p = 0.03). career navigation was a statistically and negative predictor or affective commitment (β = −0.30; p = 0.001). continuance commitment was negatively and significantly predicted by career navigation (β = −0.217; p = 0.03) and affective career state (β = −0.41; p = 0.001). discussion the empirical study provides insight into the externally driven state of career navigation and intrinsic career well-being states associated with the facets of psychological attachment. building on the basic premises of organisational attachment theory (coetzee, 2021; st. clair, 2000), job independence, respect, and career development opportunities seem to enhance employees’ sense of employment security and create the desire to remain committed and attached to the organisation. further, the study provides evidence that individuals’ career well-being states of positive career affect, career meaningfulness, and career networking/social support matter in facilitating their adaptive readiness mindsets of career navigation. for people to develop agile coping capabilities in actively solving problems and searching for career opportunities within the new normal working context, and to perform within a remote working environment effectively, they need a sense of career well-being (felstead & henseke, 2017; pagan-castano, maseda-moreno, & santos-rojo, 2020; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). the results suggest that the three states of career well-being function as important psychological conditions that activate the problem-solving and coping mindsets of career navigation (coetzee, 2021). the empirical study provides evidence that career navigation and all facets of career well-being (affective career state, career networking/social support, and state of career meaningfulness) positively correlated with affective commitment and normative commitment. this conforms with the study by pagan-castano et al. (2020), who also found a positive association between organisational commitment and well-being. it is thus evident that individuals who can actively search for new job opportunities within the new normal working context and who display high career well-being feel a sense of emotional attachment to the organisation, a moral commitment, and sense of loyalty towards their organisation. career navigation and all facets of career well-being (affective career state, career networking/social support, and state of career meaningfulness) are significantly and negatively correlated with continuance commitment. individuals with the external psychological drive to navigate their careers and who display problem-solving behaviours, and those who display intrinsic healthy career well-being state that they are not likely to leave their current organisation. this might be that they are confident that they can gain the same or better benefits elsewhere and do not have much to lose if they choose to leave their organisation. however, nandi, khan, qureshi and ghias (2020) found contradictory results; they did not find any significant association between searching for new opportunities and organisational commitment. participants’ career navigation (as an externally driven psychological facet of career agility) significantly but negatively predicted affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment. the problem-solving mindset of the agentic career adapter is demonstrated in the willingness to embrace and adapt to changes and search for new job/career opportunities (i.e. career navigation). such individuals may feel confident that their adaptive problem-solving mindset will guarantee other career opportunities and they do not need to be committed or psychologically attached to one organisation. this result is in line with edosomwan, nwanzu and oguegbe (2020), who found that problem-solving mindsets (as an attribute of employability) significantly influence organisational commitment. the results further suggested that affective career state significantly and negatively predicted continuance commitment. individuals with an emotional attachment to the organisation and who are satisfied with their career growth do not perceive the risk and cost of leaving their organisation as too high. social support/career networking was found to significantly and positively predict normative commitment. individuals who are satisfied and positive with the social support network present within their current career context feel a moral obligation to remain within the organisation and further invest in the social connections and support networks that they established within the current organisation. lastly, the results suggested that career meaningfulness facilitated affective commitment. this result is in line with findings by kaur and mittal (2020), who also found that meaningfulness at work is influenced by affective commitment. individuals who feel that their careers are worthwhile, valuable, and enhance lives and people around them may feel an emotional attachment to their organisation. conclusion implications for organisational career development practices the empirical study findings may have practical implications for enhancing employees’ psychological attachment within the new normal working context. the results suggest that organisational career development practices should be designed to cultivate the positive states of career well-being and career navigation attributes to enhance employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation. psychological attachment to the organisation is generally considered instrumental to meaningful career goal achievement (xie, zhou, huang, & xia, 2017). organisations should engage in interventions to enhance their employee’s psychological attachment to the organisation. career development interventions can include career discussions with employees regarding the support they receive from the organisation to achieve career goals and expectations to enhance career meaningfulness. organisations should facilitate social opportunities to form and develop social connections to enhance career networks and social support structures. employees should be guided and provided with resources to navigate their careers and identify opportunities within the new normal working context. such guidance may assist employees with the cognitive restructuring of change into a sense of competence rather than weakness in coping. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors collected the data. i.l.p. wrote the article, m.c. assisted with data analysis and n.f. assisted with editing and literature. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available from the corresponding author upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references alisic, a., & wiese, b.s. 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(2017). using goal facilitation theory to explain the relationships between calling and organization-directed citizenship behavior and job satisfaction. journal of vocational behavior, 100, 78–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j/jvb.2017.03.001 abstract introduction objectives study design setting sample intervention data collection data analysis results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) michelle jäckel-visser department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa stephan rabie department of psychiatry and mental health, faculty of health sciences, university of cape town, cape town, south africa anthony v. naidoo department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa izanette van schalkwyk department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa francois j. van den berg department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa chantel streicher department of psychology, faculty of arts and social sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation jäckel-visser, m., rabie, s., naidoo, a.v., van schalkwyk, i., van den berg, f.j., & streicher, c. (2021). developing a self-directed career guidance intervention for south african high school learners amidst severe covid-19 restrictions. african journal of career development, 3(1), a40. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.40 original research developing a self-directed career guidance intervention for south african high school learners amidst severe covid-19 restrictions michelle jäckel-visser, stephan rabie, anthony v. naidoo, izanette van schalkwyk, francois j. van den berg, chantel streicher received: 24 june 2020; accepted: 22 oct. 2021; published: 10 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: south african schools have been severely impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic in 2020. state-imposed restrictions to mitigate the spread of the infection have significantly limited direct interpersonal contact, curtailing the existing career guidance and counselling activities in schools. crucially, in low-income settings, the social distancing regulations implied that in a year of increasing anxiety and uncertainty, many high school learners would have had to make important career-related decisions with limited or no tacit career guidance. objectives: in response to these challenges, this study developed a self-directed career guidance intervention to provide continued career guidance support for grade 9 learners amidst the unfolding global pandemic. method: a cross-sectional mixed-methods design was employed to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of the intervention amongst a sample of 498 learners across eight high schools in the cape winelands district, western cape province, south africa. results: favourable quantitative results were obtained assessing learners’ experiences of participating in the intervention and on the perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. participants reported a mean score of 41.25 (out of 50) for acceptability of the intervention. in addition, they reported a mean score of 17.1 (out of 20) for perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. in terms of feasibility, qualitative findings revealed that the intervention improved learners’ self-knowledge and career directionality. conclusion: the mixed-methods results confirm the feasibility and utility of implementing a self-directed career guidance intervention amongst secondary school learners. whilst learners reported positive evaluations of the self-directed career guidance booklet, they also expressed the need for one-on-one or group engagement with the intervention content. keywords: career development; covid-19; self-directed approach; career guidance intervention; high school learners. introduction the role and provision of career guidance and counselling at secondary school level are critical in supporting young adolescents for taking initial steps in formulating their post-school study and career goals (hartung, porfeli, & vondracek, 2005; watts & sultana, 2004). for many black south africans, equality of opportunity and access to quality post-school education are often hampered by a lack of resources and the lingering legacy of apartheid (albien & naidoo, 2018; maila & ross, 2018). in low-income settings, external factors such as economic deprivation, high youth unemployment rates, lack of access to career services and resources, and absence of parental support severely undermine the career development process (dube, 2019). this is the reality for many south african high school learners, who have to contend with limited support and access to services and resources as they face making important career-related decisions (pillay, 2020; rabie, visser, naidoo, van den berg, & morgan, 2021). one of the first career milestones for the south african high school learner is formally selecting the subjects in grade 9 for the final phase of their secondary education (grades 10–12). in the absence of adequate career guidance and counselling, these decisions are often made haphazardly or randomly (akhurst & mkhize, 2006), without due consideration for the post-school career trajectories linked to this decision (naidoo et al., 2019). ill-considered subject choice decisions taken at this stage may limit or compromise study options after matriculating (gottfredson, 2005; streicher, 2020) for many learners. superimposed on these challenges, the sudden escalation of the highly infectious global coronavirus disease 2019 (covid–19) pandemic in 2020 (world health organization [who], 2020a) resulted in emergency regulations, with the south african government instating strict lockdown measures (ramaphosa, 2020) to limit the spread of the infection. in 2020, south african high schools were impacted with immediate extended school closures and were challenged to adapt to remote learning modalities. when schools reopened, many schools adopted a rotation system with half of each class attending school every alternate week to comply with social distancing regulations. these drastic measures resulted in limited direct teacher-to-learner contact and less time available to cover the normal curriculum via remote learning. furthermore, existing career guidance activities were severely limited if not entirely curtailed given the restrictions of the pandemic (ramrathan, 2020; van bruwaene, mustafa, cloete, goga, & green, 2020). in response to these emerging restrictions, the current study was forced to pivot and adapt its established delivery mode to a self-directed career guidance intervention aimed at assisting the grade 9 high school learners in making informed decisions about their careers (streicher, 2020). the self-directed intervention required the learner to take responsibility for their own learning and development by working through a manualised booklet (streicher, 2021). this can promote a sense of agency and empowerment (morris, 2019), with several research studies indicating that self-directed learning can positively enhance learners’ career decision-making abilities (briska & dislere, 2018; de bruin & cornelius, 2014; holland & rayman, 2013). the established project is a joint social impact collaboration between the departments of psychology and industrial psychology at stellenbosch university (2020) and eight resource-constrained partner high schools within a 30-km radius of the campus. the project utilises a student-based service-learning approach to provide career guidance through psychometric assessments and guidance workshops. the project intentionally links academic modules in the postgraduate programmes of both the departments with a community engagement objective, whereby students are afforded the opportunity to apply their career psychology theoretical knowledge and practical skills in appropriate community settings. the project specifically targets grade 9 learners, as this is a pivotal gateway year in which learners need to choose their school subjects for the senior high school phase (streicher, 2021). see naidoo et al. (2021) and rabie et al. (2021) for a full description and evaluation of the established intervention. considering the emerging covid-19 pandemic disruptions, the project had to revisit its established design to accommodate the covid-19 ‘no-contact’ requirement specified by both the western cape education department authorities and the university’s research ethical committee, yet still providing postgraduate students the opportunity to be involved albeit remotely with community engagement. a hybrid intervention was conceptualised incorporating a combination of self-directed and electronic career resources. a self-directed interactive booklet, the grade 9 self-directed career guidance booklet (scgb) (2020), was developed with various self-assessment exercises designed to have grade 9 learners explore their self-knowledge and various career-related attributes, including favourite subjects, hobbies, interests, achievements, role models and personality traits. to supplement the self-directed manual, electronic resources were developed by postgraduate students and made available on a dedicated career website (https://careerguidanceproject.co.za), as well as on a youtube channel with career-related videos. supplementary resources were also provided as a hard copy resource kit for each school to ensure learners had access to the basic resources in the likelihood, they were not able to access the project’s website. albien and naidoo (2016) advised that learner access to distance or remote learning platforms and resources cannot be assumed as most learners do not have smartphones or can afford data connectivity costs. thus, learners from lower socio-economic communities (with attendant limited access to public libraries, smartphones, tablets and computers), face significant barriers to source information about the world of work. poor access to career information can contribute to learners making uninformed subject choices at school without a clear career plan in mind (maila & ross, 2018; streicher, 2021). several of the partner schools have functioning computer facilities, but these can only be accessed during school hours. the scgb (2020) was translated into afrikaans, the home language of 60% of the learners in the eight partner schools. the booklets together with snack packs and an evaluation questionnaire were delivered to the schools in the third term when lockdown restrictions were lifted. learners were incentivised to complete the booklet and to fill out an evaluation form as it was crucial to obtain feedback in order to improve the intervention given the uncertainty of the covid-19 pandemic trajectory. an essay competition was also launched with a prize offered at each school for the best essay describing how the booklet assisted the learner’s career development process. survey data were subsequently gathered from the learners to assess the utility and impact of the self-directed approach adopted during the covid-19 lockdown in the 2020 academic year. objectives in order to address pertinent career development needs of grade 9 learners in south africa amidst the covid-19 pandemic, the objectives of the study were: to adapt the conventional delivery format of the grade 9 career guidance intervention to develop a self-directed career guidance booklet to support grade 9 learners with self-knowledge exploration and career-related resources to assist with making informed subject selection decisions to develop a hybrid career guidance intervention incorporating a self-directed booklet and electronic resources (website resources and informational videos) to gather cross-sectional data on the feasibility and acceptability of the self-directed intervention to gather cross-sectional, self-report qualitative data on the perceived impact of the self-directed intervention on career preparedness. study design this study was conducted using a cross-sectional mixed-methods research design. for the quantitative component, a survey design was employed to obtain systematic feasibility and acceptability data on the intervention. for the qualitative component, a deductive qualitative survey design was employed to gather in-depth feasibility and acceptability data on the intervention from which themes were extracted. setting this study was conducted in six low-income communities within a 30-km radius from the campus. in particular, the intervention was implemented in eight quintile two schools catering for the poorest learners in the respective communities. the communities are characterised by high rates of poverty and unemployment, and attendant sequelae such as high crime rates and school attrition. crucially, schools in these communities are often understaffed and under-resourced, with limited access to career guidance services and resources (maree, 2010). sample participants were recruited by convenience sampling with universal inclusion. that is, the project approached the principals at the participating schools to extend invitations to all grade 9 learners to inform them of the study. the learners received information leaflets detailing the study, and those who expressed interest and who provided parental consent forms and assented to participate were included in the study. the intervention was delivered to 1684 grade 9 learners across the eight secondary schools, and a subsample of n = 498 participants provided feedback on the intervention. this subsample constitutes the unit of analysis in this study. the mean age of the sample was 15.27 years (standard deviation [s.d.] = 0.792), ranging between 13 and 18 years of age. most of the subsamples were female participants (n = 237; 47.5%), with 86 learners (17.3%) not indicating their gender. the majority of the participants indicated afrikaans as their home language (57.6%), with 37 (7.4%) english-speaking participants and 89 (17.9%) isixhosa-speaking participants. a total of 85 (17.1%) participants did not indicate their home language. intervention the self-directed career guidance intervention is an adaptation of grade 9 career guidance intervention reported by naidoo et al. (2019). in response to the covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions, the project team adapted the original format of the intervention into a hybrid intervention incorporating self-directed and virtual (online electronic) resources. in particular, the content delivered during the original group-based career guidance workshops was adapted into a self-directed career guidance booklet. the booklet (2020) included various self-complete exercises that were designed to assist grade 9 learners explore knowledge-of-self pertaining to their career interests, personality traits, achievements and role models. the booklet also provided pertinent career related information regarding guidance in making school subject selection, ways of engaging with environmental challenges, and links to various career resources and local tertiary institutions. in addition, resources on study skills, motivation to succeed at school, setting goals in career planning and developing a career action plan were included in the booklet, based on recommendations made by life orientation teachers. crucially, for the first time, the booklet was developed in both english and afrikaans to provide more learners with access to information in their home language (streicher, 2020); an isixhosa translation of the booklet has been subsequently published. moreover, to ensure that the lack of contact-based workshops was not a hindrance to the intervention, the self-directed booklet was supplemented by various resources. the virtual resources included a project-specific career guidance website (https://careerguidanceproject.co.za) and a youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucn7womb9rarkdsviq4ta8ia) with career-related videos. the website included access to resources such as career, university, college, and bursary information, as well as a contact portal through which learners could ask questions related to their subject choices and future career. the website is regularly updated to provide learners with access to current news regarding bursaries, career guidance, subject choices, local and global opportunities, and inspirational stories. the project also created a youtube channel and developed video content to supplement activities in the self-directed booklet. videos were created to share information related to self-knowledge, subject choices, developing a career action plan, general career guidance, and the world of work in south africa. these videos also addressed the second major challenge amidst the pandemic, providing postgraduate students with community engagement opportunities. these students were trained on the content of the booklet and asked to develop videos facilitating various components of the intervention. the videos were developed using the video editing programme, powtoon (2021), which gave students volunteering on the project the creative freedom to develop interactive, visually stimulating video content using animated characters and voice-overs. in this way, students were provided opportunities to develop career resources for the partner schools. in total, the students developed 15 videos that are available on the project’s website and youtube channel. in addition to the website content, life orientation teachers at the participating schools were provided access to a hard copy and electronic resource kit that contains information regarding universities, colleges, service careers, and bursary opportunities. moreover, teachers can utilise the information in both the resource kits to help guide learners in their career development. all supplementary resources were referenced in the scgb (2020) to facilitate ease of access to and awareness of the materials for the participating learners. data collection data were collected upon completion of the intervention using a paper-and-pencil semi-quantitative evaluation form. this form was developed specifically for the purposes of this study to determine the efficacy of the adapted format and presentation of the intervention. the evaluation form consists of 10 questions regarding participants’ experience in completing the self-directed intervention. responses are given on a five-point likert scale with 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) rating categories, for example, ‘i found completing this booklet quite an interesting exercise’. the 10 items measuring user evaluation of the scgb were aggregated into a total score. the total score ranges between 10 and 50, and is interpreted on a continuum, with higher scores indicating more favourable experiences. in addition, participants were asked to rate four questions about the impact of the intervention on their career preparedness on a similar likert scale, for example, ‘i believe that i will be able to accomplish the career goals that i set for myself’. similarly, items measuring the impact on career preparedness were computed into a total score. the total score ranges between 4 and 20, and is interpreted on a continuum, with higher scores indicating greater impact on career preparedness. participants were also asked to complete five open-ended questions related to their evaluation of the intervention content and participating in the self-directed intervention, for example, ‘[w]hat was your favourite part of the booklet? please also shortly describe why’. as an additional data source, learners were asked to write a self-reflective essay on their experience in completing the scgb. at each school, a prize of south african rand (zar)200.00 was awarded for the best essay. data analysis for the quantitative component, the paper-and-pencil data were double entered into microsoft excel, a software programme used to organise numbers and data to perform formulas and functions. the data were imported into the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 27, a software programme used for statistical analyses, for data cleaning. data cleaning involved reviewing each case of entered data to identify any data entry errors and/or inconsistencies and rectifying these errors prior to data analysis. once data cleaning was completed, each measure of the evaluation form was analysed by frequency analyses and descriptive statistics to ascertain participants’ systematic feedback on the intervention. moreover, these responses were collated into a total score to determine feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. for the qualitative component, the qualitative data (i.e. written responses to open-ended questions) were entered verbatim into microsoft word and imported into atlas.ti for analysis. atlas.ti is a software-based research management tool that can be used to code and analyse qualitative data. a deductive coding approach was applied to the data. this involved gaining familiarity with the dataset, using a combination of descriptive and values coding to gain an understanding of the nature of the data. thereafter, line-by-line coding was applied to recognise the nuances, commonalities, and peculiarities within the dataset. a thematic analytical approach was applied to the data to identify recurring themes and subthemes (braun & clarke, 2013). ethical considerations ethical clearance for the study was obtained from stellenbosch university’s research ethics committee (su/pn3072), from a public university in the western cape, as well as from the western cape department of education. permission was obtained from the eight secondary schools in the cape winelands district. all the school principals and departmental heads were involved in the planning and implementation of the intervention. prior to data collection, informed consent was obtained from the potential participants’ caregivers, and written informed assent was obtained from the participants. all participants were informed that their participation was completely voluntary, and that they could withdraw from the study at any time. all data were anonymised for analysis. results favourable feedback was received on participants’ experience completing the self-directed career guidance booklet. the mean scores on participants’ experience completing the booklet ranged between 38.92 and 44.64, across the eight schools. a composite mean score of 41.25 (out of 50) was reported, scoring at the 70th percentile, and signifying highly positive experiences in completing the self-directed booklet. these scores are summarised in table 1. table 1: participant feedback on booklet experience. similarly, participants reported positive feedback on the perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. the mean scores of the perceived impact on career preparedness were relatively high, ranging between 16.37 and 17.98 with a composite mean score of 17.12 (out of 20) reported across the eight schools, scoring at the 75th percentile, and demonstrating a positive impact on career preparedness. these scores are summarised in table 2. table 2: participant feedback on perceived impact on career preparedness. in addition to the quantitative feedback, participants’ qualitative feedback on the self-directed career guidance intervention was explored. in total, four themes were identified in the data: improved self-knowledge, career directionality, booklet-related challenges, and additional in-person support. the most notable theme identified in the data was participants’ improved self-knowledge. several participants emphasised on how the self-directed intervention enhanced their knowledge of personality type, career interests, and individual strengths and weaknesses. for instance, one participant shared that the booklet was: ‘[v]ery interesting for me to learn more about myself. [these activities were] very helpful and used my personality to point me to a possible career i might one day want to do.’ (l07, female, 15 years, afrikaans, school8) other participants shared that the self-assessment activities included in the booklet ‘helped me to get better insight about myself’ and that these activities ‘taught me more about myself and who and what i am’. this theme is best represented by the following quote: ‘[the booklet] helped me to know who i really want to be when i grow up and it even led to the subjects that i can choose for grade 10. this booklet strongly helped me to know what i want to be.’ (l12, female, 15 years, afrikaans, school8) crucially, the data identified the my career flower (naidoo, 2011) as a salient activity that facilitated exploration of participants’ self-knowledge. one of the participants (l17, female, 16 years, afrikaans, school1) shared that the my career flower activity enabled her to ‘set my own career goals and develop an action plan to realise my dream career’. similarly, another participant (l02, female, no age data, afrikaans, school8) shared ‘the career flower helped me a lot and what i like about it, it showed a lot of interest. i write my dream jobs, my strengths and others [etc.]’. the improved self-knowledge reported by participants appeared to contribute to the second major theme identified in the data, namely career directionality. a number of participants attributed the self-directed intervention and related improved self-knowledge to a better understanding of their future career path. one participant (l34, male, no age data, english, school7) asserted that he ‘learned of what type of person i am. i now know which career i belong to’, whilst another participant shared that booklet encouraged her to ‘talk about the things i find interesting, and i also feel quite confident about my subject choice and what i want to do after school’. another participant (l23, male, 15 years, isxhosa, school2) asserted that upon completion of the booklet, he ‘felt completely sure about my subject choices and what i want to do after school’. despite the reported benefits ascribed to the intervention, booklet-related challenges were identified as another pertinent theme. some participants shared that completing the booklet ‘took a lot of time’ and at some schools ‘there was too little time to complete everything’. a handful of participants also reported that ‘certain sections weren’t as easy to understand and some of the words were difficult to understand’. similarly, some participants had ‘to read some of the sections more than once’ to understand how to complete the exercises. however, despite these challenges, the majority of the feedback received indicated that the ‘booklet was very enjoyable’ and participants could ‘understand and read it clearly’. the final theme identified in the data was participants’ suggestions for additional in-person support. although most participants reported that the self-directed booklet was helpful in aiding their subject choice and career decision-making, a few participants expressed the need for additional contact-based support. for instance, one participant (l11, male, 15 years, afrikaans, school8) shared: ‘yes, although i got support from the booklet, i need someone with experience in the career that i want to pursue’. similarly, another participant shared that: ‘[i] found which career i like but i have to choose one because they are not in the same field. i think i need someone who would tell me this career would be best for me.’ (l20, female, 15 years, isixhosa, school7) a male participant indicated that he is ‘still unsure what i want to become’ and he would like someone ‘to explain which subjects i need to take if i’m unsure about what i want to do’ (l13, male, 15 years, afrikaans, school8). these excerpts may signify that for participants who are ambivalent or uncertain about their career path, individual counselling may be beneficial. the project received valuable data in the form of the self-reflective essays submitted by the learners. in total, 10 essay submissions were received from four of the participating schools and an essay winner was selected at each school. the overarching theme identified in these self-reflective essays related strongly to the qualitative feedback received – completing the booklet provided the learners with better knowledge of self. one learner (l78, male, no age nor language data, school6) wrote ‘i got to discover things i didn’t know about myself’ whilst another learner shared ‘as i worked through the booklet, i learned so much about myself and my ability to do things’ (l70, female, no age data, isixhosa, school5). another learner wrote that the booklet gave her ‘more clarity about which subjects to choose for my specific career’ which made her ‘life so much easier with all the decisions i need to make for my future’ (l108, female, no age data, afrikaans, school3). crucially, several participants wrote about how completing the self-directed booklet instilled a sense of hope for the future. one of the essay winners shared: ‘[i] learned that one can rise above your circumstances and situation you find yourself in. i am motivated to work hard and get good marks so that i can proceed in my life.’ (l44, female, no age, no language, school3) these sentiments are corroborated by the following essay excerpt: ‘[e]ach and every one of us have different abilities and interests, not all of us can be doctors, but all of us can do something we love. knowledge will forever be the key to our success.’ (l35, female, no age nor language data, school7) discussion in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, this study set out to establish the feasibility and acceptability of an intervention using a self-directed career guidance booklet to address career development needs of secondary school learners living in low-income communities. as such, the aim of the current study included the revisiting of the original format of the grade 9 career guidance booklet (used in workshop sessions) with the view to design a self-directed format of the booklet to support the learners to work independently with the content, and to assess a hybrid intervention incorporating self-directed and electronic (virtual) resources. learner quantitative survey data and qualitative responses to open-ended questions yielded valuable evaluative findings. the quantitative results showed the positive impact of the intervention on grade 9 learners’ career preparedness. the majority of participants reported that upon completion of the intervention, they were more confident in their abilities to achieve their goals and plans for their career after school. the qualitative findings shed light on the feasibility of the intervention by revealing that the intervention improved self-knowledge and career directionality. whilst the quantitative results confirm learners’ satisfaction that the self-directed booklet was a valuable and sufficient resource in aiding their subject choice and career decision-making, the qualitative findings revealed their need for additional interpersonal contact-based support (that was not permitted under the prevailing covid-19 restrictions). although this finding could indicate the need for assistance related to uncertainties about the learners’ career decisions and subject choice, we should not disregard the possible risks and deficits associated with restricted human contact. the need for interpersonal contact may be a cry for connection to engage with the heightened anxiety that was experienced because of the uncertainty of the pandemic (sahoo et al., 2020). with the major disruption to their lives, learners are finding it quite difficult to make sense of the current limbo, uncertainty and what is happening in the world (lombana-bemudez et al., 2020). they are exposed to a myriad false information being forwarded on social media platforms related to covid-19 transmission and precautionary measures. all these concerns can also lead to excessive worrying, fear and anxiety about contracting the infection and can create a sense of panic amongst teenagers who may be highly suggestible. in the broader scheme, career planning may seem an anachronism where more pressing family circumstances, concerns and uncertainty may be vying for their attention. overall, the findings clearly indicate that it is feasible and acceptable to implement a self-directed career guidance intervention amongst secondary school learners amidst a global pandemic. the booklet and the website may provide learners with a meaningful constructive way of investing their time and energy, and engaging with their lives. valuable insight was also obtained pointing towards participants’ need to engage with empathic adults in a safe space, especially in a time of social restrictions and heightened anxiety. this is particularly important as the participants of the current study cannot be viewed as ‘invulnerable children’ (see wong & wong, 2012). apart from the numerous challenges associated with the global pandemic, geinger, roets and vandenbroeck (2017) cautioned against the de-contextualising of youth development where adolescents are viewed as merely recipients or passive victims who are modelled by their parents and society, denying them their sense of autonomy. clearly, the role of context influencing learners’ career preparation and aspirations was of seminal importance (who, 2014) for this study conducted in 2020 amidst the coronavirus (covid-19) disease pandemic (who, 2020b). the findings support the need to conceptualise career development within the broader sense of the learners’ lives and their ecological context. the attention provided to contextualising the booklet, having it available in accessible language, adding local protagonists that the learners could identify with added to their receptivity of the booklet. appiah, wilson-fadiji, wissing and schutte (2021) posited that interventions produce better results when they are ‘…practicable, convenient and directly relate to participants’ circumstances’ (p. 9). despite the significant barriers that adolescents, especially from lower socio-economic backgrounds, face to achieve optimal life chances (bux, 2021; unicef, 2016) intensified by the numerous risks in such resource-restrained settings (luthar, lyman, & crossman, 2015), participants referred to their experience of a sense of direction, autonomy, connection and of hope for the future. this finding is significant, given the alarming youth unemployment rates in this country. efforts need to be redoubled to provide career guidance resourcing at all high schools. career guidance is crucial in preparing learners to make the best possible choices, thereby reducing the shortand long-term fallout that occurs with ill-considered decisions (pillay, 2020). conclusion the findings indicate that grade 9 learners confirmed that it is feasible and acceptable to implement a self-directed career guidance intervention amongst high school learners living in low-income communities amidst a global pandemic. the hybrid intervention was found to be sufficient to provide support to assist high school learners make educational, training and occupational choices. although these services were virtual rather than face-to-face, adolescents benefitted from the career information and self-assessment activities and tools. these findings have important implications for similar resource-constrained settings that may not have ready access to in-person career guidance and counselling. having functional school computer labs are imperative to give learners agency and access to internet-based resources to augment their self-directed career development initiatives. the current study has a few limitations. firstly, although all participants were recruited from low-income communities, we used convenience sampling with universal inclusion. therefore, we cannot exclude the possibility that the sample was under-representative, hence limiting the generalisability of the findings. coronavirus disease-2019 restrictions extant in the schools at the time of data collection meant that applying uninform data collection methods had to be adapted, given the different circumstances in each school context. incentives provided to learners to complete the evaluation survey may also have biased the data collected. notwithstanding, the covid pandemic circumstances provided a unique opportunity to adapt an existing career guidance intervention from a face-to-face format to a self-directed format, with learners being able to work independently with the exercises and content. the covid-19 pandemic also has provided a seminal reminder to consider career planning more holistically, as being integral to high school learners’ well-being, and their need for directionality and wanting to live a life of meaning and purpose (wong, 2020). from the insights gained from the qualitative findings, it is recommended that future research explores how the self-directed career guidance booklet can be effectively used as part of the life orientation curriculum. group discussion of the various component of the booklet may help to expose learners to broader career ideas and knowledge and the support of their peers (rabie et al., 2021). also, whilst the self-directed booklet was supplemented by various resources, including – electronic resources (a dedicated career website) to ensure access to information for secondary school learners, we suggest that future research considers methods to train life orientation teachers to implement the booklet as part of the life orientation curriculum. furthermore, the intervention should incorporate online contact with a career counsellor to provide direct online access to learners with their queries. using video consultation rather than telephonic, email or sms consulting is recommended to enhance the face-to-face or relating and interacting quality of the career guidance process, when direct contact is not possible. the findings of this study hold important implications for similar resource-constrained settings that may not have ready access to in-person career guidance and counselling services. self-directed resources and tools can play a valuable role in encouraging learner autonomy and agency. these resources are at best auxiliary enablers of the career exploration process but cannot replace the imperative of having access to adequate career guidance and face-to-face counselling services in place at all high schools in the country (pillay, 2020). self-directed career development resources cannot replace, substitute or fill the gap for this social justice imperative (naidoo et al., 2019). whilst the doors of learning have been opened to all learners, career guidance services at all schools should be part of that democratic education right and dispensation for all south african high school learners, more so in uncertain, unsettling times. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.j-v. led the conceptualisation, drafted the introduction and coordinated the writing process; a.v.n. drafted the theoretical section and edited the final draft; sr drafted the methodology and analysis section; i.v.s. and f.v.b. drafted the discussion section; c.s. conducted the literature review and assisted f.v.b. with the data collection. funding information this research work received funding from the rupert educational foundation and stellenbosch university for the implementation of the programme reported in this study. data availability data sharing is applicable to this article, and data can be accessed from the first author on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are 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(2020b, june 30). timeline of who’s response to covid-19. retrieved from https://www.who.int/ abstract introduction methodology results discussion limitations of the study conclusion recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) anne t. otwine department of mental health, school of psychology, makerere university, kampala, uganda department of public health and biomedical sciences, faculty of nursing and health sciences, bishop stuart university, mbarara, uganda leonsio matagi department of organisational psychology, school of psychology, makerere university, kampala, uganda john m. kiweewa department of mental health, school of psychology, makerere university, kampala, uganda department of nursing, school of nursing, st. john fisher college, new york, united states of america herbert e. ainamaani department of public health and biomedical sciences, faculty of nursing and health sciences, bishop stuart university, mbarara, uganda department of mental health, school of medicine, kabale university, kabale, uganda citation otwine, a.t., matagi, l., kiweewa, j.m., & ainamaani, h.e. (2022). efficacy of career guidance and counselling among secondary schools in uganda. african journal of career development, 4(1), a55. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.55 original research efficacy of career guidance and counselling among secondary schools in uganda anne t. otwine, leonsio matagi, john m. kiweewa, herbert e. ainamaani received: 25 feb. 2022; accepted: 10 aug. 2022; published: 22 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: in uganda, students face difficulty during career transition between different levels of education and employment despite government policies about implementation of career guidance and counselling services. little has been documented about students’ levels of awareness, utilisation and extent of implementation of career guidance and counselling services within secondary schools in uganda. objective: this study aims at documenting students’ level of awareness and utilisation career guidance and counselling services, and how these services were being implemented in secondary schools in uganda. method: cross-sectional survey was conducted using mixed methods in secondary schools in south western uganda. a total of 161 students in final year of secondary education (senior six) and 35 teachers across four schools met inclusion criteria and consented to participate in the study. standardised questionnaires as primary tools of data collection were used. quantitative data were analysed using spss (version 23) and content analysis for qualitative data. results: majority of students (98.8%) revealed high awareness about existence of career guidance and counselling services, while 87.0% reported utilising the services. implementation of career guidance and counselling in schools was demonstrated by type of programmes, information sources, models, timing and information structure by class level. however, challenges to implementation were sited, namely student, teachers, administrators, parents and policy factors. conclusion and recommendation: career guidance and counselling services were available and used in secondary schools. however, implementation was affected by functional and structural challenges that affected the quality of career counselling information and required alignment to national development goals. contribution: the efficacy of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda was documented in this article. keywords: uganda; students; secondary schools; career guidance; counselling services; awareness; utilisation; implementation; challenges. introduction in uganda, formal implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary school was established since 2008 through ministry of education and sports (moes). its goal was to oversee creation of guidance and counselling departments in schools, printing and distribution of materials, capacity building of career masters and monitoring and evaluation of the services (otwine, oonyu, & kiweewa, 2018). despite existing career guidance and services in secondary schools, documentary evidence shows that students’ transition from secondary to higher education and employment has not been smooth because of limited skills and knowledge gaps (wamajji et al., 2020; zerihun & sennoga, 2018). other factors identified included poor attitude to science subjects, teenage pregnancies, early marriages, lack of fees and gender disparities (uganda bureau of statistics [ubos], 2019; uganda national planning authority [unpa], 2020). therefore, examination of students’ behaviour about awareness of career guidance and counselling services in schools and patterns of implementation of these services were pertinent to this study. literature review students’ ability to transition from education cycle to employment has not been smooth in uganda. the main challenges the youth faced that are highlighted by wamajji et al. (2020) included limited training, inappropriate employment skills, lack of experience and limited information communication technological (ict) skills. vernon (2006) observed that students’ career guidance and counselling seeking behaviour was a cognitive response, which individuals developed towards work life. cook and maree (2016) concurred with vernon and argued that exposing students to career guidance and counselling interventions early in life had positive effect on their career life transition. in their study, otwine et al. (2018) found that most schools had put in place various programmes to address not only students’ educational needs but also career, physical, social and spiritual development. this study corroborated findings in similar studies which established that schools provided a medium from which students’ career needs were facilitated to promote occupational information knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant for their future work-life balance (staunton, 2019; wong & wing, 2017). despite this finding, secondary schools still face challenges during implementation of career guidance and counselling programmes. these include high student-to-teacher ratio estimated to be 3500:1 (otwine et al., 2018). in addition schools find it difficult to distinguish between roles about guidance and counselling and career guidance and counselling which brings confusion during implementation of career guidance and counselling. (nsubuga & kronholz, 2018). furthermore, teachers and counsellors who offer career guidance and counselling in schools have been found to have limited skills to provide authentic career counselling support, career assessment, test interpretation and feedback to students (kabunga, 2020). this phenomenon may be blamed on poor teacher training where student teachers were found to have limited skills for guidance and counselling (knettel et al., 2020). therefore, investigation of students’ awareness, utilisation and extent of implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary school was necessary in order to document this information for future reference. problem statement despite the existence of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda, documentary evidence shows that human capital development has remained low because of high youth unemployment, limited career information and lack of career resilience among employees (republic of uganda, 2019). whereas some students in uganda undergo 6 years of secondary education where they get exposed to career guidance and counselling services, they face difficulties when transitioning between different levels of education and employment. most university graduates opt for jobs within the informal sector that have limited relevance to their initial course of study (unpa, 2020). little has been documented about students’ awareness and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services and much less is known about how such services are implemented in secondary schools across the country. this research is an attempt to bridge that information gap so as to inform policy and practice necessary to support students’ career transitions to match national development goals. objectives to establish the level of students’ awareness of career guidance and counselling services among secondary schools in uganda. to evaluate students’ level of utilisation of career guidance and counselling services. to assess the levels of implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools in uganda. to establish challenges faced during implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda. research questions what are the levels of students’ awareness about the existence of career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools in uganda? to what extent were students utilising career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools? how are secondary schools implementing career guidance and counselling services? what are the challenges experienced by secondary schools during implementation of career guidance and counselling services? methodology a cross sectional survey design was conducted, in which data was collected using a mixed methods approach. the survey took place among secondary schools in ankole sub-region of south western uganda. quantitative method was used to gather students’ views while qualitative method was used on teachers in order to capture their in-depth views about the study problem (creswell, 2014; creswell & creswell, 2018). senior six secondary school students between ages of 15 and 25 were targeted because they fit into what leung (2008) categorised as a prime state for career exploration. the sub-region had an estimated 310 schools with 123 547 enrolled students and 7193 teachers (republic of uganda, 2017). in total, 161 students in senior six and 35 teachers across four schools in the region met inclusion criteria to participate in the study. after obtaining ethical clearance from makerere university social sciences research ethics committee, the authors proceeded to uganda national council of science and technology for clearance. in addition, permission from the head teachers was obtained to allow researchers to conduct the study in the respective schools; and also seek assent to enroll students below 18 years into the study. however, individual consent was obtained from teachers and students above 18 years each of whom signed a consent form. the authors used questionnaires that were developed based on literature as primary tools of data collection. questionnaires were validated using test and retest procedures and triangulation of data. the main areas tested included students’ awareness about existence and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services, areas of implementation and challenges faced. student questionnaires were close ended and designed on likert scale whereby 3 was (agree), 2 (neutral) and 1 (disagree). however, open-ended questions were included at the end of each set of test items to capture students’ in-depth views that could not be captured in the questionnaire. the questionnaire administered to the teachers was open ended and focused on specific information about awareness, nature of information by class level and challenges faced. after cleaning, quantitative data were entered into spss (version 23.0) for analysis, while qualitative data were analysed manually to create themes. conclusion and recommendation were made based on study results. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the uganda national council of science and technology (uncst). (no. ss-4734). results demographic characteristics a total of 161 students, and 35 teachers were enrolled into this study across the four schools. students were further distributed by schools as follows: 2 boys boarding schools n = 75; 1 girls boarding school n = 67; 1 mixed day and boarding under government arrangement of universal secondary education (use) (n = 19). there were more boys in the study at 59.0%, than girls who were 41.0%. participants average age was 18.5 years. awareness and utilisation students’ level of awareness about existence and utilisation of career guidance and counselling in schools was tested using two direct questions to which they responded either, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. findings revealed that 98.8% of students reported high levels of awareness about existence of career guidance and counselling services in their schools. students who had utilised career guidance and counselling services were 87.0%. all participating teachers confirmed the existence and use of counselling services by students. implementation of career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools students’ results the results from this study revealed the following as the most common career guidance and counselling programmes: general special career days 82.0%, regular class meetings 78.9%, career class days 74.5% and continuous individual and group counselling 57.1%. in addition, participants reported that the main sources of career guidance and counselling information were interaction with professionals 88.2%, academic progressive tests 75.8% media 65.2%, parents, teachers and peers 64.4%, occupational information materials 64.0% and industrial visits 47.8%. it was further established that group counselling was the main modality 64.6% relative to individual counselling 39.1%, while guidance and counselling services were mostly implemented at the beginning 63.4% and end school term 60.2%. table 1 presents the given results. table 1: career guidance and counselling programmes, sources of information, models and timing. results from teachers information about nature and category of information presented to students at different class levels was examined by capturing teachers’ views. in general, results revealed that students received guidance and counselling information at different class levels and justification was given for each category. table 2 presents a summary of the results. table 2: class category, nature of information and justification. challenges faced during implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools the authors also sought to capture participants’ perspectives on challenges experienced during the implementation of career guidance and counselling. students’ results in general, 82.6% identified students’ poor attitude and lack of cooperation as the main challenge, while 75.8% pointed to lack of time for related activities. furthermore, 63.4% identified limited information about training and school to work opportunities as a problem and 62.1% observed a lack of awareness about the relationship between career self-awareness and academic achievement. table 3 presents a summary of related findings from students. this information was further supported by views captured from teachers that are presented in table 4. table 3: students’ responses about challenges faced during the implementation of career guidance and counselling services. table 4: views from teachers about challenges faced by schools during implementation of career guidance and counselling. this voice was also captured from a student participant: ‘we lack career information materials … if our schools could provide us with electronic information installed on computers, we could read them during our free time to improve our knowledge of careers and their requirements.’ (participant 1, male, senior six) from results in table 4, it may be concluded that secondary schools were experiencing real time challenges that were both functional and structural in nature and require urgent attention to make career guidance and counselling more effective. discussion the primary purpose of this study was to document awareness, utilisation and implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda. the results revealed high level of awareness among students about the existence of career guidance and counselling services in their schools. this finding means that at any one time, students get exposed to career guidance and counselling in their secondary school time. thus, fulfilling the country’s goal to implement guidance and counselling services in schools to aid students’ career and social development (government of uganda, 2007). available reports in uganda show that many students continue to find transition from school to employment very difficult, a phenomenon that was attributed to knowledge and skills gap found among graduates (ubos, 2017; unpa, 2020). this finding may point to a serious gap between what information and skills students receive in school and reality in institutions of higher education and employment that may require urgent redress. furthermore, high rates of utilisation of career guidance and counselling services were found among students, which implied that students were not only informed about the availability of career guidance and counselling services but utilised the services. this may include the number of students attending career guidance and counselling programmes organised by schools, groups and individuals seeking counselling to deal with anxiety related to career indecision, undertaking decisions related to subject combination and career path, course of study in higher education and nature of employment. dodd (2021) in their study observed that increased awareness and utilisation of career guidance and counselling among students improved their career decision making skills. savickas et al. (2002) also argued that by the end of adolescence, students who get sufficient career guidance and counselling were able to narrow down their career choices and attain stable career self-concept in life than their counterparts. therefore, results from this study provide useful information about the need to support students’ access to career guidance and counselling during their exploration stage of career development with a hope that it may ease complications related to career decisions. with regard to implementation of career guidance and counselling services in schools, findings revealed three main ways such information is shared with students, namely general special careers day, careers’ class day and class meetings. although these programmes were found to be implemented in the schools covered by this study, it shows that in between these programmes, students were engaged in other curricular and non-curricular programmes, which creates a disconnect between what is taught in school and how it may be translated into career information needed to facilitate students’ career decisions. therefore, this finding identified a gap between the nature of career guidance and counselling in schools and the requirements by education standards in uganda, which recommends continuous career guidance and counselling for all classes at all times to allow students make sound career choices by the end of their secondary education cycle (directorate of education standards, uganda, 2012). therefore teachers are encouraged to integrate career education into curriculum delivery to assist students naturalise career information into classroom learning so that by the time students embark on career decisions, they may do it with less difficulty both in and out of school. therefore, increasing career guidance and counselling space in school curriculum may empower students to make better career decisions in future. again it is established that timing of career guidance and counselling programmes was common during beginning and end of term. this finding was in agreement with previous finding where career guidance and counselling in schools lacked continuous frequency. this was attributed to pressure of competing roles on both teachers and students, which increased their workload. thus, irregular career guidance and counselling programmes in schools denied students benefits associated with timely and continuous career guidance and counselling such as increased self-awareness, self-confidence, career identity and career maturity as suggested by hooley and rice (2019) and bounds (2013). anghel and gati (2019) and maree and che (2020) observed that delayed career guidance and counselling contributed to career indecision among students, of which secondary schools in uganda may need to be mindful. it was again established that the main sources of career guidance and counselling information utilised in schools included the following: interaction with professionals from different backgrounds; students’ results from progressive tests; parents, teachers and peers; and other occupational information sources such as scholastic materials, media and industrial visits. however, this finding was contradicted by information in a study by kizza, damba and kasule (2019) where it was documented that students in uganda relied on social media as a main source of career information. post (2020) also observed that information given to students during career sessions was biased to general guidance and counselling than career guidance. this finding may partially explain why students in this study expressed high awareness and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services, and yet after secondary school cycle most of them fail to make confident career decisions in life. according to nsubuga, youth unemployment estimated in uganda was estimated at 13.3%, with labour underutilisation at 38%, which was attributed to poor guidance and counselling services in schools. increased access to career information may improve students’ career decisions. with regard to modality, group counselling was found to be more popular than individual counselling, a finding that makes sense given the limited personnel, time and limited skills among career teachers. in addition, maree (2020) highlighted advantages of group counselling, including increased students’ career decision-making efficacy, peer support, reduced manpower gaps and time saving than individual counselling. chen et al. (2020) observed that group counselling benefitted not only students but also teachers because it helps them to reflect on personal career development. however, it is important to pay attention to argyropoulou (2018) who called for increased individual support to students who developed career indecision anxiety that required personal attention. therefore, balanced employment of both individual and group counselling may be more effective than group counselling alone. lastly, it was established that schools in this study provided career information to students at different levels of their secondary education. orientation information was specific to new students in both senior one and senior five to assist them to adjust to new school environment, curriculum and socialisation. this finding was supported in literature by jonck (2015) who observed that orientation of students had power to guide learners exploit their full physical, intellectual, personal and social potential. cook and maree (2016) also observed that career guidance and counselling orientation improved students’ adaptability during career and life transition. therefore, orientation was an important intervention in schools necessary to assist new students formulate educational plans and academic goals and therefore should be further promoted. continuing students in senior two and three received continuous psychosocial support messages that included social adjustment, physiological changes and life skills. this aspect of guidance and counselling was crucial because available reports in uganda have revealed low student completion rate of 38.4% at lower secondary because of poor outcomes in science subjects, early pregnancy and marriage among females students, delinquency and poverty (unpa, 2019; unpa, 2020). therefore, increased psychosocial support for students through self-awareness exercises such as music, dance, drama, school based clubs and interschool competitions may help to increase their self-confidence, sense of responsibility and team work to keep them in schools and achieve their career goals (government of uganda, 2007). in candidate classes, academic excellence and career planning were emphasised to assist students identify programmes within their career paths and devise study mechanisms to excel and pursue their career dreams at higher education. however, kizza et al. (2019) established that students in uganda lacked career planning skills while transitioning from secondary to higher education. this finding was affirmed by kazi and akhlaq (2017) and kim (2021) who added their voice that poor career planning negatively impacted students’ career self-efficacy. it is prudent that teachers in secondary schools in uganda should spend more time assisting students to develop skills of career planning alongside academic work to prepare them for future career roles. results of this study identified several challenges faced during implementation of career guidance and counselling in schools. both students and teachers agreed that students had negative attitude, and lacked cooperation during implementation of career guidance and counselling services either due little access to career information and congested school time table. this finding was in agreement with similar studies that highlighted several factors that contributed to poor attitude and lack of cooperation from students, namely low sensitisation, irregular programmes, inadequate information about careers and lack of career models in schools (chireshe, 2011). other factors included lack of support from stakeholders and education policymakers limited support from teachers because of teaching overload, lack of designated career counselling centres, poorly resourced career education in schools, poor quality career guidance and counselling services, gender inequality and social segregation (maree, 2018; moote & archer, 2018; schreuder & coetzee, 2012). therefore, investing in career guidance and counselling may improve students’ behavioural change towards uptake of its services in schools. results about challenges associated with teachers revealed that some teachers had limited skills to carry out effective career guidance and counselling among students. this was coupled with limited sources of updated career information and materials and demand on personal time. save for irregular capacity building for career teachers by moes, teachers hardly may afford personal career development in career counselling skills. kabunga (2020) advocated for increased capacity building of teachers in skills of career assessment and counselling. other challenges affecting teachers include lack of career guidance curriculum, poor teacher training background, high student teacher ratio and non-existent professional standards of school counsellors (knettel et al., 2020; otwine et al., 2018). therefore, increasing capacity building for teachers and access to relevant career guidance materials may have potential to improve implementation of career guidance and counselling in secondary schools in uganda. in addition, school-related factors were identified, which included limited support from head teachers and other school administrators, poor sensitisation of students, teachers, parents, employers and policymakers, limited time and funds allocated to career guidance and counselling services and poor policy implementation because of either delayed or no supervision by staff from moes. this has kept career guidance and counselling service delivery in schools very low: a phenomenon that could explain why career guidance and counselling remains ineffective on students’ career decisions during their career life transition. therefore, sensitisation of school administrators about the role of career guidance and counselling in learning is likely to increase its visibility of service delivery and utilisation in both education and employment world. besides, parental factors were also identified among the challenges affecting career guidance and counselling service delivery in secondary schools. it was established that parents were not well sensitised about the importance of career guidance and counselling. some parents forced their children into careers outside their interest and ability, while others lacked information about different occupations because of limited exposure to career information. poor financial background was also mentioned, which hindered some parents from financing children’s education into good schools and also lacked mentors and models in families to motivate students to pursue careers of their dreams. according to abe and chikoko (2020), it was established that parents were a negative force on students’ career decisions. however, xin, tang, li and zhou (2020) disagreed with this notion and instead opined that students who received parental support had potential to make confident career choices than their counterparts. therefore, parental involvement during career guidance and counselling programmes in schools is encouraged. lastly, government policy factors were identified among challenges secondary schools faced that limited effective implementation of career guidance and counselling. they included low-capacity building of teachers in career counselling skills, contradiction on compulsory science subjects and placement of students in science courses, and imbalance between career guidance and counselling coverage in rural and urban schools. limited supervision of career guidance and counselling programmes in schools was also mentioned among other factors. this finding was in agreement with past studies, which revealed that policy challenges in uganda were associated with inadequate technical expertise at moes, low sensitisation, poor funding, lack of full time and trained school counsellors and inadequate training manuals (kizza et al., 2019; knettle, 2020). existing reports have again highlighted the need to redesign career guidance and counselling interventions in schools appropriate to drive low income economies towards sustainable development goals (sdgs) (african economic outlook, 2017; international monetary fund [imf], 2020; republic of uganda, 2019). therefore, harmonising career guidance and counselling in schools to national human capital development strategies was likely to improve career guidance and counselling outcomes among students and also act as a mitigation factor against youth unemployment in uganda. limitations of the study the tools used to collect data were generated by the researchers and were tested on a small population of 20 students and 10 teachers. therefore, comprehensive testing of this study tools may yield better and generalisable results in future. conclusion it can be concluded that students had high awareness about availability and utilisation of career guidance and counselling services in their schools of study. and schools employed different strategies to implement career guidance and counselling, although they faced challenges that made its implementation ineffective. these included poor attitude and lack of cooperation from students, low of capacity among teachers and school administrators, poor parental involvement and lack of policy support. recommendations there is need to increase policy support from the department of guidance and counselling in the moes to all schools in order to improve capacity building of teachers, access to update career guidance and counselling materials, develop curriculum for career guidance and counselling and harmonise policy on compulsory science subjects and space to accommodate students’ career choices on science courses. lay strategy for schools to increase collaborations with educational stakeholders including parents, employers, researchers, civil society and development partners to close gaps in service delivery and implementation of existing career guidance and counselling services in secondary schools in uganda. future studies may investigate how such collaborations may be established to link school career guidance and counselling services to national development plans. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the following people for the support given to make this publication possible; milton tweheyo and monica ahabwe who edited the work, and emmanuel ahabwe our research assistant. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.t.o. is the corresponding author of the original manuscript and contributed to the original research idea, methodology, data collection and analysis, manuscript writing, review and met all the costs of research and publication. l.m. assisted in conceptualisation, methodology, data analysis, manuscript writing and editing. l.m. was also a supervisor on this study. j.m.k. was a supervisor on this study and participated in conceptualisation, methodology, validation, manuscript writing and editing. a.e.h. provided support towards conceptualisation, methodology, manuscript writing and editing. funding information this research received partial funding from bishop stuart university. data availability the raw data are available and can be accessed from the researcher on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abe, e.n., & chikoko, v. 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(2021). a mixed methods exploratory study of the utility of social cognitive career theory for research into the careers of entrepreneurial emirati women in dubai. african journal of career development, 3(1), a46. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.46 original research a mixed methods exploratory study of the utility of social cognitive career theory for research into the careers of entrepreneurial emirati women in dubai pamela hawkswell, peter mcilveen, patricia n. hoare received: 13 oct. 2021; accepted: 28 oct. 2021; published: 15 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: social cognitive career theory (scct) is one of the leading theories within the literature of career development, but there is marginal evidence of its applicability within the diverse nations and cultures of the middle east and arab nations. objectives: the research involved a mixed methods exploratory design with an aim to determine scct’s utility in the context of dubai and with a specific focus on the careers of emirati women. method: study 1 used interviews to explore contextual factors affecting women’s careers. study 2 used a survey to measure core scct constructs, namely self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and their relations with work engagement. results: the qualitative data from the interviews and quantitative data from the survey found salience in factors that were consistent with the tenets of scct. conclusion: the findings provide evidence of scct’s potential utility in this cultural context; however, future research should extend into a broader and larger sample of workers in dubai and the uae. keywords: social cognitive career theory; self-efficacy; outcome expectations; work engagement; dubai; women’s careers. dubai is one of the world’s high profile economic and cultural hubs. however, research into the careers of people of the united arab emirates (uae) and citizens of dubai, women in particular, is uncommon in specialist international career development journals. accordingly, the present research had two aims. firstly, given the global significance of dubai as a commercial hub, we sought to address this research gap in the career development literature by exploring career development of women in the private sector in dubai. secondly, we sought to explore the utility of a western theory, namely the social cognitive career theory (brown & lent, 2019; lent & brown, 2019) in this specific context and demographic group. women’s entrepreneurial careers in dubai in recent decades there has been emerging government programmes to enhance emirati women’s careers, including the national strategy for the empowerment of emirati women (united arab emirates government, 2021), the dubai women establishment (government of dubai, 2021) and, the dubai business women council (dubai chamber of commerce and industry, 2021). the dubai women’s establishment, for example, aims to nurture the next generation of emirati women leaders who will serve as role models to young women in the wider society, with the establishment playing an active role to equip these women to fulfil this task. despite these initiatives, there is limited research pertaining to women’s careers in dubai. the disciplinary field of business studies acknowledges a history of significant social, cultural, and legal constraints on women’s careers in the uae (e.g. erogul, 2011; erogul, rod, & barragan, 2019; gallant, majumdar, & varadarajan, 2010; marmenout & lirio, 2014). with respect to the issues of gender, men may be both an inhibitor and promoter of women’s entrepreneurship, with inhibition diminished by the support of close male networks, particularly family (barragan, erogul, & essers, 2015; erogul, 2011). calls for a feminist perspective on women in business aim to address a discourse that limits women to the traditional role of mother (barragan et al., 2015; erogul et al., 2019) which reflects societal norms for women such as marriage, family, and modesty (marmenout & lirio, 2014). furthermore, young emirati women may be inclined towards an entrepreneurial career if there is educational preparation for business (gallant et al., 2010). whilst the present study is within the private sector, we acknowledge similar constraints on women’s careers in the public sector (cf. williams, wallis, & williams, 2013). social cognitive career theory in the united arab emirates context the social cognitive career theory (scct) has diverse theoretical, empirical, and practical utility (brown & lent, 2019; lent & brown, 2019); however, its utility for non-western cultures requires further research (sheu & bordon, 2017). the limited research using scct in the arabian region includes a study involving interviews with uae women to explore the factors that have an influence on their careers in the it sector which found family to be a major influence (howe-walsh, turnbull, khan, & pereira, 2020). another qualitative study using interviews explored young emiratis’ bias against work in the private sector and their notions of agency, but it did not specifically report findings related to self-efficacy in terms of the scct (al-waqfi mohammed & forstenlechner, 2012). a quantitative scct-informed research into emirati school children’s interests in a stem career used program for international student assessment (pisa) data for the uae but did not find a predictive relation between self-efficacy and aspirations for a stem career (cairns & dickson, 2020). another quantitative survey research by badri, mohaidat, ferrandino and el mourad (2013) used scct work satisfaction model (lent & brown, 2006) to inform research into teachers in abu dhabi, a neighbouring emirate of dubai. contrary to scct hypotheses, badri et al. found no direct predictive relation between self-efficacy, which is core to the scct, and job satisfaction. goal support was also found to be indirectly related to work satisfaction via work conditions and self-efficacy as reflected in goal progress. albeit limited, these qualitative and quantitative research studies are suggestive of scct’s potential utility for research into emirati women’s careers, but more research is needed to affirm its status as a useful theory for this region. the present research the present research was exploratory by design (i.e. to explore the potential of the scct in a novel cultural context); therefore, we used a mixed methods sequential exploratory design (hanson, creswell, clark, petska, & creswell, 2005). firstly, a qualitative study sought to explore the contextual factors that may influence women’s career satisfaction. secondly, a quantitative study focused on the core social cognitive variables, namely self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and their relation with women’s sense of engagement in their careers. study 1 participants five women participated in the interviews about their careers. they were residents of dubai, employed, and studying at a women’s college, nearing completion of a 4-year bachelor’s degree programme. their ages ranged from 23 to 33 years. two participants were married having children. all were employed in non-managerial positions at the time of the interview and were from a wide range of career backgrounds – banking, insurance and finance and accounting – with three out of five working or having worked in banks, which was consistent with females predominantly opting to work in the banking sector in the uae. pseudonyms are used hereafter. salma (27 years of age) lived with her family of origin and had worked in the insurance sector for 8 years before switching to a governmental position in 2014. salma majored in human resources during her college years. sumaya (28 years of age) was married, had a young daughter, and worked for the banking industry for 8 years before switching to the government sector 2 years prior to the interview. sumaya majored in human resources. dana (23 years of age) was working in a private bank. dana had studied nanoengineering on a government-sponsored scholarship in canada for 3 years before returning home. she then pursued a business degree to better accommodate her knowledge and skills for the banking industry. fatma (33 years of age) was married with one child and expecting a second. she had spent 8.5 years in the private sector at two banks and an airline and had worked for the government during the 4 years prior to the interview. her intention was to re-join the private sector within a year. amina (30 years of age) worked in the government sector after working for 8 years in a private bank. the participants were personally invited by the interviewer to participate in the study and were provided with written information about what was required of their participation. the invitations were given in english (the language of instruction at the college) and reflected respect for the culture and demarcation of boundaries for the participants and the researchers. the participants agreed to audio record their responses during the interview. they were assured of maintaining anonymity of their identity and therefore pseudonyms were used throughout the transcripts and in the resulting reporting of the findings. the interviewer was a teacher at the participants’ college. she is an australian citizen of white european background. she has extensive expatriate professional experience in the uae, including teaching female emirati students for more than 18 years. the participants knew the interviewer in her role as a teacher. this knowledge of the interviewer as a member of college with significant cultural understanding of the uae and its islamic traditions legitimised her role and assured the participants that she has much respect for local customs. the interviewer identified as both an insider and an outsider: an insider as a woman exploring women’s careers and an outsider as person of different cultural heritage. to manage this complex balance of insider-outsider, the interviewer participated in regular supervision meetings with the project supervisor. these meetings included reflective discussions to ensure that the interviewer was aware of the potential cultural concerns and influences on her interpretation of the interview data. the research was approved by the ethical review board of the university of southern queensland (approval: h15rea252). procedure the design of the interview questions was informed by the theoretical tenets of the scct with the aim of exploring how the participants experienced and expressed (cognitively, behaviourally, emotionally) contextual factors (e.g. family), self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals with regard to their careers. for example, questions pertaining to contextual matters included the following: [h]ow might your family and friends feel if you go on to be highly successful in your career? how might your friends feel if you go on to be highly successful in your career? how might society feel if you go on to be highly successful in your career? the interview questions were sent to the participants in advance. the questions (provide the questions) that may have resulted in answers reflecting cultural influence were carefully worded to avoid signs of bias or judgement. the interviews lasted between 30 and 60 min and occurred over a period of 3 weeks. immediately after the interview, notes were taken in an effort to supplement the transcripts. transcriptions were completed within 2 days of an interview and then returned to the participants for their checking to comment on any misunderstandings or misrepresented responses, and to add any other relevant points that would enhance the interpretation of data. data analysis the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006, 2013). a manual approach with a coloured coding table matching the constructs of the scct was used. the entire transcripts were copied and colour-coded to the ‘original data’ column with thoughts on the content added to the second ‘comments’ column. additional comments were added using the comments tool on the review option in microsoft word. these comments represented initial justification for the colour-coding and ultimately linked extracts to the constructs of the scct. a second table headed ‘themes from codes for aspects of the scct’, was drawn up and then data from the five interview transcripts were organised according to the scct constructs. those data that were considered relevant to career paths but that did not fit specifically into the scct constructs were listed under an additional heading ‘other’. data were collated to facilitate identification of patterns across the dataset, instead of being constrained by the questions, which is a technique recommended by braun and clark (2013). findings in alignment with scct work satisfaction model (lent & brown, 2006), the findings section is organised with respect to themes that represent contextual supports, resources, and obstacles, and work conditions, both proximal (e.g. family-of-origin, own family) and distal (e.g. workplace, societal expectations). matters pertaining to gender – of being a woman in this specific context – imbue the findings. accordingly, the issues pertaining to gender are integrated into the themes. family-of-origin maternal figures have been a significant proximal influence on the careers of the participants. salma recounted an almost 180-degree turnaround in the attitude displayed by her mother from when she first joined the private sector to the present time. she excused her mother’s initial reaction to her working in the private sector by saying that, ‘old people have the belief that government jobs are more secured, have less hours and less stress’ but then conceded that her mother was, ‘eventually understanding and supporting … “til today”’ of her decision to pursue a career in insurance in the private sector. of particular importance to salma was the way in which her mother motivated and encouraged her by telling her, ‘you can do better than this, these are not your limits…you’re capable of better than this’, as she was the only one in the family undertaking further study. dana also credited her mother as, ‘actually giving me the idea of pursuing this path (business) rather than the engineering, although they [sic] were very supportive of that’, after she forewent a scholarship at an overseas university and returned home to live and work. her mother was again identified as being the major motivator behind the idea that she would eventually start a family business when she felt she had the required experience. all participants spoke of the obvious and somewhat expected pride and happiness expressed by their families regarding their career achievements to date, as reflected in fatma’s comment, ‘they will always be proud of me of course…because they know i worked hard on myself to reach that position or that stage’. the influence of encouragement from their family members was also noted, as exhibited by sumaya, in the form of them, ‘wanting me to be better and getting a higher position and higher certificate’, and by dana, in her observation of, ‘they feel that being successful in your career is a very good thing … something to be proud of … and they would like to see their kids being very successful’. amina’s family can be seen to contravene traditional societal norms to a certain extent by encouraging her to take up study abroad. the unusual nature of this encouragement is demonstrated by amina’s rhetorical remark, ‘i got a scholarship to do the master’s internationally. will they allow me to go … yes … !’. these words of amina give an indication of the societal tradition in which females are generally not encouraged to move abroad if it means separation from family members. in addition, the fact that amina was single, reinforced the significance of the family’s decision that has spurred her on to consider undertaking doctoral studies abroad in the future. this was closely linked to her obligation to reach the top of her field in academia. own-family work-life balance was mentioned by the participants as an important obligation especially where their family was concerned. it appears to be mandatory for females pursuing a career, to fulfil the role of being available for other family members. this was illustrated in salma’s comment in relation to undertaking further study, ‘and of course it is my duty to keep the balance between my work and my family’, and in amina’s previous comment, ‘… if i do the study abroad the challenge will be double as i’m quite tied to the family’. as such, it is difficult to find out whether the obligation was self-imposed or was imposed by family or society, both of which are the wider communities to which the participants belong. regardless of these two possibilities, a sense of obligation to the family was evident amongst these participants. in contrast, dana saw further commitment to study as possibly causing her to have to, ‘give up so much of her social life and leisure life in general’ but admitted that if she wanted to focus on her career, ‘… my lifestyle would be dedicated to studying and working hard’. the fact that dana lived abroad for study for 2 years sharing a flat with western students has undoubtedly granted her this somewhat alternative perspective in relation to the obligation and pursuit of career goals, although not necessarily at the neglect of family. as was to be expected, other obligations fell more directly under career goals. for instance, sumaya was determined that the next position she looked for, ‘… has to be related to hr because i studied so i want to apply what i studied in my work’, and was in direct contrast to her taking up previous positions which she referred to as ‘just getting something’. the reason behind dana’s decision to quit her engineering course abroad, return home, and switch to the business field, was revealed in her words, ‘i knew if i did engineering i just wouldn’t be happy … i was just more interested in the business subjects’. the fact that she had found parts of the engineering course tough led her to this conclusion. she appeared to have gone from strength to strength, with an awareness of what is expected for success in the private sector in her comment: […i]’m still pursuing further education … it’s a very important part for you to succeed … if you have a lower level education they won’t much consider you … even though you’re good at the job. her expectations in relation to success in her future career path hinged on her getting more experience to perhaps open a family business, becoming more financially independent to explore other avenues, and growing as a person. amina also saw her own success as being intertwined with the success of her future family and, ultimately, the society in her observation, ‘if i add anything to myself, definitely it will be adding value to them and the uae as we are like a small community’. she made reference to moving up a job hierarchy in the form of a ‘good position, in a good field in a good organisation’ to exemplify this observation. she was, however, well aware of the fact as to how society sees a single female pursuing a doctorate when she stated, ‘i’m not married and i know the society will not agree with me taking another degree, especially a phd and being highly educated’. she defended her status with a lengthy explanation amounting to being kept busy by running around with ‘unnecessary stuff’ or by filling the hours with study. she explicitly distinguished between what she perceived as the somewhat-harsh choices given by society as keeping busy with study or having children and challenges the ultimatum, by saying if she does not find ‘a person really good to marry’, she will continue her career and earn a phd. workplace employers’ influence plays a pivotal role in the participants’ perspectives of career advancement, an influence that is both positive and negative in nature. salma made special mention of what she perceived to be gender discrimination, generalising that: ‘… there are still people in the world who as ceos will not be happy to give promotions to women and who would prefer men instead of women and girls’. she consolidated her belief by adding that, ‘… even if you are working double the men, still they are not happy with you, just because you’re a woman’. others spoke of managers as not being supportive, with dana, in particular, wondering if ‘they really want you to become a better person…or grow in the company…or they just want you to stay there because you’re good at your job and that benefits them alone’. fatma, whilst seeing the initial project set by the manager as being a direct challenge to her as a new staff member, acknowledged that when she succeeded, he was impressed, and gave her positive feedback. salma vented her frustration when she told about her experience of not receiving a promotion after 2 years when she emphatically stated, ‘but of course we can do work, we are better than men!’ her indignation of and eventual triumph over the situation was summed up in her final reaction, that of feeling: [a]ngry and making me go and search for another higher position just to show my manager i deserved more than this because when i was there he didn’t understand my true value but after i left what happened … he hired three employees! perhaps unknowingly, she was exhibiting self-efficacy here along with a degree of outcome expectation – that of being confident that she would get a better position if she made the effort to look elsewhere. positive experiences in relation to managerial support, as reported by fatma, ranged from a manager who was partially supportive because, ‘he was too busy with what he was doing … and when we had that one-to-one meeting, he was just trying to wrap up fast’ to an hr lady working with the manager who, ‘was always supportive’. she then went on to recollect that the best experience came from a different bank describing the years here as, ‘the most important period of my career because of the amount of support i got from my managers and my colleagues’, support that came in the form of various trainings to enhance learning and skills. her outcome expectations from completing these trainings then were to be better equipped to carry out day-to-day tasks and responsibilities and ultimately work towards promotion. societal expectations dana was mindful of the fact that today’s society wanted and expected women to be more successful in the workplace. this encouragement has been given by governmental actions and by other female groups throughout the uae. she opined that ‘it would be a very good thing’ in relation to her succeeding in a role previously only considered for men, and the subsequent effect this success would have on women in society. now that there are more female than male students enrolled in higher education. it stands to reason that, as these females graduate, they will occupy a larger percentage of the local workforce and may want to exert more control over their career progress. fatma was more direct and went one step further in her perception of societal expectations, linking the concept of being a role model to friends or their friends in terms of ‘giving back to your country’. she equated society with the broader aspect of the country, which is reflected in her statement, ‘whatever you are doing you are giving back to society, giving back to your country, and this is what is expected from you’. the participants acknowledged that they were women working in a society that predominantly favours males, but they were quick to argue that this bias may not necessarily be the case for them. this was reflected in salma’s comment: [… n]owadays our society is more open … and women are half of the society so we are being supported by our government, family, friends, so when we are highly successful in our career, it will be a positive feeling from them. uppermost in this participant’s mind was the late ruler his highness shaikh mohamad bin zayed (1918–2004), who did much to encourage sexual equality, including encouraging women to serve in the police and armed forces. dana’s comments concurred with salma’s perspective by saying about society, ‘… they will actually be very supportive because they do want to see people in the uae go on to be highly successful, especially women …’. she backed this up by adding, ‘in this recent year, there are actually a lot of women pursuing different kinds of jobs and positions that weren’t there for them, only for men’, and then alludes as to how it would be ‘a very good thing’ if society saw them ‘getting there’. the importance of giving back to society through being a role model, either to friends or to people in general, was emphasised by fatma who saw it as a societal expectation. in contrast, sumaya raised a somewhat negative issue of some people in society being presumably unsupportive, when she said, ‘ah society … i will face some jealousies in my life for how she reached this position … she doesn’t deserve it’, but went on to concede that, ‘… in general, they will be happy to see an emirati in a (good) position’. this once again raises the issue of how emiratis see themselves as being apart from the expatriate workforce, which is unsurprising, considering emiratis in 2013, who made up just 0.5% of the private sector workforce. another negative reaction to managerial influence was highlighted by fatma in the form of wasta, a feature of emirati society in which preferential treatment is given to family and friends with regard to position and promotion within a company. she cited this as an impediment on her otherwise flourishing career at the time by stating, ‘i saw myself growing in that bank…but the problem was my manager was put there by wasta. he knew nothing’. this in fact, was instrumental in fatma leaving the company with the difficult decision to do so alluded to in her statement, ‘…there are external factors that force you sometimes to leave a place … and i didn’t want to leave that place’. her action was in contrast to the usual passive acceptance of this societal phenomenon and indicated a self-belief in her ability of being able to find a job in another company where presumably she would be treated more fairly. summary the interviews identified four themes: family-of-origin, own-family, workplace, and societal expectations. these themes represent the supports, resources, obstacles, and work conditions that contribute to the women’s career development and satisfaction. having completed the qualitative phase of this mixed method sequential explanatory study (hanson et al., 2005), we now turn to the quantitative phase in study 2. study 2 the aim of study 2 was to quantitatively explore relations amongst the core variables identified in the scct, self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and their relation with work engagement. participants there were n = 41 participants whose ages ranged across the following categories: 20–25 years, 48.8%; 26–30 years, 22%; 31–34 years 9.8%; and 35–40 years, 19.5%. with respect to their education status, 4.9% held a master’s degree, 68.3% a bachelor’s degree, 12.2% a diploma, and 14.7% reported ‘other’ or unspecified, and approximately half of the participants (53.7%) were enrolled in further studies. relationship status were 63.4% single, 26.8% married, and 9.7% divorced. the majority (80.3%) had no children and 4.9% had one or two children, and a further 9.8% had more than three children. employment sectors included 36.5% in the private sector, 41.4% in the semi-private sector, and 21.9% in the public sector. industries were 39% in banking and finance, 46.4% worked in ‘other’ unspecified industries, and 4.8% reported their industries as health, media and retail. the majority of participants (39%) had worked in their current organisation for more than 4 years with 29.3% having worked for 2–3 years, 17.1% for 1–2 years and 14.6% for less than 1 year in their current organisation. procedure study 2 participants completed an online survey available on the create survey (2017) platform. instructions and items were translated into arabic by a professional translator. a college-level educator, fluent in arabic, checked the final draft of the survey for accuracy. the survey’s invitation to participate was distributed through a tertiary education college which acted as a third-party to culturally legitimise the invitation. the study was approved by the ethical review board of the university of southern queensland (approval: h15rea252). materials occupational self-efficacy scale (oses; rigotti, schyns, & mohr, 2008). there were six items on this scale related to participant beliefs in their ability to manage various challenges in their job (e.g. i can remain calm when facing difficulties in my job because i can rely on my abilities). the participants rated each of the six items on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the scale was scored as an average, all items were summed and then divided by the total number of items. reliability coefficients for the oses were between 0.85 and 0.90 over the five countries in which the scale was tested (rigotti et al., 2008). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.78. sources of self-efficacy and outcome expectations scale (sseoe; lent, ireland, penn, morris, & sappington, 2017). twelve items were used to assess personal mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, and vicarious learning as sources contributing to self-efficacy (e.g. i have been resourceful at gathering the information i need to make career-related decisions). the participants responded using a 5-point likert scale of 1 (strong disagreement) to 5 (strong agreement). they were asked to reflect on their past experiences, including the influence of important others and role models, and how these may influence their future career decisions. original cronbach’s alpha values suggested the sub-scales internal consistency reliability estimates of α = 0.82 (personal mastery), α = 0.89 (verbal persuasion) and vicarious learning α = 0.83 (lent et al., 2017). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.85 for personal mastery, α = 0.93 for verbal persuasion, and α = 0.89 for vicarious learning. the full scale returned a cronbach’s α of 0.92. vocational outcome expectations scale – revised (voes; mcwhirter & metheny, 2009). eleven items sought to elicit information from the participants about outcome expectations regarding career planning (e.g. i will have a career/occupation that is respected in our society). because of an administrative error, item number 12 from the original scale was missing. a 4-point likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) was used and was scored as an average, all items were summed and then divided by the total number of items. the original cronbach’s alpha score for the scale was 0.93 (mcwhirter & metheny, 2009). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.90. utrecht work engagement scale – 9 (uwes; schaufeli, bakker, & salanova, 2006). nine items sought to explore participant feelings in relation to the workplace and overall work engagement (e.g. i am immersed in my work). they were asked to rate themselves on a 6-point likert scale from 1 (never) to 6 (daily). the original cronbach’s alpha for the scale varied between 0.85 and 0.92 across 10 countries (schaufeli et al., 2006). the internal consistency of the items in the present sample was cronbach’s α = 0.96 for the full-scale (i.e. nine items). for the subscales, the internal consistency coefficients were cronbach’s α = 0.94 for vigour, α = 0.89 for dedication, and α = 0.87 for absorption. results data screening table 1 presents the descriptive statistics. there was no missing data from the 41 participants. the uwes’ subscales had marginally high skew values higher than |1| and the oses and absorption subscale had marginal kurtosis higher than |1|. inspection of box plots revealed one case with relatively lower scores for occupational self-efficacy (ose) and vocational outcome expectations (voe); however, this case was retained for analyses. table 1: descriptive statistics for the measures. relations amongst variables table 2 presents the correlations amongst the measured variables. according to the scct, the sources of self-efficacy – mastery, verbal persuasion, vicarious learning – should correlate with self-efficacy. the significant correlation coefficients bear out this theoretical relation. multiple regression analysis with the sources of self-efficacy entered simultaneously revealed a significant model [r = 0.57, adjusted r2 = 0.28, s.e. = 0.46, f(3,37) = 6.15, p = 0.00, durbin-watson = 2.05] with only personal mastery as a significant predictor of self-efficacy [β = 0.56, t = 2.74, p = 0.01]. table 2: correlations of the full scales and subscales of measures. social cognitive career theory posits predictive relations between self-efficacy and outcome expectations, and the correlation between these two variables is evident in table 2. in addition to self-efficacy per s.e., we tested the relations between its sources and outcome expectations. multiple regression with the sources entered simultaneously revealed a significant model [r = 0.81, adjusted r2 = 0.63, s.e. = 0.26, f(3,37) = 23.66, p = 0.00, durbin-watson = 2.20]. again, only personal mastery was the significant predictor [β = 0.62, t = 4.45, p = 0.00]. we note, however, that verbal persuasion had a non-trivial albeit statistically non-significant contribution in the model which may reach significance in a larger data set [β = 0.23, t = 1.99, p = 0.05]. according to scct, self-efficacy should associate with work engagement. although self-efficacy did not correlate with work engagement measured as a full scale, two of the sources of self-efficacy, personal mastery and vicarious learning did correlate. multiple regression analysis with personal mastery and vicarious learning entered simultaneously revealed a significant model [r = 0.54, adjusted r2 = 0.26, s.e. = 1.27, f(2,38) = 7.85, p = 0.001] with only personal mastery as a significant predictor of work engagement [b = 0.39, t = 2.09, p = 0.04, 95% ci = 0.03, 0.1.80]. discussion this research sought to explore the potential utility of the scct for research addressing entrepreneurial women in dubai. there are two notable findings. firstly, through the interviews in study 1, we discerned proximal and distal contextual supports, resources, and obstacles, and work conditions which are consistent tenets of the scct, namely family-of-origin, own-family, workplace, and societal expectations. secondly, the variables measured in study 2 had correlations with one another at levels that were sufficiently consistent with the scct. social cognitive career theory contextualises vocational behaviour by situating its core cognitive constructs (i.e. self-efficacy, outcome expectations) amidst social-environmental constructs (e.g. contextual affordances), and by assuming that these factors influence one another. whilst we cannot draw specific conclusions about the relations between the contextual factors in study 1 (e.g. workplace) and the measured variables in study 2 – because they are separate studies per s.e. – we speculate that the significant correlation between work engagement and outcome expectations is tentative evidence of the theoretical relations specified in the scct. germane to the assumptions of social cognitive paradigm and scct, the measured sources of personal mastery, verbal persuasion, and vicarious learning had significant correlations with self-efficacy and outcome expectations. similarly, self-efficacy and outcome expectations were linked with one another. vocational outcome expectations correlated with all measures of work engagement (i.e. vigour, dedication, absorption); however, self-efficacy did not which is inconsistent with scct’s work satisfaction model (lent & brown, 2006). similarly, badri et al. (2013) found no relation between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. we considered this ostensibly contradictory finding in light of the essential role of family-of-origin and own-family to the women in this study. recent research highlights complex relations amongst non-work family support, professional self-efficacy, and work engagement (azim & al-halawani, 2020) and self-efficacy for balancing work and family demands and work engagement (chan et al., 2017; wood, oh, park, & kim, 2020); however, wood et al. concluded that the directionality of effects between life balance and work engagement is yet to be determined by research. we speculate that the women in this study had to similarly appraise their occupational self-efficacy in the context of family dynamics. contrary to the findings by williams et al. (2013), participant careers did not appear to be restrained once they had accessed the private sector and proved their worth. in this study, family members showed unwavering support for their choices including change in career direction and other activities such as additional studies that may further enhance future careers. specific mention was made in relation to support given by mothers. less obvious is the specific influence of male family members on the women’s careers. this finding is important because it suggests that there is a need to explore nuances of family influence on emirati women from an scct perspective. for example, are the relationships between women and their parents qualitatively different in the case of mother and father? how do parental relationships influence self-efficacy and outcome expectations? in the present study, vicarious learning and verbal persuasion were evidently correlated with the women’s self-efficacy. are those sources of self-efficacy influenced by how women observe the work-related behaviour of their parents, and how they attend to their work-related discourse of their emirati parents? future research is needed to answer these questions and to further test the potential of the scct in this context. if the tenets of the scct have merit in the socio-cultural and economic context of dubai and the uae, then attention should be given to designing and implementing strategies to support women’s career exploration, decision-making, and transitions in the world-of-work. initiatives such as the national strategy for the empowerment of emirati women (united arab emirates government, 2021), the dubai women establishment (government of dubai, 2021) and, the dubai business women council (dubai chamber of commerce and industry, 2021) are signs of structural reform. for career development researchers and practitioners, the challenge is to advocate for the field’s theory, research, and practices to inform how those initiatives can be implemented to positively affect women’s self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals, and contextual factors that may enhance or limit their development. limitations this research is inherently limited by its intent to explore scct’s potential for use in the specific demographic group of interest (i.e. younger entrepreneurial emirati women residing in dubai). we did not advance specific hypotheses drawn from the scct and therefore the results should be interpreted as tentative evidence of the scct’s utility. notwithstanding statistically significant correlation and regression coefficients amongst the majority of variables, and acceptable durbin-watson coefficients in study 2, the study’s findings are limited by the small sample size and should not be taken as indication of the population of entrepreneurial women in dubai. accordingly, future research may aim to conceptually replicate the present study by using a larger sample to enable the use of confirmatory factor analysis to determine the measurement properties of the arabic versions of the measures used in the study, and to use structural equation modelling to test scct hypotheses. furthermore, given the findings of study 1, we recommend including measures pertaining to contextual factors that involve family-of-origin, own-family, workplace, and societal expectations. there are significant challenges to recruiting participants of this demographic segment. therefore, we recommend researchers to formulate a recruitment plan in conjunction with local personnel who possess expert knowledge of and respect of gender-related conventions. conclusion in dubai today, there are expectations that more women will become educated and venture out into the workforce; however, there remains ambiguity with respect to what are valorised roles for women in the workforce. the present study offers initial evidence of the scct’s utility for conducting research into the careers of women in dubai because of its conceptual scope to contextualise distal and proximal social-cognitive factors. future research must determine how well the scct can be applied in the geographical region of dubai and the uae, and other demographic segments. data availability statement because of the nature of this research, the participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed to the conceptualisation, design, and data analysis for the research. pamela hawkswell conducted the data collection. all authors contributed to the writing of the article. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the human research ethics committee of the university of southern queensland h15rea252. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are not available for distribution as approved by the human research ethics committee of the university of southern queensland. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references al-waqfi mohammed, a., & forstenlechner, i. 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(2020). the relationship between work engagement and work–life balance in organizations: a review of the empirical research. human resource development review, 19(3), 240–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484320917560 abstract introduction methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) xuebing su department of social work, hong kong baptist university, kowloon, hong kong victor c.w. wong department of social work, hong kong baptist university, kowloon, hong kong citation su, x., & wong, v.c.w. (2020). map of self-perceived growth for reviewing user journey and negotiating career transitions. african journal of career development, 2(1), a18. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.18 original research map of self-perceived growth for reviewing user journey and negotiating career transitions xuebing su, victor c.w. wong received: 17 june 2020; accepted: 16 july 2020; published: 15 sept. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there exist very few participatory research tools to facilitate youth to review and archive their user journey in a systematic manner for negotiating their career transitions. objective: the purpose of this study was to examine in what way the map of self-perceived growth (mspg) was used as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of marginalised youth for negotiating their career transitions and for drawing implications for career interventions and research. method: the mspg template was used for conducting individual interviews with ex-users for mapping out their user journey with the use of nine emoji icons and a 10-point likert-type scale. a thematic qualitative analysis was applied to study three sampled sets of transcripts and participant-constructed maps. results: the youth participants were able to map out their user journey with departure point, turning points and future career aspirations. the participant-constructed maps can visualise both psychological ownership and work volition and the use of psychosocial resources available from an enabling environment, which were found helpful for strengthening the agency of youth in negotiating career transitions, and showing embedded career interventions for drawing implications for both career interventions and research studies. conclusion: the study result suggests using the mspg for reviewing and archiving user experience and articulating youth’s career aspirations, which can help inform youth’s negotiating career transitions. further research studies on using the map template and the participant-constructed maps for strengthening agentic negotiations and career interventions are recommended. keywords: user journey; career transitions; youth agency; career interventions; participatory research. introduction the term ‘user journey’ addresses the processes and experiences of service users as seen from the user perspective (liu, 2019). each user journey is characterised by a dynamic and interactive process positioned in between a starting or departure point and an end point of the entire course of service delivery. therefore, user journey stories constructed by users or ex-users are able to show the embedded career interventions they went through and tell if the latter were effective in facilitating positive user change. user journey constructed by users or ex-users may comprise a few dimensions, including plotting of user experiences, identification of feelings, facts and findings from user experiences, personal encounters with other people or significant others and emphasis on critical incidents associated with user changes and growth, etc. however, ex-users who had experienced a relatively longer rather than a transitional spell of status of not in education, employment or training (neet) of 5 months or above (su, wong, & to, 2020) may need a tool or a space to tell their user journey stories embodied with different relational, service and experiential encounters to consolidate their user experience. an archived map of user journey is considered helpful for acknowledging users’ actions and abilities and relevant for generating sustainable impact, as it lasts longer than the use of the service itself (farrell & nielsen, 2014). user journey stories used to reach insight into user experiences (crosier & handford, 2012) can also help inform or improve the design of career support services as well. user journey stories can be constructed through ongoing reviews or reflections conducted in a retrospective manner on an individual basis alone or on a one-to-one or small group basis facilitated by an interviewer (allen, 2018). however, the conventional approach to conducting individual interviews tends to place youth participants in a relatively passive position (karabanow, kidd, frederick, mcluckie, & quick, 2018), which has aroused a few major concerns as follows. first, interviewer-led interviews guided by a structured interview guideline tend to put youth participants in the position of answering questions in an inflexible manner. semi-structured interviews can help but there is room to make further improvement for tapping personal experience outside the service scope and self-appraising one’s growth experience during the service journey with some more facilitation. second, the practitioners are not able to receive a copy of evaluation study report immediately after the interview. the time lag would end up preventing practitioners from taking prompt and appropriate actions to address the needs of their service users as necessary. third, the participants would not be able to effectively learn about the mechanisms leading to their own individual learnings, changes and aspirations, as the findings and discussion shown in the research report are presented in an anonymous and collective manner apart from the aforementioned time-lag problem. exercise of youth agency in mapping out user journey an emerging trend taking place in participatory research is to emphasise the exercise of agency of youth participants in reviewing their own journey of growth and examining the favourable factors leading to their positive changes (borda, 2006). the dialogue between the participant and the interviewer is informed by the guiding principle of ‘leading from behind’ (savickas, 2005) with which the participant is treated as the focal person of the semi-structured interview as well as the storyteller of the user journey. a core principle of participatory research is to provide young people with tools or frames to narrate and evaluate their life experience in the process of generation of knowledge (borda, 2006). prior studies have suggested some creative methods such as lifeline exercise, storytelling, drama and drawing to serve as constructivist tools to assist research participants to describe and reflect their experiences (literat, 2013). these participatory research methods involving research participants have the advantages of: (1) lowering mere dependence on linguistic proficiency to narrate their experience, (2) introducing an entertaining component to make the research process more enjoyable and (3) cultivating a sense of ownership and contribution during the research process (amsden & vanwynsberghe, 2005; literat, 2013). however, as participatory drawing relies primarily on visuals rather than texts, a valid interpretation of findings is arguably a significant concern. against this backdrop, how to provide viable means to youth participants to facilitate their visualisation of their experiences, relations and learnings and yet give them room to narrate their own unique user journey is a real challenge. map of self-perceived growth informed by the expanded notion of work–values, attitudes, skills and knowledge (enow–vask) framework (wong & yip, 2019) with an emphasis placed on acknowledging users’ untold or implicit vask identified from their enow experiences, including a wide spectrum of paid and unpaid work activities (wong, 2015), the first author developed the original map of self-perceived growth (mspg) template and worked with the second author to fine-tune the template and write up a manual for interviewers to use this new participatory research tool. the mspg was developed to visualise the experiences of youth participants and capture what they achieved over the user journey in terms of identifying their self-perceived growth, exploring the factors and mechanisms leading to positive changes and examining the effectiveness of career interventions. by using the mspg template during the individual interview and giving the participant the original copy of the hand-drawn map and the practitioner another copy for reference, it is possible to address the loopholes caused by the time-lag problem discussed here. moreover, using both participant-constructed maps and interview transcripts is consistent with using methodological triangulation in qualitative research studies. purpose of the study this study aims to examine in what way the mspg template and the participant-constructed map were used as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of marginalised youth with a prior status of neet for enhancing their ability to negotiate career transitions ahead and discuss the implications for informing the practice of career practitioners and researchers. methodology this study invited 26 ex-users of a career service project as research participants to attend an individual semi-structured interview and map out their self-perceived growth experiences, achievements, learnings and aspirations, which is titled career and life adventure planning project for youth (thereafter the project) funded by the hong kong jockey club charities trust. this 5-year long project launched in 2015 is targeted to youth aged 15–21 years who are neet or neet-at-risk. amongst the 26 participants, 5 of them did not report their spell length as neet, 5 of them were longer-term neet (≥ 5 months) and 16 were transitional neet (< 5 months). amongst the 21 participants who reported their spell length as neet, 7 participants reported having special educational needs (sen) amongst which one of them reported having other vulnerability as well, and 14 participants reported having no clear goals for career and life development. to cover a wider range of sociodemographic factors including spell length as neet, that is, longer-term versus transitional neet, single versus multiple vulnerabilities, and both genders, the study sampled 3 participants out of the 21 participants for this study: the first was a transitional neet, the second was a longer-term neet with multiple vulnerabilities and the third was a transitional neet with sen. each interview including both conversations and mapping-out in cantonese, the mother tongue of the participants, lasted for about 2 hours. during the interviews, interviewers asked open-ended questions according to a semi-structured interview guideline. the participants were encouraged to share about their personal experiences within and beyond the service scope and evaluate their own growth experience during the user journey. at the end of each interview, the interviewer gave the original copy of the constructed map to the participant and asked for a consent from the latter to share a copy to his or her practitioner. this article adopted a qualitative method to examine interview transcripts and participant-constructed maps using a thematic analysis approach. participants table 1 presents the sociodemographic information of the three participants. to assure personal privacy and confidentiality, gender-specific pseudonyms are, respectively, assigned to the three participants as elsa, roger and alex. table 1: sociodemographic information of the three participants. instruments the interviewers used a semi-structured interview guideline and a mspg template to facilitate the participants to tell their user journey. the interviewers asked the participants open-ended questions including the following areas: (1) prior status and presenting concerns before using the service, (2) critical incidents and significant others or relationship they encountered and their growth and changes during the entire service journey they perceived, (3) current status and identity at the time of interview and finally (4) personal aspirations for future career and life development. an audio recorder was used to record the interviewing and mapping-out process. some example interview questions are cited as follows: what were the problems you encountered at that time? during the user journey, anybody you met that changed your life? were there any special moments that made yourself aware of your own changes? how do you describe your current status or identity? what are your long-term goals for your career and life development? can you foresee your status or identity in 6 months, 9 months, a year or even longer? the basic structure of the mspg template is detailed as follows. first, the horizontal axis outlines the temporal dimension of participants’ experience, their current status or identity and their career aspirations at the time of interview. second, the vertical axis is a 10-point likert-type scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is of the lowest rating and 10 the highest. third, four fs are used to denote facts, feelings, findings and futures (greenaway, 1992) for reviewing their self-perceived growth in accordance with the 10-point likert scale. fourth, nine emoji icons including ‘critical incident’ (),‘significant others/relationship’ (), ‘positive changes’ (), ‘negative changes’ (), ‘challenges’ (), ‘values/beliefs’ (), ‘attitudes’ (), ‘skills’ () and ‘knowledge’ () are provided for the youth participants to elaborate and archive their achievements and learnings in every significant experience in a visual manner. fifth, a curve to be drawn in the map represents the self-evaluation of the youth participants over the entire user journey. the ups and downs of the mspg refer to the progression, regression and stable situation in relation to self-perceived growth. the interviewer prepared some tools for the drawing, including a pencil, an eraser, a ruler, a mspg template with two axes and nine emoji icons for briefing the participants about the basic features of the map and another blank template with only two axes. procedures three interviewers including a researcher who was the first author and two other trained-up interviewers conducted the research interview with the three participants on a one-to-one basis. two other interviewers attended a training workshop provided by the project team before the interview. prior to the study, the research team obtained ethical approval from the research ethics committee of the university where the authors work. after explaining the purpose and scope of the study to the participants, informed consent was collected from each of them prior to the commencement of the interview. all data collected were treated as confidential and only the research team could access the data. data analysis to answer the question in what way the mspg template and the participant-constructed maps work to help ex-users review and archive their user-journey stories for negotiating their career transitions ahead, three layers of data were used for this study: layer 1 – data available from the transcripts; layer 2 – data collected from the participant-constructed maps; and finally layer 3 – notes taken by the researcher about the process of using the mspg. thematic analysis of qualitative data was used to explore the themes and meanings embedded within the collected narratives and maps. specifically, narrative analysis (riessman, 2008) was used to understand participants’ interpretation, visualisation and narration of user journey and any meanings and reflections assigned to their experiences (lam & chan, 2004). qualitative data used for this study included the interview transcripts and the participant-constructed maps collected from the three sampled cases. all recordings were later transcribed into chinese by the researcher. the transcripts and the participant-constructed maps were analysed in chinese, rather than english, in order to better identify nuances in the language and to better represent the participants’ lived experiences and perspectives. transcripts were read and reviewed by the authors who analysed the content of transcripts and identified the meaning units and themes embedded within the narratives and maps. next, common or related meanings were categorised and grouped together to constitute an initial theme, which is a ‘recurrent pattern of human intention’ and make up ‘the level of story concerned with what the characters in the narrative want and how they pursue their objective over time’ (mcadams, 1993, p. 67). related themes were then connected and compared. the structure of narratives was also examined (riessman, 2008). in this study, with the aid of transcripts and participant-constructed maps characterised by a mix of selected icons and brief messages, plot development was identified by considering how the participants selected, connected and sequenced separate episodes of experience within and beyond the user journey (see papathomas, smith, & lavallee, 2015). in addition, the cultural resources and broader interpretive frameworks that the participants may have used to make sense of their user-journey experiences and self-constructed maps were also considered. emergent themes and their potential connections were continuously reviewed in preparation for writing up the finalised themes to describe in the findings section. finally, representative verbatim quotes were labelled, translated into english and reviewed by the authors to ensure accuracy. ethical consideration all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the research ethics committee of hong kong baptist university and with the 1964 helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. this article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. results figure 1 presents the participant-constructed map of elsa with original participant-written texts and translation in english as a representative sample. a total of four themes were identified by analysing the three layers of qualitative data, which explained the mechanisms through which the mspg template and the constructed map as a final product worked as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of marginalised neet youth for negotiating their career transitions. figure 1: a user journey mapped out by elsa. theme 1: applying a temporal dimension to review and archive user journey the participants started mapping out their user journey by recalling their prior disadvantaged status and presenting concerns in different yet similar expressions such as ‘a lack of goals’ (alex, a transitional neet with sen), ‘no purpose in life’ (elsa, a transitional neet) and ‘seclusion at home’ (roger, a longer-term neet with multiple vulnerabilities) at the ‘departure’ point in the mspg template before receiving career support service. using the temporal order of the story plot for reviewing, the participants were able to consolidate different types of experiences they went through during the user journey. the participants were guided to tell their user experiences from the first selected episode of user experience to the next one and then the last one they perceived important along the horizontal axis of the map. for example, elsa recalled that she tried some interest classes at the beginning of her user journey: the first interest class that she joined was delivered by a blogger. it was about writing articles for the website on the project’s blog with support from other service users, and the second one was a leather-making class run by an interest-class instructor who is a serious leisure devotee committed to the promotion and production of leather handicrafts. another major type of activities she had joined was a series of job placements highlighted in a sequential order over time. the placement as a receptionist at a social service centre came first; the placement at an insurance company came second; the placement at an amusement resort park was the third; the placement at a western cuisine restaurant was the fourth; and the last one was at a ferry company. after reviewing a series of career support services, participants’ focus changed from the past to the present by marking their current status or identities in their maps. for example, elsa marked her current status as ‘enjoying the current job’, and alex marked ‘studying a bachelor’s degree programme in social work’, whereas roger used ‘serious leisure devotee’, ‘employee’ and ‘social activist’ to describe his current status or identities. based on the shared experiences and explicit current status or identity, the participants were well able to map out their career aspirations. elsa aspired to keep working in the current ferry company with a sense of confidence and fulfilment through reviewing her participation in a series of activities with her social worker. alex found his passion in music and expanding his horizon along the user journey, such as writing a proposal to apply for a youth award scheme to support his music programme, attending a semi-structured programme about animal caring, taking a job placement in a kitty café. alex was thinking ahead of studying a short course in first aid during his undergraduate study and a diploma in music therapy after working for a few years as a social worker following the completion of the bachelor’s degree programme in social work, which was about to start in a few weeks’ time. all these endeavours planned in advance and to be pursued step by step can better equip him to serve teenagers and children with sen in the long run. regarding roger’s aspiration, his dream job was to become a district councillor, as he was fond of politics when he was very small, and even when he was trapped in self-seclusion at home for a protracted period of time. according to roger’s sharing, he was given a task that interested him to take photos for a floor curling competition in the first place, a role to form a playing team for a floor curling competition, and then a position as a coach for a series of floor curling competitions, and also a horizon-broadening chance to try out wheelchair escort service for wheelchair users who were either older people or people with a disability. all these activities appeared to help roger experience success in working with his peers and teammates. roger also had the opportunity to draw learnings ‘to get rid of egocentricity, care for others and act for group-interest’ in his own words. theme 2: achieving a sense of psychological ownership towards user journey and career transitions the concept of psychological ownership emerged in psychological theories about people’s territorial behaviours, which refers to the feelings held by individuals that they own a specific target (avey, avolio, crossley, & luthans, 2009; pierce & jussila, 2011). individuals’ psychological ownership towards a certain target will influence their attitudes and behaviours in relation to the target. theories and empirical work suggest that people with a higher level of psychological ownership towards a target show a higher level of affective commitment for the target and act in a proactive manner to pursue positive outcomes for the target (avey, wernsing, & palanski, 2012; bullock, 2015; mustafa, martin, & hughes, 2016; peng & pierce, 2015). according to the ownership theory, there are three routes to foster the formulation of psychological ownership: experienced control over the target of ownership, intimate knowledge of the target and investment of self in the target (pierce, jussila, & cummings, 2009). the mspg template and the constructed map supported the participants to build up their psychological ownership towards their user journey and career transitions through establishing the aforementioned three routes to psychological ownership in the following ways. first, the participants were free to decide and select which experiences were significant to put up into their maps, to choose any wordings to describe their feelings, facts, findings, and/or futures in relation to their experiences and select any emoji icons to articulate their achievements and learnings from their experiences. second, with the detailed briefing delivered by the interviewers, the participants were well informed about the purpose and components of the mspg template. the questions raised by the interviewers facilitated the participants to recall their experiences in a thorough manner, and therefore, their intimate knowledge of their user journey was enhanced during the interview and mapping-out process. third, the visualised participant-constructed map allowed the participants to acknowledge their own investment in each specific episode of experience in the user journey. elsa used some emoji icons to describe her own performance in the ferry company: a circle to represent her serious attitudes for delivering customer service, a star to represent her professional skills as a ticket seller, a value icon to represent her value of caring for others and an icon of ‘significant others’ to represent a colleague that she modelled after for picking up the skills of banknote-counting. when elsa recognised her own investment into her job at the ferry company, she felt fulfilling about her career transition. alex witnessed his own improvement during his internship at the kitty café and recorded his positive changes with relevant emoji icons in his map: ‘when people asked if i like this job or not, i would say “yes!” i have done so much for this job and i can really make it! other job placements that i tried were not my cup of tea. this is my job. i just love it. if possible, i would like to work longer a day to make more money from this job.’ (elsa, tn11, 23 march 2019) ‘i didn’t know how to complete tasks and what kind of attitudes i should maintain. i was uncertain what’s going to happen. after all, i gradually became competent… some of the customers talked to me nicely. i know how to handle the kittens, how to take orders and handle the floor works.’ (alex, tn03, 26 february 2019) finally, to foster the psychological ownership of the participant, the interviewers made a photocopy or took a photo of the participant-constructed maps and gave the original participant-constructed maps to the participants for their own record. the participants were suggested to revise their constructed maps on their own in the future as necessary. theme 3: visualising turning points and work volition the user journey shown in each of the participant-constructed maps was filled with ups and downs. a strong turning point from a lower score of self-perceived growth to a much higher score in particular was quite eye-catching in the participant-constructed maps. a strong turning point in participants’ user journey is deemed important, as it can be interpreted as a practice of volition in their user journey, which has implications for negotiating their career transitions ahead. work volition signifies a person’s perceived capacity to make occupational choices despite constraints (duffy et al., 2012). elsa described her prior job placement experience at the amusement park before the strong turning point as a nightmare; however, she regained her confidence after going through the last placement at the ferry company. theoretically, when faced with the need for career adaptation, proactive individuals are likely to successfully prepare for and negotiate career-related changes when they are able to identify opportunities for improvement and create work environments that are congruent with their vocational needs (bateman & crant, 1993; seibert, crant, & kraimer, 1999; tolentino et al., 2014). elsa showed her work volition in making up her decision to accept the job offer and take working in the ferry company as a pier assistant as an important platform for negotiating her career transitions ahead: ‘i don’t mind working in the early morning or working till late into the night. the supervisors are much nicer here. at least they will not force me to study english. they did teach me some task-related skills … i watched them when they were handling a task and i listened. then i learned a lot’. (elsa, tn11, 23 march 2019) roger demonstrated his work volition by negotiating obstacles against pursuing his dream job as a district councillor. not only did he learn about caring for others through joining various activities to craft his own character but also negotiate his pathway to get his dream job. as marked in his constructed map, he joined a political organisation and made use of his job at a canteen to practice his influence in the community, which were considered relevant to achieving his political and career aspirations. he even planned about becoming an assistant of a district councillor to realise his dream job one day: ‘in this political organization, i am a member who focuses on transportation issues. i give opinions about transportation because i am a fan of buses. my opinions include but are not limited to bus lines, or issues about community planning. through this political organization, i can influence the society. moreover, my job at the canteen provided me opportunities to communicate with customers there, therefore i know about their needs and expectations about politicians.’ (roger, ltn02, 08 march 2019) alex’s work volition was highlighted in his reflection about his failure to receive an award to attend a music programme he opted for. he still resolved to pursue his music dream through an alternative pathway in spite of acknowledging his own constraints: ‘i did not do anything meaningful about music other than playing music and singing at home before joining the project. i have amblyopia and encountered difficulties of all kinds. however, by writing the proposal, i realized that there is a belief in the back of my mind: i want to bring music to others. i want to go to taiwan to play street music and learn about the local musical culture.’ (alex, tn03, 26 february 2019) theme 4: emphasising the use and strengthening of psychosocial resources available from an enabling environment the idea of psychosocial resources denotes a person’s resources to cope with contextualised tasks, transitions, challenges and traumas (savickas & porfeli, 2012). psychosocial resources held by an individual are not static traits but accumulated competencies gained through both education and experiences (savickas & porfeli, 2012; sullivan & sheffrin, 2003). however, young people who are deprived of formal education, training or working experiences as a result of a longer spell of neet status are susceptible to the lack of psychosocial resources to cope with transitions, tasks and traumas encountered in their career and life development journey (su et al., 2020). the emphasis of the aforementioned enow–vask framework is not only placed on the here-and-now context but also on the there-and-then context as long as young people are able to recall those adventurous, whether fruitful or less satisfying, memories where they can draw learnings from. all this is beneficial to help young people as ex-users to imagine the future and attempt to use their future aspirations to make sense of their present career-pathway mapping. given the environment around is enabling and empowering enough, young people can re-read their experiences with their constructed map to strengthen their psychosocial resources. the three participant-constructed maps were filled with emoji icons of vask and positive changes. elsa used a positive-change icon to represent her regaining confidence in the job placement in the ferry company. alex used the icons of values, knowledge, skills and positive change to archive his learnings from the semi-structured programme about animal caring, including values of caring for others, knowledge about animal caring and animal food, communication skills and perceived holistic positive self-changes. roger used the icons of vask to describe his psychosocial resources developed from the wheelchair escort service: ‘if we did not try to accompany the wheel chair users in daily life, we would never know they are having such an inconvenient life… for example, there is a strict standard for the gaps width of the drain covers, for the slope of ramp, and for pedestrians crossing, and handrails. i paid attention to these things, which would be strongly related to my dream of being a district councilor.’ (roger, ltn02, 08 march 2019) the mspg template and the constructed map itself encouraged the participants to archive their own psychosocial resources as well as the social support they gained from others during their user journey. for elsa, her significant other was her supervisor in the ferry company, who had taught her some useful skills. alex marked an icon of ‘significant others’ to represent his caseworker in every selected episode of experience. according to alex, his caseworker had been playing an important role in influencing his career decision-making: ‘i can feel the presence of my caseworker throughout all four stages of my growth experience in this project. he led me to the job placement at the café and supported me from day 1 … he has taught me how to handle various situations at work.’ (alex, tn03, 26 february 2019) upon receiving the public examination results, alex found himself at the crossroads of making his own decision, which was different from his family’s aspirations for him. after talking with his caseworker, he was able to tell his family his decision in taking the social work degree programme offered by a non-publicly funded tertiary institution rather than a non-social work degree programme offered by a publicly funded university. discussion this study showed that the mspg template and the final product of participant-constructed map were used as an effective participatory research tool for reviewing and archiving the user journey of disadvantaged youth through four interlocking mechanisms: (1) providing a temporal dimension for ex-users to review and archive their user journey and reach insight into their future career aspirations, (2) enhancing a sense of psychological ownership of participants towards user journey and career transitions ahead, (3) visualising turning points throughout user journey and work volition for negotiating future career transitions and (4) emphasising the use and strengthening of psychosocial resources available from an enabling environment for achieving career aspirations. after mapping out their user journey, the three participants were able to articulate their future directions for career pursuit and they appeared to draw an in-depth consolidation regarding their acquisition of psychosocial resources, which are helpful for strengthening their readiness and ability to negotiate career transitions and achieve career aspirations. each piece of participant-constructed map can be used as a means to strengthen individual agency for coping with career hurdles and negotiating career transitions through ongoing reflections on and continuing narration of preferred identities and actions with a good sense of career adaptability. the narration is neither a precise nor a truthful account of the life course itself but ongoing interpretation, reinterpretation and attribution of significance assigned to events and contexts that one subjectively finds important for the life course, the current situation and the ways to achieve aspirations (illeris, 2017). participants mapped out their life experiences, their subjective interpretations of their experiences and their own definition of their experience-driven identities in their constructed maps. participants’ constructed identities in the maps are coherent entities, which are not only reinterpreted in accordance with their reconstruction of experiences but also informed by their aspirations for future career and life development. informed by the constructed identities, ex-users are prepared to exercise agency and take proactive actions to negotiate their career transitions by taking future-career-informed actions. according to the field notes of the researcher in this study, the caseworker of roger asked the researcher for a copy of the map constructed by her ex-user, as she planned to hold a follow-up meeting with roger in a week or two. this request was made possible after receiving consent from roger. the maps constructed can thus support practitioners to deliver quality career support service in two possible ways: first, practitioners can seek permission from the participants for receiving a copy of their constructed maps for having a follow-up meeting with ex-users as necessary. second, participants may take proactive actions instead to seek further guidance from their caseworkers by sharing with them their constructed maps. with the collection of participant-constructed maps, practitioners are able to develop insights into their career interventions so as to take relevant actions to work with service users with similar needs. although the participants of this study were all ex-users of a career support service, the mspg template is considered applicable to current users as well as non-service users. with support from practitioners, current users can use the mspg template to review and map out their user journey in relation to achievements and learnings so far and jot down their hopes and aspirations for the future. career practitioners may discuss with their current users about the latter’s constructed maps and draw insights for next-step interventions. by enjoying access to available mspg user guideline and video clip, practitioners can map out their own professional journey by using the mspg to review their professional practice on their own for consolidating practice wisdom, reaching practice insights and imagining practice possibilities. finally, the mspg template and the constructed maps are shown as an effective tool for researchers to engage ex-users in participatory research for the sake of enhancing the agency of young people in the interviewing and mapping-out process. by using the mspg, researchers are able to take up a bridging role between service users and their practitioners on the one hand and on the other hand enable the participants to share about their perceived growth experiences in a visualised manner and facilitate the practitioners to reflect on their career interventions for making further improvement. however, there are some limitations of the present study. first, this study only examined the practice of using the mspg with ex-users who were transitional or longer-term neet youth. future efforts are suggested to explore the use of the mspg with other user groups such as adults or older people or non-service users such as practitioners. second, as three interviewers were involved in this study, it is not sure if there was any unintended personal influence on the participants during the interview process, which might lead to any bias for or against using the mspg. finally, this study is only focused on a thematic analysis of three ex-users’ constructed maps and reflections of the researcher. future research studies are recommended to examine the outcomes of using the mspg for three interrelated parties, that is, participants, practitioners and researchers. for example, a longitudinal study is needed to investigate how career practitioners refer to the participant-constructed maps to review their interventions and support their service users. moreover, more relevant studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of using the mspg for other practitioner and user groups. conclusion to conclude, this study demonstrated how to use the mspg template and participant-constructed maps to help ex-users who were neets to review and archive their user journey in a career service project and revealed the mechanisms through which the mspg template and the final product of participant-constructed map can function as an effective participatory research tool that is able to generate more sustainable impact for ongoing reviews and reflections. implications for using the mspg template and participant-constructed map for achieving both research and practice purposes were discussed in relation to three different yet interrelated stakeholders, that is, users, practitioners and researchers. future practice of using the mspg with different target groups is recommended, and further empirical research studies are needed to examine if these research and practice implications can be realised. acknowledgements the authors would like to give special thanks to all the 26 participants for sharing their user journey stories and the funding support from the hong kong jockey club charities trust. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions the authors contributed equally to the writing up of the article. funding information this work was supported by the hong kong jockey club charities trust 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(2019). ‘promoting change’ the ‘expanded notion of work’ as a proactive response to the social justice issues in career development practice. in t. hooley, r.g. sultana & r. thomsen (eds.), career guidance for emancipation: reclaiming justice for the multitude (pp. 64–80). london: routledge. abstract significance of work background objective of the research method results discussion research limitations and directions for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i.l. (2019). employer requirements and employability mindsets influencing graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment. african journal of career development 1(1), a4. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v1i1.4 original research employer requirements and employability mindsets influencing graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter received: 14 july 2019; accepted: 28 aug. 2019; published: 09 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: little is known about when (under which mindset conditions) graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment increases. objective: the current study explored the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and graduate workers’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. method: the study was exploratory and cross-sectional in nature, involving (n = 153) predominantly black african (71%) graduate-level workers employed in the south african services industry. results: hierarchical moderated regression analysis showed significant moderation effects on the mindsets of entrepreneurial orientation and marketability. conclusion: the findings added new insights to the employability research literature by introducing the influencing role of the prospective employee’s own mindset in raising intrinsic self-confidence in gaining employment, while also triggering extrinsic self-confidence in employability in the link with employers’ requirements for graduateness and employability qualities. keywords: employability; graduate worker; graduateness; employability qualities; mindsets of employability; marketability; entrepreneurial orientation; networking/job search behaviour; self-confidence in gaining employment. significance of work in the current study, we add new knowledge to the existing literature on graduate workers’ employability. the objective is to explore the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and graduate workers’ mindset regarding marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. our study extends research on the role of graduate worker’s graduateness and employability qualities in their employability. we go beyond the study of mere skills and personal qualities to make a new contribution to the research literature through our exploration of the mindset conditions that influence individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment. specifically, the findings added new insights to the employability research literature by introducing the influencing role of professional purposeful mindsets such as entrepreneurial orientation and marketability in raising intrinsic self-confidence in gaining employment, while also triggering extrinsic self-confidence in employability in the link with employers’ requirements for graduateness and employability qualities. as such, our research fills an important gap in the employability research literature. background prolific changes in the professional world along with the competition for graduate jobs have become fierce in an economic climate characterised by high levels of uncertainty and unemployment (beaumont, gedye, & richardson, 2016; maree, 2019). the ability to find and/or create a job or some form of employment is an integral aspect of individuals’ careers and psychological well-being (baruch, 2017; de cuyper, van den broeck, & de witte, 2017). research indicates graduate adult workers’ self-confidence as a key barrier in gaining sustained employment (beaumont et al., 2016; dacre pool & sewell, 2007; norman & hyland, 2003; yorke & knight, 2007). scholars in the field of careers and employability suggest that people with self-confidence are able to successfully present their employability qualities and graduateness in situations such as job searching (dacre pool & sewell, 2007; kim, kim, & lee, 2015; onyishi, enwereuzor, ituma, & omenma, 2015). it is therefore argued that increasing adult workers’ self-confidence is an important motivational strategy for facilitating a sustainable career and livelihood in a complex employment market (beaumont et al., 2016; qenani, macdougall, & sexton, 2014). in the context of the present research, adult workers are seen as career actors who participate in the career ecosystem (baruch, 2017). within the career ecosystem, employers represent the internal labour market that generally offers, through employment in an organisation, the psychological space within which the adult worker’s career and personal development unfolds and evolves (baruch, 2017). adult workers have come to understand that there is neither career stability nor a promise of future employment. they have also come to realise that their ability to craft a meaningful livelihood relies on their ability to confidently grow and develop, and adapt and adjust to an ever-changing labour and work environment (baruch, 2017). moreover, adult workers increasingly regard employers’ perceptions of their graduateness (i.e. the quality of personal growth and intellectual development of the graduate; barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2012) and employability qualities (i.e. personal attributes and skills that provide the individual with a competitive advantage in the labour market; finch, peacock, levalett, & foster, 2016) as important factors to consider for their sustainable participation in the labour market. according to clarke (2018), working adults have become more concerned about sustainable employability themselves. it appears that the effects of the labour market’s inconsistency and competitiveness have been compounded by greater levels of job insecurity. these conditions seemed to have weakened working adults’ confidence in terms of finding a job or employment (clarke, 2018). some factors that were shown to influence individuals’ confidence in gaining employment include employers’ competition for highly qualified graduates with strong employability qualities, the need for graduates with work experience, employers’ perceptions of the quality of the degree, individuals’ graduateness and academic qualifications, economic conditions and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment (beaumont et al., 2016; coetzee, 2012). however, more knowledge is needed about the mindset conditions that may contribute to an individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment (beaumont et al., 2016). employability research is regarded as an emergent and crucial research area with the bulk of studies published after the year 2000 (mcarthur, kubacki, pang, & alcaraz, 2017). research on links between perceived employability and other factors such as self-efficacy, self-confidence, personal employability skills and education and academic qualifications has been evident in the employability literature (beaumont et al., 2016; dacre pool & sewell, 2007; finch et al., 2016; kim et al., 2015; onyishi et al., 2015). exploratory research also shows links between adult workers’ graduateness and their employability prospects (franham, 2017; moolman, 2016; sin & amaral, 2017; tomlinson & holmes, 2017). however, more research is needed to gain deeper insight into the mindset regarding employability that explains an individual’s self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. unfortunately, little is known about when (under which employability mindset conditions) individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment increases. in the present study, we explore the interaction effects between two employer variables (perceived importance attached to the adult worker’s graduateness and employability qualities), and three individual employability mindset conditions as moderating variables (perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) in predicting higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. we propose that a positive link between perceived employers’ importance attached to the adult worker’s graduateness and employability qualities and the worker’s enhanced levels of self-confidence in gaining employment is conditional upon high levels of perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation. below, we discuss the various constructs, highlighting the untested assumptions concerning the moderating role of perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation by presenting the conceptual research model. we then discuss the research method applied in testing the interaction effects of the employer and individual variables in explaining individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment. employer requirements for graduateness and employability qualities the present study focuses on perceived employers’ importance attached to employees’ graduateness and employability qualities. graduateness relates to employers’ perceptions of the quality of personal growth and intellectual development employees acquired through their graduate academic studies (barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2012). a worker’s graduateness enhances the ability to find an employment opportunity, use it and become a valued employee (franham, 2017; moolman, 2016; sin & amaral, 2017; tomlinson & holmes, 2017). some of the attributes that employers regard as important indications of graduateness include the ability to quickly acquire new knowledge; being educated, trained and proficient in the relevant occupational field; having job-specific knowledge and skills; the ability to apply universal, global knowledge, principles, philosophies and paradigms to solve job or work challenges; the ability to communicate in english; and the ability to work in teams with people from culturally diverse backgrounds (coetzee, 2012, 2018). employability qualities relate to personal attributes or traits that characterise a person, either innate or learned, but typically not taught by university. these ‘soft skills’ are often in higher demand than occupational skills and provide the individual with a competitive advantage in the labour market (finch et al., 2016; mcarthur et al., 2017). the employability qualities that are regarded as important by employers include a range of abilities pertaining to being able to work under pressure; managing and using time efficiently or productively; adapting to changing conditions; following through and delivering results; keeping one’s knowledge and skills relevant and updated; being client or customer service oriented; managing one’s own career development; and engaging in continuous life-long learning activities (chhinzer & russo, 2018; coetzee, 2018; finch et al., 2016). rapid transformation of work and an extremely competitive labour market have transformed the nature of employers’ requirements for workers’ employability. the primary reason employers increasingly demand working adults with high levels of graduateness and sustainable employability qualities is attributed to factors such as the change in the economy, the increase in globalisation and the need for a highly skilled workforce to deal with the current and future global technology-driven business market challenges (bates, rixon, carbone, & pilgrim, 2019; clarke, 2018; clements & kamau, 2017). from the employers’ viewpoint, skilled working adults with a high level of graduateness are seen as key role players who add value to products and services (tomlinson & holmes, 2017). employability is viewed as part of a new kind of psychological contract, and employers continue to recognise the importance of investing in, and increasing the academic-level qualification and graduateness, as well as the employability qualities of employees through education, training and development efforts (bernstrom, drage, & mamelund, 2019). workers’ graduateness represents their intellectual resources, which, when successfully combined with employability qualities, maximise their value for employers and differentiate them from other graduate workers (finch et al., 2016). previous research demonstrates a strong link between the intellectual resources (denoted by individuals’ graduateness) and their employability across a variety of occupations and contexts (finch et al., 2016; scherbaum, goldstein, yusko, ryan, & hanges, 2012; stiwne & jungert, 2010). research also shows that workers who display both graduateness and employability qualities signal enhanced employability to employers (coetzee, 2012; finch et al., 2016). individuals’ marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation gaining and sustaining employment is an important career outcome. individuals’ mindsets about their careers guide their approach to managing the complexities of both the external labour market and the internal labour market represented by the organisation (baruch, 2017; bates et al., 2019). a mindset denotes a predisposition to perceive and reason in certain ways which creates certain psychosocial conditions that influence individuals’ employability confidence (bates et al., 2019). bates et al. (2019) propose the notion of a professional, career-specific and purposeful, driving the need to develop personal resources that enable the pursuit of career goals in the employability context. bates et al. (2019) argue that the concept of a professional purposeful mindset extends the notion of employability beyond the limitations of a purely skillsor attributes-based approach (i.e. as denoted by an individual’s graduateness and employability qualities). drawing from the theory of bates et al. (2019), the three constructs of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation are regarded as an important, generalised, professional, purposeful, employability-related mindsets in career self-management and job or employment search behaviour. building further on the basic premises of bates et al.’s (2019) theory, we propose that the three mindsets (i.e. marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) reflect individuals’ intrinsic motivation to purposefully engage in behaviours that support the development of a professional future that is personally meaningful to them. these behaviours function as important mindset conditions that enhance self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. in the context of the present research, it is argued that employers’ importance attached to graduate worker’s graduateness and employability qualities will positively contribute to higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment when the purposeful mindset conditions of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation are present. as such, we formulated the following two research hypotheses: h1: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to graduateness and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels, and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. h2: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to employability qualities and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. figure 1 provides a conceptual overview of the research model. figure 1: conceptual model of the research: interaction effects of predictors of graduate workers’ self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. marketability relates to beliefs about the labour market’s view of the credibility of one’s qualification, and the acceptability and relevance of one’s mix of personal qualities, competencies and work experience. individuals’ entrepreneurial orientation reflects their beliefs about their ability to find or create a job or employment through their entrepreneurial competencies. the mindset of proactivity in networking and job search behaviours involves beliefs about the importance of purposeful, active engagement in activities that broaden one’s employability scope. such beliefs include, for example, one’s proactivity in networking with professional societies and communities, attending conferences and seminars and using social networks or the internet to actively search for employment opportunities and familiarise oneself with employer requirements and market trends (coetzee, 2018). the literature highlights networking, entrepreneurial orientation and marketability as important mindsets for sustained employability (bates et al., 2019; bridgstock, grant-iramu, & msalpine, 2019; jorre de st jorre, elliott, johnson, & bisset, 2019). in similar vein, we argue that the mindset of marketability alludes to beliefs about having a competitive advantage as a graduate because of the credibility and quality of one’s degree and the personal qualities, skills and experience one obtained through one’s higher education studies. we propose that this belief may be associated with higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. the mindsets of entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation allude to the use of entrepreneurial thought and social networks and resources (i.e. social influencing and relational capital) that drive employability and the achievement of professional purpose career goals. drawing from the theory of bates et al. (2019), both of these two mindsets also reflect a degree of proactive curiosity and exploratory behaviours which may help reduce uncertainty and drive employability confidence. as such, we propose that these two mindsets will also be associated with higher levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. research has also shown positive links between social or relational career capital and perceived internal and external marketability and career success (dickmann, vesa, & wurtz, 2018; latzke, schneidhofer, pernkopf, rohr, & mayrhofer, 2015). objective of the research in the current study, we seek to add to the existing literature on graduate workers’ employability. the objective is to explore the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and graduate workers’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. our study extends research on the role of graduate worker’s graduateness and employability qualities in their employability. we go beyond the study of mere skills and personal qualities to make a new contribution to the research literature through our exploration of the mindset conditions that influence individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment. as such, our research fills an important gap in the employability research literature. method participants the sample was represented by (n = 153) predominantly black african (71%) graduate-level workers employed in the south african services industry. white people (18%), mixed races (8%) and asians (3%) were in the minority. the participants were pursuing a postgraduate qualification in industrial and organisational psychology and human resource management through an open and distance learning higher education institution. female participants represented 69% of the sample (male participants = 31%). the mean age of the participants was 38 years (sd = 9.15). measuring instruments the graduateness or employability survey instrument developed by coetzee (2018) was used to measure the following constructs: self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment (overall construct measured on a four-point likert type scale: 1 = not confident; 4 = highly confident); perceived marketability (five items; e.g. ‘i have the right personal qualities that employers are looking for’) and perceived entrepreneurial orientation (five items; e.g. ‘my entrepreneurial competencies help me in finding or creating employment’) measured on a four-point likert type scale (1 = not at all; 4 = definitely); perceived networking or job searching orientation (four items; e.g. ‘i use the social network or internet to search for employment opportunities, and familiarise myself with employer requirements’); and employer perception of: (1) importance of graduateness (10 items; e.g. ‘being proficient in your occupational field’); and (2) personal employability qualities (eight items, e.g. ‘ability to keep your knowledge and skills updated and relevant’) measured on a five-point likert type scale (1 = very low importance; 5 = very high importance). initial construct validity has been established by means of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (coetzee, 2018). internal consistency reliabilities for the various subscales ranged between 0.60 and 0.90. procedure data were collected by means of an online web survey to which participants received an electronic link via email. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an spss (statistical package for the social sciences) file for data analysis purposes. ethical consideration ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the management of the research institution (ethics certificate: ref#:2018_crerc_004 fa). the participants were invited to voluntarily participate in the research study. the online questionnaire included an informed consent form. the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants were ensured and honoured. the participants gave informed consent that the data could be used for research purposes. data analysis a regression-based hierarchical moderated analysis using the process version 3.00 for spss procedure developed by hayes (2018) was performed to test the research model. the preacher and hayes (2008) bootstrapping procedure (bootstrap samples = 5000) was applied to test the proposed conditional indirect effects. bootstrapping is a more stringent bias-correcting procedure that involves resampling and building a non-normal sampling distribution of the indirect effect from which confidence intervals can be constructed. this approach reduces the likelihood of type i error (hayes, 2013, 2015, 2018; preacher & hayes, 2008). the 95% lower and upper confidence interval levels (llci and ulci) were used as threshold for examining the significance of direct and indirect effects. following the guidelines of shrout and bolger (2002), llci and ulci ranges that did not include zero, provided evidence of significant direct and indirect effects. concerns about multicollinearity were addressed by using mean-centred values for the predictor variables before computing the interaction terms in accordance with the guidelines of aiken and west (1991). tolerance (less than 0.1) and the variance inflation factor (vif), above 2.5, were also utilised to assess multicollinearity concerns. results table 1 reports the descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations. the internal consistency reliability coefficients ranged between 0.60 and 0.90. the cronbach’s reliability coefficients of 0.60 (perceived entrepreneurial orientation) and 0.65 (confidence in finding or creating a job or employment) were below the threshold value of 0.70. table 1: descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations (n = 153). however, because of the broad, exploratory group-based nature of the research design, the reliability of the subscales was considered adequate for research purposes. the significant positive bivariate correlations ranged between r ≥ 0.16 and r ≤ 0.55 (p ≤ 0.05; small to large practical effect). perceived employer’s importance of graduateness and employability qualities did not correlate significantly with perceived network or job search orientation. tables 2 and 3 report the hierarchical moderated regression analysis, while figures 1–3 illustrate the significant interaction effects. table 2: moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of graduateness, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation as predictors of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment (n = 153). table 3: moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of employability qualities, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation as predictors of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment (n = 153). moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of graduateness, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment table 2 shows the three models that were computed to test the interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to graduateness and the three moderating variables (perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. all three analysis of variance (anova) models were significant: model 1: f = 5.62; p ≤ 0.0001; model 2: f = 9.43; p ≤ 0.0001; model 3: f = 5.20; p ≤ 0.01. the practical effect of the models was small (r² ≤ 0.10). only model 2 (with moderating variable perceived entrepreneurial orientation) showed a significant interaction effect: ∆fp = 5.23; p = 0.05; ∆r² = 0.03; small practical effect; f2 = 0.19; moderate practical effect). table 2 further shows that the independent variable and moderating variables had significant main effects on the dependent variable. figure 2 illustrates the significant interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to graduateness and adult workers’ perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. it is evident from figure 2 that those participants who had high perceived entrepreneurial orientation and who also perceived employers to attach high importance to their graduateness had significant high levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. those participants who perceived employers to attach low importance to their graduateness, and who had low levels of perceived entrepreneurial orientation, had also significantly low levels of self-confidence in their ability to find or create a job or employment. figure 2: interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance of graduateness and perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. the results provided partial evidence in support of hypothesis 1: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to graduateness and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels, and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. moderated regression results: interaction effects between employer’s importance of employability qualities, and marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation as predictors of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment table 3 shows the three models that were computed to test the interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to employability qualities and the three moderating variables (perceived marketability, perceived entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation) in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. all three anova models were significant: model 1: f = 5.64; p ≤ 0.0001; model 2: f = 8.42; p ≤ 0.0001; model 3: f = 3.57; p ≤ 0.05. the practical effect of the models was small to moderate (r² ≤ 0.15). model 1 (with moderating variable perceived marketability) showed a significant interaction effect: ∆fp = 5.59; p = 0.05; ∆r² = 0.04; small practical effect; f2 = 0.12; small practical effect). model 2 (with moderating variable perceived entrepreneurial orientation) showed a significant interaction effect: ∆fp = 7.31; p = 0.01; ∆r² = 0.04; small practical effect; f2 = 0.18; moderate practical effect). table 2 further shows that the independent variable had no significant main effect on the dependent variable, while the three moderating variables had a significant main effect on the dependent variable. figure 3 illustrates the significant interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to employability qualities and adult workers’ marketability in predicting their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. it is evident from figure 3 that those participants who had high perceived marketability and who also perceived employers to attach high importance to their employability qualities had significant high levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. those participants who perceived employers to attach low importance to their employability qualities, and who had low levels of perceived marketability, had also significantly low levels of self-confidence in their ability to find or create a job or employment. figure 3: interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance of employability qualities and perceived marketability in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. figure 4 illustrates the significant interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance attached to employability qualities and adult workers’ perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. it is evident from figure 4 that those participants who had high perceived entrepreneurial orientation and who also perceived employers to attach high importance to their employability qualities had significant high levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. figure 4: interaction effects between perceived employer’s importance of employability qualities and perceived entrepreneurial orientation in predicting self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. those participants who perceived employers to attach low importance to their employability qualities, and who had low levels of perceived entrepreneurial orientation, had also significantly low levels of self-confidence in their ability to find or create a job or employment. the results provided partial evidence in support of hypothesis 2: the relationship between employers’ importance attached to employability qualities and individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment will be moderated by an individuals’ mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation, such that the relationship will be positive under conditions of high mindsets levels, and negative under conditions of low mindset levels. discussion the study explored the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and their own mindsets of marketability, entrepreneurial orientation and networking or job search orientation in predicting their self-confidence in gaining employment. the results showed that the professional purpose mindset of entrepreneurial orientation significantly explained the positive link between perceived employers’ importance attached to the participants’ graduateness and employability qualities and their self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. graduateness (employers’ perceptions of the graduate workers’ intellectual resources gained from postgraduate studies; barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2012) had both a main, and in interaction with the graduate worker’s entrepreneurial thought, a positive effect on levels of self-confidence in gaining employment. employability qualities had no main effect on participants’ self-confidence. however, in the interaction with the professional purposeful mindset of entrepreneurial thought (orientation), higher levels of self-confidence were positively explained. drawing from the professional purposeful mindset theory of bates et al. (2019), it appears that entrepreneurial thoughts about one’s employability enhance both the extrinsic and intrinsic functions of self-confidence (beaumont et al., 2016). firstly, the mindset seems to create a psychosocial motivational condition that raises the extrinsic (i.e. others or employers’ perceived confidence in the graduate worker’s ability to gain employment) function of self-confidence in gaining employment. secondly, an entrepreneurial orientation seems to trigger the intrinsic (i.e. link with the graduate worker’s beliefs about successfully achieving personal career goals and plans) function of individuals’ self-confidence. research shows that a lack of extrinsic and intrinsic self-confidence limits individuals’ employability ambitions and the actions they may take to improve their employment prospects (beaumont et al, 2016). in this regard, the mindset of entrepreneurial thought seems an important condition for strengthening the motivation for, and self-confidence in sustained employability. research also demonstrates strong links between a mix of intellectual resources (denoted by individuals’ graduateness) and employability qualities in enhanced perceptions of employability (coetzee, 2012; finch et al., 2016; scherbaum et al., 2012; stiwne & jungert, 2010). the present study provided additional new insights by showing the role of entrepreneurial thought in further strengthening self-confidence in sustaining employability through employment. the mindset of marketability also appears to trigger the extrinsic and intrinsic functions of self-confidence in the interaction effect between perceived employers’ importance attach to employability qualities (i.e. extrinsic confidence) and self-confidence in gaining employment. marketability denotes a belief (i.e. intrinsic self-confidence) in one’s competitive advantage in the marketplace (i.e. having a credible qualification, and the right mix of personal qualities, competencies and work experience; coetzee, 2018). research also shows links between perceived internal and external marketability and career success (dickmann et al., 2018; latzke et al., 2015). the findings added new insights to the employability research literature by introducing the influencing role of professional purposeful mindsets such as entrepreneurial orientation and marketability in raising intrinsic self-confidence in gaining employment. the findings showed that these two mindsets are psychosocial conditions that may trigger extrinsic self-confidence in employability in the link between employers’ requirements for graduateness and employability qualities. these findings may have implications for practice. firstly, the findings may help explain why some graduate workers have low levels of self-confidence in finding or creating a job or employment. secondly, the findings suggest that employers can help cultivate graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining or sustaining employment by developing professional purposeful mindsets of entrepreneurial thought about their employability and their marketability. in order for these motivational conditions to function effectively in raising self-confidence in employability, graduate workers also need to understand employers’ requirements for graduateness and desirable employability qualities. such awareness may help raise the extrinsic function of self-confidence. research limitations and directions for future research the potential implications for practice must be considered in light of the limitations of the current study. the relatively small sample size and cross-sectional exploratory research design of the study limits the generalisability of the findings. the study also involved postgraduate-level working adults from the south african organisational setting. the research design was appropriate for the exploratory nature of the research because little is known about when (under which employability mindset conditions) individuals’ self-confidence in gaining employment increases. future studies could explore the constructs in various occupational and industry settings and from a longitudinal point of view to be able to assess cause and effect relations. conclusion the study opens up avenues for gaining deeper insight into how employer requirements and employability mindset conditions explain individuals’ self-confidence in finding or creating a job or form of employment. non-withstanding the limitations of the research design, the present study helps foster an understanding of the role of important mindsets of professional purposefulness in employability research and practice. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions all authors contributed to the data collection. m.c. assisted with the data analysis and interpretation. all authors contributed to the conceptual framework and writing up of the research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aiken, l.s., & west, s.g. 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(2007). evidence-informed pedagogy and the enhancement of student employability. teaching in higher education, 12(2), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510701191877 abstract introduction research methods and design results discussion recommendations limitations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) kamilla rawatlal department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, hatfield, south africa citation rawatlal, k. (2021). piloting career development: whole school interventions. african journal of career development, 3(1), a33. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.33 original research piloting career development: whole school interventions kamilla rawatlal received: 08 dec. 2020; accepted: 05 feb. 2021; published: 15 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the article reports on a project that was undertaken as a pilot study for a whole-school approach (wsa) to career education intervention that was integrated into the grade 10, life orientation (lo) curriculum at a public, secondary school in kwazulu-natal, south africa. objectives: using an ecological framework, interventions to improve learners’ future orientation and motivation were piloted with grade 10 learners’ at the micro-, mesoand macro-level to inform career education. method: an approach, using an intervention and control school involving three phases was conducted. the mixed method evaluation involved the administration of baseline questionnaires to all grade 10 learners and included, the psychological sense of school membership (pssm), the future orientation scale (fos). multivariate analysis and repeated measures of analysis and variance were also conducted. qualitatively, process evaluation using fidelity checklists and post intervention interviews, with key informants was conducted. focus group sessions with learners were also utilised. results: the findings support how career learning can be integrated and evaluated in a wholeschool curriculum. in a wsa, an integrated system of career education in every secondary school is proposed. conclusion: this research supports the call for career education to be shifted from a peripheral to a central role that can be integrated into the curriculum. this study, although in a limited way, supports the need for broader, contextual approaches to career development, and acknowledges the vital role school membership and career development play in the mental health promotion of adolescents. keywords: career development; ecological approach; future orientation; curriculum; intervention; process evaluation; outcome evaluation. introduction a whole-school approach (wsa) focuses on shaping the whole school, and this includes the school’s ethos, relationships, organisational and management structures, the physical environment, the taught curriculum, and pedagogic practice, so that the experience of school life is conducive to the health of all who learn and work there (weare & markham, 2005). whole-school approaches are increasingly advocated for the prevention of high-risk behaviour amongst adolescents in lowand middle-income countries. implicit in a wsa, is an integrated system of career education (stead & watson, 2006). this approach to career education encourages a diversity of activities that is systematic, coordinated and transcends boundaries of academic subjects to ‘enhance the career development of all students throughout the school experience’ (miller, in peterson, sampson, & reardon, 1991, p. 164). this approach to career education is based on the premise that in making the transition from school life to adulthood, all learners need guidance in exploring their interests and abilities (avent, 1988). such an approach to make career education in south africa more accessible is critical, given the work of maree (2013; savickas, 2012a), who identified that despite the documented importance of career counselling it is typically young people whose parents can afford it, that access the service. motivation has been identified as the most powerful determinant of students’ achievement in school (hardre, crowson, & teresa, 2007), and research also identifies that students who are highly motivated in school are less likely to engage in high-risk behaviour. braddock and mcpartland (1993) identify that in enhancing young peoples’ motivation, a curriculum that is associated to real world situations and sense of future orientation are critical factors. adolescents’ future goals and sense of future orientation is shaped not only by intrinsic factors (personality, skills and interests) but also by extrinsic factors such as living conditions in the family and other influencing institutional factors in his or her environment, such as the school. alm, låftman brolin, sandahlc and modinb (2019) indicate that this however has been studied to a much lesser extent. schools are viewed as providing engagement opportunities with adults who can serve as role models and provide guidance and support in terms of career choices. alm et al. (2019) indicate that no study has investigated the links between the school context and student’s future orientation. in this study, the purpose was to address the need to provide comprehensive wsas with a focus on the role of career education in enhancing the motivation of learners and strengthening experiencing a sense of school membership. the gap it sought to address was gauging the views of students, teachers and school management, as to how career education can be integrated in the current teaching and learning curriculum to increase adolescents’ sense of future orientation and school membership. literature review future orientation, referring to hopes, aspirations and expectations, has been found to be related to motivation and attitude towards school and learning. it has been found to influence adolescent identity formation, goal setting and ability to make decisions (kerpelman & mosher, 2004). studies have also indicated that optimism about achieving future goals is also related to enhancing coping skills and resilience to traumatic events (marko & savickas, 1998). unfortunately, they indicate that many individuals living in a diverse society do not orient themselves to the future and seldom, if ever, think about how their careers might unfold (de volder & lens, 1982; feather & bond, 1983; fitzgerald & betz, 1994). individuals who do not experience significant encouragement and reinforcement for goal setting and planning appear to be less inclined to learn a future orientation (nurmi, 1991). in light of the disparities in the delivery of basic education in south africa, researching adolescents’ future orientation and expectations is regarded as particularly relevant. according to goodenow (1993), school membership is regarded as the degree to which learners perceive themselves to be welcomed, valued and treated as respected members. a lack of school membership has been associated with a higher incidence of mental and physical illness. resnick et al. (1997) reported that an adolescent’s sense of belonging to family and school was significantly associated with lower rates of emotional distress, suicidality (defined as a recent history of suicidal ideation and attempts), violence, substance abuse and sexual activity. eccles and midgley (1989) indicated however, that ironically, as children reach adolescence, such school support declines. it is thus indicated that in promoting a sense of belonging and support, extra effort and support is needed from the school community in secondary schools. goodenow (1993) concluded that if students believe others within the environment are supporting them, are on their side, and are willing to help them if necessary; they can also believe that they have the resources they need to be successful. expecting to be academically successful is not only a matter of students’ sense of their own individual abilities, but also a sense of access to supportive resources, and the encouragement and help they feel they can secure from others. this is seen as especially important for at-risk students. research on comprehensive wsas to career education in south africa is limited. in only one study identified, singh (2003) revealed a lack of whole-school development in disadvantaged schools in south africa and a pressure on teachers to develop their own intervention strategies. a recommendation of his study was the need for teachers to be trained on whole-school development to alleviate the pressure. the department of higher education and training (dhet) (2014) also recognises a lack in delivery of effective comprehensive career education in many south african schools. career intervention research has also been found to be limited to a single, ‘once off’ programmes included in the school programme: for example miles’ (2015) study on the ‘impact of a career development programme on the self-efficacy of grade 11 learners’, in a south african province. conceptual framing the eco-systemic model focus, on the role of societal issues and the interaction of different systems and their influence on the sense of future orientation in adolescence is given consideration in this study. bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model highlights the interaction between multiple levels of influencing systems. the model targets multiple levels of intervention at the different levels of influence that combine environmental and behavioural components. the intrapersonal level (micro-level) influence of individual characteristics such as motivation, goal directedness, future orientation and self-regulation is highlighted in influencing behaviour and promoting career decision-making. at the interpersonal level (meso-level) recognises the relationships with significant others, such as peers, role models in influencing future orientation and the community level (macro system) which recognises the influence of the school context (practices, structures and activities) that support the future orientation of learners and strengthen the experience of membership at the school. in the context of promoting a sense of future orientation and membership, the macro system is of importance. future expectations are orientations that are decisively influenced by the macro system which is informed by the economy, politics, social health, values and the nature of the community. at this level, the relative importance given to career education, (at the level of school level of policy, teaching and learning and curriculum) is highlighted to play a crucial role in learners experiencing a sense of school membership, motivation and prevention of high-risk behaviour. the objectives of the study were to firstly implement intervention to strengthen school membership and positively impact adolescents’ future orientation and motivation at the micro-, mesoand macro-level. secondly, to evaluate systematically at the various levels, using both an outcome (quantitative evaluation) and process (qualitative evaluation) the efficacy of the interventions piloted to improve school membership and adolescents’ sense of future orientation. research methods and design the design of this study involved three phases. phases one and two, which formed the contextual background to the study included a situational analysis (phase one) and implementation of the intervention (phase two). phase three, the focus of the manuscript involved the evaluation of the intervention and is discussed thereafter. contextual background phase one titled ‘factors impeding school connectedness’, published in the south african journal of psychology (sajp) (rawatlal & petersen, 2012), involved a situational analysis in the intervention school (a local, public, english medium high school in kwazulu-natal) of factors that hinder school connectedness. fifty-six grade 10 learners and seven school managers comprised the sample. in terms of gender, the learners included 27 men and 29 women, between the ages 15 and 16. the learner and teacher sample population groups comprised participants from the african, white, indian and coloured communities. semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teachers and managers (n = 7) and focus groups were conducted with the learners. in this article, however, the focus refers to the career education component and readers are invited to peruse the sajp article for other information. in summarising the results of the situational analysis pertaining to career education and that formed by the contextual background to the study and interventions piloted, participants indicated that they were aware of career education through the life orientation (lo) curriculum but that lo was too diffuse and did not really focus on useful career education. the importance of career education integrated into the curriculum, and the critical role it plays in motivating learners at school, was thus identified. participants (teachers and managers) indicated that learners who were motivated, and goaland future-oriented were less likely to engage in deviant behavior and therefore experienced greater acceptance and connectivity to the school. marko and savickas (1998) indicate that a hallmark characteristic of human thought and action is future orientation. modern motivation psychology highlights the importance of future orientation for psychological well-being (nurmi & salmelo-aro, 2002); with studies showing that personal goals are connected to one’s psychological well-being (emmons & king; nurmi & salmelo-aro, 2002). in respect of career education intervention, the situational analysis revealed that beyond formalised career education programmes that can assist with this, teacher and the school curriculum involvement can play a critical role. broomfield (2007), in a study of resilient youth, attributed positive outcomes in youth to having teachers who they experienced as accepting and providing guidance in creating and attaining future goals. in phase two, implementation at the macro-level, focused on the teaching and learning curriculum; education policies and student representative bodies in promoting career education, future orientation and aspirations of learners. intervention aimed to address the lack of a focus on careers and future orientation at the school and level of basic education, and engage the participation and collaboration of key stakeholders (learners, teachers and mangers) in informing intervention. in july 2011, the researcher conducted three two-hour workshops with the participants and engaged them in conversation with regard to integrating career education in the curriculum (lo lesson plans) and to enhance the future orientation aspirations and motivation of learners. by opening the lines of communication at this level, the desired outcome was to create greater school cohesion and a school ethos that valued promoting the future aspirations and motivations of learners. at this level, the need to address macro-contextual factors in promoting career education and sense of future orientation is highlighted. whilst there are some scholars who are somewhat encouraged by the career development component of the lo subject (watts, 2009) in schools, there are others who are highly critical in terms of the content material and the training of teachers (gounden, 2009), and argue for a rethinking of how career counselling is promoted at schools (maree, 2013; watson, 2010). a repositioning of career education as central in addressing students’ motivation at school, which is argued to be a basic human right, is highlighted at this level. at the meso-level, the influence of peer mentoring groups is highlighted. in the context of this study, mentoring relationships were found to strengthen connectivity of adolescents to the school through providing positive role models and activities to develop a sense of future orientation. in the intervention, 15 peer mentors were trained and the programme was implemented over a year and 6 months in march 2011. at the micro-level, the development of individual characteristics in promoting future orientation and preventing adolescents’ engagement in high-risk behaviour was highlighted. lesson plans focused on ‘adopting a future oriented time perspective’. in august and september 2011, these plans were integrated into the lo lesson plans, accompanied by a workshop with the lo teachers for implementation. in phase three, an evaluation of intervention piloted at the micro-, mesoand macro-levels is discussed. data collection measures in phase three, a quantitative, outcome evaluation was conducted to explore whether the intervention enhanced learners’ sense of future orientation and school membership. a quasi-experimental approach, utilising, preand post-test measures in the control and intervention school was administered. quasi-experimental designs typically refer to a treated and untreated group, and they have been referred to as having greater application in the ‘real world’ (gilbody & whitty, 2002). in the identification of a matched control school in the study, the school principal indicated matched features of the demographics of the teacher and learner populations, and that no previous interventions were administered at the school. the outcome measures used to assess future orientation included two subscales: the reason for achievement scale (ibanez et al., 2004) measures academic motivation and the second subscale, the value of academic success scale by fulgini (1997) included three measures. both subscales were combined to inform the future orientation scale (fos). the scale comprised 17 items and the cronbach’s alpha co-efficient 0.68, indicating acceptable internal reliability. the outcome aims to assess school membership with the psychological sense of school membership (pssm) scale, by goodenow (1993). this instrument included 18 items and the cronbach’s alpha co-efficient for this scale was 0.81. the outcome evaluation involved preand post-measures that were administered in both schools to grade 10 learners. pre-intervention surveys were administered in march 2011 and included 137 surveys completed at the intervention school, and 123 surveys completed at the control school. post-intervention surveys were administered in november 2012 and included 137 surveys completed at the intervention school, and 123 surveys completed at the control school. for the process evaluation component of this study, qualitative data measures were used. methods utilised included semi-structured interviews, focus groups and analysis of documents. document analysis included collecting samples of learners’ completed activity sheets in august to september 2011. in the post process evaluation, four focus groups comprising fifteen grade 10 learners and five semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and managers. data analysis data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously. in the outcome evaluation, the null hypothesis was that there would be no increase in school membership and future orientation in the intervention school. the alternate hypothesis was that there would be an increase following the intervention. descriptive statistics, using the statistical programme for social sciences (spss) was utilised in the data analysis. in the process evaluation, thematic content analysis (richie & spencer, 1994) was used. the five stages to analysis included: familiarisation of the range and diversity of the material gathered, location within a theoretical framework, indexing of data in textual form, charting of attitudes and experiences collected from the transcripts and placing them into thematic categories and lastly, mapping and interpretation of the data collected. reliability and validity in enhancing reliability in qualitative research, the process of generating themes, concepts and theories was documented and presented to the school to illicit feedback. triangulation and collecting information from different sources were also utilised. ethical considerations permission to carry out this research was obtained from the research ethics and higher degrees committees of the university of kwazulu-natal and the department of basic education (hss/0316/09). informed consent was obtained from participants and code names were assigned to each of them to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. in addressing researcher bias, the researcher explored her positionality through reflexive analysis. ‘within positionality theory, it is acknowledged that people have multiple overlapping identities and that people make meaning from various aspects of their identity‘ (kezar, 2002, p. 96). it was acknowledged that as much as the researcher gained in her role as a participant in the study, her identity as a counselling psychologist employed in higher education served to distance her from fully engaging with participants in the study. the role that this could have played in distancing the researcher as participant is acknowledged. the challenge (at initiation of the study) was identifying that there already existed power imbalances in the school structure, between teachers, managers and learners at the intervention school. the researcher had to be mindful of how her role could have served to unsettle, reinforce or transform power imbalances whilst trying to gain the schools co-operation for the programme implementation. the transformational agenda of this study, based on critical theory, located the researcher as an active participant in the study. the researcher was thus able to locate herself as a collaborator, who also served to empower her participants. results in the outcome evaluation, a comparison of the baseline and post-test scores of the control and intervention schools indicated that pssm increased from the baseline to post-test for the intervention group. baseline to post-test increased from m = 61.41, standard deviation (sd) = 11.90 to m = 67.20, sd = 3.35. this was indicative of learners’ sense of school membership being enhanced following the intervention. a comparison of baseline and post-test scores of the fos, indicated an increase of fos scores at the baseline from m = 54.21, sd = 5.31 to post-test m = 58.28, sd = 3.10 for the intervention school. in the control school, there was, however a decrease in pssm pre-test to post-test scores with m = 55.50, sd = 11.46 to m = 43.40, sd = 3.46 indicated for the group. a decrease from pre-test (m = 56.91, sd = 5.25) to post-test (m = 48.24, sd = 5.61) on this measure for the control group was also indicated. regarding, the fos, there was also a decline in the control school measure scores from pre-test (m = 56.91, sd = 5.25) to post-test (m = 48.24, sd = 5.61) for the control group. the role of the intervention in enhancing learners’ future orientation and sense of school membership is highlighted. however, a decrease in pssm and fos in the control group was unexpected. this is attributed to history effect at the time of the intervention at the control school. campbell and stanley (1963) indicate that it is important to note history effects when any historical or external event may influence the study findings. in relation to this study, the researcher was alerted to the possible closure of the control school in 2012. the apathy of the participants at the control school may have thus influenced the decline in fos and pssm scores. repeated analysis of variance (anova) from baseline to post-test scores indicated a significant change in learners’ sense of school membership (pssm) as shown in table 1. this indicates a differential change across time between the intervention and control groups (f [1258] = 387.36; p < 0.001). table 1: repeated analysis of variance for the psychological sense of school membership. with the fos repeated, anova from baseline to post-test showed a significant change in participants’ sense of future orientation, in the intervention school compared to the control school. this was indicative of a differential change across time between the intervention and control group (f [1258] = 72.57; p < 0.001) as indicated in table 2. table 2: repeated analysis of variance for sense of future orientation scale. the outcome findings for the pssm and fos measures thus indicated an enhancement of experiencing school membership and future orientation at the intervention school. whilst the outcomes for the control school indicated a decline in the measured scores, the validity of the findings in relation to the possible school closure and participants apathy must also be acknowledged and taken into consideration when interpreting the findings. the outcome evaluation findings, however, support a rejection of the null hypothesis in which there would be no significant difference in the outcome measures between the two schools post intervention measures. process evaluation in exploring the processes that influenced the results in the outcome evaluation phase, the results of a descriptive process evaluation, utilising focus groups and semi-structured interviews are discussed in the following section. intrapersonal level results at this level indicated that learners viewed future orientation as important in their individual development. the effectiveness of the ‘goal setting ladder’ was highlighted by all the learners. this was indicated through the following excerpts: ‘it helps me to see where i am today and what i need to do in the future to get there.’ (participant learner, nos. 6, august 2011) learners indicated that the activity supported them in identifying challenges and obstacles they may experience in arriving at their goals and how to overcome them: ‘it helped me to see what obstacles there maybe like, finances and living away from home. it helps me see the “bigger” picture.’ (participant learner, nos. 12, august 2011) documenting (writing) out their long-term and short-term goals in this activity enabled greater self-monitoring. reflection of goals was also encouraged as a means to ‘challenge seeking’, and learners were able to acquire skills to navigate failure and become resilient: ‘[i]t helps me to write it, in the goal setting ladder. i can see that i have bad marks in physics and i need to improve to become a doctor. i must now try harder and do better not only in physics but with all my subjects.’ (participant learner, nos. 8, september 2011) a sample of a learner’s response to the activity is indicated in figure 1. a sample of a response to the goal setting ladder is indicated in figure 2. figure 1: learner’s response to the goal setting ladder. figure 2: excerpt of learner applying himself to the future orientation and goal-setting activity. teachers also indicated the importance of ‘future orientation’ in career education. they however viewed that they would need further training and support in developing activities as career education implied ‘process work’ and engaging students in constant self-assessment, goal setting and reviewing of goals, leading to choosing a career path: ‘future orientation is a useful way of getting them to assess themselves and become realistic about their potential. i don’t believe however that all teachers will have this ability to get them thinking in this “cyclical” or “process” oriented way … they need specialized training for this. it is important because many learners think that careers is a “once off” action that just involves filling out some forms!’ (participant teacher, nos. 2, august 2012) at the interpersonal level, learners indicated how forming of groups such as the peer support programme enhanced collaboration and led to experiencing greater membership at the school. the mentors were referred to as members of the school who could serve as role models and encourage learners’ participation in career education and development activities. some of the activities the peer mentors initiated included career presentations for grade 9 learners focusing on subject choices, academic support groups, where mentors tutored students: ‘the peer mentor support programme is helping me learn more about my career. we are all finding out about different career paths and sharing in out groups through the programme.’ (participant learner, nos. 4, august 2011) at the school community level, the researcher attempted to shift management, teachers and learners to engaging in a collaborative approach to facilitate career education and future orientation at the school. there was reflection from management and lo teachers that a ‘top-down’ hierarchy exists in most schools and that needed to be shifted to accommodate learners’ sense of future orientation as it had implications for their motivation and experiencing a sense of school membership. learners’ input on how the school could promote career education and motivation of learners emphasised the role of learners’ voices in the school structure. discussion key findings of the evaluation results within an ecological framework indicated the efficacy of the interventions piloted to enhance motivation, future orientation and school membership. the outcome evaluation, using both the pssm and fos evidenced a strengthening of membership, motivation and future orientation. themes from the qualitative process evaluation that gauged the voices of learners, teachers and school managers suggested the potential and possibilities for intervening at the interpersonal and school community level. the findings of this study, in a limited way, supports an approach to career education that encourages a programme of activities at the different levels that can systematically and collaboratively shift beyond the boundaries of academic subjects to ‘enhance the career development of all students throughout the school experience’ (miller, in peterson et al., 1991, p. 164). implications and recommendations for further research in the area highlight that the challenge for practitioners in scarce resource contexts is sensitising educators to the potential of whole-school programmes that integrate career education and engage with the relevant stakeholders. this is seen as particularly important for schools serving deprived areas and faced with limited career resources. as mtolo (1996) indicates, ideally: [a] whole school approach and policy for career education must involve most teachers and all pupils, it must take into account of the problems of certain groups of people … (especially) the disadvantaged economically. (p. 8) mkhize and akhurst (2006) indicated that this approach is dependent on teamwork from educators, and the highlighting of career education that proves integral to the different school subjects. they point out that career education should be the concern of every educator. however, in practice it is feared that owing to both educators’ lack of training in this regard and their pressing concerns for their particular content areas, career education in south africa will once again be neglected. in reference to the responsibility of the school, the collaboration and the co-responsibility of various ecological stakeholders that include the parents of learners, managers and teachers, practitioners and service providers, cultural and community leaders and policymakers for young people’s achievement of positive life outcomes (masten, 2014; ungar, 2013), is encouraged. with regard to the responsibility of psychologists (practitioners), this study draws attention to the training of practitioners for wsas to career education and the importance of training psychologists for skills acquisition for both, establishing community-practitioner alliances in implementing intervention and evaluation, and monitoring of the intervention at multiple levels. recommendations this study highlights the urgent need for career guidance in the school curriculum. further studies on the effectiveness of multi-systemic interventions with a focus on career development are needed in south african schools. such research needs to engage in the understanding of not only ‘which are the programmes and frameworks that work?’, but ‘which combinations or sequences of strategies are most effective?’, and ‘how can schools be supported to effectively design comprehensive intervention prevention strategies and implement them in a high quality fashion?’ in career development interventions, limited research has been conducted on the potential additive and multiplicative effect of the combinations of distinct programmes. research is needed on the relative effectiveness of sets of interventions in order to develop a knowledge base to guide decisions about which combinations are most effective (wilson, gotfredson, & najaka, 2001). this is seen as most relevant in the south african education context, where great disparities in education are noted. south african provinces comprise different rural areas with schools that are markedly different from one another. challenges are linked to socio-economic factors and limited infrastructure that impact the quality of the education. the department of education (2006) is cognizant that improving the schooling system must go beyond ‘fixing up schools’ and that greater work must be done to promote social cohesion and working together of role players involved in the school. the ‘one size fit for all’ approach to intervention that facilitates ‘top-down’ thinking also prevents effective whole-school development. the eco-systemic perspective that encourages participation and collaboration of all role players is thus highlighted in this research. the role of parents and the involvement of the school governing body (sgb) in promoting wsas are also referred to. the south african schools act (1996, p. 1) refers to the sgbs as a statutory structure and indicates that it is a compulsory requirement that every public school have such a governing body that represents the school community. the importance of research in exploring their role in promoting a sense of collaboration, cooperation and participation in wsas to career education is highlighted. limitations a limitation of this research is that it was a pilot study with the intervention only being implemented in one school. however, the conceptualisation and complexity of the research design evaluation, involving a quasi-experimental, preand post-measures and a control school, as opposed to a single experimental design, is however seen to have applicability of the findings to inform intervention work in the south african education context. various researchers have also encouraged the reporting of such study findings. van teijlingen et al. (2001) indicated that pilot studies can inform us about the most effective process for researching phenomena, and can yield much information about the likely outcomes. van teijlingen et al. (2001) supported the reporting of pilot studies, especially when research in an area is limited and models and frameworks are needed to inform further work. prescott and soeken (1989) also indicated the ‘underreporting’ of pilot studies. comprehensive reports of pilot studies are also found to be rare in research literature (linquist, 1991; van teijlingen et al., 2001). researchers, according to van teijlingen et al. (2001) are ethically obliged to draw from their research experience and report issues arising from all parts of a study, including the pilot phase. conclusion various studies in south africa have emphasised the need of young people for career education. chuenyane’s (1983) study indicated 90% of the african high school population had ‘serious career planning problems’ (p. 278). this has also been identified by numerous studies in the last decade (mtolo, 1996; ntshngase, 1995) where learners have pleaded for career education in secondary schools. this study provides a framework that evidences it is possible to intervene at multiple levels within public south african secondary schools to inform adolescents’ sense of future orientation, motivation and school membership. it highlights how future research could systematically enable and evaluate career development intervention at multiple levels, and the role this can play in potentially reducing adolescent engagement in high-risk behaviour. this study provides one such example that in promoting career education to benefit the future of adolescents, building community practitioner alliances through wsas is possible and is in light of maree (2020), a call for counsellors to innovate and contextualise their career counselling practice for relevance in scarce resource contexts. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the study participants. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contribution k.r. is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research was conducted with the support of doctoral research grant received from the university of kwazulu-natal. data availability the author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references akhurst, j., & mkhize, n.j. 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(2005). what we know about promoting mental health through schools? promotion and education, 12(3–4), 118–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/10253823050120030104 wilson, d.b., gotfredson, d.c., & najaka, s.s., (2001). school-based prevention of problem behaviours: a meta-analysis. journal of quantitative criminology, 17, 247–272. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1011050217296 abstract introduction research methodology synthesis of the findings conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) indira pillay department of anthropology and archaeology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation pillay, i. (2021). the impact of inequality and covid-19 on education and career planning for south african children of rural and low-socioeconomic backgrounds. african journal of career development, 3(1), a36. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.36 original research the impact of inequality and covid-19 on education and career planning for south african children of rural and low-socioeconomic backgrounds indira pillay received: 14 feb. 2021; accepted: 09 apr. 2021; published: 18 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: south african youth in poor and rural communities have faced serious challenges, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has worsened their situation. the odds are stacked against them as they try to obtain an education, and eventually a career. many students struggle to complete their studies amidst the pressure of the pandemic, and concerns over career possibilities weigh heavily on their shoulders. objectives: the need for this research is to highlight the challenges faced by youth within the education system. it is also to explore the failings of the south african government and its education sector. method: a brief overview of the current and historical literature was conducted. relevant literature was reviewed and critically analysed. results: eight major themes emerged from the literature surveyed. these included access to education, difficulties faced by girls, racism, infrastructure problems in poor and rural schools, child-headed households, education during covid-19, food security and the absence of career guidance in low-income schools. conclusion: in light of south africa’s difficult history, and the fact that it is 27 years after the fall of apartheid, the state of south africa’s education system is not conducive to education and promoting career development in young people. more attention needs to be given to education in poorer communities, and government needs to be held accountable. keywords: covid-19; education; employment; inequality; south africa. introduction in 2018, south africa was regarded as the world’s most unequal country (beaubien, 2018), and it has not improved much since then. ironically, this comes more than two decades after south africa became a democratic country. this country’s history of being colonised in the 1600s by dutch settlers and its subsequent control by the apartheid government fed into the inequality that stands today. the apartheid government instituted segregation policies, separating citizens by race, but its systematic ‘divide and rule’ policy, with a hierarchical system of discrimination, resulted in black africans being most marginalised (south african history online, 2016). fast forward to 2021, one would imagine a democratic government would bring about the necessary change, promote equality and redress, but little has changed. the south african human rights commission (2018) noted that 10% of south africa’s population hold 90% of the country’s wealth. very importantly, we need to remember that south africa is not a poor country. south africa holds vast mineral and other resources, and is a highly taxed country. the problem lies in the squandering of resources through corruption and inefficiency. the zondo commission is currently attempting to uncover some of the widespread looting and misuse of funds (commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture, 2021) that should have been used to benefit the poor and address inequalities in healthcare, education and other basic services caused by apartheid. however, the government that many fought and died for has failed its people and especially its youth. commenting on similar concerns over a century ago in the united states, renowned sociologist du bois (1899) noted that the quest to fit in with the trappings of modern societal life left the black bourgeoisie failing to aid in the betterment of their black communities. in the south african context, this is certainly not what the stalwarts of the great struggle intended. research question this article explores the inequality in education and obstacles faced by youth in their career aspirations, within the context of the deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, which heightened the prevailing inequalities and further marginalised the poor. children in rural and other low-socioeconomic communities face much hardship in accessing quality education and developing their career plans. the guiding (explorative) research question is as follows: how is the youth in south africa impacted by the inequality in the education system in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and their career plans? research methodology i conducted a brief review of the literature. data were gathered using an internet search that included keywords such as education, inequality, south africa, career development. data were collected and analysed until data saturation was reached (booth, 2001). this review, which was a selective review of literature, rather than a systematic review, focused on scholarly works in journals and books, relevant media pages logged on the internet, as well as seminal critical theory sources. inclusion criteria were sources addressing (1) inequality, (2) education and (3) career development. exclusion criteria were articles not dealing with inequality, education or career development. synthesis of the findings several major themes emerged from the literature and were found to have significantly impacted career development of young people, especially those from disadvantaged communities. these included access to education, the plight of girls in school, racism, infrastructure problems in poor and rural schools, child-headed households as a result of the long-standing human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (hiv/aids) epidemic, education during covid-19, food security, and the absence of school-based career guidance in low-income communities. each of these themes is discussed in the context of career development as it affects south africa’s poor and marginalised communities. access to education the apartheid government differentiated citizens by race and, whilst white children attended some of the best schools in the country, black african children faced severe difficulties accessing quality education. unfortunately, this discrepancy is still present after the fall of apartheid. this exacerbates the cycle of poverty in these communities (spaull, 2015), because poor quality of education leads to a poor quality of life and this carries on to the next generation. children living in rural and low-income communities are forced to walk miles to school, spending a large amount of time walking along dangerous terrain and some even crossing swollen rivers. in his research in the mpumalanga province, mboweni (2014) found that young children aged between 7 and 13 years walked a total of 16 km each day to and from school. along these journeys, children face many possible dangers. in kwazulu-natal, children have been reported to be crossing a lake with hippos in order to reach school (xolo, 2017). although a boat was provided a few years ago, it often ran out of petrol. with all these safety issues and fatigue after the long journey, how likely are these children to succeed academically? xolo (2017) reported the case of a high school student from kwahlomula who had to start each day at 4 am to walk the 15-km journey to school. it is difficult to understand how such a journey could be conducive to learning. it is widely known that well-rested children do better at school (centre for educational neuroscience, 2021), so it should not be surprising that children in south africa’s rural communities do not excel to the same extent as children in elite areas of the country. it is, therefore, unreasonable to expect children in such deprived contexts to focus on career planning in any significant way. they have to prioritise day-to-day issues of living. the reality is children in low-income and rural communities cannot afford to access high-quality education, even if education is considered ‘free’ for some. there are other costs, including, uniforms, books, transport and so on. these are significant, especially when more than one child attends school, and are amongst the reasons why almost 50% of learners drop out before grade 12 (weybright, 2017), which means that their career development prospects become quite limited. at the time of writing this article, the ongoing problem of schools withholding the report cards of learners with outstanding fees is rearing its head again (shuma, 2021). this is unfair to the children, almost all of whom are from families of limited financial means and unable to pay the school fees. the girl child in school like in some parts of the world where the education of girls is not prioritised, girls in poorer communities in south africa face a battle for the opportunity to attend school. many girls tend to miss almost 60 days of school per year because they cannot afford the sanitary products they need during their menstrual cycle (khumalo, 2015). the embarrassment of not being able to afford adequate sanitary products and resorting to using old fabric, rags and even torn pieces of paper weigh heavily on these young girls whose focus should, instead, be on matters such as education and contemplating careers. the reality is that many families cannot afford to buy the sanitary products that their girl children need. poverty is such a significant issue in south africa, cutting across all aspects of life, and yet the improvements expected post-apartheid have not been forthcoming. the latest data released from statistics south africa (2020) shows that 62.1% of south african children are ‘multidimensionally poor’ with black african (68.3%) and double orphan (77.3%) more affected. as a result of girls’ menstruation-related absenteeism, they are likely to fall behind in their schooling and not progress as well, or on the same timeline, as their peers – a serious gender and social inequality within education. the girl child in poor communities is doubly disadvantaged relative to boys and girls of higher socioeconomic backgrounds. although some important initiatives have been underway to support young girls and provide sanitary products, much more work is needed, including the provision of better sanitation facilities, help with the management of menstrual pain and the important opening-up of discourse that can destigmatise menstruation in school contexts (macleod, du toit, paphitis, & kelland, 2020). the fact that such conversations need to be initiated in schools means that the education system is still structured around the boy child, a relic that society has not yet addressed. unless the place of girls is firmly established within the school system, their education and career planning may not receive the attention it deserves. racism in schools racism is a serious issue, with a long history in south africa, given its colonial and apartheid past. although racism may appear to be less of an issue within rural and other schools historically reserved for black african children because of obviously reduced opportunity, the mere fact that in post-apartheid south africa there are many schools attended by only (or mainly) black african children is an indication of how pervasive the country’s race problems have been. furthermore, the post-apartheid era of integrated schools has seen racism very evident in urban schools. there is increasing recognition that there is a structural basis to racism, especially considering it is embedded over time in social policy (bailey, feldman, & basset, 2020). in 2016, a prominent historically white girls’ school in pretoria courted national controversy over its hairstyle rules that was considered discriminatory towards black african learners (bbc news, 2016). learners had also complained that teachers called them derogatory names, and chastised them for using their mother tongue. these are direct consequences of our colonial past and an attempt to impose the will of a few, showing no respect for human rights or the south african constitution that regards the nation’s diversity as its greatest asset. such abuses from agents of power within a school environment do not foster positive race relations amongst learners, and serve to demean children. although controversial in some of his views on schooling, du bois (1935) noted that the bullying, neglect and other racist responses in schools can cause ‘complete ruin of character, gift, and ability’ in the black child (p. 331). whilst the separation of schoolchildren by race was outlawed with the fall of apartheid, recent years have witnessed various incidents showing that racism is still very prevalent. an example was at a primary school, where a teacher was accused of separating students in the class according to race. pictures of black children seated around a table in a corner of the class quite removed from the tables where white children sat in the middle of the class went viral on social media (joorst, 2019). racism is also prevalent in the country’s private schools, with prejudice, bullying and even allegations of attempts to coerce black students against excelling in rugby ‘so that everyone could be happy’ (masweneng, 2020, webpage). it is critical that racism is viewed in the context of what it does to children. the american academy of paediatrics noted that, amongst other consequences, racism erodes children’s self-esteem and increases stress levels through the anticipation of future violations against them (trent et al., 2019). the effects on the developing child’s self-esteem and ability to progress along expected developmental pathways are serious. du bois (1903) used the term ‘double consciousness’ to describe the experience of looking at the self through the eyes of others and evaluating oneself with the criteria applied by contemptuous others. children have reduced chance of progressing in education and career aspirations in such a context. foucault (1973) argued that agents of power have the ability to socially construct the views and ideas of people on a particular subject, like race. with south africa’s history, its institutions became the fertile breeding ground for this problem. as a result, it can be difficult for children in challenging circumstances to carve out successful futures, and therefore, much work is needed to support children from such contexts in mapping out sustainable career options. infrastructure in rural and poor urban schools quality of schooling is one of the prime examples of inequality in south africa. education and facilities are very different in private schools or those government schools attended by white children compared to rural and other schools attended predominantly by black african children, with the latter generally very under-resourced. whilst this is primarily because of the history of apartheid-based inequality in our country, it also reflects the failure of the democratic government to prioritise the development of affected schools. many rural schools are dilapidated with broken desks and windows, inadequate sanitation, and many are unsafe environments for learning. gardiner (2008) described education in south africa as being in crisis, with the crisis being more serious for children in rural schools. although there has been some improvement over the years, significant deficits remain. du plessis and mestry (2019) noted that, in addition to the basic infrastructural problems such as electricity, water and sanitation, provincial governments were unable to provide rural schools with the needed financial support to provide quality education. they pointed out that parents were burdened with having to provide stationery and cleaning material, despite low incomes. not only are the dusty and unhygienic environments unsafe, along with the lack of clean running water and toilets, but prolonged exposure to these environments have severe health consequences for learners and educators (barrett, treves, shmis, ambasz, & ustinova, 2019). not receiving basic necessities for learning and large class sizes disadvantages children by negatively influencing scholastic development (gardiner, 2008) and perpetuates the cycle of poverty. whilst this is because of lack of funding for infrastructure from the government, some of the underfunding of rural schools also relates to mismanagement. in his chapter on education funding, mclaren (2017) noted a 2015 report that 913 schools lacked electricity, 2854 had unreliable electricity, 452 schools had no water supply, 4773 had unreliable water supply, 128 schools had no toilet facilities and 10 419 had only pit or bucket toilets. whilst the situation may have improved since that report, there are still very significant problems, especially with sanitation, amongst other concerns (somdyala, 2020). mclaren (2017) stated further that since 2011, the education infrastructure grant received between r5 billion and r9b each year, and provincial education departments were required to spend their allocations effectively. however, there was a mixed record on the spending and delivery of the grant, with some provinces underspending the grants, despite their infrastructure needs. less than half of the grant was spent in its first 3 years of the programme. in many rural schools, there are more than 45 learners per classroom, meaning a lack of individual attention (gardiner, 2008). it is important to note that, in many cases, teachers may not be keen to teach within rural and low-income schools because of the infrastructure and under-resourcing issues, which place huge burdens on their shoulders to provide students with the best possible education (berg, 2008). teachers in rural schools face numerous challenges, including being subjected to multi-grade and multi-subject teaching. unfortunately, these realities are found mainly in black african communities. pit toilets are another serious infrastructure concern within schools. these are dangerous, inhumane, unhygienic and unconducive to learning. pit toilets have been a significant cause of deaths within schools in rural black african communities. in 2020, there were over 4000 pit toilets still in use (somdyala, 2020). considering south africa’s technological capabilities, it is surprising that there are still communities, and especially children, having to suffer this injustice more than 26 years into democracy. in addition, the lack of private toilets for girls in schools is concerning. access to private toilets specifically demarcated for girls could help reduce sexual assaults within schools. this is an example of structural violence and marginalisation that farmer (2006) noted in the gender inequity that dominates several societies. many toilets in rural communities are situated far from main buildings and, as a result, screams for help are not audible to assist children facing assault in toilets (ngidi & moletsane, 2018). south africa has one of the highest rates of sexual violence against girls and women, so these contexts of vulnerability must be recognised and prevented. it is critical to realise that children attending such schools, unlike their counterparts in urban, better-provisioned schools, have more on their minds than education and contemplating their career plans and goals – they are more likely thinking about their safety and the risks to their lives. it is sad that a young child has to feel unsafe whilst using the toilet, something that is unheard of in other communities. it is a disgrace to our era of democracy, but this is the reality of inequality in south africa. child-headed households whilst we are all engrossed with the covid-19 pandemic, we seem to have forgotten another global epidemic that has caused massive destruction and loss of life, namely hiv/aids, which affected thousands of south african families. many families lost parents and breadwinners, which led to children having to drop out of school to take care of household chores and younger siblings (mogotlane, chauke, van rensburg, human, & kganakga, 2010). the burden of having to provide food for the family also falls on the shoulders of older children. it is developmentally unfair and inappropriate. many spend their days trying to source food, so contemplating education, career options and their future are furthest from their young minds. many girls end up leaving school to take care of household chores and to look after younger siblings – an injustice to young girls that perpetuates their subordinate position in society. from a young age, many girls are inducted into the roles of household caretakers (world bank, 1999). amongst the problems with child-headed households is the feeling of disempowerment within the multiple challenges that children face, especially the increased responsibilities and shortage of resources (pillay, 2016). all of the socioeconomic issues, such as financial instability, unemployment, food provision and not being able to afford medicine or healthcare are the major reasons children end up in the context of being responsible for their families. as older children have to leave school to perform household duties, the poverty cycle continues. with these challenges, the likelihood of children returning to complete their education and develop a career is very less. those who do later in life, face problems such as not fitting in, feelings of embarrassment and financial pressures because of added responsibilities. the disempowerment of children in these contexts speaks to society’s shortcomings within the context of foucault’s (1977) argument that individuals have the ability to make decisions and to change their lives. society is failing children in not allowing them the opportunity to live their lives as children. much more support needs to be given to help children achieve their education and develop their career plans in accordance with standard developmental expectations. education during the coronavirus disease 2019 in march 2020, president ramaphosa declared south africa under a state of disaster because of covid-19. as a result, schools and tertiary institutions were closed for most of the year, which meant teaching and learning for many children stopped completely. very quickly, however, historically white and private schools took teaching and learning to an online platform, whereby students used smartphones, tablets and computers connected to the internet as a learning platform. this was easy because they had access to this technology and the funds to use them. however, only the privileged few benefit from using technology to facilitate homeschooling during the lockdown (mdepa, 2020). the same cannot be said for the millions of children in disadvantaged communities that can barely afford to educate their children in physical schools. they do not have the access or funds to facilitate virtual learning. the latest available data revealed that only 10.6% of south african households had internet access in the home (statistics south africa, 2018). the reality is that online learning is not an option that ensures equity in education in our country. for rural and poor children, online learning is virtually impossible and it certainly does not ensure equality in education. the impact of covid-19 on schooling, and the inaccessibility to online learning by poor and rural children has simply enforced the old saying that the poor become poorer and the wealthy continue to prosper. in terms of tertiary education, thousands of students residing in student housing in or around universities and colleges were forced to return to their homes when the country went into lockdown. they had not planned for this expense. the switch to online learning began, but this was not an easy one. immediately after the lockdown began, 584 students de-registered at one university, whilst many rejected the online learning system, arguing that it was designed for the rich and that poor students will lose out (monama, 2020). it is important to remember that apart from access to devices, internet connectivity in several parts of south africa’s non-urban areas is problematic. in many cases, students were in their final year of study, getting ready to start work and earn a much-needed income, but the covid-19 lockdown raised further barriers. their inherited context of inequality and social and financial pressures increased their struggles and left them even more disadvantaged compared to the country’s more advantaged youth. government needs to look urgently at the challenges facing education in the pre-covid and the covid-19 era because, if we believe that education is the way out of poverty, south africa’s poor must be prioritised, and given a fair chance at success. food security during the coronavirus disease 2019 when covid-19 made landfall in march 2020 in south africa, many facets of society were forced to shut down, including schools. this resulted in the national school nutrition programme being put on hold. this programme ensured that over 9 million schoolchildren had access to one guaranteed nutritious meal in the day (south african government, 2021). however, with not being able to attend school for safety reasons, millions of children were left without that guaranteed meal, meaning that food insecurity was now guaranteed. although the programme is an essential one, it has also been riddled with corruption, like many other facets of governance in south africa. between 2012 and 2013, the south african school nutrition programme was allegedly defrauded of r2.9 million (south african government news agency, 2019). with this type of corruption that takes away food from the mouths of children, the health and academic progress of children is seriously jeopardised. successful academic study on an empty stomach the entire day is unlikely. the single guaranteed meal helps to combat malnutrition and provide the nutrition the children need to develop physically, cognitively and emotionally, and to be able to formulate and succeed in their career plans. it even motivates school attendance. with the covid-19 lockdown leading to school closure and the cancellation of the nutrition programme, non-governmental organisations (ngos) had to take legal action, resulting in the pretoria high court ordering the government to restart the school nutrition programme (wicks, 2020). historically, south africa had large-scale poverty because of the inequality designed and carefully instituted by colonialism and apartheid. however, as a country we cannot continue blaming apartheid for the current situation whilst failing to take the necessary actions to correct past injustices. civil society needs to hold the democratically elected government accountable for their actions. more of the kind of swift action by the ngos in the school nutrition programme is needed in other areas of society. school-based career guidance in low-income communities although career guidance is essential in schools, most schoolchildren do not have this privilege. maree (2020) argued for the provision of career counselling, which he views as a multidimensional process that should be contextualised and constantly innovated to be appropriate and relevant, especially in global south contexts where colonisation took its toll. the deficiencies in career counselling services, especially in south africa’s non-urban communities, have also been criticised (pillay, 2020). these low-socioeconomic communities have suffered historically in terms of service provision and continue to be marginalised by the current agents of power. here, children receive little or no career guidance, which disadvantages them significantly. many schools across the country viewed the subject life orientation as a bridge to career guidance. however, little was done to train educators in assisting children with career guidance and development (modiba & sefotho, 2019). in south african schools, students at the grade 9 level have to choose subjects that will facilitate their career choices. at 13 or 14 years of age, students are expected to have planned their lives without knowing important information about the fields they are contemplating or how suited they may be. this is not possible without professional assistance. as a result, many south african children, entering tertiary education simply do not have the relevant guidance and may not fully understand the career opportunities or their suitability. this lack of career guidance fails the youth in south africa, especially those in poorer communities. it leads to young people being unhappy in their fields of study, many under-performing or dropping out, and many developing mental health problems like depression and suicide. in a recent study at a rural south african university, 20.5% of first-year students reported that they do not find study as interesting as they used to, 20.3% wondered whether life is worth living, and 7% thought of killing themselves (pillay, thwala, & pillay, 2019). these are concerning findings and reflect on the mental state of young students, very likely influenced by their study and career choices. career development should be discussed from an early age to adequately prepare young people for career possibilities and the challenges they may encounter (maree, 2018), especially now with covid-19 as a reality. although south africa has the technological capabilities to advance education, it also has the ability to influence and help inform children on possible career paths and development opportunities. we must remember that the majority of parents in our country have not had the benefit of tertiary education and may not be equipped to advise their children on career prospects and study requirements (pillay, 2020). career counselling services are needed. limitations of the study as this article is based on a selective review, it is acknowledged that certain sources may not have been available for inclusion. nevertheless, the issues raised in this work are widely documented, especially in relation to social conditions such as inequality and impoverishments in education in sectors of our country. implications for research, practice, policy and future research this research is relevant to the field of career development and education and it should prompt further research into the area. high-quality education and appropriate career planning for the children of south africa are vital if we are to ensure that our disadvantaged communities have better opportunities than previous generations marginalised by apartheid. government needs to recognise the current problems and rapidly develop the necessary policies and practices to address the problems. ensuring that funds are directed to the right places and avoiding corruption must be a priority. holding officials accountable is also critical. future research will need to evaluate the efficacy of implemented programmes in order to ensure that any changes made are the most beneficial ones. conclusion given our difficult history, we need to be very concerned about job opportunities, preparation and career development of our youth. at various levels, forms of structural violence cause great harm and pose significant challenges to the development of our young people, especially those from rural and poor urban environments. the coronavirus disease 2019 entered our lives in a destructive manner and deepened the inequalities and injustices. the pandemic simply added to the corruption epidemic that ravaged south africa and robbed the poor by stealing what was meant to benefit disadvantaged communities, including children. the mechanisms that could have addressed the inequalities and lifted children out of poverty have been destroyed by covid-19 and especially by those who looted the country that, 27 years ago, stood high with potential. we are reminded of fanon (1963) observing that: [m]inisters grow rich, their wives doll themselves up, the members of parliament feather their nests and there is not a soul down to the simple policeman or the customs officer who does not join in the great procession of corruption. (p. 172) whilst some south african schools attended by white children are equal to the best schools in the world, some schools in predominantly black communities are unconducive to learning. we must remember nelson mandela’s legacy and his advocacy for high-quality education for all children. therefore, the need for redress is urgent, not just against apartheid evils, but also against the recent corrupt practices that pilfered billions. civil society has to insist on righting the wrongs of past, both distant and immediate, because it has the power to do so. it is important to remember that power is not located solely in one agent, but is multidimensional and all involved have some degree of power (foucault, 1980). securing a better, equal and high-quality education system is an important way of ensuring a better future. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions i.p. is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references bailey, z.d., feldman, j.m., & basset, m.t. 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(2017). the learners who cross a lake with hippos in it to get to school. retrieved from https://www.groundup.org.za/article/learners-who-cross-lake-hippos-get-school/ abstract introduction transformation agenda and implications for career training and transforming practice research design and methods results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) kamilla v. rawatlal department of psychology, faculty of humanities, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation rawatlal, k.v. (2022). priorities in 21st century career counselling: implications for counselling psychology training. african journal of career development, 4(1), a59. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.59 project research number: hum025/0522 original research priorities in 21st century career counselling: implications for counselling psychology training kamilla v. rawatlal received: 11 june 2022; accepted: 24 aug. 2022; published: 28 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the call to decolonise and transform the curriculum for social responsiveness in south african higher education is seen as a priority. objectives: this study explores revising the career assessment and counselling curriculum on the professional masters (ma counselling psychology) programme. method: utilising a qualitative design and exploratory approach, the research aimed to address the objectives through gauging master’s students’ perceptions of the applicability of the course, through thematically analysing evaluation transcripts received during and 2021, were thematically analysed. patterns and themes that emerged indicate how the revised curriculum can support intervention at the individual and systemic levels. results: themes identified were the influence of traditional career counselling theory, accessibility to assessments, a need to expand theory to include social constructivism and post modernism at the individual level. at the systems level, engaging trainees as socio-ecological advocates, integration of mental health to intervene with ‘at risk’ groups, post the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic intervention and the 4th industrial revolution (ir) highlighted a need to adopt a public health agenda. conclusion: critical consciousness raising at the systems was highlighted as paramount to informing intervention and to strengthening counselling psychologist trainees’ identity to develop a sense of agency in promoting social responsiveness. contribution: the role of the training course to address transformation priorities, intervene with post-modern realities, such as the unstable job market in the 4th ir, in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic, and assert the uniqueness of career counselling and assessment as a specialisation area of counselling psychology forms the basis of the study contribution. keywords: curriculum; higher education; transformation; public health agenda; critical consciousness; covid-19; 4th ir. introduction the focus in south african higher education in the 21st century is on the transformation of the curriculum. this is seen as necessary to address societal concerns such as socio-economic, educational, health disparities and intervene through addressing issues of access, equity and diversity. this study discusses revising the career counselling and assessment curriculum to address such societal concerns. career counselling realities in the 21st century that are regarded as societal concerns include high failure rates and drop out in higher education because of a lack of access to career counselling. in south africa disparities also exist in basic education delivery in the different provinces. career counselling and assessment provision have also been characterised by affordability and accessibility issues. another reality concerns the need to contextualise career development and intervention so that young people and citizens will be able to reconcile career pathing in the post-coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic phase. the aim is to support the training and development of student practitioners to address such systemic factors that influence career decision making through focusing on a revision of the curriculum. the university of pretoria (ogude et al., 2018) curriculum transformation framework refers to decolonising and democratising higher education to address issues of exclusion, marginalisation and social injustice. these are listed as key priorities in informing a more relevant teaching and learning curriculum and has implications for the country at large (ogude et al., 2018). the call to transform curricula is also seen as part of a larger vision of a return to the idea of the university as a space for discovery, critical inquiry, thinking and democratic public engagement (ogude et al., 2018). curricula are informed by the nature of the field or the discipline, the philosophical beliefs of the teacher, who the students are and the broader context in which the curriculum are enacted (rhodes university, 2018). the context of south african higher education is regarded as complex with inequality, lack of resources and personnel characterising much of the landscape. the inability of the curriculum to respond to local challenges is a vital reason behind the call for the decolonisation of the curriculum in south africa (teferra & fomunyan, 2017). moll (2004) argues that curriculum responsiveness is the ability of curricula taught in schools or universities to address student needs as well as societal circumstances. the curriculum, therefore, not only focuses on what happens in the classroom but also on what students do with what they learnt (moll, 2004). a transforming curriculum recognises local and global contexts, histories, realities and problems and adopts both a critical and self-critical stance (ogude et al., 2018). drivers of curriculum transformation in higher education, according to the curriculum transformation framework (ogude et al., 2018), include a responsiveness to social context. this includes critically examining the role of race, socio-economic class, gender, sexuality, culture, nationality, age and other categories. social transformation is prioritised by focusing on the ways in which disciplines can contribute to the development of society. a transforming curriculum envisages students and academics as thoughtful citizens, part of a diverse public who are able to contribute meaningfully to different communities and society. a transforming curriculum positions students as critical thinkers who acknowledge indigenous knowledge systems and world-views and also have the ability to draw from old and new frameworks and theories to inform intervention (ogude et al., 2018). transformation agenda and implications for career training and transforming practice in addressing issues of transformation and responsiveness this article discusses how the career counselling and assessment curriculum on the masters counselling psychology programme was revised to address such issues. in revising the curriculum to address systemic factors, the author pays homage to the work of maree (2020), who emphasises practitioners to adapt, innovate and contextualise their career counselling service to address societal needs. in informing a socially responsive, decolonised and transformative curriculum, the author now provides a summary of the systemic realities. in considering the education sector, the attrition rates of students in south african higher education is seen as a persistent problem. undergraduate drop-out rates are high (moodley & singh, 2015), and it is indicated that 52% of learners made their career selection after grade 12, while 34% made concrete career decisions during registration at tertiary institutions (fundiconnect, 2021). this, according to singh (2016), supports that many grade 12 learners have not made well-informed selections of what they want to study post-school. moodley and singh (2015) further contend that one in eight learners believes that because of the lack of career-related information at the relevant time, students did not make the correct career choice. okana (2010) also makes reference to how predictably the attrition of students from previously disadvantaged population groups may result in further racial and socio-economic disparity among future generations. this according to okana (2010) should also be the concern of education authorities. south africa, according to the world bank (2014), ranks among the world’s most socio-economically unequal countries and the practice of psychological assessment is seen to be directly impacted by such disparity (laher & cockroft, 2017). laher and cockroft (2017) further indicate that because of affordability issues, poor quality education and high levels of illiteracy, the majority of the population do not have access to the potential benefits of such assessment. assessment practice is also confronted with administration challenges. the majority of psychological assessments are only in english and afrikaans. there is limited practitioner proficiency in languages other than english. assessment settings are also identified as unsuitable and test materials are limited. there also exists a shortage of practitioners to develop new tests for the multi-cultural south african population (foxcroft & davies, 2008; johnston, 2015; laher & cockcroft, 2013; seedat & mackenzie, 2008). other priority areas to inform revising career assessment and counselling training include addressing how the changing career counselling needs of young people during the covid-19 pandemic can be met. maree (2021) refers to limited research conducted on the impact of covid-19 on career counselling and, especially, the contextualisation of career counselling to address the changing career counselling needs of young people during the pandemic. the pandemic, according to autin et al. (2021), has become to be viewed as a ‘vocational magnifying glass bringing knowledge of previous career development practitioners to the forefront of public life.’ the need for career practitioners is to be especially sensitive to workers’ basic survival needs, be knowledgeable about existing social welfare programmes and be prepared to serve populations that have reduced occupational choice (autin et al., 2021). research design and methods the study implemented a qualitative research design utilising an exploratory approach. the focus was on the revision and evaluation of a career assessment and counselling masters’ curricula and exploring students’ perceptions of the experience of the course. literature refers to curricula and the discipline in career counselling and assessment being traditionally informed by an objective, (positivist) perspectives (maree & beck, 2004). the need to revise curricula to support practitioners to also navigate systemic influences (discussed earlier) was thus deemed necessary. revision of the curriculum involved addressing competency development of practitioners in two different areas identified below: individual-level influences, whereby students were exposed to traditional theories and psychometric assessments (i.e. personality, values, interests and occupational matching). assessment, risk and intervention at the different systemic or societal levels. the aim was to provide empirical evidence of the need to revise the curricula to address individual-level intervention and systemic intervention in career counselling and assessment training. given the emphasis on revising curriculum for social responsiveness, addressing both levels was deemed necessary. individual-level (traditional theories and psychometric assessments) components at this level one cannot discount the formidable influence of traditional theories and models directed at exploring only individual-level characteristics such as personality and occupational types. reference is made to the work of, for example, parson’s (1909) talent matching and holland’s (1997) occupational matching. such individual-level theories provide insight into identifying development and shaping many career guidance programmes. the unit thus provided student practitioners with grounding in the foundations of career assessments based on parson’s (1909) talent-matching approach that later developed into the trait and factor theory of occupational choice. holland’s (1997) focus on personal characteristics and occupational tasks was also integrated. students were thus exposed to the administration, interpretation and report writing of the self-directed search (sds), value scale (vs) and the jung-type indicator (jti), given that most internship sites for trainees require exposure to such psychometric assessments. based on the critiques levelled at objective, ‘match and fit’ assessments that highlighted a need for a shift in the 21st century to understanding individuals developing their identity and constructing careers against the backdrop of different systemic influences (culture, socio-economic realities), the training unit was extended to incorporate post-modern interventions. post modernism stems from the view that ‘reality’ is created by entities that differ in terms of personal, historical and cultural contexts (hergenhahn, 2005). the incorporation of not only the objective but also the subjective meanings people attach to their career and life stories is central to successful career choices. positive compromise in the context of vocational and career psychology refers to exercising more control over a reality that is very often beyond human control (chen, 2014). systemic level components theron (2016) refers to career counsellors as socio-ecological actors who have relevance to the resilience process of south africa’s young people who are challenged by structural disadvantage. at this level, training referred to involving key role players (such as parents, teachers, practitioners and other service providers, community and cultural leaders and policy makers). these role players are seen to play a critical role in young people’s achievement of positive life outcomes (masten, 2014; ungar, 2013). this also emphasises the importance of integrating a socio-ecological perspective in training informed by a public health agenda. public health interventions can be classified into three types: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. in primary prevention, trainees were exposed to implementing intervention to reach the whole population or target ‘at risk’ groups such as unemployed and young people. trainees were exposed to developing proactive, self-directed, career counselling services that had outreach to schools, post-secondary preparation programmes and social skills development programmes for nongovernmental organisations (ngos). in secondary prevention, the practitioner’s role as an intermediary or intervener, providing early intervention or individual counselling, was highlighted. in tertiary prevention, the role of the practitioner in providing essential services to clients in need of individual counselling, crisis intervention and re-direction counselling was highlighted. an assessment of factors and/or issues that have an impact on their success was also incorporated at this level. at this level, the focus on training was on critical consciousness raising of practitioners. in transforming and decolonising the curriculum for relevance and social responsiveness, this component was seen as crucial as it aims for practitioners to consider what career development interventions have to offer individuals who are socially or economically disadvantaged, who are underrepresented in our educational systems, who may have limited access to meaningful employment or who remain unemployed in the labour market. aligned to this unit, the ma counselling psychology training programme also incorporates a separate module on professional identity of counselling psychologists. training was thus aligned to this focus and provided the space for the trainee practitioners to reflect on their professional identity as counselling psychologists. implicit is the need for counselling psychologists to return to their vocational roots to empower marginalised groups and/or clients and become critical of informing intervention to address 21st century realities. counselling psychology is seen to have its roots in the vocational guidance movement; however, neimeyer et al. (2011) indicate counselling psychology’s waning commitment to its vocational and guidance roots. validity and trustworthiness to support the validity of the research findings, the following strategies were implemented. firstly, the researcher was aware of her own bias as lecturer of the curriculum and coordinator of the professional training programme and attempted to bracket her own assumptions. according to guse (2010), in professional training research, this is necessary in presenting a neutral stance. secondly, this study presents two separate analyses (two different years of implementing the curriculum). according to krefting (1991), this strategy adds to the dependability of results. finally, peer debriefing (creswell, 2003) was used to review the study and enhance the accuracy of the findings. because of the exploratory nature of this study, the intention was not to generalise findings but to provide insight on curriculum areas for revision. study population the participants in the study were purposefully selected (creswell, 2003). all the students who were in their first years of study in 2020 and 2021 of the ma (counselling psychology) degree in the department of psychology at a gauteng university participated voluntarily in the study. the demographics were that the samples were female and their ages ranged from 22 to 43. five of the participants were african, three were white people and three were indian. an evaluation transcript from each student was received and thematically analysed. in contextualising students’ responses, it must be noted that the students were also exposed to providing a mental healthcare service at primary health care level, in which they receive clients and outpatients from the low-middle income economic demographic groups. data collection and analysis the data consisted of written accounts (evaluation forms) submitted by the participants. in these documents, the students reflected on their experience of being introduced to the 20-h unit as part of the core curriculum in the training programme. according to creswell (2003), documents often present data that are thoughtful, because participants could have given considerable attention to their compilation. the researcher was the lecturer responsible for facilitating the unit that occurred, once a week, over a period of four weeks. each session was the duration of five hours. the revision of the curriculum involved the alignment of content at the individual and systemic levels to ensure the relevance of the professional training for practising in the south african context. the research evaluation questions of the study sought to explore the below, post the training unit: students’ reflections and efficacy in applying interventions at the individual and systemic levels thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) was used to analyse the documents. this included familiarisation with the data to search for meanings and patterns, while also attempting to bracket own assumptions to allow further themes to emerge. this was followed by generating initial codes, leading to the formulation and definition of themes and subthemes. to address the researcher’s bias as lecturer of the unit, she attempted to bracket her own assumptions and implore peer reviewing of the research findings. because of the exploratory nature of the study, the intention was not to generalise findings but to formulate hypotheses for further training and empirical research. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of pretoria faculty of humanities research ethics committee. informed consent to use these documents was obtained from the students, and participants’ identity remained anonymous. results in this section, the researcher highlights the different themes and subthemes that emerged at the different levels. the different levels and themes will be discussed in conjunction with direct quotes and will also be contextualised within existing literature. addressing individual-level influences theme 1: application of theory to practice (individual level) at the individual level, participants referred to the importance of foundational theory in practice. ‘they referred to how this [builds] confidence in career assessment and counselling development where there is still a reliance on objective, assessments. career counselling and development was also regarded as an area that was unfamiliar territory.’ (transcript 5, participant 5, 22 years old, female) ‘[b]efore we commenced the unit i was anxious as i wasn’t exposed to career counselling and assessment before (both personally and professionally). post the unit, i feel confident to conduct and administer a career counselling and assessment session in my internship.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female) ‘i’m able to make the links between how theory has informed the assessments that are being used and the importance of how to communicate the meaning of assessments to our clients and possibly their parents (to debunk the psychological jargon and clarify myths).’ (transcript 8, participant 8, 32 years old, female) ‘[i]n assessment report writing, i would always aim to give career recommendations that is informed by the client’s context and refer to their context to inform realistic recommendations. i look forward to combining both quantitative and qualitative methods (narrative, social constructivist) for viewing the individual holistically.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) theme 2: views on accessibility to assessments administered at the individual level in exposure to intervention at the individual level, participants were able to become more critical of issues related to barriers to accessing career assessments and counselling services from their personal experiences. ‘some of the assessments are only available in english and afrikaans and therefore excludes and disadvantages other language groups in south africa.’ (transcript 3, participant 3, 26 years old, female) ‘career counselling and assessment services still remain a service largely unavailable to the larger community because they cannot afford the service.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) theme 3: need to expand individual-level intervention to social constructivist and post-modern approaches through exposure to foundational theories at the individual level, participants shared the following reflections: ‘critical of contemporary issues in career development there is a need to shift to a more dynamic approach.’ (transcript 1, participant 1, 26 years old, female) ‘theories of career assessment and counselling are shifting from a narrow, linear path to career decision making to a more cyclical approach. this places emphasis on how people meet the demands of the changing world of work and ensuring that we as career psychologists remain relevant to such changing times.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female) ‘4th and 5th wave industrial revolution developments on the impacts on the relevance of individual career assessments and the recommendations we make in career assessment reports. it also impacts skills and competencies in provision of services in under resourced communities we work. in the post covid-19 period we are receiving clients/outpatients who have suddenly become unemployed and who now need job-searching skills etc.’ (transcript 5, participant 5, 22 years old, female) in addressing contemporary challenges in career pathing, after the covid-19 pandemic, there is a need to extend, post-modern and social constructivist concepts to support clients in managing such challenges. ‘we live in an ever-changing and evolving world where individuals and jobs are constantly changing. the reality is that people will not keep the same career for their entire working lives. therefore, career adaptability has become an important part of career counselling’ (transcript 8, participant 8, 32 years old, female) based on the critiques levelled at objective, ‘match and fit’ assessments that highlighted a need for a shift in the 21st century to understanding individuals developing their identity and constructing careers against the backdrop of different systemic influences (culture, socio and economic realities) that influence access, the training unit was extended to incorporate social constructivist, ecological and post-modern interventions. post modernism stems from the view that ‘reality’ is created by entities that differ in terms of personal, historical and cultural contexts (hergenhahn, 2005). the incorporation of not only the objective but also the subjective meanings people attach to their career and life stories is central to successful career choices. positive compromise in the context of vocational and career psychology refers to exercising more control over a reality that is very often beyond human control. in this sense, career choice and development for many individuals is not about reaching the most ideal state of affairs, but rather finding a better solution for a career problem (chen, 2014). addressing systemic levels (teachers, parents, nongovernmental organisation’s) theme 4: practitioners as socio-ecological actors and systemic change at this level, participants were able to identify their role as socio-ecological actors. ‘i have learnt how to make career information more accessible to our communities in new and innovative ways. working with npo’s, and schools i believe is a smart approach to working with existing challenging systems to further access our communities and also provide that element of psychoeducation around the pressures a student may feel when embarking on such a decision-making process (emotional factors). by doing so, making parents, teachers and students themselves aware of the emotional challenges they may face (providing a sense of normalization), a better understanding of how to handle them and for parents, methods to support.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female) ‘the unit exposed me to how important it is to present talks and presentations on career decision making that we could use at the community and group work level. it referred to the application of social constructivist theory to help identity and intervene on perceived challenges, barriers to career counselling created sometimes by parents expectations and knowledge in communities.’ (transcript 5, participant 5, 22 years old, female) theme 5: careers and mental health incorporating mental health in career counselling to address social responsiveness was also highlighted ‘in reflecting on this unit, i believe it would be important to incorporate strengths-based work and resilience as part of psychoeducation. this as the unit has exposed us to, influences sense of learners/client’s agency and resilience in an unstable job market in the 21st century.’ (transcript 11, participant 11, 29 years old, female) the importance of intervening with this group is also highlighted by other authors. young people (i.e. adolescents and young adults) are not only a key group for guidance services, but they are also the age group most likely to experience first onset of mental health conditions (robertson, 2013). he further indicates they are exposed to intense social and transition pressures, while biological maturation is not yet complete. given the evidence that the developmental effects of unemployment on mental health conditions are potentially serious and long lasting, this area must be of particular interest as a target for primary prevention (allen et al., 2007; monroe & harkness, 2005). career education and guidance interventions could strengthen identity and self-esteem in adolescence and promote pro-active behaviour and are associated with positive mental health. theme 6: addressing ‘at risk’ groups participants were able to identity the need to integrate mental health into career development in addressing vulnerable or ‘at risk groups. ‘[i]t is important to integrate both areas to motivate learners, to prevent drop-out or making poor career decisions. also, in the case of adults, due to the covid-19 pandemic who have suddenly become unemployed and experiencing the trauma of such an experience of loss it is particularly important.’ (transcript 9, participant 9, 27 years old, female) theme 7: a need for supervision to address systemic levels the importance of extended services to improve accessibility was highlighted; however, participants indicated the need for supervision, guidance to address this in their practice. ‘i am confident that novice practitioners, with supervision, would be able to provide greater intervention at the group and community levels.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) theme 8: critical consciousness raising at this systemic level the importance of critical consciousness raising in developing practitioners as scientist-practitioner advocates to be socially responsive and address systemic change was highlighted. ‘being exposed to career intervention at the group/community level inspired me to make proper career information accessible to our communities at large, with the overall aim of empowerment. as a future professional, i acknowledge the need for innovative and creative means for making career counselling and assessment services accessible beyond an individual one on one basis.’ (transcript 9, participant 9, 27 years old, female) ‘there is great importance in what career assessments and counselling hold for empowering our youth. i hope to fulfil the potential it holds for providing guidance. my approach will be more group centred (systemic) as i enjoyed working with the approaches and find them relevant for addressing systemic realities.’ (transcript 10, participant 10, 28 years old, female) theme 9: relevance of the training on incorporating intervention at the individual and systemic levels ‘the teaching approach (engaging the multiple levels) resulted in critical reflection on the areas for concerns in career counselling and the challenges we could face. this, personally stimulated thought and focus on how to address such challenges and my professional identity as a counselling psychologist. i approached them as opportunities for change within the field of career assessment ad would capitalise on this to inform a more relevant service in the future.’ (transcript 2, participant 2, 23 years old, female ) raising critical consciousness at this level was seen to strengthen distal level influences to ensure that a transformative agenda and social responsiveness is facilitated. distal level influences are seen as higher order cumulative influences that transcend indirectly from events and experiences. distal influences are seen to be relatively stable and necessary to drive agency to impact social change as opposed to proximal level influences (at the micro level) which are recognised to be more directed and immediate. theme 10: relevance of the unit to strengthening the professional identity of counselling psychology implicit in the need for a transformed curriculum based on principles of social justice, critical consciousness raising, the literature also identifies a need for practitioners such as counselling psychologists to return to their vocational and guidance roots. this study advocates the need for counselling psychologists to re-affirm their commitment to development in career development and counselling intervention by providing a more accessible, equitable and relevant career intervention service to south african citizens. ‘the unit allowed reflection on the importance and relevance of the work ‘counselling psychologists’ do and the importance of having a vision. using practical examples/scenarios aided this understanding. we were stimulated to develop a career vision that we hold for ourselves as gatekeepers of our profession.’ (transcript 1, participant 1, 26 years old, female) ‘the unit was relevant in my training as a counselling psychologist. career counselling and assessment is a major point of differentiation between the fields of counselling psychology and clinical psychology and it would be beneficial for students to be exposed to a module more extensively.’ (transcript 4, participant 4, 25 years old, female) ‘i am now aware of career counselling and assessment as a specialisation area in counselling psychology. it is something that i was largely unfamiliar with previously but am able to reflect on the important role cp’s play in career development.’ (transcript 7, participant 7, 28 years old, female) leach et al. (2003) also indicate that it would be best for counselling psychologists to maintain its independence from clinical psychology because of its unique philosophical emphasis on holism and intervention features such as career issues. the authors refer to the importance of training programmes in allowing the influence of counselling psychology to grow and exert its uniqueness in the future. discussion in revising a career counselling and assessment unit for master’s in counselling psychology training, to address social responsiveness and transformation goals, this article highlighted that the traditional (match and fit) psychometric assessments and theories can no longer be used in isolation. there needs to an integration of both the traditional approaches and theories that inform systemic level intervention to inform curriculum transformation. studies on curriculum transformation in career counselling and assessment are limited and it is hoped that this study (in a limited way) prompts future studies in the field. critical consciousness raising at the systems level was seen as paramount to driving sense of agency in developing practitioners to becoming scientist practitioner advocates. raising critical consciousness at this level was seen to strengthen distal level influences. there was an awareness that while individual-level interventions and the confidence of administering, one-on-one psychometric career assessments serve to increase proximal influences. they, however, do little to influence distal influences (critical consciousness) raising which provides the impetus for change and intervention at systemic levels. traditional quantitative assessments were highlighted as important so that trainee practitioners could feel confident in their assessment ability and better equipped to practice at their internship sites. krishnamurthy et al. (2004) highlight those surveys of assessment training practices in graduate programmes in north america also indicate a reliance on traditional tests and that although issues of multiculturalism were addressed, these needed to be expanded. the importance of a curriculum that combines both quantitative, objective assessments and qualitative, social constructivist approaches that address multi-culturalism and socio-economic realities was regarded as necessary given the limitations in accessibility and administration of career assessments discussed earlier. expanding the curriculum to include social constructivist and post-modern approaches to address the 4th and 5th industrial revolution and an unstable job market post the covid-19 pandemic is deemed necessary. post-modern interventions such as ‘positive career compromise’ (chen, 2004) were seen as relevant in confronting such realities. there is a need for counselling psychologists as autin et al. (2020) indicate to return to traditional career counselling practices like provision of job search skills (e.g. resume writing, networking skills), exploration of interests and values, and assessment of experience and expertise as these will continue to be important during the pandemic and recovery from it (autin et al., 2020). the authors caution that because of an unstable labour market, career counsellors should be especially sensitive to workers’ basic survival needs, knowledgeable about existing social welfare programmes, and prepared to serve populations that have reduced occupational choice (autin et al., 2020). deconstruction and reconstruction of career counselling and career theory may be worth the effort as constructivist approaches have a ‘greater capacity to accommodate the complex and dynamic processes of a rapidly changing society than theories underpinned by the logical positivist worldview’ (mcmahon, 2014, p. 18). further at the systems level, robertson (2013) highlights the importance of integrating a public health agenda to intervening with at risk population groups. this is identified as a key area to inform training of practitioners. many authors have begun to highlight how career guidance has the potential to promote public health by contributing positively to both the prevention of mental health conditions and to population level well-being (e.g. robertson, 2013). while practitioners recognise barriers to career counselling and the need for a public health agenda that intervenes at the different systemic levels, they often lack training on how to intervene at such levels. integrating a public health agenda in career counselling training thus has implications for transformation and social responsiveness in low-middle income contexts such as south africa. internationally as well, the need for additional curriculum content to address broader social and structural issues as key priority areas identified to inform the future of career counsellor education in countries such as canada have also been highlighted (e.g. burwell & kalbfleisch, 2007). other themes identified at the systems level in this study included the role of career counsellors in integrating career and mental health counselling interventions with clients impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. autin et al. (2020) identify that there will be an increased need for career development professionals who are proficient in trauma-informed care. according to barrow et al. (2009), trauma-informed career counselling approaches include: (1) establishing an environment of trust and safety, (2) assessing for trauma-related symptoms, (3) use of ecological frameworks to conceptualise associations between traumatic experiences and work, (4) developing healthy coping strategies and (5) promoting career adaptability (barrow et al., 2019). recommendations arthur et al. (2009) study on canadian career practitioners implementing ecological and social justice systemic interventions abroad identify a lack of support from supervisors, lack of training, insufficient funding, insufficient time to spend on social justice and systemic interventions. the exploratory study provides preliminary findings from the reflections of trainees on ways in which the traditional focus on objective, traditional approaches resulted in restricted roles and responsibilities in career service provision. an integrated approach, with different levels of interventions was seen to provide possibilities for disadvantaged groups. further research is thus needed to explore the utility of the curriculum training revision in application to the different institutional/practice settings counselling psychologists in south africa are placed in and the administrative and logistical support required. research exploring practitioners’ experiences in implementation at the different levels could also serve to further inform training and supervision. limitations although this study discusses preliminary findings that may inform training, there are certain limitations for consideration. firstly, there was a connection between the researcher and the students, often referred to as ‘backyard research’ (creswell, 2003), which may have influenced the students to provide biased or compromised data. secondly, documents (evaluation transcripts) were used as data, which could be incomplete as there was no opportunity to ask participants to elaborate on their responses; this could have provided more and richer data. the findings also cannot be generalised to the experiences of students in other training programmes. conclusion in informing a curriculum for social change and responsiveness, facilitating training of practitioners as critical consciousness raisers through engaging them as agents of social ecologies is paramount. according to seccombe (2002), the role of social ecologies in career development should engage practitioners in proactively ‘changing the odds’ that obstruct the wellbeing of young people. the training of practitioners to intervene at different ecological levels enables what seccombe (2002, p. 384) refers to as ‘beating the odds’. this highlights the dual role south african career counsellors have in intervention. firstly, they should make contemporary, culturally relevant career interventions (as documented by ebersöhn, 2012; maree, 2013; maree et al., 2006; morgan, 2010; savickas, 2012) available to young people in disadvantaged communities. secondly, south african career counsellors need to make it their business to expose clients to the multiplicity of employment trajectories shifting youth focus away from narrow stereotypical career expectations. heightening individual clients and community awareness of 21st-century opportunities and career paths based on technical and vocational education and training (tvet) (diale, 2015) have an important role to play in this endeavour. counselling psychologists in south africa have a significant role to play in the development of culturally sensitive models of career psychology to address issues of transformation and social responsiveness. to accomplish this, however, requires a recommitment of counselling psychologists to affirm their specialisation area in vocational counselling. this draws attention to the role of the curriculum in ensuring relevance and thereby influencing the growth and professional identity of counselling psychology. this article provides a systematic way of revising curriculum content to address both these objectives. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the students who participated in the study. competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contribution k.v.r. is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability all data retrieved will remain in the researcher’s possession at the university of pretoria. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references autin, k.l., blustein, d.l., ali, s.r., & garriott, p.o. 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(2014). south africa economic update: fiscal policy and redistribution in an unequal society. retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/11/20339043/southafricaeconomic-update-fiscal-policy-redistribution-unequalu-society abstract introduction conceptual framework aim specific objectives research methodology findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) emmanuel sithole department of government and management studies, school of humanities and social sciences, university of zambia, lusaka, zambia clever madimutsa department of government and management studies, school of humanities and social sciences, university of zambia, lusaka, zambia mulenga c. bwalya department of government and management studies, school of humanities and social sciences, university of zambia, lusaka, zambia citation sithole, e., madimutsa, c., & bwalya, m.c. (2023). adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. african journal of career development, 5(1), a67. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.67 original research adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force emmanuel sithole, clever madimutsa, mulenga c. bwalya received: 30 sept. 2022; accepted: 26 apr. 2023; published: 24 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: over time, the zambia defence force adjusted the career progression instructions to ensure systematic and timely promotions of commissioned officers. however, the amendments did not yield the intended results. objectives: the study examines the adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing the promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. method: this study employed a mixed-method research design which specifically applied convergent parallel design involving qualitative and quantitative research approaches. a total of 209 commissioned officers were selected using a multi-stage sampling method. purposive sampling was used to select 12 brigadier generals, four from each service. questionnaires and an interview guide were used to collect data from commissioned officers and key informants, respectively. statistical package for social sciences and microsoft excel were used to analyse quantitative data, while the content and thematic analysis were used to analyse qualitative data. results: most commissioned officers (84.2%) revealed that they were aware of the career progression instructions that were needed to guide their career path in the zambia defence force. the majority of commissioned officers, 122, expressive of 58.3%, revealed that career progression instructions did not foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. furthermore, 112 commissioned officers, signifying 54.1%, indicated that their promotions were not timely. conclusion: the career progression instructions inadequately facilitated the career progression of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. contribution: the inadequacy of career progression instructions in the zambia defence force was documented in this article. keywords: career progression instruction; promotion; statistical package for social sciences; effectiveness; zambia defence force; services. introduction worldwide, defence forces face challenges in identifying factors that ensure their commissioned officers systematically and timely rise in ranks. the career progression instructions are usually at the core to ensure that commissioned officers steadily rise in ranks. generally, these ranks and a commission are held by military officers in a defence force and proceed as follows: second lieutenant, lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, brigadier general, major general, lieutenant general, general and field marshal (guido, 1984). since time immemorial, military ranks have been a system of hierarchical relationships in the defence forces, and they determine, among others, dominance, authority, roles and responsibilities in a military hierarchy (mattila et al., 2017). these ranks define the career progression of commissioned officers as guided by career progression instructions. ong’amo (2012) argued that promotion is a very attractive reward with several incentives, such as increased pay. the term ‘career’ refers to a ‘succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige through which persons move in an ordered sequence’ (wilensky, 1961, p. 523). furthermore, morgan (1986) argued that each rank must have specific requirements and a salary and conditions to be earned and enjoyed, respectively. these prerequisites determine a career path for commissioned officers (cao & thomas, 2013). however, before these ranks come into effect, myriad factors influence their attainment (mullins, 2010). for instance, koontz (1993) cited the length of service as influencing employee promotion in organisations, while other related factors are enshrined in the career progression instructions. therefore, bellany (1995) argued that there was a need to evenly apply the instructions for the benefit of all concerned. in the zambia defence force, commissioned officers have made several adjustments to the career progression instructions. however, the system continues to be characterised by unpredictable and unsystematic promotions of commissioned officers. reports indicate that, on average, about 2% of commissioned officers retire as majors after serving for about 30 years (sibamba, 2010). despite well-outlined prerequisites for promotion, the system continues to be associated with the selective application of career progression instructions following known and unknown factors when promoting commissioned officers. most commissioned officers are promoted three times in 30 years from second lieutenant to lieutenant, lieutenant to captain and captain to major. nonetheless, some commissioned officers rise very fast against the number of years served in the services. such officers quickly climb the ladder without experience, skills and competence. for instance, some commissioned officers attain the rank of lieutenant colonel after serving for 12 years only. they even bypass those who joined the service earlier (wiernek, 2003). furthermore, patton and mcmahon (2006) argued that a career must be understood as unfolding in a series of developmental stages. each stage must be characterised by specific tasks and prerequisites to be attained to advance to another stage. ideally, the adjustments to the career progression instructions were expected to resolve the problems mentioned above by earnestly following the instructions. however, this is not the case. therefore, this situation raises questions regarding the adequacy of career progression instructions that influence career progression for commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. conceptual framework the conceptual framework in figure 1 outlines the career progression of a zambian citizen joining the zambia defence force. this conceptual framework was informed by the self-concept theory of career development (super, 1957, 1963, 1990). the assumption based on this theory is that, according to wilensky, (1961, p. 523), a career involves a ‘succession of related jobs, arranged in a hierarchy of prestige through which persons move in an ordered, more-or-less predictable sequence’. this is supported by weinert (2001), who revealed that a career is a pattern of work experiences comprising a greater portion of one’s life and relates to several phases or stages reflecting the transition from one stage of life to the next. furthermore, schreuder and coetzee (2006) postulate that a career consists of different stages. the individual is faced with different issues during each stage. additionally, career progression entails the management of a person’s growth and development in his or her working life (gyansah & guantai, 2018). in this regard, career progression instructions are expected to manage commissioned officers’ promotions at every stage. figure 1: diagrammatic layout of the conceptual framework. furthermore, stage one in figure 1 involved undergoing a young officer’s course to be eligible for promotion examination (promex) in stage two. the clearance of promotion examinations paved the way for promotion from lieutenant to captain in stage three. in the same stage, a captain becomes eligible to go for junior command and staff course (jcsc). the successful completion of jcsc made commissioned officers sit for promex (in stage four), which, when once cleared, the commissioned officers earned a major’s rank. the eligibility for promotion from major to lieutenant colonel was successfully undergoing senior command and staff course (scsc). despite being in need of a promotion, commissioned officers sometimes fail to pass a course or promotion examination. consequently, they anxiously wait for an opportunity. as a result, at whatever stage, they become dissatisfied with their work. however, once a course or promex opportunity dawns, they are promoted. there was a need for career progression instructions to ensure that the promotion desires of commissioned officers were timely met. aim the study examines the adequacy of career progression instructions in influencing the promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. specific objectives to examine the levels of awareness among commissioned officers of the availability of their career progression instructions. to analyse how effective career progression instructions fostered systematic promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. to establish career progression instructions’ ability to ensure timely promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. research methodology research design in this study, a mixed-method research design was adopted. this was a convergent parallel design which combined tenets of qualitative and quantitative approaches employed in the process of collecting and analysing data (creswell & plano clark, 2011). nachmias (1976) posits that mixed methods research design involved the collection of data from open-ended, as well as closed-ended questions. the qualitative approach focused on the collection of non-numerical data, while the quantitative approach focused on the collection of numerical data and statistical analysis in order to explain, control or predict phenomena of interest (gay & airasian, 2000). study setting this research focused on the three zambia defence force services: the zambia army, the zambia air force and the zambia national service. they fall under the zambia defence force and their formations, units and departments spread across the country. the zambia defence force was chosen because it was an employer of the commissioned officers and the implementer of the career progression instructions. the research covered the whole country because the subjects from the three services were spread across the country in the 10 provinces of zambia. study population and sample size the target population constituted all commissioned officers from the zambia defence force. the zambia defence force employed a total of 2200 commissioned officers from the three services broken down as follows: (1) zambia army, 1000 (zambia army, 2019), (2) zambia air force 700 (zambia air force, 2019) and (3) zambia national service (2019) 500 commissioned officers. this study’s total sample size was 221 respondents, including 12 key informants. the sample size was calculated from the target population using the formula postulated by yamane (1967). the planning parameters used were a 95% confidence level, a maximum variability level, p = 0.5 and the desired level of precision of ±10%: in the equation, n represents sample size, n depicts the population size and e is the desired level of precision. the n is 2200, the target population of commissioned officers from the zambia defence force across the 10 provinces found in zambia: this sample size formula provided the number of responses which is 186, that needed to be obtained. however, israel (1992) argued that a good number of researchers usually add 10% to cater for the persons that the researcher cannot contact. additionally, non-responses are usually compensated by increasing the sample size by 30%. the researcher added 15% (34) to reach the 220 sample size in this research. this was meant to cater for a minimum of 10% of the target populations of the three services. the initially planned sample size was 220 subjects and 12 key informants from the three services. however, because of the problem of non-responses, the final sample size was reduced to 209 subjects. hence, the total was 221 respondents, including 12 key informants. therefore, the sample size was significantly larger than the number required for this desired level of confidence and precision. sampling strategy this study applied various sampling methods that primarily fall into probability and non-probability. in the probability method, the individuals had an equal chance of being part of the sample. these methods are explained below. selection of key informants purposive sampling was employed to select heads of units responsible for formulating and implementing the career progression instructions. purposive sampling is a non-random method of data collection (zhi, 2014). in this technique, the researcher identified and selected proficient and well-informed individuals on the social phenomenon under study. additionally, purposive sampling involved identifying individuals with the knowledge, experience and ability to articulate and express the subject matter in a reflective manner (bernard, 2002). hence, 12 commissioned officers were selected from the three services: the ministry of defence (three deputy secretaries), training branch (three chiefs of training), administration branch (three chiefs of administration) and copperbelt command (brigade commander 3 infantry brigade, air officer commanding northern air operational command and provincial coordinator). selection of respondents the process of selecting participants in all three services, namely, zambia army, zambia air force and zambia national service was guided by a multi-stage sampling method. different sampling methods were employed at each stage (nafiu et al., 2013). this involved narrowing the scope from the multitude of commissioned officers in each service to arrive at specific ones who filled in the questionnaire. the first stage was cluster sampling, primarily dividing the target population geographically into distinct and identifiable units. because the target population was commissioned officers across the country, these clusters were based on the existing provinces. consequently, there were 10 sampling units. the second stage was identifying and generating all workplaces for the commissioned officers across the country from the 10 clusters. after that, the required number of units were randomly selected. each workplace in the provinces and each member of the study population had an equal chance of being selected. the probability of a member of the population being selected was not affected by the selection of other members (cohen et al., 2000). the third stage used systematic random sampling to select the commissioned officers from the randomly selected units, bases, branches, directorates, formations and commands across the 10 provinces. the starting point was identified. after that, every kth element was selected. this depended on the population of the selected categories or camps. for instance, the commissioned officers’ population was established to select a sample of two respondents from a zambia national service – chisamba camp. the sampling interval k using the formula k = n/n, was used. n was the total number of officers while n was the sample size; therefore, k = 10/2 = 5. therefore, if the first randomly selected officer was two, the next was officer seven. every kth number was included in the sample up to the total number of respondents required in each category. from each camp across the country, offices occupied by those selected commissioned officers were identified. thereafter, a questionnaire was administered to the commissioned officers. after completion, questionnaires were placed in a box labelled ‘research’ which was centrally located in the registry. the same sampling procedures were applied in selecting respondents in all the services: (1) the zambia army, (2) zambia air force and (3) zambia national service. additionally, it involved selecting particular units by the researcher from the target population, for which the findings could be inferred to the population (gupta & gupta, 2013). firstly, the multi-stage sampling method was adopted because it worked well for studies that cover a wider geographical area where a complete list of population members was unavailable. this research looked at commissioned officers across zambia. secondly, this type was cost-effective and time-effective as it enabled the researcher to reduce the large population into manageable smaller or sub-groups. thirdly, these smaller groups subsequently gave the researcher the flexibility to select the sample carefully. fourthly, the various stages made primary data collection easy and simpler for the researcher. this directly resulted from gradually reducing a huge population into practicable smaller sub-groups. methods of data collection qualitative and quantitative data were collected. qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews with key informants. pre-written questions in the interview guide guided this interview. these questions were in line with specific objectives. semi-structured interviews enabled the researcher to obtain detailed information while controlling the interview topic. quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire composed of a series of well-structured questions in line with the specific objectives. hence, empirical information from respondents on career progression instructions were gathered in an organised manner using a questionnaire. data analysis methods quantitative data were analysed using two computer software packages called statistical package for social sciences (spss) and microsoft excel. these software generated frequency figures, tables and graphs for the investigated variables. qualitative data, on the other hand, was analysed using content and thematic analysis. the researcher identified and noted specific phrases, words or concepts within the studied text and spoken words. thematic analysis was, therefore, more appropriate for analysing data, as the research aimed at attaining information to ascertain the relationship between themes. through this method, appropriate themes emerged. these included length of service, academic and non-academic factors that affected career progression. research ethics the researcher sought for authority to conduct the study which was granted by the commanders of the respective services. the anonymity of the respondents was ensured by not indicating their names on the questionnaire. confidentiality and anonymity were the two ethical concerns that were observed during the study. findings and discussion the findings were logically presented: (1) qualitative findings complemented quantitative findings and (2) vice-versa coupled with the literature that either supported the findings or not. awareness of the availability of career progression instructions the adjutant general (interview, 21 june 2021) and the chiefs of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the three services, that is, zambia army, zambia air force and zambia national service, respectively, indicated that career progression instructions were available in the three wings of the zambia defence force. however, in the interviews on 21 june 2021 and 28 june 2021, different names were used to refer to career progression policies or instructions, as indicated below: for the zambia army, staff duties (sd) instructions and adjutant general (ag) instructions were nomenclatures used to represent the career progression instruction. in contrast, the term used was administrative instructions for the zambia air force and zambia national service. these instructions prescribed the prerequisites to be met before commissioned officers were promoted and generally how the career progression of commissioned officers was supposed to be in the services. these instructions, generally called career progression instructions, clearly stipulated how commissioned officers were required to progress systematically from one rank to the other. for instance, in the zambia air force, after completing officer cadet training at zambia air force academy (zafa), a second lieutenant was eligible for promotion to full lieutenant after serving for 2 years. the commissioned officer needed to be medically fit for the branch and not facing disciplinary action. these instructions on the promotions of second lieutenant to full lieutenant were similar to the ones found in the zambia army and the zambia national service career progression instructions. like the services in the zambia defence force, other militaries in african countries use different names to mean career progression instructions. the namibia defence force had an instruction to guide the career progression of commissioned officers in the artillery corps called career development and progression policy (amakutuwa, 2011). in the slovenian army, it was called officer career development system (rijavec, 2013). although with different names, hoffman (2008) indicated it as manpower management officers assignment in the united states marine corps. in the nigeria army, it was named career management policy (abubakar, 2016). this shows that most defence and armed forces possessed policies or instructions that guided the career paths of commissioned officers, although with varying names. these career progression instructions were largely promulgated to the commissioned officers. despite the above assertions that career progression instructions were available in the services, the findings in table 1 reveal that a significant number of commissioned officers, 31, depicting 14.8%, were unaware of the career progression instructions that guided their career path in zambia defence force. although career progression is critical in the zambia defence force, many commissioned officers were left uninformed on the subject matter. this means there was a lack of sensitisation or education on the availability of these instructions. this situation left commissioned officers unaware of what they needed to do to be promoted. consequently, this gave rise to arbitrary decisions with regard to the promotion of commissioned officers. this lack of knowledge on commissioned officers’ promotion parameters implied that commissioned officers did not influence their career progression in the zambia defence force. this situation interrogates the adequacy and credibility of career progression instructions in the zambia defence force. table 1: distribution of responses on the awareness of career progression instructions. the study further analysed the data on levels of awareness of the available career progression instructions by ranks. table 2 displays the findings in this regard: three brigadier generals, eight colonels, 44 lieutenant colonels, 50 majors, 54 captains and 19 lieutenants knew that career progression instructions guided their career progression. the findings revealed that the awareness levels increased as the commissioned officers ascended in ranks. this implies that their understanding of career progression broadened as commissioned officers ascended in ranks. the understanding of the career progression came with ranks attained by commissioned officers. table 2: distribution of responses on the levels of awareness of career progression instructions guiding the promotion of commissioned officers by rank. this finding is supported by data in figure 2, which shows that young officers were not aware of the availability of career progression instructions. this implies that access to information regarding career progression instruction was a preserve of senior officers in the zambia defence force. this means that junior commissioned officers were not sensitised on career progression instructions, hence, remained blank on the articles contained therein. furthermore, they did not know what was expected of them to be promoted. as a result, some commissioned officers did not influence their promotions because of a lack of knowledge on the prerequisites for promotion. the discrepancy between the rank held by the commissioned officer and the flow of needed information pointed to the inadequacy of the career progression instructions. figure 2: ranks structure against levels of awareness of the availability of career progression instructions for promotions of commissioned officers. furthermore, the 100% recorded by the brigadier generals indicated that higher ranks were well informed on what was expected of commissioned officers to be promoted, as depicted in figure 2. this was not the case with commissioned officers holding lower ranks. generally, there was a lack of exposure to the operations of the services concerning career progression once commissioned officers joined the services. specifically, newly commissioned officers were unaware of the career progression instructions that guided their career path. however, as they ascended in ranks, there was the acquisition of knowledge on the availability of career progression instructions in the zambia defence force. although it occurred relatively late in their career, commissioned officers were enlightened on the prerequisites for promotions. consequently, commissioned officers influenced their career progression. these findings on career progression enlightenment moving in tandem with ranks attained are supported by pergamit and veum’s (1999) works. they argued that the more the number of commissioned officers was elevated in ranks, the better they understood the operations of the services as far as promotions were concerned. this was supported by ting (1997), who argued that the more civil servants were promoted, the more they understood the dynamics involved in the promotion. similarly, the majority of respondents from this research, on average, experienced a good number of promotions, bringing insight into the career path based on their experiences. additionally, the chief of training (interview, 21 june 2021) from the zambia army shared similar views on the relationship between the rising in ranks and the awareness of commissioned officers of the career progression instructions. he indicated that: [o]nce commissioned officers joined the zambia army, their view of the system was very narrow in depth and breadth. this was necessitated by the lack of exposure to how the zambia army operated. the small area of responsibility contributed to this narrow-mindedness of commissioned officers on career progression issues in the zambia army. the chief of training (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia air force further revealed that: junior commissioned officers did not know the instructions that guided their promotions because of the limited subject matter covered during the initial training. further, these commissioned officers had limited scope of the force at the time of entry, including the earlier years of their career in the zambia air force. the chief of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia national service indicated that: the absence of an induction training cadre once commissioned officers joined the service contributed to the narrow scope of commissioned on several matters, including tenets that guided their career progression. additionally, the periodic indabas were insufficient to cover specific matters affecting commissioned officers, especially junior ones. career progression instructions’ ability in fostering systematic promotions table 3 shows that career progression instructions did not promote systematic promotions among commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. the majority of commissioned officers, 122 (87 and 35, expressive of 58.3%) out of 209, revealed that career progression instructions did not effectively, and very ineffectively, respectively, foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. a fraction of 41.7% pointed out that career progression instructions effectively facilitated systematic promotions among commissioned officers. the majority revealed that career progression instructions did not effectively foster the systematic promotion of commissioned officers. consequently, this resulted in irregular and uneven promotions among commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. this implies that the promotions of commissioned officers were not thorough and systematic. instead, they were marred by irregularities and a lack of outstanding and long-lasting specific plans or methods. table 3: distribution of the responses on the effectiveness of career progression instructions to foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers in service. the failure of the career progression instructions to foster systematic promotion of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force was also observed and experienced by the deputy secretaries (interview, 11 may 2021) from the ministry of defence, who indicated that: although systematic promotions for commissioned officers were the sole purpose of the career progression instructions, these instructions were devoid of the mechanisms that ensured systematic promotions of commissioned officers. (deputy army secretary, interview, 11 may 2021) ideally, the career progression instruction was meant to ensure that commissioned officers systematically rose in ranks. however, in reality, commissioned officers were uncoordinatedly promoted. no known plan was employed when promoting commissioned officers. (deputy force secretary, interview, 11 may 2021) the career progression instruction did not provide substantial details on promotion examinations and prerequisite courses to be done by commissioned officers. consequently, this created chaos on the parameters to be followed to foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. however, commissioned officers were required to go for courses, military and civilian. (deputy service secretary, interview, 11 may 2021) respondents and deputy secretaries revealed that career progression instructions failed to support commissioned officers’ systematic promotions. the adequacy of the career progression instructions was in jeopardy as they did not provide the parameters that effectively fostered systematic promotions of commissioned officers. figure 3 shows that career progression instructions from the zambia army and the zambia national service did not promote systematic officer promotions. the majority of respondents, 65 (that is, 46 and 19), expressive of 70% from the zambia army, informed the study that generally, career progression instructions did not effectively foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. similar findings were revealed by respondents from the zambia national service, where the majority of commissioned officers, 31 (that is, 24 and 7), signifying 62% indicated the failure of the career progression instruction to foster systematic promotions. this implies that commissioned officers experienced uneven and uncoordinated promotions in the zambia army and the zambia national service. figure 3: distribution of responses on whether the career progression instructions effectively fostered systematic promotions of commissioned officers in your service. on the contrary, figure 4 displays that the majority of commissioned officers, 40 (i.e. 14 and 26) representing 61% from the zambia air force, informed the study that career progression instruction fostered systematic promotions. this means that the zambia air force performed relatively well on this facet than the two ground services, that is, the zambia army and the zambia national service. this means that commissioned officers from the zambia air force had a fixed promotion system known and understood by commissioned officers. furthermore, commissioned offices were promoted when they met the prerequisites. additionally, the implication of this is that the two services were not keen on following and ensuring that the tenets that determined the career progression of commissioned officers were earnestly followed. consequently, there were unsystematic and unmethodical promotions of commissioned officers. this means that career progression instructions in the zambia army and the zambia national service failed to foster the systematic promotion of commissioned officers. figure 4: effectiveness of career progression instructions in fostering systematic promotions of commissioned officers in the services. in line with the findings from the zambia air force, burger (1979) found that systematic promotions of air force commissioned officers in the south african air force (saaf) were a direct result of a feasible career plan driven by good career progression instruction. a viable career plan was at play in ensuring the systematic career progression of commissioned officers in the saaf. the works of eck (2007) were similar to the findings from the zambia air force as they revealed that the officer management policy effectively promoted commissioned marine officers from major through to brigadier general’s ranks. hernandez (2011) argued that flexible implementation of career progression instructions influenced systematic promotions of employees. the career progression instructions, in either case, facilitated effective commissioned officers’ promotions in the reviewed institutions. the chief of training (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia national service supported this finding on the failure of the career progression instruction to foster systematic promotions of commissioned officers. he indicated that the career progression instruction in the zambia national service was not adequate to foster systematic career progression of commissioned officers. this was further supported by the chief of administration from the zambia army (interview, 21 june 2021), who revealed that career progression instruction in the zambia army did not cover all the needed details to foster systematic and timely promotions of commissioned officers. the findings from the zambia army and the zambia national service were supported by the findings from the study done by gilroy (2002) on the same facet. the study was conducted on the active duty commissioned officers in the four branches of the united states of america’s department of defense (dod). the findings from the dod revealed that very few from the four branches experienced unsystematic promotions. the stagnation marred their promotions despite meeting the promotion strategies. timeliness of the promotions received by commissioned officers table 4 shows the timeliness of past commissioned officers’ promotions. out of 209 commissioned officers, 112, signifying 54.1%, indicated that their promotions were not timely. on the contrary, 95 commissioned officers expressive of 45.9% revealed that their promotions were timely, with 1% uncommitted. the majority of commissioned officers revealed that their previous promotions were not timely. therefore, this implied that commissioned officers in the zambia defence force had delayed or accelerated promotions. although not preview to the reasons for these scenarios, many factors were at play in either accelerated or delayed promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. generally, this presented faulty and inadequate career progression instructions in the zambia defence force. table 4: distribution of responses on the perception of the timeliness of the promotion in the zambia defence force. the experiences and observations of the deputy army secretary (interview, 11 may 2021) were in tandem with the above findings on the untimely promotions of commissioned officers. he revealed that: the career progression instructions were not fully implemented to ensure the timely promotions of commissioned officers. timely or untimely promotions came at the backdrop of benchmarks on timelines, which were absent in the career progression instructions in the zambia army. the deputy force secretary (interview, 11 may 2021) further revealed that: there was a lack of scheduled timings for the sitting of the defence council for the zambia army and the zambia air force and the promotion board for the zambia national service. this implied that commanders and the availability of the commander-in-chief largely determined the time for the promotions of commissioned officers. the system was centralised; hence, it usually negated career progression instructions. the chief of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia national service revealed that: delayed promotions of some of the commissioned officers were a direct consequence of poor staff work by those staff officers mandated to timely submit the needed documents to support the promotions of commissioned officers. the career progression instruction was devoid of the dates for submissions of the needed documents to facilitate the promotions of commissioned officers. generally, the findings revealed that there were untimely promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. similarly, the findings from smith’s (2019) research revealed that despite the us department of defense’s desire to ensure timely promotion opportunities for commissioned officers in all of the services, most of the promotions were not timely because of changes and delays in the authorisation. consequently, there were fluctuations in promotions to the next higher grade in both the time in service and time in grade for commissioned officers. the reviewed study revealed that bureaucracy was at play in these circumstances. figure 5 is a graphical depiction of the findings that shows the timeliness of promotions of commissioned officers in the services. the zambia air force had the most commissioned officers who revealed their timely promotions. this was contrary to the findings from commissioned officers of the two ground-based services, the zambia army and the zambia national service. this implies that some commissioned officers from the zambia air force were promoted based on the career progression schedule, unlike those from the zambia army and the zambia national service. figure 5: perceptions of the timeliness of the promotions by service. time commissioned officers waited before promotion the findings on how long commissioned officers had to wait before being promoted to their current ranks are displayed in table 5. the majority of respondents, 117, out of 209, expressive of 56.5%, revealed that they did not know how long they were expected to wait for them to be promoted. on the contrary, 90 commissioned officers signifying 43.5%, knew how long they were expected to wait before being promoted to their current rank. a significantly high number of commissioned officers did not know when they were supposed to be promoted. this implies that there were faulty channels of communication. alternatively, the career progression instructions did not explicitly state the period commissioned officers were expected to wait at every rank before being considered for the next promotion. it was unclear how long commissioned officers would have to wait before being promoted. generally, the deputy secretaries (interview, 11 may 2021) from the ministry of defence informed the study that it was very difficult for commissioned officers to know the time they needed to wait before being promoted to their current ranks because of a lack of details. table 5: distribution of responses on whether they knew how long they had to wait before being promoted to their current rank. the findings on the respective services on the period or time commissioned officers had to wait before being promoted are displayed in table 6. out of 64 respondents, 42, signifying 66% of commissioned officers from the zambia air force informed the study that they knew the period they needed to wait before being promoted to their current ranks. this implies objectivity, transparency and periodic exchange of information on promotions coupled with complete details enshrined in the career progression instruction regarding the period commissioned officers needed to wait before being promoted. this was supported by the chief of administration (interview, 28 june 2021) from the zambia air force, who revealed that commissioned officers generally knew the years or time when they were expected to wait before being promoted. there was a general understanding among commissioned officers of the time they needed to wait before being promoted. additionally, the air officer commanding (interview, 04 may 2021) amplified these findings when he revealed how individual commissioned officers progressed and provided a hint on how much time they needed to wait before being promoted to their current ranks. this implied that the career progression instruction did not spell out the timings; however, commissioned officers depended on gut feelings to know the timelines for their promotions. table 6: distribution of responses on whether they knew how long they had to wait before being promoted to their current rank by service. conclusion in conclusion, the findings revealed that although career progression instructions were available in the services, they did not foster systematic and timely promotions of commissioned officers in the zambia defence force. this implies that career progression instructions in all the services were inadequate as they did not influence the career progression of commissioned officers. despite making this contribution, the article could not casually infer the findings on other defence forces. future research can focus on career progression instructions across some african defence forces. acknowledgements the authors thank florence tembo mpandamabula for her professional editorial work that shaped the final outlook of this article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions e.s. wrote the article with input, guidance and supervision of c.m. and m.c.b. ethical considerations ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the humanities and social sciences research ethics committee university of zambia on 08 february 2021 (reference no. hssrec: 2021 feb-008). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the zambia defence force. references abubakar, u. 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(2019). 2019 seniority roll for commissioned officers. zambia air force. zambia national service. (2019). seniority roll for commissioned officers in 2019. zambia national service. zhi, h.l. (2014). a comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. hu li za zhi, 61(3), 105–111. abstract introduction foundation of the curriculum curriculum conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) hande sensoy-briddick department of counseling and human resource development, faculty of counseling and human development, south dakota state university, brookings, sd, united states william c. briddick department of counseling and human resource development, faculty of counseling and human development, south dakota state university, brookings, sd, united states citation sensoy-briddick, h., & briddick, w.c. (2022). their stories: children, exemplary models and career narratives. african journal of career development, 4(1), a63. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.63 original research their stories: children, exemplary models and career narratives hande sensoy-briddick, william c. briddick received: 11 aug. 2022; accepted: 16 sept. 2022; published: 12 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: despite the consensus on the significance of early career development, we still know little about the best-or-evidence-based practices for this demographic. searching the keywords career development and marginalised populations and/or communities within the pychinfo, we found that 11% of articles were related to children, while only 1% of them were related to marginalised children. this indicates a strong need for scholarly attention on children of colour and their career development. objective: this manuscript outlines the construction of a curriculum developed to be used by counsellors in facilitating the career development of children, particularly those from minoritised communities. we hope that the curriculum will contribute to the scholarly discussion on best practices for career intervention in childhood. methods: rooted in the narrative, social construction perspectives, the curriculum was prepared by assembling career and life narratives of culturally diverse exemplary models. these narratives of persistence provided children with various strategies exemplary models implemented to overcome barriers that challenged their sense of agency. collaborating school counselling staff used three stories within the curriculum with the hope of increasing children’s sense of agency and adaptability. students were third graders from a high-need elementary school. about one-fourth of the student body represented diverse cultural backgrounds, including indigenous, latino/a and black communities. results: initial feedback from the counselling staff indicated that the curriculum lessons were well-received by the children. they were able to engage in age-appropriate narrative analysis via questions asked by the counselling staff. conclusion: although the effectiveness of the curriculum is yet to be determined, the curriculum shows promise for assisting children in increasing their own sense of agency and in crafting their own career narratives. contribution: this manuscript provides a unique and promising approach to facilitating the early career development of children. keywords: children; career narratives; curriculum; resilience; exemplary models. introduction the 21st century, often called the digital age, has been characterised by globalization and a significant reliance on ever-changing technology. these changes have transformed the world of work (hughes & kashefpakdel, 2019), and infused uncertainty into the future. the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) sharply demonstrated the transformative impact of unpredictability on our lives. in the spring of 2020, the world we knew then changed drastically. within two weeks in the united states of america (u.s), teachers and students, both in kindergarten to grade 12 (k-12) and higher education, were forced to leave their brick-and-mortar schools for cyber-classrooms. transitioning to online platforms was fast, and the adaptability of children and teachers was admirable across numerous settings. however, a significant number of underprivileged children were left behind during the transition, furthering the existing academic and opportunity gaps between them and their more privileged peers. once again, the fears that the playing field is not level were confirmed. although we eventually transitioned back to our traditional educational environments, we were not surprised to see that the new learning spaces, practices and tools had become permanent features of 21st century schools. while students have sat next to each other in their classrooms, the learning has taken place in google classrooms and other virtual configurations. all of these unpredictable changes have elicited a certain level of existential anxiety about the future. preparing children for their adult lives has become more of a formidable task (kirschner & stoyanov, 2018; peila-shuster, 2018). the lack of predictability surrounding the future has increased the importance of scholarly work related to children’s career development. sadly, despite the consensus on the significance of early career development (gottfredson, 1981; hartung, 2013; howard & walsh, 2010, 2011; maree, 2021; mcmahon & watson, 2017; patton, 2017; super, 1957; tiedeman & o’hara, 1963; vondracek et al., 1986; watson & mcmahon, 2005, 2018), we still know little about the best-or-evidence-based practices for this demographic (hartung et al., 2005; vondracek, 2001; watson et al., 2015). searching the keywords career development, we found that between the years 2000 and 2022, there were a total of 16 522 published articles within pychinfo. of those, only 11% of the publications were related to children. when we further screened them by adding the keyword marginalised population and/or communities, the number of articles fell to 209, only 1% of publications. the results reveal that a strong need for scholarly attention focused on children in general, and on children of colour, particularly. without a substantial body of literature, effective interventions to facilitate children’s career development are lamentably compromised. marginalised children face additional challenges in dealing with powerful structures of exclusion, preventing them from first imagining and then pursuing fulfilling career paths (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022). thus, developing skills, such as familiarising themselves with the dominant culture’s worldview, developing navigation skills to find and secure scarce resources (cooper, 2018; ivers et al., 2012), and nullifying oppressive messages that constitute a threat to their identity, are essential competencies for these children (peila-shuster et al., 2019). cathy park hong (2020) in her recent book vividly described how as a first-generation child in a korean family, she was forced to ‘split myself into the first and third person’. to recognise myself, as sartre writes, “as the other sees me”’ (p. 77). similarly, du bois (1903/1969) discussed the double consciousness with which african americans can see themselves through the eyes of the dominant group. necessary for survival in an antipathic environment, the balancing act of managing this split or double consciousness is significant to the psyche of children. to be successful, any career intervention needs to include strategies to free the impacted child from the internalised gaze of the privileged. this article hopes to address the concerning gap in the literature on promising practices in children’s career development, with a special focus on children from minoritised communities. we will describe the development of our culturally responsive, psychoeducational curriculum along with its initial introduction to third graders in a high need elementary school. the curriculum was created to prevent immature and often unconscious circumscription and compromising processes that take place early in childhood (gottfredson, 2004). when uncontrolled these processes can lead to the elimination of possible future careers, since children can come to believe that particular careers are ‘socially unacceptable for someone like themselves’ (gottfredson, 2004, p. 12). such beliefs can entrap children in a prescripted story, often referred to as a master narrative, primarily drafted for their cultural group. we used the concept of exemplary models (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022) to impact these elimination processes. temple grandin, sonia sotomayor and dr. martin luther king jr. are among the models included in the curriculum, as their personal narratives demonstrate how they successfully dismantled widely held master narratives imposed on them, owing to their social identities. toni morrison defined a master narrative as an ‘ideological script that the people in authority are imposing on everyone else’ (moyers, 1990). we believed that studying the narratives of exemplary models, which can be described as counter-narratives, would strengthen students’ sense of agency while freeing them from internalised enfeebling messages about themselves and their potential. three lessons from the curriculum were delivered in a high-need elementary school located in the northcentral region of the united states of america. feedback from the school counselling staff indicated that the curriculum was well-received by the children. foundation of the curriculum in designing the curriculum, we attempted to capture the epistemological changes that have been transforming the field of psychology and career counselling. situated in a narrative perspective, the curriculum emphasises narrative formation. we examined the career counselling literature on children with a particular focus on its evolving conceptualization of the construct of ‘self’. although we borrowed from the traditional theories of the 20th century modernist era, self-construction and authorship in narrative development are what is emphasised in the curriculum. since elementary school children have not yet fully developed the abstract thinking skills necessary to conceptualise their ‘self’ as an evolving construct, we simplified or materialised this process by introducing narratives of culturally diverse exemplary models to children. class discussions about the exemplary models included questions centred around authorship, agency and persistence. the concept of role models, thus, constituted the second foundational construct upon which the curriculum rested. epistemological changes and new perspectives in career counselling with children kuhn (1962) in his landmark publication, entitled the structures of scientific revolutions, claimed that paradigm shifts happen when existing theories fail to explain observed phenomena. this leads to scientific revolutions that revamp our existing epistemologies leading to the emergence of new theories. savickas (2007) masterfully identified the epistemological changes that have occurred in psychology since the modernist era and the subsequent rippling impact on vocational psychology, particularly regarding to the concept of ‘self’, one of the main constructs of psychological inquiry. career choice and self as an object savickas argued that the positivist approach during the modernist era conceptualised the self as an ‘object’, exposed to scientific inquiry via various types of testing (savickas, 2007). trait factor theory (parsons, 1909) and holland’s theory of vocational personalities and work environments (holland, 1997) reflected this view of the self. both approaches have relied significantly on assessment to measure various traits or characteristics of the self, including values, interests and aptitudes. during this era, limited attention was given to children, perhaps because the focus of career interventions centred around career choice and career fit rather than career development. career development and self as a subject the emergence of the humanistic approach with its emphasis on human development and self-actualization drew career counsellors’ attention to the developmental processes through which individuals achieved competencies critical to make informed educational and career decisions. while developmental theories established self-actualization as the final outcome, career maturity became the final destination for career counselling clients. the humanistic approach impelled us to see the self as a ‘subject’ capable of optimal growth (savickas, 2007) while placing children in a new position of interest for career intervention. similar to erikson’s psychosocial theory (1964, 1968), super’s lifespan, life-space approach (super, 1990; super et al., 1996) proposed a career development model with five stages and corresponding developmental tasks, successful completion of which led to career maturity in individuals. gottfredson (2004) offered a developmental approach using cognitive development as one of the foundations of her theory. she highlighted specific ways children and adolescents eliminated career options, often unconsciously, because of social factors such as poverty and social identities such as gender. gottfredson identified self-agency as an important goal in career development and charged career counsellors with the responsibility of providing ‘experiential lessons in recognizing and beneficially exploiting self-agency’ (gottfredson, 2004, p. 35). during this time period, various comprehensive career counselling models for school-age children emerged (e.g. gottfredson, 2004; super, 1990) to prepare them for the world of work. in addition to considerable progress made in understanding the career development process, accumulated evidence confirmed the significance of career interventions with children. niles and harris-bowlsbey (2017, p. 276) rightfully claimed that ‘ignoring the process of career development in childhood is similar to a gardener disregarding the quality of the soil in which a garden will be planted’ (as cited in maree, 2021, p. 433). similarly, hartung et al. (2008) considered childhood as ‘the dawn of vocational development’ that required for the attention of researchers and practitioners (p. 64). career narrative and self as a project the insecurities and uncertainties impacting the world of work and our lives (taber, 2019) decreased the relevance of some of the traditional theories of the 20th century. predictability, singularity, homogeneity and objectivity, core principles of modernism, were challenged by postmodernist epistemology (gergen, 1990). what is perceived as universal facts are degraded to ‘locally shared realities of human experiences’ (gergen, 1990, p. 32). the neutrality of science has been questioned by feminist scholars who pointed out the androcentric biases that saturated scientific reports (gergen, 1990, p. 27). qualitative research has emerged as an alternative method of inquiry for unexplored realities of marginalised communities (solórzano & yosso, 2002). the construct of self, known in a singular form for decades, transformed into possible selves (markus & nurius, 1986). david tiedeman has been identified as the first social constructionist scholar in our field due to his emphasis on the process of self-construction (savickas, 2008). tiedeman’s concept of self-reconceptualization emphasised that the active role a person plays in continuously revamping one’s self in response to new experiences and anticipated future expectations (savickas, 2008, p. 220). within the postmodernist era, the self was transformed into an ever-evolving project. the process of self-construction and its critical elements of reflexivity, autobiographical agency and adaptability have become the focus of new career approaches, such as life design (hartung, 2019; savickas, 2012; savickas et al., 2009) and narrative career counselling (cochran, 1997). although their significance for children is repeatedly emphasised by scholars, such as hartung et al. (2005) and maree (2021), programmes or models that include these theoretical concepts are still scarce in the literature. while briddick et al. (2018) and sensoy-briddick and briddick (2019) developed a widely used curriculum for elementary school children in turkey, other publications have described programmes developed mainly for adolescents (see, e.g. nota et al., 2016). our new curriculum differs significantly from the first one, as it focuses on fostering authorship in children. the role models and their importance in children’s development the concept of exemplary models derives from the extensive literature, highlighting the importance of role models in children’s growth and development. defined by gibson (2004, p. 136) as ‘cognitive constructions based on an individual’s needs, wants, and ambitions,’ role models are found to have a considerable impact on young people’s development (bandura, 1977, 1986; erikson, 1968; gibson, 2004; krumboltz, 1996), their career choices, motivation (fagenson, 1989; salanova & schaufeli, 2008; valero et al., 2019), sense of agency (taylor et al., 1994), work and academic engagement and academic identity (buunk et al., 2007; zirkel, 2002). identification and social learning theories have used the construct often, each emphasizing its different functions (gibson, 2004). role models in identification theories identification of theories focuses on the aspirational influence of role models and their critical impact on identity development and construction (erikson, 1968; savickas, 2019). savickas (2019) noted that our role models provide us with meaning and thus a means of making sense of our lives. savickas explained: role models inspire young people because they show a way forward. so, the choice of role models is indeed a decision about self-construction and the role one prefers to play as a social actor in life’s drama. (2019:92) the relatability of role models has been found to be critical in the identification process. in other words, people often choose their role models based on their similarities to them with regard to their racial, gender and other social identities (basow & howe, 1980; gibson, 2004; giuliano et al., 2007; lockwood, 2006). for example, kivel and kleiberc (2000) found that gay, lesbian and bisexual (lgb) youth relied on media role models to learn about glb identities. these models, despite their distance from the youth, were particularly instrumental in decreasing the youth’s sense of isolation while increasing their hope for a successful future (gomillion & giuliano, 2011). role models in social learning theories social learning theories, on the other hand, emphasised the importance of role models with regard to the acquisition of critical skills. bandura and wood (1989) claimed that individuals learn various skills and competencies while watching others to perform them. the famous bobo doll experiment demonstrated that even children as young as 37 months learn new behaviours by observing others (bandura et al., 1961). role models, in other words, are critical to what bourdieu referred to as habitus formation, the embodiment of cultural capital in the form of habits, dispositions and behaviours (wainwright & turner, 2003, p. 4). what we embody creates certain vulnerabilities or invincibilities. this is particularly true for marginalised children, whose scarce resources and limited access to various capitals diminish their chances for social and class mobility (yosso & garcia, 2007). thus, it is not surprising that role models of colour have been found to be particularly impactful in helping marginalised youth learn about effective ways to address various stereotypes and discrimination that interfere with their success (cheryan et al., 2013; marx & roman, 2002; wang & degol, 2017). studies conducted in stem fields, for example, have repeatedly highlighted the impact of relatable role models in increasing minoritised women’s persistence in these fields (cheryan et al., 2013; marx & ko, 2012; marx & roman, 2002; stout et al., 2011; wang & degol, 2017). within bourdieu’s concept of capital, there resides the possibility that role models can be a form of critical social capital for minoritised children in assisting them to embody essential skills to thrive despite oppressive systems and institutions. exemplary role models: role models as social capital in a previous article, we discussed the impact role models can have on ‘self-building, identity shaping, and overall career construction’ (briddick & sensoy-briddick, 2012, p. 329). different from role models who are critical building blocks of one’s identity, exemplary models are individuals whose life narratives are saturated with perseverance, persistence and resilience (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022). in other words, exemplary models are the individuals who have successfully dismantled the master narrative and created a counter-story that is more in alignment with their own desires and interests. we join others (e.g. zirkel, 2002) in their concern about the lack of a sufficient number of diverse models who can provide minoritised children with ways to deal, not only with life challenges but also particularly with oppressive, systemic issues. as we indicated previously, we consider role models as critical social capital. we regard facilitating children’s access to these exemplary models’ inspiring narratives as an important social justice intervention. as solórzano and yosso (2002) declared, sharing the counter-stories ‘can help strengthen traditions of social, political, and cultural survival and resistance’ (p. 32). in a seminal article, yosso (2005) expanded bourdieu’s cultural capital theory and offered a new concept, community cultural wealth (ccw). community cultural wealth consists of various assets, often unacknowledged by scholars in social sciences, in the form of six capitals that communities of colour use in their resistance to oppressive systems. yosso and burciaga (2016, p. 2) identified the overlapping capitals as aspirational (maintaining hopefulness in the face of adversities), familial (having a sense of community and history), linguistic (skills associated with using multiple languages and/or language styles), social (social network), navigational (skills and knowledge necessary to successfully navigate institutions) and resistant (actions to challenge inequity). our curriculum included counter-narratives that highlighted various capitals associated with the ccw. we hoped that analysing the narratives of exemplary models would foster confidence within children that they, too, are capable of and may well already have some of the necessary capitals to start constructing their own counter-narratives. curriculum the purpose of the curriculum was to invite students to examine the lives of accomplished individuals from diverse backgrounds, referred to as exemplary models (sensoy-briddick & briddick, 2022). we chose children’s books that clearly demonstrated the challenges each character encountered, along with coping strategies and various capitals that were instrumental in helping them to create a narrative of persistence. although persistence and resilience were our focus, we ensured that what is presented in books was age-appropriate and avoided introducing information that could possibly be upsetting to children. although we provided information about narratives of persistence and resilience elsewhere in the article, perhaps, it is important to briefly revisit their significance in this era. characterised by uncertainty and insecurities (taber, 2019), this century requires individuals to demonstrate a high level of flexibility and adaptability to changing environments. thus, it is critical for children to develop strong sense of agency, characterised by a firm belief in their capacity to respond to the pressing economic conditions and challenging social demands while maintaining strong confidence for their ability to pursue their own passion for making a significant contribution in the world around them. we hoped that the stories of persistence included in the curriculum presented how exemplary models responded to barriers and challenges, they encountered in their own lives without giving up their passion in life. brad meltzer, author of the ordinary people change the world series, concisely articulated a definition of resilience similar to our own. in addition, his words described how we hoped that these selected stories could impact our young audience of the curriculum lessons. in an interview with a mighty girl, meltzer noted: jane goodall’s story is not just about animals, it’s not just about that she was a woman, it’s not just about that she was bold or daring, but it was about that she really, in her own way, had this amazing impact that we can all apply to our lives when someone says no to you. i mean it is to push forward and to blaze your own trail and that thing you love and to find what you love and keep pushing forward and what you do … my daughter may want to start reading jane goodall because she loves animals, she loves our dog, but when she finishes, she is charged up to change the world because she’s thinking, she would never take a no for an answer. (a mighty girl staff, 2018) the curriculum included a total of 15 lessons based on the various books, most of which were written by authors brad meltzer (ordinary people change the world series) or maria isabelle sánchez vagara (little people big dreams series). each book highlighted a theme or two associated with the main character of the book. for instance, the book on amelia earhart (meltzer, 2014) emphasised her courage, self-reliance and ability to collaborate with others. these were critical in earhart’s success in dealing with various social barriers that discouraged women from assuming non-traditional roles, such as becoming a pilot, during the era in which she lived. our lesson emphasised these three themes while also addressing associated standards drafted by the american school counselor association (asca, 2021). given the age and attention span of the children participating, each lesson was completed with an engaging colouring activity. children were asked to colour the picture of the main character while responding to a question as to how they were similar to and different from the exemplary model. we borrowed this question from savickas, who uses it in processing role models with his clients during the career construction interview (savickas, 2015, 2019). we believed that the time devoted to self-reflection would positively impact children’s self-perception and their skill for reflexivity, both of which are important competencies in self-authorship. diversity and inclusiveness we wanted to ensure that we had children’s books about various influential persons with diverse backgrounds. in alignment with the current literature, we broadened the definition of diversity to include women, lgbtq+ individuals, race, ethnicity, disabilities, poverty and various other backgrounds. the intersectional identities of some of the exemplary models were a strength of the curriculum. for instance, we included the story of sonia sotomayor, associate justice of the supreme court of the united states of america (meltzer, 2018). her intersectional identities of first-generation college graduate + latina + woman identities presented her with unique barriers that required different coping mechanisms. providing a contextual perspective could be important to capture the attention and the interest of the students. judge sotomayor is the only latina judge who has achieved this most distinguished honor. although about 18% of the u.s. population consists of latino, or latina, individuals, only 3% of sitting judges on federal courts are latina. sonia sotomayor has overcome barriers associated with her gender, as well as her ethnic background. her story contains and demonstrates a successful use of linguistic, navigational and familial capitals (yosso, 2005) in achieving her career success. another book was about dr. martin luther king jr. by brad meltzer (2016). the iconic american civil rights leader, dr. king, had an intersectional identity of being a male and african american. the book clearly demonstrates how his early experiences with racial inequity shaped his future career narrative. from a career construction perspective, his early preoccupation with injustice became his occupation later in life (savickas, 2005, 2011, 2019). his love for ‘big words’ along with his strong value to ‘love everyone’ led to a predictable initial career in ministry. later, he became a community organiser, then a political activist so he could work with larger groups of similarly minded individuals to bring peace and equity to the u.s. his life story demonstrates a successful use of aspirational, resistant and navigational capitals (yosso, 2005). children who experience similar types of discrimination can learn about the powerful skills that dr. king used to address such injustices. his narrative of persistence clearly shows children how to continue to dream even when they encounter discouraging situations that challenge their sense of hope. considerations related to facilitators being able to successfully lead classroom discussions requires facilitators to have an understanding of elementary school students, skills to manage group dynamics and preparation in career development and planning, as it relates to children. the skills of the facilitator are critical to the delivery of the curriculum. the lessons selected were delivered by a certified school counsellor and their intern. both of them had backgrounds in classroom management, curriculum development and delivery, as well as coursework in career development and counselling. during each 30 min lesson, the school counselling staff read the book aloud and then defined the themes of persistence and resiliency associated with the model in the book. the staff used a number of the following questions to facilitate class discussions. although at first glance, these questions might appear rather abstract for third graders, the response from the school counselling staff indicated that children were able to understand and respond to the questions without any difficulty. the following were the questions utilised by the counselling staff: what characteristics of the main character in the book inspired you the most? what were some of the challenges the main character in the book faced along the way in their life? what did they do in order to deal with these challenges? in other words, how did they persist in the face of difficulties? how are you similar to and/or different from the main character in the book? in addition to these questions, facilitators can generate their own questions they feel are appropriate and useful for the children they are working with at the time. although both series are accessible in english via youtube, where the books are read aloud by the authors, the counselling staff who delivered the three lessons indicated that the best way to process these books in the classroom is to read them aloud to the students. this approach allows the facilitator the freedom to screen any material that might be deemed age inappropriate. initial trial three sample lessons from the curriculum were implemented by a certified school counsellor and their intern during the spring of 2022 to approximately 40 third-grade students. these lessons were incorporated into the pre-existing social emotional learning (sel) curriculum that the school counsellor had been using. different from the existing curriculum, these new lessons introduced children to exemplary models, their narratives of persistence and future possibilities for them. the initial feedback we received from the school counselling staff was positive. they indicated that the children were excited about the lessons. children were able to not only recognise but also articulate the various strategies used by exemplary models in navigating the challenges they faced while writing their career narratives. the counselling staff also revealed that the teaching staff, who had some of these books within their classroom collection, noticed increased excitement among their students toward these books. it is not appropriate to make any claims with regard to the effectiveness of the curriculum at this time. more carefully designed studies will provide better insight into the potential of the curriculum for empowering children in shaping their own narratives. based on the initial results, we believe that this kind of curriculum can be a possible blueprint for practitioners in many places regardless of where they might be in the world. in our earlier work on role models, we noted: every society has its own model examples, stories and cultural scripts readily available to its members. whether these examples are human or nonhuman, factual or fictional does not matter. the aforementioned are generalizable enough for individuals to apply to their own life, constructing and designing who they want to be via these sources of self. (briddick & sensoy-briddick, 2012, p. 331) what is true for role models is true for exemplary models, with both offering unique possibilities for us and for those we serve in the work that we do. conclusion as we conclude, the united nations cites 1.2 billion youth ages 15 – 24 comprising 16% of the world’s population. in 2030, this population will reach 1.3 billion (united nations, n.d.). the world economic forum’s website provided a cautionary piece of writing entitled, pandemials: youth in an age of lost opportunities (world economic forum, 2021). citing two major crises of the first two decades of this century they note: the outlook for this generation had already been diminished by environmental degradation, rising inequality (of many types – gender, intergenerational, economic and ethnic), varying degrees of violence, and social disruption from the tech-enabled industrial transformation. while the digital leap forward unlocked opportunities for some youth, many are now entering the workforce in an employment ice age. (para. 2) the youth of our present is also our world’s tomorrow. some elementary school students of today will join the previously mentioned demographic, ages 15 – 24 by 2030. there is an open window of opportunity for intervention that suggests urgency. there is likewise the realization that behind the present youth are generations of youth to follow. where we go from here is critical in meeting the existing challenges, as well as those awaiting us ahead. innovative and thoughtful responses, embedded in relevant theoretical models (e.g. social constructionism) and best practices that address the barriers to progress, combined with existing foundations can make a world of difference in the current era of global uncertainty. our most recent contribution and suggestions for a curriculum-based intervention are by no means the answer but rather one possibility among others that address the unique needs of younger generations, as they look to their futures and plan the work they hope to do in our world. it is also an invitation for colleagues across disciplines and many landscapes to join us in meeting the challenges we face and those that have yet to appear. maree (2020) offered insightful recommendations to our field in his response to an appeal to members of the international association of applied psychology by, then chair, paul hartung. hartung asked members to provide up to three ideas or challenges deemed relevant to the field of career psychology. maree’s response was sage advice in the present, with implications for the future. his reply included certain words placed in bold print. these words are shown in quotation marks here for the reader. maree noted that our field should ‘join hands internationally’ also reminding us that it is key to ‘think innovatively; differently than before’. he called us to ‘help vulnerable people’ and finally he encouraged us to ‘be innovative and continue to centre on challenging accepted “truths”’ (p. 282). as boldly go these words, so too may we all go in the work ahead of us. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions h.s-b. and w.c.b. meet the criteria and have written and published previously on the topics of curriculum, role models, exemplary models, career construction and life-design. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability there is a small amount of data, but it is not publicly available data. these data are not used in the writing of this manuscript. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references a mighty girl staff. 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(2007). ‘this is no slum!’: a critical race theory analysis of community cultural wealth in culture clash’s ‘chavez ravine’. aztlán: a journal of chicano studies, 32(1), 145–179. zirkel, s. (2002). is there a place for me? role models and academic identity among white students and students of color. teachers college record, 104(2), 357–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9620.00166 abstract introduction problem statement research question method discussion overall results implications limitations conclusion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) brandon morgan department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation morgan, b. (2022). psychometric properties of the south african career interest inventory – short. african journal of career development, 4(1), a57. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.57 original research psychometric properties of the south african career interest inventory – short brandon morgan received: 31 mar. 2022; accepted: 27 june 2022; published: 22 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the south african career interest inventory – short (sacii-short) is used in research settings to measure holland’s six interest factors. conclusions reached in studies using the instrument are subject to the measurement properties of the sacii-short items and scales. objective: this study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the sacii-short items and the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short item and scale scores. method: secondary data from south african university students and working adults (n = 673) were used. the graded response model was used to investigate the measurement properties of the items. factor analysis was used to investigate the circumplex structure of the item and scale scores. results: most of the sacii-short items showed satisfactory measurement properties. some concerns were observed with the item locations of the realistic and social items. the item and scale scores showed satisfactory fit to circumplex structure. the wording of some of the items could be reconsidered to increase the applicability of the content to the south african work context. conclusion: the sacii-short demonstrates satisfactory psychometric properties for use in research settings. these psychometric properties support the validity of results obtained from studies that have used the sacii-short scale scores as a proxy for vocational interests. keywords: measurement; reliability; validity; sacii; circumplex; vocational interests. introduction vocational interests – defined as preferences for activities or environments (hansen & wiernik, 2018) – have a long history of use in organisational and counselling settings (e.g. moore, 1921; parsons, 1909). at the start of the 20th century, organisational psychologists enthusiastically used interests to understand workplace behaviours (hansen & wiernik, 2018). however, by the mid to late 20th century, this enthusiasm had waned, with the measurement and interpretation of vocational interests becoming the primary domain of career counsellors (dawis, 1991; hansen & wiernik, 2018). in recent years, organisational psychologists have encouraged the reintroduction of interests in understanding workplace behaviours and outcomes (e.g. nye, su, rounds, & drasgow, 2012; wiernik, 2016) because of promising findings linking interest–environment fit with, amongst others, job performance, satisfaction and well-being (hoff, perlus, & rounds, 2019; van iddekinge, roth, putka, & lanivich, 2011; wiernik, 2016). in this regard, wiernik (2016) argued that ‘the best decisions can be made (in organisations) when interests are combined with measures of personality traits and ability’ (p. 156). researchers investigating the utility of interests in organisational settings have typically used sample groups and occupations from the united states of america (usa). interests and their interaction with the environment are contextually bound (einarsdóttir, rounds, & su, 2010; tang, 2009), potentially limiting the generalisation of existing results outside the usa. the utility of interests in organisational settings in south africa has received little research to date. this lack of research makes it difficult to determine if interest measurement and interpretation can be used to understand workplace behaviours in organisations in south africa. recent research using south african data has shown that interest–environment fit is related to burnout (pillay, 2020) and job-hopping motives (hall, morgan, & redelinghuys, 2022). these studies suggest that results from the usa might generalise to organisations in south africa and that interests are a potentially useful predictor of workplace behaviours in this context. problem statement vocational interests are a latent construct that exists as a theoretical abstraction or pragmatic fiction (see yarkoni, 2022). their latent status means that an indirect measure is required to obtain observable scores that can serve as a proxy for the unobservable latent scores. these proxy scores and their validity are directly tied to the psychometric properties of the measure used to obtain them (nunnally & bernstein, 1994; yarkoni, 2022). proxy scores obtained from measures with poor psychometric properties can seriously reduce the trustworthiness of conclusions in research that has used these scores. the two studies mentioned previously obtained interest scores via the short version of the south african career interest inventory (sacii-short) – a south african measure of john holland’s six interest factors, which are labelled as realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional (riasec). several studies have supported the psychometric properties of the original 142-item version of the sacii in south africa (e.g. morgan, de bruin, & de bruin, 2015; rabie & naidoo, 2019; van vuuren, 2022). however, little research is available on the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. research question studies that have investigated the psychometric properties of the sacii-short have focused almost exclusively on the validity of the riasec scale scores (hall et al., 2022; morgan & de bruin, 2019). this exclusive focus is a problem because it is necessary to investigate the measurement properties of the items in addition to the scale scores to obtain a complete understanding of the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. against this background, i set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties of the sacii-short items using the graded response model (grm) and (2) the structural validity of the sacii-short items and scale scores. this investigation holds important implications for the validity of results from studies that have used the sacii-short to operationalise interests and for continued use of the sacii-short in research. holland’s riasec interest factors the sacii-short measures john holland’s six riasec vocational interest factors. holland (1958, 1959, 1997) believed that the riasec interest factors are a mixture of personal adjustments, values, attitudes and motivation and thus represent a broad set of adjustive orientations towards the environment (holland, 1958, 1997). the broad nature of these six factors means that they capture general similarities across more fine-grained interest factors and environments (see wiernik, 2016). it is comparable to using the five personality factors instead of facets of these factors. i do not want to create the impression here that the riasec interest factors are the best way to conceptualise the interest space. there are advantages and disadvantages when operating in low-dimensional versus high-dimensional latent space (see wiernik, 2016). the riasec factors are simply one way that can be used to measure broad tendencies – dimensions that capture shared variance of many similar basic interests – that may or may not be helpful depending on the needs of the researcher, counsellor or client (see morgan et al., 2019). circumplex structure of the riasec interest factors the riasec interest factors and their indicators have a circumplex structure (see glosenberg, tracey, behrend, blustein, & foster, 2019; wiernik, 2016), which holland called a hexagon. circumplex structure means that the interrelationships between the riasec correlation coefficients of the scale scores show a pattern of rising and falling (guttman, 1954) as one moves away from and then towards the riasec correlation matrix diagonal. this pattern implies that the interest factors are located on the circumference of a circle in a two-dimensional space (fabrigar, visser, & browne, 1997). most of holland’s model and theoretical predictions depend on this circumplex structure and the correct riasec ordering holding. for example, congruence (i.e. interest–environment fit) is based on the distance between a person’s riasec interest scores and the environment riasec interest scores in the interest space (holland, 1997). differentiation and consistency, two derived markers of interest clarity, also depend on circumplex structure and the correct riasec ordering (holland, 1997). development of the south african career interest inventory morgan and de bruin (2019) used data collected by morgan (2014) for the 169-item version of the sacii to develop the sacii-short. a random sample1 of 1000 participants from the 1543 participants in the data set was selected to investigate the sacii item functioning. the authors applied the rasch partial credit model and principal components analysis. the rasch partial credit model was used to investigate the category functioning, item fit and item difficulties or locations of the items within each scale (i.e. the item measurement properties). hereafter, principal components analysis was used to reduce the item correlation matrix to three orthogonal linear components representing the general factor and the two circumplex factors (see tracey, 2000). the component loadings on the second and third linear components were transformed from rectangular to polar coordinates, giving each item’s angular location and vector length (morgan & de bruin, 2019). the vector length is the square root of the communality coefficient on the circumplex factors and thus represents the distance from the origin to the circle’s circumference. polar coordinates are used to select items that match the theoretical riasec ordering and have the largest vector length (see tracey, 2000). the rasch partial credit model showed that 17 items were too easy or difficult to endorse and that 34 items did not fit the rasch model. no items had angular locations that deviated markedly from the other items in their respective scales, and 29 items had vector lengths < 0.30 (approximately 9% variance). morgan and de bruin (2019) used the information above and theoretical considerations to select five items for each riasec scale. reliability coefficients ranging from 0.80 to 0.89 were found for the six scale scores. morgan and de bruin then obtained a new sample group of 183 participants to cross-validate the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short scale scores. circumplex structure and riasec ordering also held in the second sample group, although the reliability coefficients of the scale scores were lower, ranging from 0.72 to 0.83. the rasch model was not applied to the items in this second sample group. therefore, the measurement properties of the items within each sacii-short scale remain relatively unknown. emoji response format the sacii-short initially used a likert-type response format ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’, where a participant indicated the extent to which ‘i am interested in and would like to do the following activity in my job’ (morgan & de bruin, 2019). phan, amrhein, rounds and lewis (2019) suggested that interest items use an emoji response format instead because of the inherent affective or emotional aspect involved when rating interest activities (e.g. silvia, 2001; strong, 1943). the response format of the sacii-short was changed to a dislike–like rating scale. in this scale, a participant indicates their preference for each of the activities in the items below according to the emoji response categories (see naidu, 2020 for more details). the emoji faces are presented alongside their corresponding interpretation (i.e. strongly dislike, dislike, unsure, like and strongly like). naidu (2020) found slightly better reliability of the emoji item scores and a somewhat better fit of circumplex structure to the riasec scale scores than the likert-type response format. pillay (2020) found support for the circumplex structure in a different sample group who completed the likert-type response format. naidu (2020) found reliability coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.90, and pillay (2020) found reliability coefficients ranging from 0.82 to 0.94. juliana and gunawan (2021) translated the sacii-short to indonesian. they investigated the convergent validity of the scale scores with the o*net interest profiler, a measure of the riasec interest factors developed in the usa. the authors reported reliability coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.90 and correlation coefficients of the riasec scale scores with the o*net interest profiler scale scores ranging from 0.73 to 0.79. summary the sacii-short is used in research to measure john holland’s riasec interest factors. the validity of these riasec interest scores depends on the measurement or psychometric properties of the sacii-short. this study therefore set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties of the sacii-short items and (2) the structural validity of the sacii-short item and scale scores. method sample i used secondary data of participants who completed the emoji response format of the sacii-short. makhura (2022), naidu (2020) and strydom (2022) collected the primary data.2 these three studies used the emoji response format of the sacii-short. the secondary data consists of 673 south african participants. the participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 61 years, with a mean and standard deviation of 24.76 and 7.16 and skewness of 2.15. the sample consisted of slightly more self-identified women (n = 342, 59%) than self-identified men (n = 233, 41%). most of the participants identified as black african (n = 504, 76%), followed by indian and asian (n = 65, 10%), white (n = 50, 8%), mixed-race (n = 38, 6%) and middle eastern (n = 2, 0%). approximately one-third of the participants indicated that they had full-time employment (n = 203, 30%), with the remainder either having part-time employment, contract employment, self-employment or no employment (n = 465, 70%). procedure the three previously mentioned studies used different procedures. naidu (2020) collected data from university students and working adults using physical copies of the sacii-short. makhura (2022) and strydom (2022) used digital copies of the sacii-short hosted on google forms. for the former, permission was obtained from the relevant higher education institution to advertise participation in the study on the institutional student learning platform. a google forms link was included in the advertisement. the latter research obtained participants via the prolific platform. these participants were paid approximately r30 to participate. instrument the sacii-short was previously discussed and is therefore not presented here. items are available in the online supplement (https://osf.io/hbkmt/?view_only=cb84a73eb7c74c45b3d805347b40a562). analysis the measurement properties of the sacii-short items were investigated using the grm (samejima, 1969). this model is a polytomous generalisation of the two-parameter logistic model for ordered item responses. i first investigated the slope or discrimination parameters (a) and the threshold parameters (bij). to assist in interpreting these threshold parameters, i also included the item response function generalised item difficulty as a measure of the central location for each item (ali, chang, & anderson, 2015). i then inspected the item and test information to determine the reliable range of the latent trait measured by the items. this inspection used the area under the curve for the information function bounded between –4.00 and 4.00 units. the fit of the model to each item was investigated using the plausible-value imputations of the q1 statistic (chalmers & ng, 2017) and the signed χ2 test (orlando & thissen, 2000) and local dependence was investigated using yen’s (1984) q3 statistic. bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrapped confidence intervals (bca) using 5000 random samples were used to determine the statistical significance of the q3 statistic. recommended adjustments to the expected value of the q3 statistic were made. the fit of circumplex structure to the item responses was investigated indirectly by fitting a full-information factor analysis (i.e. multidimensional grm) with three factors extracted. the unrotated factor loadings were then rotated to an orthogonal target matrix with targets on the first factor, given as 0.71, and targets on the second and third factors, given as the sine and cosine rectangular coordinates to the hexagonal model. the fit of the model to the items was only investigated using the signed χ2 test because the plausible-value imputations of the q1 statistic are not available for multidimensional models. the rectangular coordinates on the second and third factors were converted into polar coordinates to obtain the item angular locations and the communality coefficients on these two factors. the fit of a circumplex model to the riasec factors was investigated using browne’s (1992) stochastic circular modelling approach (ccsm). expected a posteriori factor scores from the grm model applied to each riasec scale were used in the analysis. i used one free beta parameter in the fourier series function (i.e. m = 1) and allowed scaling parameters, angular locations and unique latent riasec variances to be freely estimated. maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (mlr) was used to obtain the parameter estimates. all analyses were conducted using r version 4.1.3 (r core team, 2021). the grms were fit in the mirt package version 1.35.1 (chalmers, 2012) using em estimation. the ccsm was fit in the lavaan package version 0.6-10 (rosseel, 2012). bca were estimated using the coxed package version 0.3.3 (kropko & harden, 2020). ethics makhura (2022), naidu (2020), and strydom (2022) received ethical clearance from the college of business and economics or the department of industrial psychology and people management research ethics committee to collect data for their studies. this study obtained ethical clearance from the department of industrial psychology and people management research ethics committee to use the secondary data. the ethical clearance codes were cberec18jbs11, ippm-2020-420(m), ippm-2021-515(m) and ippm-2021-477. more information on the ethical considerations can be obtained from the three previously mentioned studies. participants were provided with a detailed participant information sheet explaining the nature and purpose of the study and the conditions of participation. those who agreed to participate were also required to complete a consent form. no personally identifiable information was collected so that all respondents could remain anonymous. results table 1 presents the model fit statistics and reliability coefficients for the five sacii-short scales. the model fit statistics were mostly satisfactory for the realistic, artistic and enterprising scales and somewhat less satisfactory for the investigative, artistic and conventional scales.3 the marginal reliability coefficients ranged from 0.80 to 0.88, with a mean marginal reliability of 0.84. similar results were obtained when calculating the coefficient omega total on the raw item responses, with these coefficients ranging from 0.77 to 0.88 and having a mean coefficient omega total of 0.84. table 2 presents the grm parameters and item fit statistics for the six sacii-short scales. table 1: riasec model fit statistics and reliability coefficients. table 2: graded response model item parameters and item fit. realistic scale the item slope parameters of the realistic scale ranged from 2.08 (item r1) to 3.29 (item r4), with a mean slope parameter of 2.91. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item r1, with a generalised difficulty of 0.53, and item r4, with a generalised difficulty of 0.89. the mean generalised difficulty was 0.72. items r1 (p = 0.020) and r5 (p = 0.033) showed statistically significant misfit.4 the item wordings for these two items are ‘do routine maintenance of machines’ and ‘weld metal parts together’. inspection of item and response characteristic curves showed that participants who scored low on the realistic trait tended to score higher than expected on item r1, and that misfit was evident in the first three response categories. the item characteristic curve showed little observable misfit for item r5. however, the category characteristic curves showed some misfit for the fourth and fifth response categories. the realistic items showed the most test information between approximately –1.00 and 3.00 units on the latent trait, with item r1 having the lowest item information with an area under the item information curve of 5.47 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items r1 and r2 (q3 = 0.16), r1 and r3 (q3 = 0.20), r2 and r4 (q3 = –0.14) and r3 and r5 (q3 = –0.16). investigative the investigative item slope parameters ranged from 1.62 (item i3) to 3.00 (item i2), with a mean slope parameter of 2.33. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item i1, with a generalised difficulty of –0.10, and item i4, with a generalised difficulty of 0.69. the mean generalised difficulty was 0.21. item i4 (p = 0.015) showed statistically significant misfit. inspection of the item and response characteristic curve showed that participants who scored near the mean on the investigative trait scored lower than expected on i4 and that misfit was evident for the fourth and fifth response categories. item i3 did not show a statistically significant misfit (p = 0.058). however, visual inspection of the response category curves showed a misfit for the first three response categories. the item wordings for these two items are ‘study insects in a laboratory’ and ‘research ancient monuments’. the investigative items showed the most test information between approximately –2.00 and 2.00 units on the latent trait. items i3 and i4 had the lowest item information, with areas under the item information curve of 3.63 and 4.69 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items i1 and i2 (q3 = 0.24), i1 and i4 (q3 = –0.17), i1 and i5 (q3 = –0.13) and i2 and i3 (q3 = –0.12) and large local dependence between items i2 and i5 (q3 = –0.24), i3 and i4 (q3 = 0.29), i3 and i5 (q3 = 0.29) and i4 and i5 (q3 = 0.29). artistic the slope parameters for the artistic items ranged from 1.14 (a1) to 2.23 (a5), with a mean slope parameter of 1.74. the easiest item to endorse was item a3, with a generalised difficulty of –0.89, and the most difficult item to endorse was item a5, with a generalised difficulty of –0.18. the mean generalised difficulty was –0.45. none of the artistic items showed a statistically significant misfit. however, an inspection of item characteristic curves showed that for item a5, participants who scored lower on the trait scored lower than expected on the item and those who scored higher on the trait scored higher than expected on the item. the wording for this item is ‘write poetry’. the artistic scale items showed the most test information between approximately –2.50 and 2.00 on the latent trait. item a1 had the lowest item information, with an area under the curve of 2.19. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was little to no local dependence. social the item slope parameters for the social items ranged from 1.34 (s2) to 3.03 (s5), with a mean slope parameter of 1.81. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item s2, with a generalised difficulty of –1.53, and item s4, with a generalised difficulty of –0.43. the mean generalised difficulty was –0.99. no items showed a statistically significant misfit. however, an inspection of item characteristic curves showed that for item s5, participants who scored lower on the trait tended to score lower than expected on the item and that participants who scored high on the trait scored higher than expected on the item. inspection of the response characteristic curves for this item showed a misfit in the first and fourth response categories. the wording for this item is ‘teach people life skills’. the social items showed the most test information on the latent trait between approximately –3.00 and 2.00 units. item s2 had the lowest item information, with an area under the item information curve of 2.91 units. yen’s q3 statistic showed that there was little to no local dependence. enterprising the enterprising item slope parameters ranged from 1.68 (e5) to 3.24 (e2), with a mean slope parameter of 2.45. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item e1, with a generalised difficulty of –1.39, and item e5, with a generalised difficulty of –0.54. the mean generalised difficulty was –1.01. item e2 (p = 0.036) showed statistically significant misfit. inspection of the item and category characteristic curves showed little observable misfit for this item but that there was a slight misfit for the first response category. the wording for this item is ‘increase efficacy of a business’. the enterprising items showed the most test information between approximately –3.00 and 1.50 units on the latent trait. item e5 had the lowest item information, with an area under the item information curve of 4.03 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items e2 and e4 (q3 = –0.18) and large local dependence between items e4 and e5 (q3 = 0.35). conventional the conventional item slope parameters ranged from 2.11 (c1) to 3.20 (c4), with a mean slope parameter of 2.57. the easiest and most difficult items to endorse were item c2, with a generalised difficulty of –0.26 and item c1, with a generalised difficulty of –0.05. the mean generalised difficulty was –0.13. none of the items showed a statistically significant misfit. inspection of category characteristic curves suggested some misfit for the first response category across all the conventional items. the conventional items showed the most test information between approximately –2.00 and 2.00 units on the latent trait. item c1 had the lowest item information, with an area under the item information curve of 5.56 units. yen’s q3 statistic suggested that there was minor local dependence between items c2 and c5 (q3 = –0.19), c3 and c4 (q3 = –0.23), c3 and c5 (q3 = –0.13) and large local dependence between items c2 and c3 (q3 = 0.51), c2 and c4 (q3 = –0.29) and c4 and c5 (q3 = 0.32). item locations and vector lengths the three-factor model produced an m2 statistic of 3313.03 on 348 degrees of freedom and an rmsea with 90% confidence intervals of 0.11 [0.11, 0.12]. the standardised root mean residual (srmr), tucker–lewis index (tli) and comparative fit index (cfi) were 0.07, 0.81 and 0.84, respectively. table 3 presents each item’s target rotated factor loadings, polar coordinates, multidimensional discrimination indices, item rmseas and signed χ2 fit statistic p-values. the items showed a circular structure with the correct riasec ordering. the communality coefficients (i.e. h2) of the items on the two circumplex factors ranged from 0.08 (item s3) to 0.55 (item r5), with a mean communality coefficient of 0.25. the multidimensional discrimination index ranged from 0.82 (item s3) to 3.33 (item r5), with a mean multidimensional discrimination index of 1.82. none of the items showed a statistically significant misfit. table 3: target-rotated full information item factor analysis of the 30 sacii-short items. riasec circumplex structure figure 1 presents the estimated riasec angular locations and communality coefficients (i.e. h2). inspection of this figure shows that the circumplex model had a good fit to the data and that the correct riasec ordering emerged (fit statistics are reported in the figure note). the communality coefficients ranged from 0.28 (realistic) to 0.72 (investigative), with a mean communality coefficient of 0.52. as seen in figure 1, the communality coefficient of the realistic and social factors was relatively low compared with the other four factors. this suggests that the fit of a circumplex model to the realistic and social factors was somewhat wanting in this sample group and that these two factors had more unique variance than circumplex variance. the general factor accounted for 55% of the common variance, and the circumplex factors accounted for 45% of the common variance. figure 1: riasec angular locations and communality coefficients. discussion this study set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties and (2) the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short item and scale scores. in the following sections, i discuss the results for the sacii-short as a whole and then discuss the results for the sacii-short scales and items. overall results the overall results provide evidence in support of the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. the sacii-short items showed mostly satisfactory reliability, given that each scale consists of only five items (e.g. nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the grm generally fit the items well and inspection of item and category characteristic curves did not show any serious concerns. the circumplex model fit the riasec factor scores well, and the correct riasec ordering of these factor scores was observed. the realistic and social factors did show relatively low communality coefficients. morgan and de bruin (2019) found low communality coefficients for the realistic scale in their first sample but not in the second sample and low communality coefficients for the social scale in their second sample but not in their first sample. it is therefore unclear if this is a problem with the realistic and social scales or if it is a sample-specific finding. the general factor accounted for just over half of the common variance in the circumplex model in this study. similar results were obtained by morgan and de bruin (2019). the relative dominance of the general factor over the circumplex factors is not unexpected, as vocational interests are known to have a large interpretable general factor (e.g. tracey, 2012; wiernik, 2016). results for the scales and items most sacii-short items appeared to have satisfactory measurement properties, supporting the overall reliability and validity of the sacii-short scale scores. there were, however, a few concerns that should be considered. the first concern is that coverage of the latent trait for some scales could be improved as indicated by the information functions. the sacii-short items should ideally be reliable (i.e. provide information) between approximately –2.00 and 2.00 units on the latent trait, because this range would cover most trait scores in the population (about 95%, assuming a normal distribution of the latent scores). items in the investigative, artistic and conventional scales showed satisfactory coverage of the latent trait in this range. in contrast, the realistic items provided little information at the lower end of the trait and the social and enterprising items showed little information at the upper ends of the trait. the mean generalised difficulties showed that the realistic items were generally too difficult to endorse and that the social and enterprising items were generally too easy to endorse. these generalised difficulties are one explanation for the limited trait coverage over the –2.00 to 2.00 range. similar results have been obtained for the sacii (e.g. morgan, 2014; morgan et al., 2021). it is therefore possible that this is a problem inherited from the sacii. increased trait coverage of these scales in the sacii-short could be addressed by including easier or more difficult-to-endorse items. the second concern is that approximately seven of the sacii-short items were potentially problematic. three of these items were from the social scale. these three items generally had lower slope parameters, meaning that they did not adequately discriminate between those who scored low and high on the latent trait or lower communality coefficients on the circumplex factors, meaning that there was a relatively large proportion of unmodelled variance not attributed to the three-factor model in these items. morgan and de bruin (2019) did not find problematic communality coefficients for these items in their first sample group. however, they used principal components (all of the variance) analysis rather than factor analysis (the common variance), which means that the communality coefficients cannot be directly compared. items i3 (‘research ancient monuments’) and a1 (‘act in a play’) consistently emerged as potentially problematic items. the term ‘ancient monuments’ is intended to serve as a proxy for archaeology activities (morgan, 2014). alternative terms that could be considered are fossils or bones, origins of human life and cultures. the term ‘play’ in item a1 is intended to refer to theatre productions (morgan, 2014). however, it has a possible dual meaning, as it could refer to play as an activity, playing games or play as in a stage performance. it might be preferable to use theatre, or musical productions or performing arts. a third concern is that the enterprising and conventional items and factors cluster relatively close together on the circle. the same clustering was found by morgan and de bruin (2019) and in other studies that have used the sacii (e.g. morgan, 2014; morgan et al., 2021). the problem with this clustering is that it makes it difficult to distinguish between these two interest factors in a person’s responses (e.g. multicollinearity). for example, a person who scores high on the conventional interest might score this way because of an overlap with a high score on the enterprising interest rather than because of a true conventional interest. it also has implications for calculating congruence coefficients that rely on an approximate hexagon or regression-based statistical techniques that obtain profile patterns. that said, it is unclear if this clustering represents the riasec structure in south africa, if it is sample related or if it is because of the enterprising and conventional items in the sacii-short and sacii. each of these options has different implications and solutions. implications the results from this study support the use of the sacii-short in its current form for research purposes. this in turn supports the trustworthiness of the riasec scale scores obtained from the sacii-short in the past research (e.g. hall et al., 2022; naidu, 2020; pillay, 2020). however, the results also show that the sacii-short could be improved in at least three ways. firstly, easier or more difficult items should be added to the realistic, social and enterprising scales to increase coverage of the relevant trait. as it currently stands, the mean of the raw social and enterprising scale scores will almost always be higher than the mean for the realistic scale scores. it is unclear whether these differences represent real trait differences or are because of differences in the difficulties of the items. regardless, it would be advisable to standardise (centre and scale) the scale scores, depending on the statistical techniques used and the purpose of the data, before using them as-is. this standardisation is especially important when using the scale scores to calculate congruence coefficients. secondly, there is evidence that some items should be removed or reworked, as they are somewhat detrimental to the psychometric properties of the sacii-short. thirdly, clarity should be obtained on potential reasons for the enterprising–conventional clustering so that corrections can be made to the sacii-short if necessary. however, this is more of a theoretical investigation of the riasec structure in south africa than a sacii-short investigation. limitations the data collected on the sacii-short thus far have used sample groups exclusively from the adult population. this means that there is little to no evidence for the psychometric properties of the sacii-short in adolescent sample groups. therefore, researchers should be hesitant to use the sacii-short with adolescents in research settings without obtaining preliminary evidence for its psychometric properties and fit of a circumplex model to the riasec item and scale scores. the sample group used in this study, as with most other studies conducted on the sacii, tended to over-represent occupations in the social–enterprising and enterprising–conventional spaces. the problem with this over-representation is that the realistic, investigative and artistic scale scores are subject to potential range restriction. this range restriction in turn can have implications for the statistical techniques used in this study, such as reducing the amount of statistical information available when analysing specific model parameters. conclusion this study set out to investigate (1) the measurement properties of and (2) the fit of circumplex structure to the sacii-short item and scale scores. results support usage of the sacii-short scale scores for research purposes when using adult sample groups. acknowledgements the author would like to thank ms naidu, mr makhura and ms strydom for access to their data and prof. wiernik for his assistance with analysing circumplex models. competing interests i am an editorial member of the african journal of career development. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg, department of industrial psychology and people management research ethics committee. 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(1984). effects of local item dependence on the fit and equating performance of the three-parameter logistic model. applied psychological measurement, 8(2), 125–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662168400800201 footnotes 1. random numbers were generated in excel. 2. makhura was investigating the relationship between interests and career indecision of university students, and strydom was investigating the relationship between interests, burnout and job crafting. strydom’s data included participants from four countries. i only used the responses from south african participants. 3. fit statistics should not be over-interpreted, as there are no universal cut-off criteria for what constitutes acceptable fit. 4. i only inspected the statistical significance of the plausible-value imputations of the q1 statistic across all the unidimensional models. abstract introduction conceptual framework for measuring career wellbeing application of the career well-being scale as a career development tool method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa nadia ferreira department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i.l. (2021). exploring the construct validity of the career well-being scale for its potential application as a career development tool in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic career space. african journal of career development, 3(1), a39. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.39 original research exploring the construct validity of the career well-being scale for its potential application as a career development tool in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic career space melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid l. potgieter received: 24 may 2021; accepted: 20 july 2021; published: 08 sept. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on the construct and measurement of career well-being. individuals’ career well-being is of great relevance in counteracting the unsettling effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, and the concomitant shift into increasing remote and digital means of working. objective: the aim of the study was to explore the construct validity of the career well-being scale (cws) and its usefulness as a career development tool in challenging circumstances such as the covid-19 pandemic. method: the cws was administered to (n = 290) managers (71%) and staff (29%) employed in the services industry across south africa (70%), europe (15%) and africa (15%). the construct validity of the cws was explored by means of confirmatory factor analysis. results: the results corroborated the three-factor multidimensionality of the cws and that the scale has a hierarchical structure (i.e. the three sub-scale factors can be represented by a higher level factor of career well-being). conclusion: this study contributed to the career development research literature by validating the usefulness and multidimensionality of the cws for the study sample. the cws may potentially be useful in career development interventions focused on restoring clients’ perceived loss of autonomy and work volition when facing adversity and career distress. keywords: autonomous career motives; career meaningfulness; career well-being scale; networking/social support; work volition. introduction individuals’ career well-being is of great relevance in counteracting the unsettling effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, and the concomitant shift into increasing remote and digital means of working. in the context of the present research, career well-being is seen as positive intrinsic socio-emotional psychological conditions that reflect individuals’ long-term contentment with their career outcomes, career achievements, career changes, and the sustainability thereof amidst the complexities of the contemporary work environment (bester, coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2019). scholars have pointed out the detrimental effect of the covid-19 pandemic on individuals’ subjective well-being as a consequence of the physical and mental health-, employment-, and financial-related anxieties that arose from the pandemic circumstances (akkermans, richardson, & kraimer, 2020; restubog, ocampo, & wang, 2020). in the career space, the coronavirus and its concomitant lockdown and health issues have been an unsettling shock for many people and presented them with real, complex, and serious social and economic challenges for which they desperately needed career-life counselling and guidance. people were bound to think deeply about their values and the way they approach their lives, careers and work (canadian career development foundation, 2020; coetzee, roythorne-jacobs, & tebele, 2021; hooley, 2020). some of the career development challenges that predominated as a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic seem to be people’s anxiety and fear about the future of their jobs, and uncertainty about career options and opportunities in a digitally enhanced virtual workplace and a drastically changing employment market (akkermans et al., 2020; restubog et al., 2020). in this article, we present the construct and measurement of career well-being as a potential mechanism to support people’s career development not only in general, but also especially in challenging times such as the covid-19 pandemic. the career development of people is a deep-seated psychological need for personal growth and development along with the basic need for decent work to make a meaningful contribution to society at large and to improve the basic economic living conditions of one’s life and family (coetzee & schreuder, 2021). the challenge and opportunity for professional career practitioners are to help clients to cultivate a sense of career well-being amidst stressful anxiety-provoking circumstances that affect the perceived future of their careers and livelihood (coetzee et al., 2021a). a review of the research literature reveals a plethora of research on the construct and measurement of general well-being, but a paucity of research on the construct and measurement of career well-being. scholars generally agree that more research is needed on individuals’ psychological state of career well-being amidst changing employment conditions that blur their future career prospects, and that engender more frequent career transitions and career shocks (akkermans et al., 2020; restubog et al., 2020). we argue that the measurement and cultivation of the intrinsic conditions of career well-being through career development intervention may potentially offer an approach to help clients sustain work volition, and hope and optimism about their career development in the face of adversity. this article therefore intends to add to the larger call for research on career well-being through its evaluation of the construct validity of the career well-being scale (cws) developed by coetzee, ferreira and potgieter (2020). research on the construct and measurement of career well-being seems generally associated with subjective and psychological well-being outcomes such as career and life satisfaction, work satisfaction, employability, and career-self-management capability (coetzee, 2019; engelbrecht, 2019; lee & flores, 2019; lent & brown, 2008; steiner & spurk, 2019; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). coetzee et al. (2020) developed a cws with preliminary evidence of its factor structure and internal consistency reliability. coetzee (2021a) further found initial evidence of the cws’s usefulness in the coping context by showing the extent to which the construct of career well-being predicted individuals’ career agility. however, more research on the cws (coetzee et al., 2020) is needed. the present study fills an important gap in research with its aim to explore the construct validity of the cws and its potential usefulness as a career development tool in challenging circumstances such as the covid-19 pandemic. the ramifications of the economic and social shock of the covid-19 pandemic are seen to reshape people’s perceptions about their lives, work and careers with dire consequences for clients’ career well-being (akkermans et al., 2020; restubog et al., 2020). the present research is seen as timely in its response to the search for new approaches to support the career development of clients in the 2020s world of work. conceptual framework for measuring career wellbeing as shown in figure 1, coetzee et al. (2020) developed the cws as a domain-specific multidimensional measure of career well-being comprising three facets: positive affective career state, state of career meaningfulness, and career networking/social support state (coetzee, 2021a). the cws is seen to measure state-like aspects of career well-being that may be relatively susceptible to change or modification through career development intervention (coetzee, 2021a). the multidimensional feature of the cws captures both the hedonic (i.e. positive emotions of happiness and life satisfaction) and eudemonic (i.e. fulfilment of broader life goals, meaning, purpose and self-realisation) views of well-being (lent & brown, 2008; marsh, huppert, donald, horwood, & sahdra, 2020). figure 1: multidimensional facets of the career well-being scale. as illustrated in figure 1, the cws measures clients’ positive affective career state as a hedonic subjective facet of career well-being. the cws also measures eudaimonic facets of well-being relating to clients’ psychological feelings of career meaningfulness and self-efficacy in receiving social support in their careers (coetzee, 2021a). well-being scholars advocate the combination of hedonic and eudaimonic facets in a measure of well-being (lent & brown, 2008; marsh et al., 2020). eudaimonic processes are seen to serve as key routes by means of which people achieve and sustain hedonic well-being (lent, 2004; lent & brown, 2008). in agreement with the arguments of lent and brown (2008), the cws’s basic proposition is that by feeling supported in achieving goals and making career progress, and feeling that one has the social networks, resources, skills and experience needed to find new employment, accompany feelings that the chosen career is interesting, valuable and meaningful, and that it contributes to a bigger life purpose. these intrinsic positive socio-emotional psychological states represent self-concordant autonomous career motives that engender feelings of general career well-being (coetzee, 2021a). in this regard, general career well-being alludes to a long-term psychological state of subjective well-being generated by individuals’ current career situation in lieu of the anticipated future career context (coetzee, 2021a). research shows that individuals’ positive perceptions of, and feelings of contentment or satisfaction with their current career-life serve as positive socio-emotional psychological conditions that engender certain self-regulatory behaviours in career adaptation processes (steiner & spurk, 2019; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). research by coetzee (2021a) further shows that career well-being activates adaptive readiness in clients even when faced with adversity. accordingly, it appears that the cws may be a useful tool in career development intervention that focuses on helping clients cope with the challenges of the 2020s digital-era covid-19 pandemic world of work. application of the career well-being scale as a career development tool as a career development intervention tool, the cws may potentially function as a motivational mechanism to engender a sense of work volition or autonomy. that is, the cws may help to facilitate a sense of agency and freedom to realistically set and enact desirable, self-concordant career goals despite the barriers and constraints on careers and decent work resulting from the impact of the covid pandemic. work volition is an important source of well-being and has been associated with positive affect and job satisfaction (kwon, 2019). a basic premise of career well-being is that career behaviour is autonomous or volitional, and regulated by the self rather than external contingencies. high levels of autonomous, self-regulated behaviour are positively associated with greater energy and vitality, creative learning and engagement, lower stress and well-being, and rewarding social connections (weinstein, przybylski, & ryan, 2012). self-concordance theory (sct: sheldon & elliot, 1998) offers an explanation of the extent to which the measurement of career well-being by means of the cws may help engender autonomous career behaviour and by implication work volition. self-concordance theory posits that goals driven by autonomous versus controlled motives result in higher levels of goal accomplishment. self-concordant goals stem from individuals’ core values and interests; the goals are based on autonomous (intrinsic) motives and are pursued because the individual regards the goals as personally important and interesting which generally contributes to feelings of greater satisfaction and well-being (downes, kristof-brown, & judge, 2017). on the other spectrum, controlled motives involve goals that are driven by extrinsic-driven motives that often include feelings of anxiety and obligation (downes et al., 2017). in the career context, the turbulence and uncertainty of employment and decent work caused by the covid-19 pandemic may derail the pursuit of personal values-driven career goals (high work volition; self-concordant intrinsic motivation). individuals may focus on having employment for basic needs satisfaction and economic survival purposes (low work volition; non-self-concordant extrinsic motivation). people pursuing goals with controlled motives generally tend to feel themselves in the grip of forces to which they do not give full assent, with low career well-being and low work volition as a consequence (downes et al., 2017). research shows that autonomous goals are more likely to be achieved than controlled goals because they flow from the intrinsic alignment with personal values and interests (judge, bono, erez, & locke, 2005). in this regard, the measurement of clients’ career well-being may help to identify enabling and derailing intrinsic socio-emotional psychological conditions that negatively impact the client’s sense of work volition and autonomous career goal motivation. the cws facet of positive affective career state alludes to positive hedonic emotions flowing from psychological states characteristic to feeling satisfied with conditions instrumental to the achievement of autonomous career goals (coetzee, 2021a). high scores on the cws point to important enabling psychological conditions of career well-being such as feeling positive that one is making progress towards achieving self-concordant career goals. high scores on the positive affective career state subscale signal that the client is feeling supported in and satisfied with their career progress and growth. the client also feels that they have the necessary resources, skills, and experience to achieve autonomous, self-concordant career goals. low scores on this facet of career well-being point to potential intrinsic motivational derailing conditions such as feeling that one’s career growth is stifled; that one may be in need of greater support and resources to become motivated to learn new skills for achieving career goals. adaptive readiness, work volition, and autonomous career motives may be stifled because of the emotional strain engendered by the perceived lack of resources, skills, and support (coetzee, 2021b). in career development intervention, coetzee (2021b) recommends narrative reframing of negative perceptions about the career to counteract low levels of work volition. states of positive mood and feelings help to decrease the autonomic arousal produced by negative emotions by increasing flexibility of thinking and problem-solving (coetzee, 2021a; reich, zautra, & hall, 2010; tugade & fredrickson, 2004). the cws facet of state of career meaningfulness relates to psychological eudaimonic conditions that facilitate work volition and self-concordant autonomous career motives. high scores on this subscale of the cws signals a positive identification with the career; the client feels that the career is a personal choice, interesting and personally meaningful and worthwhile, and that it contributes to a bigger life purpose (coetzee, 2021a). low scores may point to work volition derailers such as non-self-concordant controlled motives; the client may not personally identify with the career; may feel stuck and that the job or career is not meaningful. low scores may also indicate that the client’s adaptive readiness and work volition is stifled because of the emotional strain about the perceived lack of meaningfulness of the career (coetzee, 2021b). the notion of career meaningfulness is important in experiencing career well-being. research provides evidence that meaningfulness and sense of purpose in life predict psychological resilience in the face of adversity, greater life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing (coetzee, 2021a; lee, cohen, edgar, laizner, & gagnon, 2004; reich et al., 2010). the cws facet of career networking/social support is a eudaimonic state that reflects intrinsic career-enabling socio-emotional conditions that support self-concordant autonomous career motives (coetzee, 2021a). high scores on this facet of the cws indicates confidence in having a network of people that supports one in one’s career, and the self-efficacy to easily reach out to others to help and support one in achieving autonomous, self-concordant career goals. the individual feels confident that receiving feedback from such a network of social support helps them to stay in touch with their personal strengths and areas for enrichment (coetzee, 2021a). low scores may point to the presence of work volition derailers such as a lack of confidence in connecting socially with others to form social networks for career support. the client’s lack of self-efficacy in their networking capability may stifle adaptive readiness, work volition, and the prominence of controlled career motives (coetzee, 2021b). social support is seen as a protective mechanism in coping with stressful conditions (charuvastra & cloitre, 2008; mikulincer, shaver, & pereg, 2003; reich et al., 2010). in the career development space, self-efficacy in reaching out to social networks and support is seen to foster career decision self-efficacy, perceived employability and positive career self-management attitudes and perceptions. research shows that social support promotes the development of optimistic career attitudes that help reduce psychological difficulties in resolving career issues (di fabio & kenny, 2012; jiang, 2017). as a potential career development intervention tool, professional career practitioners could engage with distressed clients in a conversational partnership concerning their anxieties and fears about their careers and employment situation. the cws can be utilised as a supportive diagnostics tool by assessing the client’s career well-being in terms of the three facets (see figure 1). the cws can then serve as a mechanism to help the client make meaning of the career distress. shefer (2018) recommends a narrative career therapy approach when treating issues affecting the well-being of clients. such approach treats the career distress story as a problem-saturated story, that is, an experience that undermines the well-being of the client and that prevents them from living their lives in a manner that fosters the achievement of self-concordant career goals and self-realisation. the problem-saturated story is generally expressed by clients through thoughts, perceptions, and feelings concerning inter alia fears and anxieties about issues such as financial security, job availability and stability, underemployment, unemployment, and conflict about the preferred career path. the client is then guided through therapeutic counselling techniques to re-story the career distress narrative to a preferred story that elicits the self-concordant autonomous career motives and work volition of the client (shefer, 2018). once the preferred story of the preferred career path is clearly defined (and the problem-saturated story diminished in prominence: shefer, 2018), clients’ scores on the cws can be reviewed to identify enablers and derailers of their work volition and career well-being. in-depth exploration of the career well-being facets, measured by the cws, can contribute to the narrative career therapy process by helping to crystallise the preferred career story, and engaging the client in problem-solving and career self-management strategies for decent work and meaningful employment. generally, we suggest that the inclusion of the cws in a career narrative therapy process may help restore clients’ sense of autonomy in facing adversity. a sense of autonomy and work volition is essential for psychological well-being and optimal functioning (radel, pelletier, & sarrazin, 2013). perceived loss of autonomous motivation because of the challenges posed by the post-covid-19 pandemic world of work may be restored through career development intervention such as narrative career therapy and the cws. career development intervention involves conscious guidance toward perceived self-efficacy and competency in solving the autonomy threatening problem (radel et al., 2013). in conclusion, the multidimensional feature of the cws allows for the measurement of three different, and supporting facets of career wellbeing. however, the construct validity of the cws has to date not yet been confirmed. the aim of the present study was therefore to explore the construct validity of the multidimensionality of the cws. should the construct validity of the cws be confirmed, professional career practitioners would potentially be able to confidently apply the cws as a valid and reliable career development tool in various employment contexts. method participants the participants (n = 290) were employed adults in managerial (71%) and staff (29%) level positions. the participants were predominantly employed in the financial and human resources services industry and originated from south africa (70%), europe (15%), and africa (15%). they had tenure of 1 to 5 years (40%) and more than 5 years (60%). the participants included individuals in the exploration phase of their careers (25 to 30 years: 23%) and establishment/maintenance phases of their careers (> 31 to 65 years: 74%). the mean age of the sample was 38.58 years (standard deviation (sd) = 9.34). the participants consisted out of 54% men and 46% women, of which 63% were from a black ethnic origin (including indian, asian and coloured people) and 37% from a white ethnic origin. measuring instrument the cws developed by coetzee et al. (2020) measures three states of career well-being: positive affective career state (6 items: e.g. ‘i feel my career provides me with the skills and experience i need to easily find new employment’); state of career meaningfulness (4 items: e.g. ‘i feel that what i do in my career is valuable and worthwhile’), and career networking/social support state (4 items: e.g. ‘i find it easy to reach out to others to help and support me in achieving my career goals’). the 14 items are rated on a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree). preliminary exploratory factor analysis by coetzee et al. (2020) identified a three-factor structure and high internal consistency reliability of the cws. procedure the professional linkedin online platform was used to collect the data during 2020. participants received an electronic link to the limesurvey 2020 version of the questionnaire via the linkedin platform. responses were captured on an excel spreadsheet and converted into an spss file for data analysis purposes. ethical considerations ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the management of the university of south africa (ethics certificate reference: erc ref#: 2020_cems/iop_014). the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants were ensured and honoured, and participation was voluntary. the participants gave informed consent for the group-based data to be used for research purposes. data analysis descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) were performed by using sas/stat® software version 9.4m5© (2017). results were interpreted at the 95% confidence level interval. results descriptive results as shown in table 1, mean levels of the cws ranged from 5.08 to 5.32 (slightly agree; relatively high). the cronbach alpha coefficients and the composite reliability (cr) coefficients for the overall scale (α = 0.94; cr = 0.94) and subscales were high: positive affective career state (α = 0.91; cr = 0.91), state of career meaningfulness (α = 0.86; cr = 0.85) and career networking/social support state (α = 0.89; cr = 0.89). these results suggested good construct reliability for the cws in the present sample group. table 1: descriptive statistics and bi-variate correlations of the career wellbeing scale. the bi-variate correlations between the three subscales ranged from r = 0.50 to r = 0.66 (p = 0.0001; large practical effect), suggesting lack of multicollinearity among the subscales. rekha (2019) points to correlation coefficients of r ≥ 0.70 among sub-construct variables as indicating the presence of multicollinearity and possible issues of redundancy among scale subdimensions. the three subscales had high correlations with the overall scale (r ≥ 0.78; p = 0.0001; large practical effect), suggesting convergent validity. construct validity of the career wellbeing scale based on the guidelines provided by alarcòn and sánchez (2015), table 2 shows that the ave (average variance extracted) values for the three subscales were above > 0.50 and at an acceptable level. average variance extracted measures the level of variance captured by a construct versus the level because of measurement error. combined, as guided by the fornell and larcker (1981) criterion, the ave values of > 0.50 and the cr values of > 0.70 (shown in table 1) indicates convergent validity of the cws in the present sample. table 2: average variance extracted and squared inter-construct correlations. the discriminant validity among the three subscales was inspected in terms of the ave and sic (squared inter-construct correlations). as shown in table 2, the ave estimates for career networking/social support state subscale was higher than the sic estimates. the results for this subscale suggest good discriminant validity of the career networking/social support state subscale with the other two subscales. the ave estimates for the affective career state subscale was close to the sic estimate of the state of meaningfulness subscale and higher than the sic estimate of the career networking/social support state subscale. these results suggest good discriminant validity of the affective career state subscale in terms of the career networking/social support state subscale. the ave estimate for the state of career meaningfulness subscale was lower than the sic estimate for the subscale in terms of affective career state which suggests some measure of lack of discriminant validity between these two subscales. we tested the discriminant validity among the three subscales further by inspecting the heterotrait-monotrait (htmt) ratio of correlations. the r-studio version 1.2.5019 (© 2009–2019 rstudio, inc) was used to run the htmt ratio of correlations (i.e. to test whether the true correlation between the three subscale constructs differ). table 3 shows that the htmt values were all smaller than 1.00 and below the threshold value of 0.85, and thus provided evidence of discriminant validity (alarcòn & sánchez, 2015; kline, 2011). table 3: career well-being scale – heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations. we first inspected the cws for common method bias because of the self-report, cross-sectional nature of the research design. harman’s one factor test and a one factor cfa was applied to assess for possible common method bias. the harman’s one factor solution of the cws revealed that the cws as a single factor explains only 7.65% of the variance. the one factor cfa, reported in table 4, also indicated lack of model fit with the data. these results indicated that common method bias was not a serious threat to the validity of the findings. table 4: confirmatory factor analysis fit statistics for the career well-being scale. the construct and discriminant validity of the cws was further inspected by means of three cfa models with maximum likelihood estimation: model 1: a one factor cfa was performed, with all items of the scale loading onto one factor. model 2: a second-order cfa was performed, with the items loading onto each of their respective subscales. model 3: a second-order cfa was performed, with items loading onto each of their respective subscales, and the three subscale factors then loading onto the overall career wellbeing factor. the model fit indices are reported in table 4. the fit indices for the one-factor cfa indicated poor model fit: χ2/df = 9.58; root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) = 0.18; standardised root mean square residual (srmr) = 0.09; comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.77. the second and third second-order cfa models had acceptable model fit with the data: model 2: χ2/df = 2.82; rmsea = 0.11; srmr = 0.07; cfi = 0.90; model 3: χ2/df = 2.65; rmsea = 0.09; srmr = 0.05; cfi = 0.96. the aic (akaike information criterion) values indicated lowest estimates for model 3, while the bic (bayesian information criterion) values indicate lowest values for model 2. however, cfa of model 3 was regarded as having acceptable model fit with the data set for the present sample. the path estimates for cfa of model 3 were further inspected to assess convergent validity of the cws. table 5 shows that all the standardised path estimates were significant and above 0.70 (with the exception of item 10 of the state of career meaningfulness factor: 0.57). taken together with the ave estimates that were above 0.50, the results provided evidence of convergent validity of the cws. the three subscale factors had also strong loadings on the overall career well-being construct (> 0.70). table 5: standardised path coefficients of the career well-being scale. discussion the study provided support for the construct validity of the cws as a measure of individuals’ state of career well-being in the present sample. the results corroborated the multidimensionality (i.e. three factors) of the cws, and that the scale has a hierarchical structure (i.e. the three subscale factors can be represented by a higher level factor of career wellbeing). consistent with this observation, the internal reliability for all the subscales and the total scale were high. researchers, thus, can use the measure to obtain a total score complemented with explanatory subscale scores of the overall construct of career well-being. the cws seems to be a useful scale when different facets of career well-being need to be assessed and contrasted for career development purposes. each of the three facets of career well-being, provide specific value for the development of career-related intrinsic socio-emotional psychological conditions that foster career well-being. our results provided support for the theory of career wellbeing postulated by coetzee et al. (2020) and coetzee (2021a). the results suggest that individuals’ career wellbeing can be described by a multidimensional approach which in practice gives more career development information for helping clients restore their work volition and autonomy in career self-management. using the three facets of career well-being in career development intervention provides opportunity for engagement in a narrative career therapy conversation (see shefer, 2018) that helps to determine points of intervention for the crafting of a preferred career story and overcoming perceived barriers to the pursuit of self-concordant career motives and interests. however, the cws may also be useful as a general career development tool in situations where clients require the teaching of effective employment strategies that may be important to help them gain work volition and self-efficacy in finding decent work and employment opportunities (allan, rolniak, & bouchard, 2020). the study contributes to the understanding of career well-being as measure of three intrinsic socio-emotional psychological states relevant to career development by showing that the construct and its sub-facets are manifested in a sample of working adults in the south african, european and african work contexts. this finding alludes to the potential international application of the cws in broad career development contexts across the globe. moreover, the findings indicate the potential for further replication studies by scholars across the globe for further refinement of the construct validity and the testing of the predictive validity of the cws in relation to other career constructs. the multidimensionality of well-being scales as opposed to a single construct has been advocated by scholars (marsh et al., 2020). research shows that groups or countries can obtain identical scores on a single measure of a construct, but display completely different profiles on well-being subdimensions (marsh et al., 2020, p. 3). the multidimensionality feature of the cws is therefore also useful for large scale research on groups in different population, occupational and country contexts. limitations and directions for future research the construct validity of the cws has been supported for the present sample. generalisation to a larger population is beyond the scope of this study. we used self-reported cross-sectional data in our study and causal inferences cannot therefore be made. future longitudinal studies are recommended to test the test-retest reliability and construct validity of the cws in different population, occupational and country contexts. our sample included employed adults. future studies could replicate the research in samples of unemployed or marginalised settings. the construct of career well-being is generally under-researched with the predominant focus of scales being on the construct of general wellbeing (lent & brown, 2008; marsh et al., 2020; steiner & spurk, 2019; wilhelm & hirschi, 2019). the study positions career well-being as a construct that needs to be uniquely studied in the contemporary career development space. the study provided evidence of the cws as a potential reliable and valid tool for researchers interested in understanding individuals’ career well-being. a better understanding of the extent to which the career-relevant socio-emotional psychological states of affect, meaningfulness and networking/social support influence individuals’ perceptions about their career-related well-being may be useful in career development intervention aimed at helping clients restore their sense of autonomy and work volition in times of adversity. the multidimensional feature of the cws can help advance research related to career well-being by facilitating an understanding of how multidimensional career well-being profiles vary between individuals and groups. further longitudinal research may also help to track change in career well-being dimensions as a result of career development intervention or employment context change over time. conclusion this study contributed to the career development research literature by validating the usefulness and multidimensionality of the cws. notwithstanding the study’s limitations, the findings indicate that the cws has good psychometric qualities, is brief, and can be easily administered to small and large groups of people. although, further research is needed to support the application of the cws in career development intervention, we expect that the cws will be useful to clients in career counselling situations that deal with career distress. future research on the cws will also allow researchers to contribute to the debate on the nature of career well-being in the post-covid 2020s turbulent world of work. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed to the conceptualisation and writing of the research article. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [m.c.], upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akkermans, j., richardson, j., & kraimer, a. 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(2012). the index of autonomous functioning: development of a scale of human autonomy. journal of research in personality, 46(4), 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.03.007 wilhelm, f., & hirschi, a. (2019). career self-management as a key factor for career wellbeing. in i.l. potgieter, n. ferreira, & m. coetzee (eds.), theory, research and dynamics of career wellbeing (pp. 117–138). cham: springer nature. abstract introduction background literature review methodology results: findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) roy venketsamy department of early childhood education, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa lucas chauke department of early childhood education, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa keshni bipath department of early childhood education, faculty of education, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation venketsamy, r., chauke, l., & bipath, k. (2021). transitioning through management change: the experiences of community learning centre educators. african journal of career development, 3(1), a20. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.20 original research transitioning through management change: the experiences of community learning centre educators roy venketsamy, lucas chauke, keshni bipath received: 28 june 2021; accepted: 18 sept. 2021; published: 11 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: when public adult learning centres (palcs) were transferred to the department of higher education and training and renamed as community learning centres (clcs), educators increasingly experienced insecurity about the continuity and stability of their employment. objective: this article, which aimed to address this gap, presented a multiple case study design within an interpretivist paradigm. drawing on kurt lewin’s three-stage theory as an underpinning theoretical framework, we explored the educators’ experiences and the effects of the transitioning. method: data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 6 african male teachers between the ages of 35 and 50 years. results: our findings suggested that educators became anxious and insecure regarding their jobs. they became aggrieved because they were not consulted on or communicated with regarding the transitioning and management change in the clcs. educators experienced dissatisfaction, disillusionment, stress, confusion and depression and feared for the loss of their jobs because of the change in work environment and management. conclusion: recommendations that the departments of education should ensure that employees have a sound knowledge and understanding of the issues of transition and change management were implied. consultation, communication, training and development should have been planned for all educators affected by the transitioning to avoid stress and anxiety amongst employees. keywords: transitioning; management change; community learning centre; educators; lewin. introduction transitioning through management change occurred when public adult learning centres (palcs) were transferred to the department of higher education and training (dhet) and renamed as community learning centres (clcs) in april 2015. much has been written on the extent and nature of changes in the world of work and the impact of these changes on workers’ and prospective workers’ well-being (urbanaviciute, udayar, & rossier, 2018). workers struggle to deal with transitions and many of them feel traumatised by the change. yateem and docherty (2014) and rundell (2007) agree that transitioning is the passing or passage from one place, condition or action to another or the development, evolution or progression from one state to another. transition is therefore the process of changing from one situation, form or state to another. the concept of ‘transition’ is synonymous with change, move, migration, transformation, conversion, alteration, changeover, shift or switch (holscher, wittmayer, & loorback, 2017; waite & hawker, 2009). according to fox and combley (2014:1953), ‘transition’ is a change to a new state or the start of using something new. in this article, transition refers to the changing or moving of palcs from the department of basic education (dbe) to the department of higher education and training (dhet). turner (2017) claims that change management is a term often used in an organisation to refer to all approaches employed to prepare and support individuals, teams and organisations. to ensure appropriate change, sidikova (2011) articulates that change management or transitioning aims to apply an organised and efficient approach to ensure that employees affected are fully aware of the need for change in management. change is inevitable in any organisation. the smooth transitioning in an organisation is dependent on various factors: the need and necessity for change, employee wellness, communication and consultation and the effects of change on both the employees and the organisation. this study investigated transitioning through management change. the experiences of clc educators in the tshwane south district in gauteng were probed to answer the specific research question: how did educators experience the transitioning through management change from dbe to the dhet? background in gauteng, the palcs were managed by the dbe for several years until the end of march 2015. on 1 april 2015, the palcs were transferred to the dhet, and the nomenclature was changed to clcs (dhet, 2018). the dbe initially managed palcs and was responsible for its management and governance tasks. these centres were responsible for offering level 1 (grade r-2), level 2 (grade 3–5), level 3 (grade 6–8) and level 4 (grade 9) education, as well as an opportunity to rewrite grade 12 (dbe, 2002). the ministry of education decided to reorganise the entire adult education sector, thus transferring the responsibilities from the dbe to the dhet (2012). the reason cited for this is that the basic education sector is responsible for basic primary and high school education (sasa, 1996). the higher education sector is responsible for post-schooling education at tertiary level and carries the hopes of many adults and youths for the redress of education deprivation (dhet, 2012). thus, educators and centre managers are responsible for assisting adults and youths to achieve their dreams of being educated through palcs. this transition from the basic education sector to the higher education sector had come with numerous changes and challenges. some of these relate to policy imperatives, nomenclature, roles, responsibilities and delegation of authority. various critics, fox and combley (2014), assert that many organisational changes turn out to be unsuccessful because of the failure of the organisation to implement transitioning smoothly, thus causing employee dissatisfaction and insecurity. accordingly, career development theorists, researchers, practitioners and policymakers are challenged to rethink and post-modernise the theory and practice of career development (duarte, 2017; guichard, 2013; hartung, 2015; maree, 2013; savickas, 2015). querto (2017) argue that organisational change should be carefully managed from the beginning of the project throughout the implementation process until the organisation is stable or until it reaches the refreezing stage (lewin, 1951). the transitioning of employees from one sector to another should ensure that employees are satisfied and do not feel insecure and they have been consulted and are aware of the transition. literature review effects of management change on educators organisations that need to be successful in implementing transitioning through management change must recognise the social aspect of the employees. slack, corlett and morris (2015) articulate that an organisation has a social responsibility to its employees. the organisation must ensure and recognise employee morale, retention and wellness. change has been an integral part of both human and social development (akinbode & shuhumi, 2018); therefore, management plays an important role in this change/transformation. to successfully initiate and implement change, there is a need for diligence and skilfulness from the part of organisational leaders. were (2014) states that change is about altering organisational practice, structure, culture, policy and regulations. it is about becoming different or having a different form. the transitioning from the dbe to dhet addresses the issue of organisational practice, structure, culture and policy. green (2019) states that transition or change without proper consultation with the employees may have negative effects on employees’ wellness, attitude and commitment towards work, thus causing resistance. senior management should lead organisational change and involve employees through communication to reduce their fears and uncertainties. involvement of employees at the early stages of transitioning eliminates resistance to change (swarnalatha & prasanna, 2013). radical change threatens the job security and economic freedom that employees enjoyed before the transition from the dbe to the dhet (boikhutso, 2013). transitioning through management change is an issue that every leader, employee and management should deal with daily for them to cope with change (raziq & maulabakhsh, 2015). green (2008) maintained that organisations of the future must show their commitment to becoming caring organisations. the postmodern workforce requires more collaboration, emotional intelligence and worker participation to enhance employee motivation and commitment. employees must be committed to the transition, as the employers’ expectations are to continue providing a good service to the clientele by raising their performance level higher and changing their attitudes and behaviour at the same time (green, 2019). motivated employees should drive successful change; therefore, it is the responsibility of the dhet, as the employer, to keep employees motivated to provide the best educational service with minimal disruptions or resistance to change (sidikova, 2011). when fear is reduced, employees become energised and embrace change and performance levels increase. employees find new reasons to go along with management as they experience new opportunities, learn new tasks and overcome challenges (white, 2016). mosia (2011) argues that educators’ response to change is closely linked with the way the transitioning process is managed and affected. the transitioning through management change of clcs from the dbe to the dhet is no exception. department of higher education and training should handle the implemented change with care and sensibility. change can be either passive or active. response to change is met with ambivalence, because there are those embracing it, but on the other hand, those who are angry and frustrated, because they are not aptly informed (clasquin-johnson, 2011). although reform can also become an opportunity to realise novel career prospects (the probability or chance for future success in the profession) (gotsil & meryl, 2007), some respond by ignoring, resisting, adopting or adapting and accepting the change (ferreira, 2016). chetty (2015) asserts that policymakers fail to collaborate with educators and do not avail themselves to obtain full co-operation bearing in mind moral purpose. chetty (2015), clasquin-johnson (2011), mosia (2011) and mugweni (2012) and found that a definite hindrance to successful curriculum implementation is a lack of resources; furthermore, insufficient professional training of employees hinders transitioning and acceptance of novel ideas. educators become resistant to change and become stuck in their old, secure ways because they have to make a quantum leap to be able to cope with the new proposals (mugweni, 2012). they may ignore change because of a gap between policy and implementation (dhet, 2002; hudson, hunter, & peckham, 2019). according to chetty (2015), educators interpret change diversely. whereas some silently resist change, some openly oppose it and treat it with animosity. transitioning through management change requires strategic planning and sensitivity as educators may become resistant when observing any threat to their freedom and personal parameters (jalagat, 2016). mosia’s (2011) findings correspond to those of shonubi (2012) who believes that educators and centre managers become hostile to change the moment their comfort is threatened in the course of management change. a lack of motivation and uncertainty about the future, because of management change, often dampens the spirit of educators to perform at their optimal level (shonubi, 2012). chetty (2015) corroborates with drake and sherine (2006) who assert that the level of educator experience and supportive training influence their willingness to adapt to change. educators might even embrace the change and go with the proposed suggestions (chetty, 2015). educators adopt change through varying degrees, depending on the available resources, their understanding of the transition, the type of educators and the time they need to adjust to the transition (shonubi, 2012). this study investigated how educators and centre managers adopted or adapted to the transitioning through the management change and how they experienced migration of clcs from the dbe to the dhet. bellah and dyer (2007), chetty (2015) and mugweni (2012) assert successful adaptation to change pivot on educators’ acceptance and recognition of the existing challenges and willingness to face initiatives proposed by the dhet to develop their abilities by considering their unique needs. if educators can overcome the fear of change (dhet, 2006), they can enter the information-seeking phase and successfully adapt to the transition. the study further investigated how educators and centre managers ignore, resist, adopt or adapt to the transitioning through a management change and their experiences of the transition of the clcs from the dbe to the dhet. the need for job satisfaction and security the importance of the work environment in employee satisfaction cannot be underestimated. raziq and maulabakhsh (2015) in their research cite vroom (1964) and spielgler (1938) who state that job satisfaction is an orientation of emotions that employees possess. job satisfaction is an integrated set of psychological, physiological and environmental conditions that encourage employees to admit that they are satisfied in their work environment. various factors, namely, working conditions, roles and responsibilities, accountability, autonomy, organisational structure and communication between employees and management, affect employees’ job satisfaction and security (lane, holte, & anne, 2010). sanera and eyupoglub (2015) state that our work environment is undergoing a major shift. factors such as globalisation, growing economies and improved and advanced technology are constantly presenting new challenges, thus creating insecurities amongst employees. hamlin (2020) asserts that job security is a sense of assurance that employees will remain employed for the near future – or at the very least until they decide that they are going to move on. job security means that employees are confident that the employer will take into consideration their wants and needs. job insecurity is defined as the perception of a potential threat to continuity in an employee’s current job. according to ashford and bobko (1989) cited in jimenez and didona (2017), insecurity causes a reduction in commitment and reduces satisfaction in the work environment. it was also found that job insecurity decreases job performance and increases job stressors and physical symptomatology according to rosow and zager (1985) cited in jimenez and didona (2017). lastad (2015) argues that the perception of job insecurity is, therefore, associated with performance decrease and an overall reduction in organisational citizenship behaviour. dissatisfied and less committed employees are less dedicated to the organisation and its goals, thus having a negative effect in its social atmosphere. staufenbiel and konig (2010) and lastad (2015) revealed that it is suggested that job insecurity has a predominantly harmful effect on performance, turnover intention and absenteeism. it is therefore important that an organisation, according to mosley (2020), consulting with employees fosters good relations as well as improving productivity. this will also create a conducive environment whereby employees will experience job security and satisfaction. theoretical framework one of the most influential planned approaches to managing change is that of lewin (1951), who described the three stages of change as unfreezing, changing and refreezing (see figure 1). lewin’s three-step change theory was used to gain insight and understanding of the experience of educators transitioning from the dbe to the dhet. the theoretical framework of lewin was applied to this study by focusing on transitioning through a management change and investigating the experiences of the clcs’ educators from the dbe to the dhet. figure 1: lewin’s change model. according to lewin (1951), the first phase of unfreezing is characterised by a change of preparedness, prior learning, behaviours and assumptions that are not applicable anymore (aravopoulou & malone, 2016). because this status quo is challenged and broken down, the stress associated with change is extremely likely to be observed. the second stage is the transition for employees from their current to the new state. dissatisfaction, apathy and negative emotions, caused during the previous stage, motivate employees to change. finally, the third stage is that of refreezing, in which change is permanent. employees adjust to their new conditions as new beliefs, attitudes and behaviours are established. for this to materialise, old behaviours, attitudes and beliefs ought to be discarded. stage 1: unfreezing authorities, senior managers and line managers from both the dbe and dhet are responsible for preparing the mindset of the educators (employees) for the transition to ensure that subordinates are ready for transitioning from dbe to dhet. the subordinates are encouraged to do away with the old behaviour and thinking. unfreezing of the organisation assists in overcoming the forces of resistance to change. stage 2: change or moving when transition occurs, there is normally panic and confusion amongst the educators (employees) whilst the authorities execute the intended transition. during this change or moving stage, educators align themselves with the expected changes (turner, 2017). authorities persuade or convince subordinates that their old way of behaviour is not advantageous to the organisation; they need to change. authorities share the transition process with all stakeholders for buy-ins. the desired change is implemented in this stage. stage 3: refreezing the authorities now solidify and convince the educators to accept the transition. a new mindset is instilled in the educators so that they do not revert to their old way of thinking and behaving. once there is a signal that change has been accepted, the momentum of acceptance should be sustained and reinforced. reinforcement ensures that the transition or change is permanent. lewin’s theory proposes three stages for educators to move from the current state to a desired or anticipated future state. a failure to implement one stage may cause imbalances, and the affected educators may resist the transitioning. the theory made implementers of change aware of the need to communicate change clearly. they could then win subordinates’ buy-ins, execute the transition according to plan and the drivers of change as the leaders aligned with change and demonstrate that they had a serious desire for the change. lewin’s change management theory helps account for both the uncertainty and resistance to change that can be experienced at all staff levels within an organisation. the benefits to the lewin model are obvious in that it is the simplest model out there. this makes it easy to plan around, especially in organisations not accustomed to the science of change management. at the same time, it does try to minimise the difficulty with opposition by addressing its head-on (hussain, lei, akram, haider, hussain, & ali, 2018). lewin’s change model is still frequently used in organisational change. also in team building trajectories, it is an excellent method to bring about a mentality change amongst employees and creating awareness of the advantages of change. methodology research design a qualitative approach was utilised employing interpretivism as meta-theoretical paradigm, thereby recognising that individuals’ reality is socially constructed in multiple ways and cannot be objectively determined (kelliher & menezes, 2011). interpretivist research is concerned with understanding social phenomena by exploring participants’ actions, perceptions and experiences in contextual depth, within their social contexts (basit, 2010). interpretivism recognises that values and facts cannot be separated and thus that the social world cannot be understood in terms of objective truths. in following this epistemological framework, we thus considered the experiences of the participants aiming to gain insight into their subjective experiences and understandings regarding the transition, within their unique social environments and contexts (kelliher & menezes, 2011). population the population of the study was the employees of the department of education. participants of the study were six african males, aged between 35 and 50, purposefully selected from three centres in tshwane south district in gauteng. two participants from each of the three centres were invited to a focus group interview. a purposive sampling strategy was used to identify the participants and research sites (mcmillan & schumacher, 2014). the criteria for selection were that all educators had to have more than 3 years of teaching experience at a clc and must have experienced transitioning of management change from the dbe to dhet and be willing to participate. research instrument a semi-structured interview questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. it composed of open-ended questions. the open-ended questions allowed the researcher to probe further into the experiences of educators and their attitudes and feelings of transitioning through management change from the dbe to the dhet. data collection and analysis data were collected through a qualitative questionnaire. all the data were audio recorded to ensure transcription was free from misinterpretation (lewins & silver, 2007). after the collection of the data, the author used the guidelines described by creswell (2014), namely reading through the data, dividing the data into segments of information, labelling the information with codes, reducing and overlapping the redundancy of codes and collapsing the codes into themes. the transcribed data were cross-checked and compared with audio recordings to ensure trustworthiness and credibility (maree, 2017). the content of the data was analysed and presented in a descriptive format with verbatim quotes from the participants. the flexibility of qualitative research analysis allowed the conversion of raw data into the credible findings of the study (okeke & van wyk, 2017). ethical consideration permission of the study was granted by the university of pretoria ethics committee. the researcher adhered to the ethical principles of informed consent, confidentiality and privacy, honesty and openness, access to findings and avoiding harm as described by vanclay, baines and taylor (2013). informed consent was obtained from all participants and the ethics committee of the faculty of education from the university of pretoria. anonymity was explained and applied as agreed between participants and the researcher (creswell, 2013). the research was open to participants and interviews were recorded with the consent of the interviewees. the author also explained that withdrawal from the study was possible at any time. pseudonyms and anonymity were used to conceal the identity of participants. the codes ea, eb, ec, ed, ee and ef were used for the educators from the three centres. trustworthiness was ensured through treating the participants with the utmost respect throughout the study and aspiring to develop trustworthy relationships built on honesty and transparency (christensen, burke johnson, & turner, 2015). results: findings and discussion the experiences of clc educators were categorised into two broad themes, namely: (1) educators’ knowledge and understanding of transitioning and management change and (2) educators’ experiences of the transitioning from the dbe to the dhet and its effects. verbatim quotes are used as evidence in the results. this section presents findings that emanated from the participants’ responses using the semi-structured interview questions regarding the transitioning from the dbe to dhet. educators’ knowledge and understanding of transitioning through a management change when the participants were asked about their understanding of transitioning and management change, the responses varied significantly. some of the participants were aware that changes in an organisation are inevitable; however, most of the participants in this study had a limited understanding of what transitioning between the dbe and dhet actually meant to them as employees. participant ea mentioned: ‘management change is about having new managers in the work environment.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) when the author probed further and asked the participant’s understanding of ‘transitioning through management change’, he responded: ‘transitioning is about transformation of an organisation.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) he further went on to say: ‘it is about moving from one department to another.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) according to ec and ef their understanding of management change is when an organisation decides to appoint someone new into a leadership position within the organisation. regarding transitioning through management change, ef indicated: ‘it is when employees move from one department to another.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) according to lewin’s theory, transitioning is the first stage of change management, whereby employees have knowledge and understanding of the issues of change or transitioning from one organisation to another. on the other hand, management change is a logical activity for preparing the institution to implement ongoing environmental changes in business operation; it is a deliberate approach to move the institution forward (boikhutso, 2013; onyango, 2014). management change deals with long-term strategic activities and sudden changes of the governance of the institution that need to be changed, to improve the productivity level of the employees or by complementing the existing systems of the organisation. onyango (2014) states that management change can support new working culture and a set of values in any management area. in this study, management change is synonymous with change management. regarding their understanding and view of the transitioning from the dbe to dhet, the participants responded as follows. participant eb stated: ‘we are moving from the dbe to dhet. it is when we have to change employers.’ (eb, educator, 07 august 2017) both ed and ee were in agreement with eb. they felt that they did not understand why they needed to move from dbe to dhet. they were uncertain as to how the change would affect their jobs, their conditions of employment and whether they would be addressed as educators or practitioners. participant ef indicated that: ‘when we are employed [by] the dhet, we are under the new minister of education. we will now belong to tertiary education. i think the department is seeing the adult learner as a university study. they do not realise that the adult learner cannot read or write. we are teaching them basic education and not higher education.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) the responses of the participants clearly indicate ambivalence. according to lewin’s change management theory, employees need to understand the reasons for change fully. communication and advocacy are critical issues that need to be well articulated to all employees before any change or transition can happen (turner, 2017). the interviewed participants had different views on the transition from dbe to dhet. participant ea viewed: ‘the transition as a wake-up call to educators and the change to dhet can bring new challenges, changes and developments to the sector, which can affect us.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) participant ec thought that: ‘adult education was not correctly placed in education system and viewed the change was too quick to be implemented.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) he further stated: ‘this transitioning is making me nervous and very stressful.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) to this ed added: ‘transition or change is a process, not an event that takes place over-night. it is important that the department of education should consult us about this management change.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) ea interjected and said: ‘we should know what is happening in our workplace, because it affects us as employees. now, i am not sure how my job description is going to change when we move to dhet. this can be very stressful and unsettling for us as educators. what do we tell our adult learners?’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) deghetto, russell and ferris (2017) agree that quick changes in an organisation can be unsettling to existing employees, causing considerable uncertainty, conflict and stress. they recommend that the change or transition must be managed carefully to avoid resistance from employees. educators’ experiences of the transitioning from the department of basic education to the department of higher education and training and its effects regarding their experiences of the transitioning of management change from the dbe to the dhet, participants expressed their ambivalence. ea stated: ‘i am very nervous and uncomfortable with this change. we were not well informed why we had to change from dbe to dhet.’ (ea, educator, 07 august 2017) according to ec, he was concerned about his job description as an adult educator. to this ef added: ‘management change is about having new managers, are we going to have a new head of the centre who will now change our job description? what are we going to be called when we are under the management of dhet? are we still educator?’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) eb voiced his opinion: ‘the change could be a positive, and we will be working with a new group of people. we can learn from them.’ (eb, educator, 07 august 2017) ee agreed: ‘sometimes change can have a positive effect on us as employees. we may get opportunities for career movement and upward mobility.’ (ee; educator, 07 august 2017) jalagat (2016) thinks that unplanned change often happens when there is a sudden and surprising event or conditions that make the employees react in a disorganised fashion. this change can be unsettling and create anxiety amongst the employees. change management requires careful planning, implementing a concrete action plan and involving everyone in the organisation who are affected by these changes (laurentiu, 2016). the participants commented on the consultation process of the transitioning from the dbe to dhet with mixed feelings. ef indicated: ‘we were not consulted about this change. one day our principal came to the staff room and informed us that we are moving from dbe to dhet. when we asked what the reasons were, he told us that the department officials would speak to us. that was the end of the discussion.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) ea and ed agreed that they too were not well informed or consulted regarding the transitioning. participant ec differed from the others indicating: ‘we were informed that there was going to be a move from the dbe to dhet, however, they did not ask for our views or opinion. the officials from the department of education arrived, told us what they wanted to and left. we did not have time to engage in a discussion.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) most of the participants agreed that they did not contribute to the transitioning from the dbe to dhet. they all felt that they were not respected and recognised as employees of a major organisation. bucăţa and rizescu (2017) argue that communication and consultation between employer and employees are essential. good communication and consultation are central to the management process and assume critical importance when dealing with changes in working practices and procedures. lewin (1951), in his model of change, agrees that employers need to consult with employees regarding changes in an organisation. without proper consultation, any form of change could be met with insecurity, resistance and lack of commitment to their work. although the transitioning from the dbe to the dhet did not affect the job descriptions of educators, many educators strongly indicated that these issues should have been clearly communicated with them. they felt that the department of education is behaving autonomously. all the participants agreed that they are not receiving the desired support from the dhet regarding the transitioning. however, participants ea, ee and ef said that they were glad that their job descriptions, roles and responsibilities, salary structure, employment status and security were not affected by these changes. however, eb, ec and ed indicated, ‘if only the department was open with us, we would not have experienced such stress and anxiety for months’. there must be open communication between the employer and the employee. beattie and ellis (2017) agree that as a management tool, communication intends to establish good interpersonal relationships that are non-confrontational based on the achievement of common goals. the role of open communication is to facilitate relationships between people to establish an environment beneficial to the organisation (bucăţa & rizescu, 2017). with reference to management change, all the participants agreed that change is inevitable. because the process of transitioning from the dbe to dhet did not affect their conditions of employment, participants agreed to embrace the change. participant ec stated that as educators: ‘we decided that we must not be against change, so we should follow the rules and regulations.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) moreover, participant ed stated that: ‘we are trying to comply with what is being required by the department.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) according to lewin (1951), when employees embrace change, they begin to anchor the change into their culture’. employees need to be ‘provided with support and training’ to ‘celebrate success. the findings highlighted the gap in communication and consultation between employer and employees. most educators do not have access to information and rely on their centre managers to provide feedback as articulated by eb and ec: ‘we at the lower end of the education structure have to wait for information from our managers. most of them do not report to us immediately. it sometimes goes for weeks before we have a staff meeting and then told about labour issues.’ (ec, educator, 07 august 2017) ef also indicated: ‘in my centre, the centre manager is not very open to share information with staff. only certain members of the staff are aware what is happening between the department and the centres. it is very frustrating for people like us who are in the classroom.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) it is therefore recommended that appropriate platforms should be created through technology, whereby educators can retrieve information on the organisation’s decision. management needs to communicate and consult with employees at all levels (koivula, 2009). gotsil and meryl (2007) state that communication and consultation are not a once-off assignment; they should be repeatedly reinforced to educators for them to adjust and accept change. educators should not only rely on verbal communication from centre managers. in the case of transitioning, another gap that most educators experienced was insecurity and apathy in the work environment. ed and ee stated that at their centre, apathy towards education is observable. there is a lack of enthusiasm amongst staff because of changes that are happening. ed was vocal when he said: ‘i am left in the dark, i feel overwhelmed and anxious whether i have a job or not.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) according to artz and kaya (2015), job security is one of the most important and powerful job characteristics in determining job satisfaction. when employees find security in their jobs, they are willing to go the extra mile to perform optimally (botha, marishane, van der merwe, van zyl, & zengele, 2016). it is therefore recommended that the department officials communicate openly with educators to ease any tension or anxieties about their transitioning from the dbe to dhet. when the participants became aware that their roles and responsibilities, job descriptions and salaries were not affected by the transitioning, they experienced a level of security. job security is recognised as a very important and highly valued attribute for a worker. ef said: ‘if we know that our jobs are not on the line, then we can work with much ease and comfort. we will give off our best to our adult learners.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 2017) the unfreezing stage in kurt lewin’s (1951) theory needs strong communication strategies for all stakeholders to accept and adjust to change. this will encourage staff members to abandon their old behaviour and develop a new one (malek & yazdanifard, 2012). because of the lack of knowledge and understanding of the transitioning process, most educators at the clcs were reluctant and unwilling to accept the transitioning. the educators were disillusioned, dissatisfied, confused and depressed by the migration from the dbe to the dhet. the voices of eb, ed and ef clearly articulated their knowledge and understanding of the transitioning process: ‘i have no idea why we are going through this process of change. i don’t see the reasons why an organisation like the dbe must move us to dhet. we are still working with learners, what is the difference?. the dhet is responsible for universities and fet colleges. what does clc have to do with higher education? if we move to dhet, then we will not get the same privileges as teachers. i really don’t know what is the difference between employees at universities and clc. this is very depressing and confusing to us level 1 educators.’ (ed, educator, 07 august 2017) it is therefore recommended that training and development workshops are organised to inform educators on the reasons for the transitioning to the dhet. they should also be trained and developed concerning the organisational culture and environment (bowe, 2011). they should be informed of the new laws, policies and operating procedures to minimise any confusion that may prevail. ferreira (2016) states that training is often seen as a planned and systematic process of learning in the sense of acquiring, modifying or developing knowledge and skills and abilities of employees for an intended job function. in this instance, educators needed to be fully capacitated to fit into a new organisational culture. the importance of a stable work environment cannot be overemphasised. the findings in this study clearly indicated that the transitioning from the dbe to dhet has created much dissatisfaction and apathy amongst clc educators. this finding mirrors the findings of bucăţa and rizescu (2017) research on the role of communication in enhancing work effectiveness of an organisation. educators felt insecure as ef indicated: ‘… not knowing if you have a job is frightening and very stressful.’ (ef, educator, 07 august 1997) green (2019) proposed that employees must be consulted and kept abreast with information in an organisation. in this study, most of the participants stated that they were given information on a ‘need to know basis’, which further heightened their discomfort in the environment. the fear of the ‘unknown’ has become overwhelming to the participants causing much work place stress. in their study, raziq and maulabakhsh (2015) foregrounded that job satisfaction plays an important role in employees’ performance. the participants in this study clearly highlight the high stress levels and anxieties they experienced with the transitioning from the dbe to dhet. limitations of the study the study adapted a purely qualitative approach as the interests of the investigation lay in the depth of the experiences and feelings held by participants who underwent the transition in management change. the study cannot be generalised and would benefit from a mixed method strategy, which would validate the qualitative findings in his article. the study could also be performed amongst other institutions that underwent transitions. conclusion all employees in an organisation are seeking job security and satisfaction during these trying times. the ability to change frequently and rapidly is a requirement for survival. an organisation like the department of education that intends to implement transitioning from one sector to another should seriously consider planning for change. consultation, communication, training and development should have been planned to avoid stress and anxiety amongst employees. when educators are empowered with the knowledge and understanding of their conditions of employment, job security, job satisfaction, respect and consideration, there would be minimal to no resistance to change. transitioning from one sector to another would have been a smooth process. because unmanaged transitions led to insecurities, employee disengagement and disenchantment, transition management must rank as a key decision-making skill that would be needed in the years to come. the need for a paradigm shift towards providing opportunities regarding online training for managers in the dhet and the dbe on transition and change management has become more urgent. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the university of pretoria department of early childhood education, where this study was undertaken. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interest. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akinbode, a.i., & shuhumi s.r.a.a. 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(2014). transition: a concept of significance to nursing and health care professionals. journal of nursing education and practice, 5(5), 35–40. https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v5n5p35 abstract introduction background and context theoretical framework: the heteronormative world of work research methods and design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) rauna k. haitembu department of applied educational sciences, faculty of education and human sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia emilia n. mbongo department of applied educational sciences, faculty of education and human sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia anthony brown department of educational psychology, faculty of education, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation haitembu, r.k., mbongo, e.n., & brown, a. (2023). the job interview experiences of a namibian transgender teacher graduate in pursuing employment. african journal of career development, 5(1), a94. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v5i1.94 original research the job interview experiences of a namibian transgender teacher graduate in pursuing employment rauna k. haitembu, emilia n. mbongo, anthony brown received: 03 may 2023; accepted: 03 july 2023; published: 23 aug. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: previous research about transgender people’s workplace experiences has confirmed intense levels of discrimination and prejudice. there is a particular silence on trans people’s experiences in the job interview. objective: the objective of this study was to explore how transgender people are dealt with in job interviews. method: this single case-study approach explore the experiences of transgender youth in presenting for a job interview. an in-depth semi-structured interview was the primary data-collection method. content analysis was applied to the data and yielded a discussion focusing on the various job interview experiences affecting perceived discrimination, career aspirations and personal well-being. results: this study describes how selma, a transgender woman, was subjected to overt discrimination based on her gender expressions considered incongruent with expected norms. her feminine voice and mannerisms resulted in her being ridiculed and humiliated during the interview process. in some instances, the interview process was interrupted in a hostile manner to confirm whether she was a man or a woman or to pressure her to speak like a man. this study suggests that the namibian labour market insists on compulsory cis-heteronormative embodiment. conclusion: this study calls for awareness training about transgender people and workplace inclusivity. it also recommends that employers develop and implement a post-interview feedback tool to explore invited interviewees’ experiences. contribution: this study highlights how job interviews, as an entry requirement to the job market, are riddled with prejudices, stereotypes of and discrimination towards transgender people. keywords: transgender; cisgender; heteronormativity; job interview discrimination; gender stereotypes; career aspirations. introduction for many people, the excitement of university graduation is soon replaced with the desperation to secure employment (augart & liebel, 2022; tamang & shrestha, 2021; van lill & bakker, 2022). job-seeking and subsequent job-interview processes are stressful experiences in themselves. these processes may be even more stressful and complex for transgender graduates as they navigate their professional selves and their non-conforming gender expression in a cisgender-compulsory world (see bryant-lees & kite, 2021; everly et al., 2016; lecroy & joshua, 2019). transgender people are individuals who have adjusted their gender identity in different ways, to live as the ‘opposite’ gender to what they were assigned at birth (suárez et al., 2022). these transformations could include surgical interventions, cross-sex hormone therapy and/or altering gendered appearances and behaviours (köllen, 2018). in contrast, cisgender individuals are those people whose gender identity matches their biological sex (köllen, 2018). transgender people living in societies that valorise and reproduce cisgender identities and expressions are punished for their so-called deviation. the discrimination experienced by transgender people is called transphobia. this bias is motivated by a force of revulsion or ignorance that a person is transgender and the aversion to interacting with them (hill, 2002) or failure to acknowledge them as the gender they wish to be recognised as. international literature about transgender people’s workplace experiences confirms intense forms of undisguised transphobia (dray et al., 2020; johnson et al., 2022; kyaw et al., 2022; verbeek et al., 2020). transgender people in the netherlands were found to earn a significantly below-average salary, lower than that of their cisgender counterparts (geijtenbeek & plug, 2018). in india, transgender employees reported organisational neglect and a lack of professional growth (mustanski & liu, 2013). the transgender workforce in australia suffered transphobic behaviour by others, physical and sexual abuse, persecution and intimidation from colleagues (irwin, 2002). transgender people in the united states reported prejudices with promotion applications (grant et al., 2011) and biases in dismissal decisions (badgett et al., 2007). these studies illustrate that a person’s gender identity, more so for those of gender minorities, has a remarkable impact on their employment experiences. in examining the landscape of gender diversity in the african continent, a concerning pattern emerges regarding the silence surrounding transgender workplace experiences. this silence can be attributed to a combination of repressive laws and pervasive social attitudes towards non-heteronormativity. many african countries still have laws that criminalise same-sex relationships and transgender identities, creating a hostile environment for individuals to express their gender identity authentically (human dignity trust, 2020). these legal barriers perpetuate discrimination and exclusion in the workplace, as transgender individuals often face invisibility, harassment and limited employment opportunities. while emerging literature on the international front explores the employment experiences of the transgender labour force, it has barely broached the subject of transgender people seeking employment, specifically their interview experiences. transphobia during hiring processes is often the result of negative stereotypical views that transgender people are at greater risk or display higher levels of mental ill-health, suicide ideation and human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) infection (bockting et al., 2013; drydakis, 2017). transgender people could be undermined and seen as not suitable or less productive for the labour market (fontanari et al., 2019). consequently, hiring discrimination could lead to higher levels of unemployment among gender minorities. this study provides insights into the interview experiences of a new teacher-education graduate in namibia, who identifies as transgender, while pursuing employment. background and context it is, therefore, worth exploring research about transgender people pursuing employment and workplace experience in a country such as namibia, which is perceived to be an egalitarian society but which, in practice, may not affirm or protect minority sexual orientations and gender identities (venditto et al., 2022). othered sexual and gender identities lie at the centre of socio-cultural and political contestations because of the unrepealed colonial law, known as the combating of immoral practices act of 1980 that criminalise same-sex sexual acts between males (brown, 2019; haitembu & maarman, 2022). in hindsight, by suspending the enforcement of the sodomy law, namibia seems to pave the way for promoting inclusivity. however, the lack of political will to scrape these redundant laws hampers the fostering of social acceptance that could ultimately create a more equitable and just society for all its citizens (brown, 2019). at the time of writing this article, the supreme court of namibia passed a judgement that recognises same-sex marriages concluded abroad to a foreign spouse (igual, 2023). this landmark ruling has shed light on the importance of equality, dignity and inclusivity, challenging societal prejudices and fostering a more tolerant and accepting society. at present, the unintended consequence of this judgement deepened the divisions within namibian society, with some individuals and groups supporting and celebrating the decision (de vos, 2023) as a step towards equality and inclusivity, while others vehemently oppose it, citing religious, cultural or moral objections (matthys, 2023; nakashole et al., 2023; shinovene, 2023). as the authors concluded the writing of this article, there are heightened social tensions and conflicts that may risk the safety and well-being of namibians identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (lgbt) (thomas & karuuombe, 2023). these developments demonstrate that it is not uhuru (freedom), yet for the lgbt community in namibia, social justice is still a distant reality. since namibia’s independence from apartheid south africa, its former colonial ruler, there is no existing namibian law that prohibits the embodiment of non-heterosexuality. however, the presence of colonial sodomy laws still shapes the impression that all non-heterosexual identities and expressions are illegal in this country (office of the ombudsman, 2013). this results in systemic discrimination towards all identities that fall outside the normed heterosexual constructions in all ecologies including the workplace (the other foundation, 2017). neighbouring south africa implemented a post-apartheid constitution that affirms diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. it also explicitly granted labour laws such as the labour relations act (1995), the basic conditions of employment act (1997) and the employment equity act (1998) that guarantee protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identities (luiz & terziev, 2022; rosvall et al., 2020). on the contrary, the only law in democratic namibia that directly protected the labour rights of diverse sexual orientations, act no. 6 of 1992, was repealed because of persistent political homophobia and transphobia (brown, 2019). there also remains a resistance to the legacy apartheid law act no. 81 of 1963, sex reassignment policy, that permits gender reassignment surgery or identity change (the other foundation, 2017). the reason could be that another inherited apartheid law, the prohibition of disguises, act no. 16 of 1969, was adopted to prohibit crossdressing (the other foundation, 2017). democratic namibia, however, maintains umbrella equity laws that guarantee freedom, fairness and respect to all citizens (npc, 2004). these laws prohibit discrimination of its citizens based on diversity. for instance, sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.3 of the vision 2030 state that ‘all namibians who are able and willing have the opportunity to be gainfully employed or have access to productive resources’ and ‘enjoy the fruits of unity in diversity’, respectively (npc, 2004:16). considering the repeal of the aforementioned labour law, and with it, its provisions on the protection against discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of sexual orientation, the acclaimed diversity discourse in namibia seems a farce concerning inclusivity. it is apparent from these contradictory pieces of legislation that diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are not included in namibia’s construction and protection of diversity. in general, there is very little knowledge of the interview experiences by transgender people when seeking employment. it is challenging to identify and document debates on the presence or absence of job interview discrimination (pager, 2007). one reason for this is that it remains unreported in many instances. amid the prevalent repressive beliefs about non-heterosexuality in various social ecologies in namibia, it is important to raise awareness of discrimination based on a person’s gender expressions. emerging sexuality research in namibia (see brown, 2017, 2019; haitembu & maarman, 2022) is relatively limited to the social experiences of people of sexual orientation and gender minorities. for this reason, we are interrogating the employment-seeking experiences of a transgender individual, with particular attention to the job interview process. theoretical framework: the heteronormative world of work the atmosphere in the workplace is fundamental to the social and personal well-being of employees, as they spend much time at work. a welcoming and inclusive work environment may result in increased levels of job satisfaction and productivity (köllen, 2018). inclusivity and diversity are buzzwords in many organisations’ mission statements and inclusive work policies. workplaces that are open and accepting lead to all employees being able to participate in all areas of work, in turn leading to job satisfaction and emotional well-being (tran 2021). however, many workplaces lack inclusivity, and research indicates that heteronormativity is constantly reinforced through clear and subtle boundaries (everly et al., 2016). holmes (2019) argued that heteronormativity is one of the most long-standing and enduring hierarchical social systems that define what is normal regarding binary gender norms. in many societies, those who exhibit even the slightest deviation from the so-called standard are stigmatised (link & phelan, 2013). this reinforcement of beliefs and practices is also adopted in the workplace. many researchers have documented the numerous challenges that transgender individuals face daily. köllen (2021) maintained that heteronormative environments promote stereotyping. similarly, corlett et al. (2022) stated that in some organisations, transgender employees are not taken seriously by colleagues. furthermore, corlett et al. (2022) contended that heteronormativity is exhibited in many workplaces through regulations, norms and interactions between employees, as well as the choices people make about the way in which they express and discuss their gender. people whose behaviour or appearance does not meet normed gender expectations are frequently the targets of discrimination or harassment, for instance, men who appear ‘too feminine’ or women who behave ‘too masculinely’. similarly, hollis and mccalla (2013) reported that gender-diverse individuals encounter workplace bias, stigmatisation, discrimination and bullying. correspondingly, brown and diale’s (2017) study of lgbt student teachers at a south african university reported having experienced stigmatisation while out at school-based learning activities (teaching experience and observation). heteronormativity positions heterosexuality as the norm and determines what is typically expected from those believed to be heterosexual; those who deviate from the norm are positioned as ‘others’ (corlett et al., 2022). as a result, too often discrimination, harassment and even exclusion from jobs result from these perceived binary notions of gender and sexuality (heise et al., 2019; thepsourinthone et al., 2022). challenges at work for non-heterosexual people include issues such as feeling uncomfortable with the dress code expected for people of a particular sex and moderating one’s mannerisms to conform to expectations (corlett et al., 2022; goldberg et al., 2021). therefore, heteronormativity significantly influences how transgender employees and job-seekers are treated. heteronormative workplaces could lead to less job satisfaction and productivity for transgender employees and affect their emotional well-being. research methods and design this study aimed to conduct an in-depth exploration of the experiences of transgender people in pursuit of employment, specifically during job interviews. a qualitative single case-study approach was followed. this approach provided rich data that may be analysed and interpreted in depth to provide an understanding of the lived experiences of the participants; in this case, a trans youth seeking employment (selma, a 24 year old graduate) and, through this, a deeper understanding of the situation (gaya & smith, 2016). the primary data collection method was a face-to-face semi-structured interview that lasted for approximately 1 h. the sensitivity of the investigation motivated the use of this method, which enables a participant to describe their experiences clearly (denzin & lincoln, 2003). content analysis was applied to the data and yielded rich insights into the experiences of the participant and what they mean for her career aspirations and personal well-being. extensive verbatim quotes have been included in this study to support the findings (khayatt, 1992). although this article describes a single case study, the data are derived from a larger study on southern african perspectives of gender violence towards gender-non-conforming and transgender people, including the lived experiences of trans people in namibia. ethical considerations although this study describes a single case study, the data are derived from a larger study on southern african perspectives of gender violence towards gender-non-conforming and transgender people, including the lived experiences of trans people in namibia. ethical approval for the wider study was granted by the university of johannesburg (sem 2-2020-172). the participant was a former student of first and second authors and was approached to participate in the larger study. the participant signed a consent form that guaranteed confidentiality and allowed her to withdraw from the study at any given point should she wish to. results this study intended to bring an understanding of the realities of career choices and job-seeking experiences of transgender university graduates. the data analysis in this article draws on the experiences of selma (a pseudonym) during the job interviews she attended. selma is a transgender woman who has not yet had her sex description or name altered in the birth register; therefore, when applying for jobs, she is forced to use her birth name and other information on her official identity document, which still reflects that she is male. the discussion that follows focuses on the discrimination that selma perceived in job interviews, which has affected her career aspirations and personal well-being. we acknowledge that no single study can ever capture the totality of job-seeking and workplace experiences for transgender people. considering the literature on the work life of trans people, we could not locate any study that focused on their interview experiences in the namibian context. selma’s experiences, are therefore highlighted as an insight into what transgender people may experience during job interviews. the job interview process is a significant component of the employment process, as it is usually the first in-person exposure to a prospective employer, often in the form of a panel interview. it is at this meeting that the panel may speculate on the perceived gender and/or sex ‘misalignment’ of a transgender interviewee. selma hinted at this by noting that she would be invited to interviews based on her curriculum vitae (cv), but it was at the interview stage that she experienced discrimination: ‘it was hopeless trying to get a job. i explored the job market upon my graduation. you know, i would be invited to interviews. i took it that my cv must have impressed them, hence i was invited to the interviews.’ selma drew our attention to the overt inferior treatment she received, based on her deviation from orthodox hegemonic masculinity. once the panel picked up on her effeminate voice, their interview questions invasively interrogated her gender. selma explained how her experiences of being scrutinised in interviews discouraged her in her efforts to seek a teaching position: ‘i found that the interview panel members wouldn’t take me seriously. i don’t know whether they knew me or if it was my female tone of voice or my girly mannerisms that made them treat me differently. i participated only in seven interviews and lost interest based on how i was treated. i know some people could attend 40 before they get a job.’ in conversations with other interviewees for the same position, she learnt that her interview experience did not match theirs – it was curtailed and less thorough than others: ‘the interviewees for the post would always ask each other question afterwards on how they responded to certain questions. i was surprised to discover that i was asked only a few questions as opposed to other straight applicants. my time for interviews was seemingly shorter.’ selma mentioned how she encountered ridicule and humiliation during the interviews, as the interview panel members were more interested in enquiring about her gender identity. she further indicated that it was difficult for her to articulate herself properly, as the interview panel members were judgemental of her mannerism during the interview sessions. the panel pressured selma to explain her interest in teaching and created the impression that she was inferior and needed to apologise, and therefore not a ‘proper’ candidate for the profession: ‘in almost 80% of my interviews, they wanted to know if i am a woman or man. they would ask what my interest in teaching is. they would even ask, “why are you talking like that?” i became so discouraged during the interviews. all i could do was to apologise for my behaviour.’ the stereotypical discrimination selma experienced during the job interviews, based on her gender expressions, made it clear to her that her job opportunities were limited, which reduced her career aspirations and expectations: ‘during my third interview at one high school, an interview panel member stopped me and shouted, “can you talk as a man!?” i didn’t continue with the interview. i don’t know if the guy knows me or something, but he just told me, “talk as a male teacher”. i stood up and left after i decided not to continue with this humiliation. … during all the interviews, they would promise to call and give the outcome. they never called back.’ these pervasive interview experiences are unavoidable, despite selma’s efforts in the negotiation, self-surveillance, conformation and moderation of her gender identity, for example, by wearing clothing traditionally worn by men or sporting a ‘male’ hairstyle. the fact that transgender people must ‘manage’ their identity during interviews highlights the oppression they experience: ‘i was always reminded that interviews are formal so i couldn’t wear female clothing as i was classified as a male teacher. i just had to look like a male. i was desperate to get a job and i know [dressing] like a female would disqualify me. i am sure i wouldn’t even be allowed to enter the interview room.’ ‘i would even cut my hair to fit the male image, as my lecturers always insisted that i wear the formal clothes for male teachers during school-based studies.’ selma’s passion to work with children was sparked by her mother: a role model in the teaching profession. however, the lasting impressions during her job interviews resulted in a disconnection between her vision and the actual treatment she received, ultimately causing resentment for the profession. these feelings emanate from the interview experiences that selma is not a ‘proper’ teacher and would not be considered for any related employment: ‘mom is a teacher. the way she loved her children, i just loved the admiration of her towards the children, it was just perfect, and i loved it. her love for kids made me to love kids! that is what made me fall in love with teaching. i believe i would be a good teacher too. after this these horrifying interview experiences, i don’t think i am interested in it anymore. although i love teaching, i’m done seeking for a job.’ my mother encouraged me to try another interview. i lost all interest and decided to try another field. she conceded defeat and ultimately registered for a different study programme so that she may pursue a different career path. she hopes that her new career interest will be smoother for gender and sexually diverse identities than the teaching career she originally aspired and successfully studied towards: ‘i feel like i have wasted three years of my life on campus. i worked my butt off for this diploma and nothing pays off. i got the qualification but then i’m here, unemployed. i now registered for accounting and finance. others told me transgender people are better accepted in that environment and you can live freely. i know transgender people who are working in this career, yah, especially in banks and stuff.’ she directly attributed her difficulty to secure a teaching job to the fact that she is transgender, as evidenced by the following statement: ‘i know [i] did not get a job because i’m transgender, i’m different’. discussion the process of career development and attainment is influenced by the individual’s systems (school, society, community, etc.) and their interactions within these systems (e.g. with peers, parents and other community members) (köllen, 2018). the content analysis showed how selma experienced overt discrimination in recruitment and hiring, specifically during the interview process. her narrated job interview experiences were marked by prejudice, uncertainty and (un)recognition. this section discusses how perceived incongruent expressions in a static and essentialist gender environment during the interviews compromised selma’s employment opportunities. transitioning from university into a world of work had turned out to be a distressing experience for selma. these data support previous literature (see bryant-lees & kite, 2021; everly et al., 2016; lecroy & joshua, 2019) stating that although a candidate’s resume may meet all the requirements for a given post, the interview process subjects the person to recruitment and hiring biases. selma’s conflicting transgender traits (e.g. her effeminate voice and mannerisms versus her male clothing, haircut, and official documentation) led to her being devalued, ridiculed and stigmatised. during job interviews, she received unequal treatment from her fellow graduates. all these factors effectively penalised her in her search for potential employment opportunities. selma was no longer measured according to her competence for the job in question but by her ‘anomalies’ in gender expression. these findings correlate with a study by drydakis (2015), in which people of minority gender identities were reported to have been the subjects of direct discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice based on the expression of their gender. persistent heteronormative embodiment requirements affected selma’s chances of securing employment. one can infer from these findings that the socially required orthodox hegemonic gendered expressions within certain careers and their attitudes about diverse gender identities monopolise employment opportunities in namibia. selma was subjected to invasive interrogation about her fitness for the teaching profession, while in other instances there was a direct regulation and mockery of her ‘transgressive’ gender expression. namibia’s brutal legacy of intolerance to othered identities, infused with colonial beginnings, has directly thwarted selma’s potential and her future. prior research (e.g. rosvall et al., 2020) validates the findings that bias seeps in during job-hiring interviews and becomes inevitable when panel members detect any deviation from cis-heteronormative expressions. it is apparent that the insistence on cisgenderism in environmental-societal systems (von bertalanffy, 1968) has led to limitations for selma during job interviews. in certain instances, selma was not given a chance to respond to all questions to demonstrate her competencies that would allow the interview panel members to make an informed judgement of her abilities. moreover, this could be interpreted that the interview panel members unanimously found that she was unsuitable to be hired. the prohibition of discrimination in the namibian labour laws has been deliberately ignored during all of selma’s interviews. while these legal statutes on labour as promulgated by the national public commission (npc, 2004) clearly state that all namibians who meet job requirements (through their qualifications, experience and level of training) should be given a fair opportunity to gain employment, selma’s interview experience demonstrated otherwise. despite selma’s holding the required qualification, the assailing and hostile treatment during the interviews was based on her inability to perform acceptable hegemonic masculine expressions. the persistent repertoire from the interview panel members to persuasively confirm whether she is a woman or a man is indicative of the normalisation of only cis-heteronormative gender identities being recognised in the namibian labour market. these job interview experiences resonate with previous findings (brown, 2019; haitembu & maarman, 2022; the other foundation, 2017) that the dominant heteronormative namibian communities hold distorted perceptions and stereotypical attitudes towards disenfranchised diverse sexual and gender identities. however, the ‘disciplinary production of gender affects a false stabilisation of gender in the interests of the heterosexual construction and regulation of sexuality within the reproductive domain’ (butler, 1990:135). often overgeneralised, negative and inaccurate stereotypes (allport, 1954) about transgender people in africa have resulted in fatalities, gruesome violence and social rejection (human dignity trust, 2020). the questioning of selma’s interest in teaching could be seen as an overgeneralised stereotype that teachers who identify as lgbt are at risk of being socially framed as unsuitable for the teaching profession (msibi, 2019) because they are assumed to have the potential to sexually molest learners (ferfolja, 2007). this misconstrued view could influence the selection process and presentation of questions to the transgender job applicant. in the case of this study, selma was not even granted the standard courtesy of communication regarding the outcome of any of the interviews she attended. environmental factors such as financial security have an influence on individuals’ seeking or keeping a job, even if they are not satisfied with their career choice (kyaw et al., 2022). even though selma was not comfortable with the hostility and discrimination showed towards her during the interviews, her socio-economic background forced her to remain positive in seeking employment. other researchers (e.g. chen & zhou, 2021; goldberg et al., 2021) have also reported struggles with optimism and decreased motivational levels emanating from the interview experience. stereotyping has been reported to influence the career paths of transgender individuals (köllen, 2021). however, one can endure these pressures only so much before seeking alternatives. the hopelessness and despair that selma felt discouraged her from seeking a teaching position and caused her to register for a different study programme altogether, even though this will take years to complete. selma hopes that the new course she registered for to be more friendly towards gender-diverse people than the teaching career she originally aspired to and studied for. this view is supported by goldberg et al. (2021) and rosvall et al. (2020), who stated that transgender people choose careers they think will be more accepting of them than others. individuals who are subjected to discrimination when job seeking are far more likely to consider changing careers to ones in which they feel safe. choosing a career that one does not identify with could have an influence on the future job satisfaction of the individual and lead to work-related stress (stark et al., 2020). selma’s sombre exploration of an alternative career path could have long-term implications for her socio-economic stability. selma still (or once again) finds herself in the career-exploration stage, while in theory she could already have established her career alongside her cisgender peers who graduated at the same time as her and are now employed. consequently, selma will start working at an advanced age, which could compromise her life ideals and goals. these financial implications might lead to stress that could affect her well-being later in life. conclusion the objective of this study was to explore how transgender people are dealt with in job interviews. while previous research has explored the workplace experiences of trans people, very few studies have been conducted on transgender job applicants’ experiences during interviews. the results of this study have important implications for research and practice in the field of career development for transgender individuals in namibia and beyond its borders. it is argued that the residue of the unrepealed colonial sodomy law in namibia continues to perpetuate and reinforce the unequal citizenry of non-heteronormative identities. consequently, present archaic colonial laws fuel unquestioned and acceptable institutionalised values of injustice and discrimination towards citizenry of diverse gender and sexual identities in namibia. we found that selma’s ‘transgressive’ gender expression during the interview process produced doubts in the minds of the interviewers, causing them to disregard and disrespect her professional capacity for employment opportunities. while there is no law in democratic namibia that prohibits the embodiment of diverse gender identities, the reversal of the only labour law that protected sexual and gender diversity signals that not all people are recognised in the workplace. the different interviews that selma attended demonstrate that employers were hesitant or even unwilling to hire a trans person, probably owing to the pervasive misconceptions about non-heteronormativity. namibia will have to unequivocally ‘unsilence’ its citizenry of diverse genders and sexualities, as cis-heteronormativity affects every aspect of their lives. beyond namibia, the study illustrates the interview discrimination faced by trans people in intensively cis-heteronormative environments. if transgender individuals cannot perform the common expressions of heteronormativity in the world of work, during the interview process in particular, this could limit their chances of finding employment. furthermore, the discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice that selma was subjected to during the interview process – an often-stressful period of transition from university to workplace opportunities – indicate a need to change the stigma around transgender individuals and communities’ attitudes towards them. job interview panels need to be reminded to set aside their prejudices and exercise impartiality towards all candidates, including people of diverse gender identities. other parts of the world, where laws prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, may be held up as examples of best practices. it is perhaps time for employers to develop post-job-interview feedback mechanisms to elicit interviewees’ experiences of the processes that could reduce discriminatory behaviour during interviews. recruitment units should develop mandatory training to sensitise employers about the lives of people of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the authors have collectively conceptualised and developed the full manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability all data will be made available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references allport, g.w. 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(1968). general system theory: foundations, development, applications. braziller. abstract introduction goals of the study research methodology rigour of the study synthesis of the findings the pandemic as a multifaceted shock to career construction for students the identity construction of young people challenged by the global pandemic the pandemic as a threat to identity coping with threat to identities coping strategies through career counselling activities to support meaning making models of career counselling and guidance interventions supporting the development of these coping strategies limitations of the study implications for research, practice, policy, and future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) valérie cohen-scali national institute for labor studies and vocational guidance, conservatoire national des arts et métiers, paris, france whitney erby lynch school of education, boston college, chesnut hill, united states of america citation cohen-scali, v., & erby, w. (2021). the development of coping strategies for young people to construct their identity in times of the covid-19 pandemic. african journal of career development, 3(1), a38. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.38 review article the development of coping strategies for young people to construct their identity in times of the covid-19 pandemic valérie cohen-scali, whitney erby received: 13 may 2021; accepted: 31 aug. 2021; published: 20 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the global coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has had a major impact on young people across the world. many students struggle to complete their studies amidst the pressure of the pandemic and have many difficulties constructing their identity and career which is crucial at this period of life. an overview of the main effects of the pandemic on their identity and career development is presented. objectives: the first objective is to highlight the challenges faced by youth regarding their identity and career development, particularly the challenges induced by the covid-19 pandemic. the next objective is to explore different strategies that may be implemented to ameliorate the effects of the career shock induced by the pandemic. lastly, the goal is to propose career guidance and counselling interventions that professionals may utilise to help young adults to cope with the career-related consequences of the covid-19 pandemic. method: this article was informed by an overview of the current psychosocial literature. relevant literature was reviewed and critically analysed. it was also informed by the review of an empirical experience with a group of students who kept diaries during pandemic confinement periods. results: the analysis resulted in three sets of psychosocial strategies that youth can develop in order to face the difficulties associated with the covid-19 pandemic. each set of coping strategies is related to a specific career intervention that may be implemented by career guidance and counselling practitioners. conclusion: to support the development of adaptive coping strategies for the youth, career and counselling professionals need to address the three main types of challenges that are described. keywords: covid-19; identity; coping strategies; career interventions; students. introduction young people, particularly students from many countries around the world are suffering from the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic and the confinement that it has produced (akkermans, richardson, & kraimer, 2020; blustein & guarino, 2020). not only have young people had to deal with the uncertainty in which they are immersed, but they have also been confronted with disruptions to their personal and professional lives (blustein et al., 2020; mariot, mercklé, & perdoncin, 2021). this upheaval in their professional lives has been defined as a career shock, which is described as: [a] disruptive and extraordinary event that is, at least to some degree caused by factors outside the focal individual’s control and that triggers a deliberate thought process concerning one’s career. (akkermans, seibert, & mol, 2018, p. 4; see also akkermans et al., 2020) the covid-19 pandemic presents several aspects of a career shock for the youth, especially for students, many of whom have been forced to re-consider their career choices (belghith, ferry, patros, & tenret, 2020). students have been forced to change their lifestyles, to convert to on-line studying, and to relinquish their internships in companies both domestic and abroad. career shocks can influence the way people manage their careers and make decisions about their future. like other transition situations (anderson, goodman, & schlossberg, 2011), career shocks can have short-, mediumand long-term effects that are difficult to predict, but which are not necessarily negative. on the contrary, they can induce positive effects, constitute opportunities and lead to changes for a more satisfying life. thus, it is also possible to associate the effects of the pandemic with epiphanies, described as ‘interactional moments and experiences (that) alter the fundamental meaning structure’ and ‘leave marks on people’s lives’ (denzin, 2014, p. 52). the covid-19 pandemic may be called a major professional event for some people, given that it is ‘touching every fabric of … life’ (denzin, 2014, p. 53). nevertheless, this major professional event can destabilise a well-established and long-standing career system in some way. this is the case for many students who have a well-established professional project or those who work in the restaurant or cultural sector and who can no longer work because of the suspension of these activities. these situations also underline that a career is a complex psychosocial construct, as underscored by the chaos theory of careers (bright & pryer, 2011). this theory underlines that careers are dynamic and complex open systems that are very sensitive to changes and that predictions about what is going to happen next are very difficult to draw. the life design approach highlights the place of identity as a psychological regulator when many changes appear in people’s lives. the major psychological activity of ‘self constructing’ (collin & guichard, 2011; guichard, 2009) and of ‘career construction’ (savickas, 2011) recognises identity as a fundamental resource that supports career development (pouyaud, 2015). goals of the study firstly, the goal of the study is to identify the main psychological and social effects of the pandemic on the career choices and career paths of young people in france and the united states. the guiding explorative research questions are as follows: to what extent might the covid-19 pandemic make identity construction more difficult and how might young people react? secondly, a goal is to discuss various global coping strategies that may be implemented by young adults to manage the career shocks induced by the pandemic. thirdly, we aim to examine the role of career interventions in supporting young adults in their self-construction in this specific context. research methodology the methodology was based on two processes. firstly, we conducted a brief, adapted qualitative review of the psychosocial literature related to identity and career development in social crisis situations. groups of papers that were examined possessed the characteristics that are relevant to the phenomenon studied (booth, 2001). subsequently, the findings were integrated and synthesised, using the following procedure: the abstracts for material from a number of databases were identified. we started by engaging in a systematic reading of the abstracts using the terms ‘covid-19’, ‘identity’, and ‘career development’. we simultaneously searched articles and book chapters in both french and english from a wide range of sources. we assessed the data and removed duplicate sources when necessary. then, after reading the articles, we determined the appropriateness of each source, before incorporation into the corpus. general inclusion criteria were sources addressing (1) identity, (2) career development, (3) students (4) crisis. exclusion criteria were articles not related to these thematics. an empirical based method has also been implemented in order to capture the students’ perception of their situation. indeed, this synthesis has been enriched by the implementation of a photobiographic diary conducted with a group of 7 masters’ students at a university in paris, during a 1-month confinement period in france in november 2020. each student volunteer was asked to keep a daily photo diary. the instructions given to them were as follows: ‘take a photo each day that corresponds to your current mood and write a few lines to describe your feelings at this moment’. the students kept the daily photo diary for 1 month. afterwards, content analysis of the diary photos and writing was conducted. this work helped to identify the main psychological difficulties that the students experienced and the main coping strategies that were developed in order to address them. this experiment had a status of confirmatory analysis (booth, 2001). rigour of the study each step of the study was rigorously conducted. the main content of this study was first presented at the online cannexus congress (cohen-scali, 2021) to career counselling practitioners who made comments and provided feedback regarding their own professional experience. their comments and suggestions have been considered to improve and clarify the present study. synthesis of the findings in this first section, the main psychological effects of the pandemic on young adults are described. in the following section, we explore the ways in which the pandemic may be associated with an identity threat for youth, and the coping strategies that emerge as a result. the third section outlines the connection between these coping strategies and the career counselling interventions needed to develop them. we conclude briefly with a reflexion on the challenges associated with the construction of innovative career counselling interventions. main psychological effects of the pandemic on young adults the covid-19 pandemic can be analysed as a career shock for the youth that might affect their identity construction in diverse ways. the pandemic as a multifaceted shock to career construction for students this section highlights the different facets of career shock induced by the pandemic for young people, particularly in france and the united states. since the covid-19 pandemic began, many young people in some vocational training courses most affected by the pandemic (tourism, catering, hospitality, culture, etc.) were not able to complete internships or apprenticeships in a company. the absence of these corporate experiences makes it impossible to develop hands-on professional and organisational socialisation, which is central to allowing students to learn about the world of work and refine their professional projects. indeed, organisational socialisation is the process by which an individual learns the ‘ropes’ of an organisational role and develops the knowledge and skills necessary to assume this role (van mannen & schein, 1979). it allows individuals to move from being an ‘outsider’ of the company, to being a participatory and effective member (feldman, 1976). this activity involves the search for information, social interactions with professionals, and the development of adaptive strategies (morrison, 1993). during these internship experiences, newcomers initiate organisational identity work, which refers to how individuals shape a sense of self vis-à-vis their environment (kreiner & murphy, 2016, p. 278; see also kreiner, hollensbe, & sheep, 2006) which leads to the development of the aptitude to build organisational identities and to move from one identity to another. more generally, these corporate activities help young people to move into adulthood and influence professional identities in construction. they can be considered as rites of passage promoting autonomy, responsibility, self-confidence and can thus help youth to become adults (mortimer & shanahan, 2003). corporate immersions include a didactic dimension by enriching academic teaching, offering opportunities to learn differently, through observation and action (glaymann, 2015). many young people in education and vocational training have seen their training trajectory become destabilised. moreover, the pandemic has resulted in the impoverishment of young people in both france and the united states, because of numerous job losses, in particular odd jobs for students. more than 700 000 salaried jobs have been lost in france, particularly in sectors in which young adults work such as hotels and restaurants, sports and leisure, and tourism. at the end of 2020, the unemployment rate for young people in france rose to 28%. additionally, 36% of students in france have had their paid activity interrupted (belghiti et al., 2020). in the united states, the unemployment rate for workers between the ages of 16 and 24 was 25.3% during the peak of the pandemic in april 2020 (bls, 2020). many young people who have no social support resort to social assistance, charities, and ngos for basic necessities such as food and shelter. furthermore, most young people are unsettled when it comes to plans for the future. this additional income not only played an economic role for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, allowing them to meet their basic needs, but these jobs also had an important role in the construction of professional identity (finch, mortimer, & ryu, 1997) fostered adaptability (monteiro & almeida, 2015) and commitment in work (sortheix, dietrich, chow, & salmena-aro, 2013). another facet of the career shock is linked to the switch to distance learning. this situation does not allow students to fully experience the status of being a student and does not allow student socialisation and the development of the ‘student profession’ (coulon, 1997). in france, the socialisation of students varies according to the universities (orange, 2017; paivandi, 2015). mutual aid between students, the presence of teachers, support systems for students who experience difficulty (tutoring, additional training in the methodology, education support, etc.), as well as social, cultural, and union activities that are irreplaceable for a successful integration into the university, have been almost completely cancelled. in addition to this lack of socialisation, which is particularly felt by undergraduate students, distance education carried out without sufficient preparation does not always offer good learning conditions. in some regions of france, 25% of students do not have a working computer and only 17.6% have access to a stable, fast, and unlimited internet connection (martin & paye, 2020). in the united states, a recent survey revealed that more than 9 million school children do not have consistent access to reliable internet facility at home (des, 2018). this is particularly true for students from lower-income backgrounds. in these conditions, it is difficult to follow the lessons and to do teamwork. a survey carried out in france at the start of the pandemic in april and may 2020 (mariot et al., 2021), showed that 36% of young people aged 18–24 reported that they never leave their homes (compared to 25% of the total population). about 46% of students have moved to new housing accommodations and have returned to live with their parents. similarly, in the united states, the percentage of young adults aged 18–29 living at home with at least one of their parents has risen to 52%, which is the highest level recorded since the great depression (anderson & kumar, 2020). these different elements, as well as the fear for their health and that of their relatives have led many students in both france and the united states to develop psychological distress. many of these students suffer from social isolation, especially foreign students. young people aged 18–30 were the category of the population most affected by the loss of social relations (46.4% against 37.2% amongst 37–45-year-olds) (mariot et al., 2021). moreover, a portion of students claim that they feel exhausted (35%), feel psychological distress (31%), despondency or sadness (28%), and discouragement (16%) (belghiti et al., 2020). there is also an increase in alcohol consumption and addictions, especially to drugs and to video games. during the pandemic, social ties have been more difficult to maintain, whilst support from relatives and the mobilisation of support networks remains particularly crucial. a consequence has also been that one in four young people in france (belghiti et al., 2020) had to modify their professional or training plan or wish to stop their studies. of these young people, 8% of them wish to find new training opportunities or are looking for a new career choice and 4% plan to interrupt their studies following confinement. additionally, some students have questioned the relevance of their projects. specifically, 45% of students are pessimistic about their professional integration possibilities. students in the united states have had similar experiences. a study of us college students found that 13% of students who were surveyed reported that they delayed graduation whilst 40% reported that they had lost a career opportunity including a job or internship. furthermore, 29% of students reported that they expect to earn less money when they are 35 years old (aucejo, french, araya, & zafar, 2020). clearly, the lifestyles, self-perceptions and plans of young people have been strongly shaken by this pandemic. thus, most young people from the middle and underprivileged classes of france encounter the same concerns as many young people from the countries of the global south, for whom the struggle for survival is daily and who often do not have the opportunity to build projects. we are therefore confronted with a generalised development of the economic and social precariousness of youth. given that youth is a period of life that often involves decisions around vocational choice and labour market integration, the consequences of this crisis have had particularly substantial effects on the professional identity development of young people. the identity construction of young people challenged by the global pandemic identity is structured and organised from childhood and takes shape in adolescence. as erikson explains: [identity formation] begins where the usefulness of identification ends. it arises from the selective repudiation and mutual assimilation of childhood identifications and their absorption in a new configuration, which, in turn, is dependent on the process by which a society (often through subsocieties) identifies the young individual recognizing him as somebody who had to become the way he is, and who, being the way he is, is taken for granted. (erikson, 1959, in mcadams & zapata-gietl, 2015, p. 82) during adolescence, ego is under the pressure of two opposing poles: identity synthesis and identity confusion (erikson, 1968). identity synthesis is a resumption of past and present identifications in a larger set of ideals relating to oneself and determined by oneself. it leads to registering one’s present in an anticipated future. identity synthesis corresponds to the synchronic and diachronic integration of the young person’s seemingly disparate aspects of the self, including their varied and possible conflicting roles, relationships, values, and beliefs. it provides a sense of unity of the self. identity confusion, on the other hand, refers to an inability to develop a coherent set of ideals on which to build one’s adult identity. in adolescence, this sense of continuity and coherence develops, and a set of goals, values, and beliefs emerge that constitute the uniqueness of each individual. in emerging adults (arnett, 2000) and young adults, this process of defining oneself ‘in a certain way’ crystallises under the influence of contexts, experiences, and social relationships. the period of young adulthood is a phase in which relationships of intimacy, partnership and affiliation with others are built up, which allows the emergence of a feeling of belonging to an age group united in a community and sharing a collective culture. subsequently, marcia (marcia, waterman, matteson, archer, & orlofsky, 1993) brought to light the importance of the processes of exploration of oneself and of one’s environment, as well as the role of engagement in activities on identity building. these two dimensions make up four identity statuses: foreclosure, achieved identity, identity diffusion and the moratorium. young people who do not explore their environment and quickly engage in a lifestyle choice or activity have been associated with foreclosure status. moratorium status corresponds to young people who continue to explore their environment for an extended period. identity diffusion occurs when young people neither explore nor engage in a career choice. finally, achieved identity corresponds to a double activity of exploring various professional, ideological, and interpersonal options and possibly making certain commitments (kroger, 2015; mcadams & zapata-gietl, 2015). for meeus (2011), this identity development process has three dimensions: commitment, in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment. the interplay amongst these dimensions captures the continuous identity dynamic. however, the context of a health crisis inducing a restriction of activity opportunities makes it impossible to implement these psychological processes, which are crucial for the identity development of adolescents and young adults. the role of strategies to manage career shock induced by the pandemic these identity development processes may be difficult to implement because the pandemic may generate threats to identity. the pandemic as a threat to identity in many countries, the pandemic situation has led to periods of confinement, that is to say the obligation to remain at home and limit as much as possible movements and interpersonal face-to-face contact. these periods of confinement can be likened to a situation of rupture in the trajectory of many people and in particular young people. if we refer to de gaulejac’s model of social exclusion (de gaulejac & taboada-leonetti, 1994), several factors lead to social exclusion. the first factor is economic. the pandemic crisis has increased employment problems and has created employment uncertainties. individuals whose professional and social positions were fragile before this crisis (informal work, short multi-contract, contract, etc.) may find themselves unemployed, and uncertain if they will be able to resume their jobs after the pandemic. the second factor relates to social ties. the crisis has strained social and family relationships, depriving individuals of social integration into invaluable relational networks. furthermore, some individuals, especially students, can no longer rely on state protection and welfare policies for support. finally, the last factor is symbolic. individuals are often evaluated based on their social utility. people who do not meet these standards are perceived to be of little value to society. these societal demands can lead to feelings of failure and a sense of self-devaluation. these factors form the backdrop for the biographical breaks as a first step in the process of social exclusion. this step is characterised by a loss arousing a strong negative emotion (it can be initiated by the death of a loved one, a loss of employment, a long illness, a sudden disability, a traumatic accident …) that: [t]he individual fails to master or manage emotionally or materially. sometimes she denies the rupture, not accepting reality, sometimes she maintains unrealistic solutions cultivating the fiction of an immediate outcome. at this stage, the rupture is above all psychological. most of the time, the individual stays in his home environment while changing his attitude. it becomes versatile: anger, calm, and despondency follow one another alternately, eroding the image of oneself. (de gaulejac & taboada-leonetti, 1994, p. 118) the types of reactions reported (belghiti et al., 2020; mariot et al., 2021), show that many young people during the pandemic are experiencing such objective and subjective ruptures. in addition, this very first rupture induces a higher sensitivity to further ruptures. indeed, the way in which the initial rupture is managed can lead the individual to be more vulnerable to other difficulties and additional ruptures. each break in life might challenge and weaken the usual functioning of identity. for breakwell (1986, 2001) breaks and abrupt transitions, such as the loss of a job, or feeling constitute threats to identity. to this view, identity has two planes: a content dimension with all the characteristics which define social (group memberships, roles, social categories labels, etc. ) and personal identity (values, attitudes, cognitive style, etc.). the other plane is the value dimension. each element of the identity content dimension has a positive or negative value and corresponds to the affective and emotional aspects of identity (breakwell, 2001). these elements compose the structure of identity and are regulated by two processes. on the one hand, assimilation-accommodation refers to the way in which individuals integrate and interpret new information and incorporate it into their identity. it also includes the subsequent adjustment that takes place so that this information becomes part of the identity structure. on the other hand, the evaluation corresponds to the processes of meaning making and giving value to the elements contained in identity (seeing certain aspects of oneself as positive or negative). moreover, these processes of identity are guided in their operation by four principles that are desirable states for the structure of identity, at least in western societies. these principles vary across the life span and the social contexts: continuity in time and space, uniqueness (or the fact of being distinguished from others) feeling confident and in control of one’s life, and sense of personal worth (jaspal & breakwell, 2014). threats to identity are situations that challenge continuity, distinctiveness, or self-esteem and are the product of social influence processes set into motion by the changing pattern of intergroup and interpersonal relationships in the pandemic context: [a] threat to identity occurs when the processes of identity, assimilation-accommodation and evaluation are, for some reason, unable to comply with the principles of continuity, distinctiveness and self-esteem, which habitually guide their operation. the reason for this obstruction constitutes the threat. (breakwell, 1986, pp. 46–47) job losses, social isolation, the inability to engage in normal social relations, and massive uncertainty about the future can challenge feelings of continuity and coherence, but also the feeling of self-worth. these experiences therefore disrupt the processes of regulating identity. situations of major disruption constitute threats affecting identity processes and principles which then require individuals to develop coping strategies. coping with threat to identities for kastersztein (1990), people living with threats to identity produce specific strategies. these strategies are implemented to overcome difficulties in achieving certain goals, or ‘identity victories’. these strategies are: [i]ndividual or collective behaviours, conscious or unconscious, adapted or unsuitable, put in place to achieve these victories against an adversary who can be oneself, others in concrete interaction, or the social system. (kastersztein, 1990, p. 31) individuals produce strategies related to their perception of what is involved in the situation, the issues, and the perceived goals. individuals who feel a sense of identity threat can pursue three objectives. the first objective is differentiation. differentiation results in psychological processes that lead the person to move towards new behaviours and living spaces, and to invent new dimensions of judgements or evaluations of ways of being with others. the second objective is social visibility. to reach this objective, individuals aim to become visible, or to obtain full recognition of their existence in the eyes of others. they want to have their value recognised to ‘count for something’. the third objective is individuation or singularisation. this objective leads to affirming one’s singularity, or one’s difference through creativity and the production of works. singularisation is a psychological necessity that must be expressed for all individuals, whatever the context. coping strategies to face identity threat are defined as ‘any thought or action which succeeds in eliminating or ameliorating threat can be considered a coping strategy, whether it is consciously recognized as intentional or not’ (breakwell, 1986, p. 79). these strategies can have different targets. they can be targeted towards withdrawal from the social context, particularly the material, social or ideological aspects which generate threat. the individual may move into a new, less threatening social position. another option is to revise the identity structure, based on the content or value dimensions to allow identity to work in accordance with the different identity principles of continuity, distinctiveness, and self-esteem. three families of coping strategies have been pinpointed. firstly, intrapsychic strategies aim to modify the relationship with oneself, with processes relating to the representations that the person has of themselves and of the problem encountered. these are related to the assimilation-accommodation processes. they are based on two categories: deflection strategies and acceptance strategies. deflection strategies entail the refusal to modify either the value or content dimensions of identity (deny, depersonalisation, fantasy, etc.). the acceptance strategies result in the revision of one or both dimensions of identity in a manner congruent with threat. they can result in changes inducing a loss of positivity and distinctiveness or the development of a new outlook on oneself which reinforces a sense of self-worth. indeed, these acceptance strategies ‘represent creative adaptations which may rely upon preliminary redefinition and re-attribution tactics’ (breakwell, 1986, p. 93). secondly, interpersonal strategies refer to a modification of relationships with others to cope with threat, or a modification of social interactions, and can result in movement towards a less threatening position. these strategies relate to actions involving negotiation with others. the interactionist approaches of identity have broadly documented this set of actions underlining the way roles can be modified regarding the contexts (goffman, 1963). thirdly, intergroup strategies refer to the relationship with society and with other social groups. these strategies consist of individuals utilising their various affiliations to limit perceived threats. the attitudes of others towards the person can be modified according to their knowledge of the person’s belonging to certain other groups. additionally, group support and group action are strong coping strategies involving intergroup dynamics. intergroup strategies include joining with people who share similar difficulties, in order to help each other by seeking and sharing information and by building a collective awareness of the problem encountered so that group members can become stronger. a combination of these strategies can be used to enable young people to face the numerous and significant difficulties caused by the pandemic crisis. career interventions to develop coping strategies in this final section, we examine the career counselling activities that could be implemented to support the development of these three groups of coping strategies (breakwell, 1986). then, we present a set of three existing innovative career counselling interventions that involve both individual and collective action, and can be used to encourage students to develop the types of coping strategies that may be more useful to them. coping strategies through career counselling activities to support meaning making we have identified nine groups of activities based on the coping strategies presented that are related to the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural activities that can be used to support students in the development of strategies to face identity threats during the pandemic (table 1). table 1: cognitive, emotional, and behavioural activities supporting the development of three sets of coping strategies amongst students, to face identity threat during the pandemic crises. these activities are aimed at meaning-making for the individual and the development of self-perception, ideas of how the self is perceived by others, and the perception of others. it is a set of transformative activities by individuals based on their own perceptions. as malrieu (2003) explains: the individual gives meaning to each of their activities and becomes a person by extracting it from its domain of origin, by referring it to one or more other domains, within which it is in turn designated and resigned. indeed, to distance from a situation that generates dissatisfaction, its objectification must occur in an orderly chain of memories. the past must be the object of an intellectual activity oriented towards the search for the conditions of each event. (p. 67) these activities which are focused on communication make it possible to reconsider the meanings of the different facets of the self and of identity offered in a society and to renegotiate and redefine one’s roles. these activities promote the establishment of a new intersubjective convention (barbier, 2006). they focus on self-development. processes of self-regulation, intentional self-development and identity construction are intimately linked to the linguistic structures (brandtstädter, 1999). according to bakhtin (1977) ‘it is not mental activity that organizes expression, but it is expression that organizes mental activity, which models it and determines its orientation’ (p 122-123). most of the activities presented in table 1 need language and dialogues to be implemented and contribute to acting towards creating meaning (meanacting). meanacting has a directionality and involves creating signs towards what the person might become. it also contributes to meaning through the creation of new signs. as explained by josephs, valsiner and surgan et al. (1999) ‘the sign prepares the person for new encounters with the world that might happen, but that are not to be taken for granted’ (p. 258). the sign may be an internal representation of a desired event or action that guided intention to act. the process of meaning-making involves the development of intentionality, defined as ‘the capacity to perform an action on purpose’ (mascolo, fischer, & neimeyer, 1999, p. 147). the role of career counselling is to engage individuals in a quest for a different perspective on their lives. it involves a process of deconstruction-reconstruction and co-construction (savickas, 2011). the goal is to revise the individuals’ understanding of their life. in the following section, we introduce three career counselling intervention models based on existing narrative techniques that could encourage the development of coping strategies described above to support students who are facing difficulties connected to the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic. models of career counselling and guidance interventions supporting the development of these coping strategies the three models briefly introduced below must be incorporated into guidance intervention systems to help young people, especially students, to face the current crisis, and to strengthen their identities by acting at the intrapsychic, interpersonal, and collective levels. the three models are the life design counselling approach (savickas, 2012), contextual action theory and practice (young, domene, & valach, 2015) and the emancipatory livelihood guidance approach (eds. hooley, sultana, & thomsen, 2018). life design approach and the development of identity skills at the intrapersonal level at the intrapersonal level, life design can be considered as an approach that is able to support the reorganisation of individual identities and the development of intrapsychic strategies. it allows individuals to become authors of their life and not just actors. as authors of their life, they can increase their capabilities and are not limited to merely reacting to changes. life design’s interventions contribute to identity changes by activating, stimulating and developing personal resources. this approach aims to give people back some control over their lives. based mostly on narratives and dialogues, two main methods have been developed in this perspective. these two methods, even if they have different theoretical foundations, can be used separately or one after the other with the aim of activating the reflexivity related to identity organisation. firstly, savickas’ career construction interview (savickas, 2011, 2012) is an intervention based on one to three sequences with a counsellor who aims for the co-construction of a new self-portrait of the client. to achieve this self-portrait, the counsellor asks five questions: (1) who did you admire when you were growing up? (2) do you read any magazines or watch television shows regularly? (3) what is your favourite book, movie or shows? (4) tell me your favourite saying or motto (5) what are your earliest recollections? following this interview, the counsellor prepares a portrait which is discussed with the person. finally, a set of actions to make the portrait evolve, are defined. this method may help young people to create a clear picture of themselves and of who they want to become. the second main method is the life design counselling dialogues (ldcd) of guichard (guichard, 2009; guichard, bangali, cohen-scali, pouyaud, & robinet, 2017). this model is based on the representation of an identity organised in several subjective identity forms (sif), which can be related to different spheres of life and activities carried out in these life contexts. the intervention makes it possible to visualise and modify the organisation of these different sifs, thanks to the realisation of a series of interviews (between 2 and 4) and a mapping of the identity system. the intervention also follows four main stages. the first one aims to identify the sifs of the person in his current and past life. the counsellor helps the person to deepen these sifs and to explore different aspects of the relationship of the self, with specific objects and with others, in each of their spheres of life. individuals identify certain relationships with certain activities in these spheres that suit them and others that they would like to develop. then, they establish links between sifs and gradually end up considering a more or less important reorganisation of their identity system. young adults may benefit from this dialogue to enlighten them on the barriers and available supports that may help them to adapt to a new situation. overall, research and practices relating to these life design interventions have shown that they promote changes in the person’s perception of themselves and their future prospects (pouyaud, bagali, cohen-scali, robinet, & guichard, 2016). intrapersonal strategies may be developed with these interventions that allows the person to consider one’s life differently, and to become more positive, optimistic, and proactive. the approach described below is based on the development of collaborations with other non-career guidance professionals, who are considered to be the main resources to assist young people with the development of the interpersonal strategies needed to adapt to difficult situations. the contextual action approach to develop interpersonal strategies to promote interpersonal coping strategies, each individual will have to rely on powerful relational resources to define ambitious goals and to form new projects. the contextual action approach (young et al., 2015) is based on the idea of a conceptual link between action and career. action corresponds to a behaviour directed towards a goal. several actions with common objectives are considered as projects. several similar projects important in the person’s life lead to a career. these sets of actions are often designed jointly, with peers, a romantic partner, relatives, a teacher or a counsellor. they emerge from a process of communication and consultation which can lead to projects. this approach highlights the role of social interactions and in particular conversations with friends and family to define vocational projects. recently, the author has developed career counselling interventions with young newcomers to canada (domene, young, & wilson, 2019). it consists of integrating a significant person in their social environment in the reflection and communication on the intentions of action and the projects of the young person, to promote a co-construction of joint actions and projects. part of the intervention consists of a self-confrontation, where the person can listen to their story or the conversation in order to deepen their reflection. this intervention makes it possible to develop projects by relying on proximal relationships and by promoting the quality of these interactions: [w]orking with the significant other person, engaging in joint conversations that are observed and contribute to the identification of the dyad’s joint project, and the identification of ways in which the project can be enhanced. (domene et al., 2019, p. 570) the emancipatory guidance approach and intergroups coping strategies this third approach focuses on the development of intergroup coping strategies. designed by hooley et al. (2018), the approach considers guidance in its political mission, as well as emancipation, and development of the power to act amongst the most deprived or vulnerable people. it focuses less on individual psychological resources, and more on communities in their role of social and political actors. guidance is conceived as a set of collective and community actions in the fight against oppression, exploitation, inequalities, and precariousness. guidance interventions must enable people to better understand their social situation by helping them to build a critical awareness and to fight to improve their situation. from this point of view, counsellors are informants on rights but also lawyers who will defend these individuals and help them to make their voice heard. however, it is also about encouraging people to work together, and to support each other to become more influential players in their environment. this approach promotes collective activities that are likely to have social visibility and assist in the development of individual and collective skills, such as photovoice, that promotes the creativity of vulnerable groups. it adopts a holistic perspective on careers and encourages young people to think about what makes work decent and life better. young people come to think about the necessity to live in a fair and equitable society. interventions are based on career education, experimental learning, group projects, and volunteering. they consider social justice and green guidance and individuals are able to explore the relationship between their lives and the whole context. these three sets of interventions are necessary in the current context because they offer complementary perspectives to support young people in the development of useful coping strategies allowing them to face identity threats, by offering a wide range of methods that all focus on empowering people individually and collectively. limitations of the study as this article is based on a selective review and empirical experiences, it is acknowledged that certain sources may not have been available for inclusion. however, the issues raised by this work are strongly documented, especially in relation to identity construction of young adults, in situations of social and individual crisis. implications for research, practice, policy, and future research this research is relevant to the field of career development, education, and social inclusion and it should prompt further research into the area. in most countries, the covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the major social and personal difficulties met by young people. this context does not allow identity to follow a positive course of development which leads to career perspectives being questioned. governments of all countries need to recognise the current problems and rapidly propose policies and practices to support the training, and the social and psychosocial support of this population. future research will need to implement these sets of career development programmes and evaluate their efficiency on the development of coping strategies for constructing young adults’ identity. conclusion the difficulties imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, and the need for young adults to develop coping strategies leads to the necessity of new multifaceted career counselling interventions to be conceived in a coordinated manner. career development interventions must be more than even centred on the reinforcement of competences for the support of identity construction in interaction with others and the larger environment. practitioners have to face several challenges to develop these innovative interventions (ed. maree, 2019). firstly, most counselling and guidance professionals are discovering ‘cyber-guidance’ during this pandemic. until the pandemic, it was not customary to offer remote online career counselling interviews. today, this is becoming the rule. however, access to digital tools and their mastery is the first challenge that must be overcome by clients and practitioners. this is a huge source of inequality given that many families either do not have the devices necessary to connect to the internet, or are sharing a single device amongst an entire family (anderson & kumar, 2020; brunner & maurin, 2019). the second challenge is to conceive more adjusted career interventions. given the complexity of individual and collective situations, interventions must adopt an engineering perspective. engineering is defined as ‘an activity whose product is conception and evaluation and more broadly the monitoring of an intervention built especially in relationship with a particular situation’ (barbier, 2017, p.124). this activity relates to the idea of a ‘council’ composed of different people (some being practitioners, others being significant persons working together). the aim is to design specific and individualised interventions related to the person’s specific questions. finally, the third challenge is that career counselling interventions need to integrate a global perspective. they must be conceived as a holistic societal mission. this pandemic crisis reinforces the need for guidance to engage in a new paradigm integrating a critical perspective related to both social justice and to the question of climate change and the protection of natural resources. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.c-s. made the conceptualisation of the article. w.e. added specific examples from her country, made the formal analysis, and reviewed the writing. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding informations this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the references provide access to the data and information provided in the text. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akkermans, j., richardson, j., & kraimer, m.l. 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(2015). counseling and action. springer. abstract introduction method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) gloria marsay department of practical and missional theology, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa kokou a. atitsogbe institute of psychology, university of lausanne, lausannes, switzerland abdoulaye ouedraogo department of sociology, university joseph ki-zerbo, ouagadougou, burkina faso henry nsubuga counselling and guidance centre, makerere university, kampala, uganda paboussoum pari department of applied psychology, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo enyonam y. kossi department of applied psychology, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of lomé, lomé, togo chong m. park wheelock college of education and human development, boston university, boston, united states v. scott h. solberg wheelock college of education and human development, boston university, boston, united states citation marsay, g., atitsogbe, k.a., ouedraogo, a., nsubuga, h., pari, p., kossi, e.y., … solberg, v.sh. (2021). the importance of social emotional learning skills in assisting youth to successfully transition into the professional world. african journal of career development, 3(1), a37. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.37 original research the importance of social emotional learning skills in assisting youth to successfully transition into the professional world gloria marsay, kokou a. atitsogbe, abdoulaye ouedraogo, henry nsubuga, paboussoum pari, enyonam y. kossi, chong m. park, v. scott h. solberg received: 03 mar. 2021; accepted: 20 july 2021; published: 30 aug. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article shares the results of research on educator perceptions of the nature and value of social emotional learning (sel) skills undertaken in four african countries: burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda. social emotional learning skills make up a large component of the ‘deep human skills’, which are important academic and workforce development skills. objectives: using samples of 50 burkinabe, 68 south african and 32 togolese and 66 ugandan educators, this study describes the (1) sel skills educators should be using to effectively teach their students and the (2) sel skills the educators believe students should be using to be effective learners and successfully transition into the world of work. method: data collection methods include online and offline surveys, with the exception of uganda that complemented their survey data with interviews. thematic content analysis, using modified grounded theory, was used to analyse the data, as well as the qualitative data analysis software nvivo. results: the results indicated seven common sel themes shared across the four african countries. the sel themes identified were consistent with the existing framework of collaborative for academic, social and emotional learning (casel) to some extent, especially around interpersonal relationships and decision-making skills. conclusion: the findings indicate that the salience and importance of specific sel skills varied based on the unique history and context of each country. keywords: social emotional learning; career; future readiness; positive youth development; cross-cultural study. introduction internationally, ‘social emotional learning’ (sel) is considered a core element in k-12 education (collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning [casel], 2021). social emotional learning was initially launched conceptually as a framework by casel and is now widely adopted throughout the united states (casel, n.d.). the casel is an independent non-government or non-profit organisation that was originally part of the university of illinois, chicago, united states of america that continues to develop free-access resources to help education systems adopt and effectively engage in sel-related activities, establish learning standards and assessment for schools and allow researchers to have theoretical and methodological reflections (casel, n.d.). the casel framework involves five sel categories: self-awareness refers to one’s understanding of his or her emotions, thoughts, values and talent and one’s awareness that these may affect their interpersonal relationships. self-management refers to one’s ability to effectively manage his or her emotions, thoughts and values in ways that enable them to develop and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, pursue desired goals and experience positive outcomes. social awareness refers to one’s ability to understand the perspectives of others based on different cultural and life experiences and thereby express empathy and compassion. relationship skills refer to one’s ability to establish and maintain positive collaborations and engage in problem-solving to resolve differences. responsible decision-making skills refer to making effective decisions about one’s behaviour in social interactions, as well as consider future goals. for younger students, sel is an important foundation for creating positive classroom experiences that enable youth to develop emotionally and academically. meta-analysis of sel interventions has verified the positive impact of developing sel skills on a range of academic outcomes (durlak, weissberg, dymnicki, taylor, & schellinger, 2011). social emotional learning skills also serve as a foundation for positive mental health and well-being by helping youth learn how to navigate and negotiate their interpersonal activities in ways that help them achieve desirable outcomes (taylor, oberle, durlak, & weissberg, 2017). finally, sel skills also serve as ‘deeper human skills’ that are critical to becoming successful in the world of work (lim-lange & lim-lange, 2019; yoder, 2015). internationally, the european union and the organisation economic co-operation and development have identified sel skills as core to education (cefai, bartolo, cavioni, & downes, 2018; cefai, regester, & akoury-dirani, 2020; oecd, 2016). in the african context, sel has been discussed in relation to supporting mental health amongst nigerian youth experiencing trauma (kim, brown, & weiss-yagoda, 2017) and is integrated into a reading skills strategy as the foundation for healing and supports needed to improve both academic and mental health outcomes for congolese youth (aber et al., 2016). this study sought to understand educator perspectives from four african countries (burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda) about their perspectives on the nature and value of sel skills. the study design was informed by a growing awareness amongst researchers to include the voices and realities of those we study in order to more accurately reflect their lived experiences (santos, 2018). to address these social justice concerns, this cross-cultural study used qualitative research methods to allow the voice of educators from four african countries to shape a narrative regarding the nature and applicability of sel skills in helping to manage classroom functioning and prepare youth to enter the world of work. whilst the results of this study reflect research conducted by four countries from the global south, namely burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda, the programme of research was conducted as part of an sel international research network (sel irn) consisting of 18 countries from around the world and was formally recognised by the world educational research network in 2019 (wera, n.d.). operating as a collaborative community of researchers, the sel irn supported teams around qualitative research design and analysis, considering questions that would facilitate educator engagement. each research team maintained their autonomy by deciding on the final versions of their questions, format for engaging with educators (e.g. survey, interview, focus groups), selecting the sample of educators they wished to involve in the study and analysing their results. the contextual information of each of the four countries, especially the challenges students and educators experience in accessing quality education, including sel and career development is discussed next. the burkinabe context in burkina faso, there are many challenges that hinder students from accessing quality education regardless of their gender, income and/or place of residence (unesco, 2017). whilst 70% of the population was made up of youth and young adults under the age of 25 in 2015, the elementary school completion rate was 57% in 2013 and 2014. it was estimated that over 41% of school-age children are outside the school system. the burkina faso national education system status report (unesco, 2017) assessed gender disparities and indicated that the risk of dropping out of school is slightly higher amongst girls (54.7%) than in boys (51.8%). the risk of being out of school in rural areas is much higher at 50% than in urban areas (30.2%) (insd, 2018). basic education in burkina faso is compulsory and free for all children between the ages of 6 and 16 that cover preschool, primary and secondary levels (law no. 013-2007 / an; education orientation law). basic education aims to develop students’ physical, emotional, intellectual and artistic potential, promote the empowerment of learners and facilitate their social integration (burkina faso, 2007). however, the education orientation law lacks details and guidelines on the types of social and emotional skills that need to be taught. the topic is currently taken into account in counseling and guidance education for pre-service teachers (kaboré & nabaloum, 2014). considering the number of youth who are out of the school system or do not complete primary education, discussion on how to prepare youth for the world of work is a great concern of burkinabe educators, especially with the sel skills that would help them smoothly transition to the world of work. south african context the department of higher education and training (dhet) has identified three major challenges in south africa: poverty, inequality and unemployment (dhet, 2016). there is often a disconnect between skills development policies, economic policies, social protection and education policies (de lannoy, graham, patel, & leibbrandt, 2018; dhet, 2019; lund, 2016; eds. spaull & jansen, 2019). classroom environments in south africa are not always conducive to learning (leoschut & kafaar, 2017; makota & leoschut, 2016; mfidi, thuayagale-tsheneagae, & akpor, 2018; mncube & maphalala, 2014; romero, hall, & cluver, 2019; teeger, 2015). educators are often primary caregivers and role models of children, especially those children from child-headed households (cluver, orkin, gardner, & boyes, 2012; dass-brailsford, 2005; jansen, 2013, 2019; mohlakwana, 2013). research informs us that the mental health of both educators (moyo & perumal, 2019) and learners (mfidi, 2017; skinner, sharp, marais, serekoane, & lenka, 2019) interferes with students’ cognitive development and learning and teachers’ input. from this background, a strong case can be made for the importance of implementing social and emotional learning skills interventions for improving the learning environment and assisting young people to become more future-orientated. in the south african context, young people need to be more aware of looking for opportunities to earn a sustainable livelihood rather than making ‘career’ decisions (marsay, 2020a, 2020b). the traditional concept of ‘career’ is fragmenting at a rapid pace in the fourth industrial revolution and is not always relevant in the south african context of adversity, where unemployment is rated as one of the highest in the world. instead, youth need to be employable, self-empowered and confident enough to find opportunities to earn a sustainable livelihood. this means that they should be equipped with workplace and advanced human skills, such as self-awareness, social awareness, interpersonal relationships and effective communication skills. students are not just future workers, but future adults, parents, role models, citizens and decision makers. the implementation of sel programmes can provide the skills they need and empower and enable them to make a successful transition from school to adulthood and the world of work. togolese context the transition from education to work is of great challenge for both students and public authorities in togo as shown in its high youth unemployment and underemployment rates. it was reported that graduate students take their first job 35 months after completing their degree, on average, and one-quarter of them experience difficulties in making a satisfactory transition to work (oecd, 2016). problems also exist in school – only 12.3% of secondary school learners have access to higher education. in this constraining environment, students often seek the help of educators and their role becomes even more important when students make a career decision. given the important role of educators in the togolese context, the examination of their perceptions on social and emotional learning skills is timely and provides insights into the skills needed for togolese educators and learners. many studies suggest that the norms in the country are strongly rooted in tradition. for example, kazimna et al. (2020) reported that the respect of local norms was part of the conceptualisation of decent work by togolese adult workers. the awareness of adolescents regarding their cultural values also underlies their occupational preferences and choices (atitsogbe & bernaud, in preparation). research suggests that complying with social norms is particularly important in the sub-saharan africa context, requiring further examination when discussing sel education (nsamenang, 1992). ugandan context in uganda, there are many challenges that hinder youth from accessing educational opportunities, especially amongst girls, children with disabilities, minorities and the displaced. the inequality was found to increase as one departs from the capital city. the completion rate of primary 7, which is the last stage of basic education, was 9.6% and for rural areas, it was as low as 6.1%. according to the gender parity index (gpi) of the 2016 national census report, there were more boys than girls in school at both primary and secondary levels. the interviews conducted by the ugandan research team provide additional contextual information on the challenges when discussing sel education. as an additional outcome of this qualitative research, it was found that only a small number of university teacher trainers make an effort to teach how to acquire sel skills, and many do not consider it as their duty to teach sel skills. a limited number of the school administrators and government officials were aware of the legislative plans to teach sel skills whilst others were unaware of such plans. the school headmasters stated that the school system does not allow time for teachers to directly teach sel skills, mainly because they are not part of the academic assessments, although they believe that sel skills will help students later in life. the testimonies from ugandan educators show that there is an urgent need to create a system and programmes that would help youth and educators see the value of sel and its connection to helping youth transition to secondary education and the workplace. when combined with sel, it is possible to provide a brighter future to all of our students by increasing their chances of gaining access to decent work opportunities. method participants a total of 50 burkinabe educators from burkina faso participated in the survey (40 male and 10 female) from urban (16), rural areas (27) and suburban settings (7). a total of 26 educators worked in secondary school and 24 in primary school settings. a total of 37 participants (74%) were educators and 13 (26%) were classified as other educators that include headmasters, inspectors and supervisors. a total of 68 south african educators participated in the survey (gender information was not collected). all participants work in secondary school and teach grades 10–12. altogether 19 educators were working with children who were deaf or with learning disabilities, whilst the remaining 59 were general education educators. a total of 45 participants were located in urban areas and 23 participants were located in rural areas and collectively they represent a wide range of multicultural backgrounds and schools in gauteng, kwazulu-natal and western cape. a total of 32 togolese educators participated in the survey (27 male and five female). in all, 22 were teachers working in the primary and secondary schools and 10 were headmasters or career counsellors. a total of 19 educators worked in urban settings, nine in suburban settings and four in rural areas. a total of 48 ugandan educators participated (gender information was not collected). the participants included pre-service teacher trainees in their final year of study, in-service teachers in the primary level (grade 5) and university faculty who teach graduate-level courses. to have a deeper understanding of educator perceptions, the research team also conducted interviews with 10 teacher trainers or university faculty and eight school managers and government officials. all participants were located in the capital and attending or teaching at makerere university. procedure in order to collect and represent educator perceptions of the nature and potential value of sel, sel irn collaborated in designing a set of open-ended questions countries to consider when designing their final survey. the researchers in each country team maintained their autonomy in executing research by adapting the content of the questions, translating the survey and the choice of data collection strategies that suited their specific country and cultural context. whilst each country adapted their surveys to suit their unique context, all four countries collected information on the background of their educator participants and provided open-ended questions to establish perceptions of educators regarding sel skills in the learning environment. educators’ questions regarding the nature of sel were designed to answer two research questions: (1) what sel skills do educators believe they should be using to effectively teach their students and (2) what are educators’ perceptions of the sel skills young people need in order to successfully transition from education and training into the world of work. for the second research question regarding student sel skills, open-ended questions were developed using five sel categories offered by casel. here is the common set of survey questions: does your school or organisation offer sel programmes or activities? if yes, please describe the activities or programmes being implemented. in relation to having an impact on students’ learning and engagement in school: what sel skills do you believe educators should be using to effectively teach their students? how are these skills helpful as educators? in relation to having an impact on students’ learning and engagement in school: please describe a situation or example or episode in which sel skills can help educators work more effectively with students. in relation to having an impact on students’ learning and engagement in school: please describe how the following list of sel and other related skills are relevant in helping educators support youth specifically in making successful postsecondary transitions and/or preparing to enter the world of work: self-awareness: the ability to accurately recognise one’s emotions, thoughts and values and their influence on behaviour (e.g. recognising strengths and self-efficacy). self-management: the ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts and behaviours effectively in different situations (e.g. stress management, self-motivation and goal setting). social awareness: the ability to understand the perspectives of others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures (e.g. empathy and respect for others). relationship and communication skills: the ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups (e.g. communication and teamwork). decision making: the ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behaviour and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences and the well-being of self and others. other skills (please specify). all four countries used an online survey to collect educator responses, with south africa providing an option of completing it on paper and uganda conducting additional interviews. after an initial round of the online survey in south africa, it was apparent that only a limited number of survey responses were valid and included in the analysis. the remaining surveys were completed using the paper and pencil method. the chosen language for the questionnaire was english. as a result of the multiple languages spoken in south africa, there was someone present to interpret questions for those participants whose first language was not english. all the answers received were in english. plan for analysis each country team received professional training on how to engage in modified grounded theory as a qualitative analytic strategy that helped to gain a richer understanding of the data collected. in conducting the modified grounded theory analyses, each country team performed its own independent analysis. in conducting the analysis, each team reviewed the educator responses without categorising them into specific questions, identified emerging themes or codes and refined the codes as they collected more data. whilst most country teams identified emerging themes or codes regardless of the survey questions asked, a few decided to separate the data focussed on educator perceptions of students’ sel skills from the data focussed on educators’ sel skills. the thematic analysis used in this study is a modified version of the steps described by braun and clarke (2006): (1) using a few sample responses, teams familiarised themselves with the data, (2) each research team member identified ideas that have meanings, created an initial list of codes and compared the codes with another coder/s (member check), (3) with the code list, teams expanded their analysis to a larger number of responses, (4) teams reviewed their codes and made modifications to refine or identify better code terms and organised them into general themes and (5) generated a final codebook by creating a definition and identifying a ‘best’ example for each theme. the research teams in burkina faso, south africa and togo used nvivo software to organise the data, which led us to produce higher-level themes by clustering the codes or themes that have similar responses (nvivo cluster analysis). qualitative cluster analysis allowed the researchers to construct the overall structure of the data (guest & mclellan, 2013). this was carried out by calculating correlations between codes using the pearson correlation coefficient, based on word similarities in educator responses (bazeley & jackson, 2013). the intention of the qualitative cluster analysis was to support the findings from the initial analysis using the modified grounded theory and gain a rich understanding of the data in the context of these four countries. the research team in uganda conducted a thematic analysis using the steps described here but did not have access to nvivo software to provide additional support to their findings. for this article, the research group consisted of four african country teams and the united states of america team as peer-reviewers. the research group used an inductive approach to compare and organise the commonalities and differences, which emerged from the findings of each country. ethical considerations boston university institutional review board determined that this research was exempt from irb guidelines for informed consent because responses from the adult age educators were anonymous and the data did not ask them to evaluate their own capacities but to serve as experts in identifying quality educational practices. results the results are described for each country team in the order of burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda. using the modified grounded theory method, each country generated different sel categories grounded in the voice of their educator respondents. although the educator responses were often unclear whether they were referring to the sel skills educators should be using or students should learn to be effective learners, the findings were, when possible, labelled to differentiate the responses concerning different populations. burkina faso there were five sel categories identified from the burkinabe educators’ responses. self-awareness educators: self-knowledge was identified as an important skill for burkinabe educators. five themes were found related to self-awareness: confidence and self-esteem, knowing your role well, challenging yourself, being rigorous and disciplined and self-motivation. educators reported that it is important to feel comfortable and be aware of their own emotions in order to better teach their students. educators also reported that it is important to set a learning goal and stick to it despite difficulties they might encounter. students: the educators reported that self-awareness is important for students in developing their self-confidence, ‘they can make mistakes in their learning process, to accept their mistakes and … to make their self-criticism before making their way towards efficiency based on their strengths’. communication and interpersonal relationships educators: three themes emerged from the educator. responses regarding communication and interpersonal skills: consideration or fairness, cooperation and relational leadership. to facilitate and improve learning, educators reported that it is important to promote cooperation and mutual respect amongst students. relational leadership was identified as an important skill that enables educators to unite their students around a work goal that promotes acceptance of their authority. students: for students, educators reported that communication and interpersonal skills help them to work more effectively with their peers by, for example: ‘[c]ontributing to their open-mindedness so that they will not be arrogant, whimsical persons but will be able to build consensus on the important issues they will face in their professional/active life. in short, they will be builders and not destroyers’. (ibrahim, teacher, july 2020) social consciousness educators: educators reported that developing ‘social consciousness’ is important and refers to their knowledge of the environment and context. specific sel skills in this category that the educators believed are important for themselves include cultivating a group spirit whereby they and their students are able to ‘accept and integrate divergent opinions’, cultivate openness to others by ‘respecting others social values’, as well as establishing respect and tolerance for others by being able to express ‘forgiveness’. students: educators reported that social consciousness helps students appreciate differences by helping them: ‘[r]ealise individually that he or she is not the centre of the earth and that he or she lives in the midst of other children whom he or she must know, respect and consider their opinion’. (yasmine, teacher, july 2020) self-management educators: educators identified self-management as an important skill that helps them to promote participatory learning amongst students. students: for students, educators reported that self-management skills enable them to become committed to learning, empowered and able to build self-confidence and self-control: ‘it allows the student to be free and master of his learning. the child experiments, touches, smells, tastes, manipulates and achieves his results from a well-defined objective. this allows him to organise himself and plan his activities’. (mohamed, teacher, july 2020) decision making educators: educators reported that decision making is an important skill for creating collegiality when educators learn how to listen and take into account the diverse opinions of others. for example, one educator reported that it is important to ‘take others into account in decision making for a more effective achievement of one’s objectives’. educators observed that when decisions reflect the interests of the students, they strengthen the authority of the educators. to develop students’ decision-making skills, educators reported that it is important to encourage them to learn how to express their opinions in ways that consider weighing ideas both ‘for’ and ‘against’ a particular decision. south africa a total of seven themes were identified from the responses of south african educators. the themes most frequently reported were interpersonal relationship skills (32%), self-management (19%), social awareness (18%), positive impact on learning (16%), improved educator efficacy (7%), self-awareness (4%) and decision making (3%). responses from educators illustrated how sel skills would be of benefit to both educators and learners. the responses of south african educators also show their support for positive youth development, for example, one educator observed: ‘there are learners who have behavioural problems. if the sel skills are applied, the learners will understand and therefore learn to manage their emotions which will, in turn, result in a positive learning environment’. (kaya, teacher, may 2019) interpersonal relationship educators: the theme most frequently reported was interpersonal relationship skills. educators reported that the ability to achieve effective interpersonal relationships has a positive impact on their own well-being and the learning environment. educators reported that their ability to establish interpersonal relationships enables them to manage the classroom dynamics more effectively. students: educators reported that when students develop interpersonal skills there is less likelihood of classroom ‘friction and stressful situations’ to emerge, which then leads to ‘positive working outcomes’. self-management students: educators reported that self-management is the most important skill for students, especially when making the transition from education into the world of work. the responses grouped in this theme focussed on personal organisational skills and self-control, including the ability to set goals, manage time, be self-disciplined and regulate and manage one’s emotions. a sample response includes: ‘self-management promotes discipline. learners manage their behaviours in correspondence with their goals’. another educator expressed how: ‘[s]elf-management helps young people understand that they may be alone in the endeavours and that they need to rely on positive coping mechanisms, which can be developed in the classroom’. social awareness educators: given the many cultures represented in each class, educators reported that social awareness skills are paramount for creating a positive learning environment. educators felt that social awareness skills such as empathy and understanding how to improve their own efficacy and well-being are necessary to create an inclusive and supportive classroom. one educator stated that ‘social awareness reduces fear and discrimination. once you understand others and their background you are less likely to fear them, instead you will feel empathy and show respect’. educators’ responses highlighted the importance of being able to empathise with students who experience adversity and live within harsh environments as the foundation for facilitating forgiveness and restorative justice. positive learning environment educators or students: educators commented how sel skills would contribute to a more harmonious classroom atmosphere and positive learning environment. a sample educator response includes: ‘respect in a classroom between teachers and learners creates a peaceful working environment, which creates successful outcomes’. improved educator efficacy educators: the educators felt that sel skills would contribute to their own personal and professional well-being, because the difficulties within the present learning environment may be ameliorated. in addition, the educators believed that sel skills would enhance teachers’ ability to identify learners who were struggling with barriers to learning, especially the ones with learning and/or emotional difficulties that might have resulted from experiences of adversity. self-awareness educators: self-awareness and social awareness are inexorably intertwined in a multicultural context: ‘a teacher needs to be able to be sensitive to what the learner, in their community, deals with in order to lead them into self-awareness’. students: the educators believed that students with self-awareness can contribute to a more harmonious and positive learning environment and responsible decision making. sample responses include: ‘[self-awareness is] imperative if one wishes to integrate a learner into society and if they have no awareness of self, then they cannot be a contributing member of a team’ and ‘in order for one to be able to face the outside world and survive, they (learners) need to know who they are and what drives them as individuals’. decision making educators: the responses regarding decision making illustrated the need for making decisions regarding right or wrong behaviours towards others and the processing of possible outcomes of making the wrong decision. this is illustrated further by one of the educators’ remarks: ‘decision-making skills are important for everyday life, especially when it comes to safety concerns regarding our learners’. togo a total of five sel themes were derived from togolese educator responses. it is worth noting that togolese educators frequently made connections between sel skills and career development, partly because of the inclusion of career counsellors as participants. self-awareness educators: the central theme derived from educator responses was related to learning how to control their own emotions and temperaments as educators in order to maintain good relationships and create a climate of trust with the students. students: educators believed that with self-awareness students become more actively involved in their learning, develop self-efficacy, believe in their plans, achieve academic success and make better career choices. as one educator stated, ‘if the students know their strengths and weaknesses, they can easily succeed in their studies, guide themselves through the school curriculum, and make better career decisions’. self-management educators: the theme educator referred to the most was emotional self-control. they highlighted the need for teachers to be in control of their emotions and stress, which are crucial for classroom management (for teachers when dealing with difficult students). the second self-management theme identified for teachers to be using was autonomy and self-discipline in relation to the pursuit of their goals (e.g. planning, time management). students: the educators also highlighted the need for students to be in control of their emotions and stress, especially when they are going through difficult moments (e.g. failure). according to one educator, these skills will allow students ‘not [to] be distracted from the pursued objectives by endogenous factors and allow [students] to reach [their] goals and project [themselves] into the future’. social awareness students: social awareness was identified by the educators as an sel skill contributing to students’ social integration and career development. the skills that contribute to their social integration include sociability, developing good relationships, open-mindedness, developing life skills, empathy, patience, tolerance, indulgence, avoiding racist behaviors and taking the best out of differences. the social awareness skills that contribute to career development include integrating into groups or networks, exchanging knowledge and experiences with others, improving their performance and making friends: ‘[social awareness] will enable the learner to know how-to live-in society and to avoid marginalist or racist behaviour’. relationship and communication skills educators: educators identified relationship and communication as two related sel skills that allow them to manage students and classrooms: ‘the way we communicate will reflect the degree of trust that may exist between us’. also, ‘each student has his or her own personality, so it is necessary to adapt to [individual students] to get the message across’. students: similar to social awareness, relationship and communication skills allow students to have good integration to groups, thus facilitating learning. decision making students: the educators emphasised the importance of students engaging in informed decision making, which helps them to be autonomous and make better career decisions. moreover, they argued that students need to learn how to make ‘judicious’ decisions and choices for themselves and also in relation to others. the choices students make should be in accordance with their desires and meet cultural and societal standards. educators highlighted the importance of complying with social norms, which is important in contexts like sub-saharan africa: ‘[decision-making skill] will help [students]make informed choices in conformity with their desires but also with environmental standards’. uganda a total of four sel categories were identified from the ugandan educators’ responses. self-awareness educators: the educators mentioned that ‘becoming aware of ourselves enables us to concentrate on what we can do better leading to efficiency’. students: recognising strengths, weaknesses and interests and knowing one’s identity belong to this category: ‘it is important for students to know who they are because it is important for decision making’. empathy also belongs to this category in the ugandan context where students become aware of and get concerned about the issues of their fellow students. educators believed that when students have self-awareness skills, they help and empathise with others, allowing them to have sound judgement about others. self-management educators: when students argue, educators reported that teachers should be ready to step in and discuss self-regulation and how to manage emotions. a sample educator response includes: ‘when two boys were fighting, i talked to them about self-discipline’. students: another educator mentioned that self-management related to improving one’s weaknesses can help students attain better life outcomes. relationship and communication skills teachers: educators reported that it is important for teachers to help students build communication skills in order to support them in developing good relationships. students: relationship and communication skills are the most frequently mentioned sel skills and responses related to this theme included conflict management, creating and maintaining relationships, teamwork and respect for others. a sample educator response includes: ‘through gaining relationship and communication skills young people get social connections in life’. they also believed that having respect for others helps reduce discrimination. decision making students: three themes emerged in relation to decision making, including thinking before acting, mature decision making and situation analysis. a sample educator response includes: ‘it is important [for students] to understand the situation before taking action’. the educators considered that understanding circumstances before acting is important, and the decisions that are well thought out can lead to mature decisions and actions amongst students. discussion this study examined educator perspectives amongst four african countries regarding the nature and value of sel skills in relation to teaching and working with students, as well as sel skills students need to successfully transition into adulthood and the world of work. despite cultural and contextual differences across the countries, seven common sel themes emerged across the four countries. these themes include self-knowledge, self-control and self-regulation, empathy and compassion, valuing and accepting cultural diversity, interpersonal relationships, decision making and respect. this article adds new information to the field by proposing an sel framework that aligns to the african socio-cultural contexts whilst acknowledging that there is a need for future studies to add more african countries. common social emotional learning themes there are seven sel themes shared amongst burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda. similar to the thematic analysis process conducted within each country team, the four research teams compared the codes and negotiated what needs to be included in the common themes. the consensus was reached for each of the seven categories by having in-depth conversations on each theme, how it is defined in the context of each country or culture, and example responses. whilst some of the categories overlap with the existing framework of casel, such as interpersonal relationships, decision making and self-knowledge (self-awareness), it is our consensus that they are defined narrower or broader in the context of the four african countries and worth examining the differences in order to create quality sel programmes and activities. table 1 provides the summary statements of the seven common themes based on the consensus amongst the country teams, followed by detailed explanations on how they differ from the existing sel frameworks. table 1: summary statements of seven common social emotional learning themes. self-knowledge skills consisted of the following competencies: being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses knowing one’s own capacity being aware of one’s own identity seeking to improve their strengths and weaknesses. the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educator responses reflect the need to be aware of one’s identity, emotions, strengths and weaknesses and improve self-knowledge skills to contribute to society. the educators in the four countries used the term self-knowledge more often than self-awareness in responding to the survey. if self-awareness involves understanding ones’ thoughts, emotions and values, it is deemed that based on the educator responses, self-knowledge focusses on the awareness of strength and weakness areas that contributes to one’s capacity and identity building. self-control and self-regulation skills consisted of the following competencies: controlling one’s own emotions managing behaviours and providing a safer classroom environment (educators) coping with difficult situations in pursuit of one’s goals discussing self-discipline with students to help them better manage their emotions (educators). the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educator responses reflect the need to be able to control one’s emotions and behaviours in pursuit of their goals. this allows educators to manage different classroom situations and create a safe learning environment. although the terms used to describe self-control and self-regulation seem similar to how self-management is defined, they are different because the educators in the study focussed on regulating internal feelings and behaviours and did not necessarily extend to the next levels of self-management skills, such as motivating and taking initiatives. it is understood that the focus on regulation skills is because of the many challenges the students in the four countries are facing in accessing quality education, which asks them to prioritise controlling their current situations. empathy and compassion skills consisted of the following competencies: expressing concern about and understanding others and their contexts, which allow them to become patient and tolerate differences dealing with possible adversity. the consensus amongst the country teams was that empathy and compassion enable educators to tolerate and appreciate individual differences by understanding others’ contexts and dealing with possible adversity. this is consistent with the results of our prior study that focussed on empathy skills across seven countries and suggested a broader definition of empathy (kounenou et al., in press). the ability to engage in empathy and compassion is felt by educators to enable them to effectively engage in other sel themes, such as valuing and accepting cultural diversity, respect and relationship skills. each of these themes was frequently mentioned by the educators, implying that they may be especially significant for educators from the four african countries. valuing and accepting cultural diversity skills consisted of the following competencies: teaching social virtues and values understanding others’ backgrounds, reducing fear and discrimination, forgiving and participating in restorative justice valuing diversity whilst complying with social norms cultivating group spirit and social cohesion making a sound judgement about others. the consensus amongst the country teams was that by understanding social values whilst respecting cultural diversity, educators are able to help reduce one’s fear and discrimination, forgive and repair the harms caused by conflicting behaviours. this helps to rebuild relationships, collaborate and cultivate group spirit, leading to social cohesion. this can ultimately contribute to building empathy and compassion skills. many sel skills in this category imply the conflicts that exist in these four countries that challenge students and educators. they suffer from discrimination and racism, and the process of reducing fear and repairing harm is considered one of the important goals that need to be addressed in sel education. valuing and accepting cultural diversity is deemed not only a skill one can possess but an important educational strategy that educators can use to address the tension in the classroom. interpersonal relationship skills were expressed as a prerequisite skill that contributes to creating a positive learning and work environment. some unique themes were identified in this category, including equity or fairness in the classroom, relational leadership and being role models for students. the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educator responses reflected the need to be able to create and maintain good relationships and work together towards common goals (teamwork). this helps educators to create a positive learning environment. although this is a common theme identified across different sel frameworks, including the casel’s, the interpersonal relationship skills in the present study are deemed unique because the educators highlight equity in the relationships and leadership development amongst individuals. this implies that the development of teamwork and collaboration can begin by recognising the skills within individuals, and when each student develops leadership in an equitable environment, they are able to create and maintain authentic relationships. decision-making skills consisted of the following competencies: taking into account students’ opinions (educators) knowing right and wrong, moral understanding making judicious choices for oneself and others having students engaged in decision making (educators). some unique themes also emerged in this category, including acceptance of the decision-making choices in accordance with one’s desire and social norms and maintaining personal safety. the consensus amongst the country teams was that the educators reflected on taking into account the opinions of students and making wise decisions and judgement about others. whilst decision-making skills typically involve analysing the potential consequences and how they influence oneself, family and the community, many educators who participated in this study raised concern about the lack of involvement of their students in the decision-making process. according to the educator’s responses, student involvement is meaningful in three ways: it increases self-confidence, improves leadership and most importantly, helps them learn from the experience how to make ‘caring and constructive choices’ (casel, n.d.). it was also important for the educators that students are more likely to accept the decisions when they are involved in the process. respect is a theme that showed the most complexities across the four countries. each country considered respect within a different boundary or context. the educators in burkina faso placed respect under communication and interpersonal relationships and defined it as mutual respect amongst students. burkinabe educators discussed respect in terms of social consciousness defined as students learning how to respect and tolerate others, leading them to forgiveness. the educators in south africa considered respect as a skill that begins with the ability of being aware of one’s own identity (self-respect) within a multicultural context. whilst learning how self-respect starts at home, south african educators expressed that teachers are often the parents and role models to many students. similarly, the educators in togo considered respect a skill that starts from self-awareness. when the educators are aware that they can tolerate differences in opinions, they are able to show respect to others. similar to burkina faso, the educators in uganda placed respect under communication and interpersonal relationships, and its educators believed that they are able to reduce discrimination through respect. the consensus amongst the country team was that the educators reflected on respect in various learning and work situations. it starts from being aware of one’s own identity or self-respect and involves tolerating others’ points of view. this helps to reduce discrimination and leads to forgiveness. it is worth mentioning that many togolese educators discussed sel skills in relation to career development, partly because of the participation of career counsellors in the study. the findings show that social awareness, in particular, was important in the career development of togolese students. by exchanging knowledge with others and networking, the educators believed that the students are able to build skills towards their future careers. self-awareness, especially being aware of their strengths and weaknesses, also helps students make better career choices. in the decision-making process, the educators strongly believed that it is critical to have students engage in informed decision making so that they can be more autonomous, leading to better career decisions. conclusion the perspectives of the educators in burkina faso, south africa, togo and uganda offer a culturally responsive sel model that reflects the african contexts as its students and educators face different challenges in school and at home, therefore requiring different sel skills. specifically, we focussed on the sel skills that educators should be using to effectively teach their students, as well as the sel skills the educators believe students should be using to be effective learners and to successfully transition into the world of work. the seven sel themes discussed in this article offer a starting point for creating an sel theory of action (see figure 1) that reflects the sociocultural contexts of the represented african countries. our plan for adding more african countries to our analysis enables us to strengthen our framework with more educator responses. the given theory of action lists the strategies to use when implementing sel education in africa based on the findings of the present study and the process includes three steps: action, outcome and impact. the seven sel skills identified in the study are either an action or outcome, with appreciating diversity and decision-making being outcomes that would come after building various foundational sel skills. as action items, these skills can be developed by focussing on building self-knowledge, self-regulation, empathy and compassion and respect. this in turn will result in the outcomes of increased skills in appreciating differences, informed decisions, cohesion or group spirit or unity and connectedness. ultimately, this leads to whole-child development and an increased impact on a broader society that can be described as thriving, community harmony and the future readiness (solberg, park, & marsay, 2020) amongst african youth. figure 1: social emotional learning skills theory of action. the present study aimed to carefully consider the nature and value of sel by focussing the conversation on the voices of their respective educators and situating the emerging themes within the context of each african country represented. given the complexities of culture and politics in africa, further studies are needed with more countries or cultures in africa to further refine and define the emerging sel theory of action and understand how it applies to different country contexts. the present study contributes to the efforts of translating research into practice by examining the perceptions of the educators in the field as a starting point and ultimately plans to use the findings to identify ways to infuse sel into educational materials, activities and programmes. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions each author managed their own data collection, research analyses and write-up. c.m.p. and v.s.h.s facilitated and supported each team, helped to organise the report and provided editorial support. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [v.sh.s.], upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of an affiliated organisation or agency of the authors. references aber, j.l., tubbs, c., torrente, c., halpin, p.f., johnston, b., starkey, l., … wolf, s. 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(2015). social and emotional skills for life and career: policy levers that focus on the whole child. centre on great teachers and leaders. american institutes for research. retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed558022 abstract introduction the juniortukkie initiative the juniortukkie empowerment programme theoretical overview and conceptual framework rationale of the study aims of the study research methodology participants and context data collection instruments rigour of the study results discussion interpretation of results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) petrus lombard department of student enrolment, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation lombard, p. (2020). factors that influence transition from high school to higher education: a case of the juniortukkie programme. african journal of career development, 2(1), a5. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v2i1.5 review article factors that influence transition from high school to higher education: a case of the juniortukkie programme petrus lombard received: 23 oct. 2019; accepted: 18 dec. 2019; published: 26 feb. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: this article reports on the academic and non-academic factors that influence new students’ successful transition from high school to higher education. the study was inspired by the universal concern about the low retention rates among students in higher education in general, and the high annual dropout rate of students from south african institutions in particular. in 2013, the dropout rate stood at 35%. objective: the objective of the study was to find out which factors. academically as well as non-academic factors influenced the juniortukkie group in their successful transition from high school to higher education. method: my research involved a case study of members of the juniortukkie (jt) empowerment initiative (between 2009 and 2013), and both quantitative (online questionnaires) and qualitative (focus group interviews) data was collected. results: the findings revealed that combinations of academic factors such as personal skills, academic skills, academic support, career counselling intervention, hard work, and perseverance to a large extent account for the successful transition from high school to higher education. similarly, non-academic factors such as interpersonal relationship skills, positive emotions, religion, and peer acceptance contributed to students’ successful transition. financial affairs – from a student’s financial status to various sources of financial backing – are other vital determinants in the transitioning endeavour. conclusion: the study illustrated that the specific challenges associated with new students’ transitional experiences demand the strategic intervention of initiatives (such as juniortukkie), which assume responsibility for the implementation of programmes to address all academic and non-academic transitional factors. keywords: access; transition; academic factors; non-academic factors; high school; higher education; qualitative assessment; quantitative assessment; combined approach. introduction the matter of low retention rates amongst students in higher education is a universal concern (crosling, heagney, & thomas, 2009). in south africa, the annual dropout rate of students from local institutions was 35% in 2012 (department of higher education and training [dhet], 2013). ndebele (2013, cited in maree, 2015) highlights students’ inadequate achievement in higher education in south africa and reports that only approximately 25% of students at residential universities graduate within the minimum time allowed, and only 35% of the total number of students enrolling in any given year obtain their degrees within 5 years. the department of higher education and training lists in its 2013 white paper (based on figures from 2012) a number of possible reasons for this inadequate success rate and states that insufficient student support, inadequate facilities and deficient student accommodation currently do not meet the high demands of higher education. other factors that contribute to poor performances by students include inequalities in the schooling system, inadequate funding, high student–staff ratios and insufficient support for both academic and social adjustments to university life. school-leavers generally tend to be unprepared for the demands of tertiary studies because of poor academic standards prevailing at the school level. although local universities provide several kinds of intervention, the high dropout rate remains a major concern for south african government and higher education sector (maree, 2015). financial constraints often result in excluding students – even when they have obtained good marks – from further academic pursuits, exacerbating this dire situation (steyn, harris, & hartell, 2014; strydom, kuh, & mentz, 2010). unfortunately, most learning institutions attempt to address the poor schooling background only after students have entered higher education. only a handful of institutions intervene proactively by attending to this problem already at high school level (bangser, 2008). the problem of poor preparation of secondary school graduates who enter higher education is exacerbated in south africa by the inheritance of apartheid education, which expressly underfunded the education of black people. this resulted in inequalities in educational provision and outcomes across various racial groups, with white students faring far better than black students. with the advent of democracy in 1994, the newly elected democratic government implemented reforms to address the legacy of apartheid. these included reforms with regard to education finance, curriculum content and the teacher rationalisation process. after the first democratic elections in 1994, several policy changes were implemented. this required universities to introduce innovative ways of helping students to successfully transition from high school to higher education (dhet, 2013). numerous reasons have been advanced to explain why a relatively low grade 12 pass rate of 74%, against a graduation rate of only 15% in higher education, was achieved in 2011 (dhet, 2013). although the annual grade 12 pass rate has since increased to exceed 82% in 2016, a corresponding increase in the retention rate (and thus a decrease in the dropout rate) of higher education students has yet to manifest itself. the concerns of the south african government and educational institutions about this matter have emphasised the importance of looking into ways of ensuring the effective and successful retention of students whilst enrolled in higher education. jansen (2008) states that there is considerable evidence that current preparation at schools is inadequate in securing a successful transition from high school to higher education. most of the students find the transition difficult or simply lack the necessary skills and motivation to succeed in higher education. coaching (intervention) programmes should target learners early on in their high school careers and inform them about the requirements of higher education enrolment (klasik, 2012). despite the high dropout rate in the first year and the lack of sufficient information provided to learners in high school, some high school students nevertheless manage to make a successful transition to higher education. this study therefore aimed to analyse the factors that account for such a successful transition. it used the juniortukkie (jt) initiative as a case study to study this phenomenon of transition from high school to university. the juniortukkie initiative the jt initiative was launched in 2004 with the vision of developing academic achievers from disadvantaged backgrounds (regardless of whether they eventually applied for study at the university of pretoria) and generically increasing the number of new first-year applicants from previously disadvantaged communities. the name is derived from ‘tuks’, which is an informal moniker of the university of pretoria (up). the first formal jt initiative was when two school learners were sent to the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa) agency in houston, texas, and accumulated a membership of 7 000 learners (grades 10–12) in southern africa by 2014. since the beginning of 2016, grade 9 learners have also been included in the jt initiative to assist them in their selection of career options for grade 10. on average, 65% of the jt learners become students at the up. learners who do not proceed to study at up do so owing to various factors, which include exclusion from selection for their chosen courses (even when they qualify for selection), a preference to study closer to home, financial considerations or being awarded attractive bursaries and scholarships for studying at other institutions. participants in the jt initiative were initially identified in grade 10, and from 2017 in grade 9. they have to maintain their academic standards to remain members of the programme, and they must re-register annually to update their personal information. in summary, the jt initiative adopts a holistic approach to empower and prepare prospective students for the academic, emotional and social challenges that may await them in the tertiary environment. for grade 9 learners, the focus is on assisting them to make sound subject choices for grade 10 as well as for their future career path. grades 10–12 learners benefit from several empowerment projects that aim to equip them for a smooth transition to higher education life. these projects involve courses that provide guidance regarding career options, emotional intelligence (clarke, 2005; norton, 2010; zepke & leach, 2010), mathematical reasoning (pasensie, 2012), computer skills, and reading and comprehension skills (including a free eye test and prescription glasses). accordingly, the jt initiative incorporated the following interpersonal skills as focal points in its approach: verbal communication, listening, problem-solving, decision-making and assertiveness. one of the benefits of jt is that qualifying learners become eligible for bursaries once they register at up. the bursaries are funded by up, as well as by outside companies as part of their corporate social responsibility for education. the benefits also include sponsorships by external companies for selected black (equity) learners and the provision of social activities designed to foster networking and relationship building (carter, swedeen, & kurkowski, 2008). the juniortukkie empowerment programme as part of a up initiative to recruit black learners from disadvantaged communities, jt developed an empowerment programme for students in grade 11 who are already part of the jt club – within south africa, as well as from countries in the southern african development community (sadc). for participation in the juniortukkie empowerment programme, learners must obtain a minimum mark of 60% in english, mathematics and physical science in their grade 10 final examination. their enrichment is extended to grade 12 by allowing them to participate in the grade 12 preparation conference. the participants are part of a specific intervention programme over 2 years, which includes 2 weeks of intensive training, online reading, psychometric testing, visits to faculties, mathematics and physical science enrichment classes and motivational sessions. the jt programme also assists those students who register at up in their first year (and who want to participate) in extra classes in calculus maths, statistics, chemistry and statistics. juniortukkie also offers support to those students who need help. to align the jt programme with the university’s strategic vision, the following specific objectives and expectations were formulated: generically increase the number of new first-year applicants from previously disadvantaged communities for studies in 2008 and beyond give hope to learners from previously disadvantaged communities for a successful study and career future ensure that quality students are empowered and attracted according to the university’s strategic objectives increase the reading speed of new first-year applicants based on the high correlation between reading speed and academic success fulfil the need to disseminate general and specialised information on the university to all attendees use the juniortukkie empowerment programme for grade 11 learners as an opportunity to establish a long-term, client-centred approach as part of the recruitment process embark on a holistic approach to develop and prepare prospective students for the challenges that await them in a tertiary environment – on an academic, emotional and social level (wood & olivier, 2004). as a research focus, the various interventions that were implemented to support these learners in their transition from high school to higher education were all investigated. from 2009 to 2013, certain factors that influenced successful transition were researched and incorporated into the jt initiative for grades 10–12 learners. as the programmes were developed over 5 years, the project led to a higher number of learners from the disadvantage community who applied at up, whilst more registrations were also received for first-year students. during this period, more than 73% of participants in the juniortukkie empowerment programme and those who took part in the research managed to successfully move over from their high schools to up and also completed their first academic year successfully within 1 year. as project manager of the jt programme, my experience has convinced me that the traditional methods of student recruitment, when the university only engages with students’ transition from high school once they start their first academic year, should be reviewed. for many students, it might be a case of ‘too little too late’, considering the amount of attention and support that new first-year students really need. theoretical overview and conceptual framework tinto’s (1993) longitudinal model of student departure provides a conceptual framework for this research. the information above serves as background of my use of tinto’s (1975) student integration model in this research project. the model suggests that a match between the academic abilities and motivations of students on the one hand, and the social and academic qualities of an institution on the other hand, will strengthen the academic and social integration of students into the university system. the model was adapted and has been used in the case of jt students who have made successful transitions from high school to higher education. whilst tinto’s model is popular and many researchers have cited his studies, researchers like braxton, sullivan and johnson (1997) supplied evidence of its shortcomings. a high first-year dropout rate is a global phenomenon, and numerous studies have attempted to explain its complexities and dilemmas in relation to major traditional theories and historical perspectives (bean, 1980; bean & metzner, 1985; murray, 2014; tinto, 1975, 1993). researchers in the field of student retention, such as demetriou and schmitz-scibarski (2011), have used tinto’s theory and acknowledged his contribution to current studies on student retention. theorists like rendón, jalomo and nora (2000) tested and validated tinto’s (1975, 1993) theory of students’ social and academic integration into the tertiary environment. other theorists (pascarella & terenzini, 2005; terenzini & reason, 2005) revisited and attempted to modify tinto’s model of students who drop out of higher education before the completion of their courses. demetriou and schmitz-scibarski (2011), edwards and minton (2009) and rendón et al. (2000) critiqued the traditional theories as too limited in addressing diversities and higher education differences, and advocated the use of different approaches that consider the complexities and range of challenges involved. jama (2010) argues that if institutions and key stakeholders could understand the nature of problems faced by non-traditional students, they could collaborate, communicate and work together as a team to provide an integrated and holistic programme of action to support and develop such students. in this way, they could increase the retention rate even before the students enter higher education. rationale of the study the research presented in this article was conducted in response to the challenges outlined above. it constitutes a response to the question of whether interventions that focus on combinations of factors (academic and non-academic) accounting for students’ successful transition from high school to higher education need to be implemented by higher education – already as from an early age in their school career. figure 1: a conceptual schema for dropout from college. previous research that employed tinto’s model focused exclusively on students who had already attended higher education institutions. certain mechanisms need to be developed and implemented to decrease the high failure and dropout rates in higher education, and to increase the number of successful participants – particularly in the equity groups (department of education [doe], 1997; dhet, 2012). these strategies embrace the view that intervention must happen at an early stage instead of delaying action until students arrive at university (jansen & suhre, 2010; nel, troskie-de bruin, & bitzer, 2009). researchers who come from a higher education background generally conduct their studies from a higher education perspective (bowles, fischer, mcphail, & rosentreich, 2013; goldrick-rab, carter, & wagner, 2007). they propose solutions designed to decrease the high dropout rates at university level. fewer researchers utilise any high school perspectives (bangser, 2008), and only a small number of researchers focus on a combination of factors. this is because of capacity constraints that result in a lack of evidence related to high school interventions, which may stimulate the successful transition of students from high school to higher education. aims of the study the aim of this article was to explore the factors that influence the successful transition of students from high school to higher education. in particular, it focuses on combinations of academic and non-academic factors that contribute to the successful transition from high school to higher education, as well as to the success rate of first-year jt students (both at up and other universities). research methodology an explanatory sequential mixed-method case study design was used. grounded in social constructivism, this design was utilised to collect, analyse and report on quantitative and qualitative data. firstly, quantitative data were collected by means of a survey questionnaire that focused on attributes that may account for students’ success (or lack thereof) in transitioning from high school to higher education. secondly, group interviews (qualitative research) were conducted to understand why, according to the survey questionnaire, some factors appeared to be more influential than others. participants and context in total, 642 students who were studying at up at the time of the research, and others who had formerly been included in the jt initiative, were invited to complete an online survey questionnaire (quantitative research). the participants were part of the juniortukkie empowerment initiative from 2009 to 2013. the research focused on those students who passed their first year in a single year without being failed in a subject. although they were in different study years or had already finished their studies, the emphasis was on first-year success and the possible influence of academic and non-academic factors on their success. seventy students (group sizes of 8–10) were invited to participate in the group interviews (qualitative research). the aim was to separate positive and negative influences on transitions from high school to higher education. the collected data were analysed to establish the level of success of the jt initiative and to measure the efficiency of the existing junior tukkie empowerment programme implemented by up in assisting new first-year students to transition from high school to higher education. data collection instruments online questionnaires (for collecting quantitative data), which could be completed within 15–20 min, were sent by e-mail to 642 participants (the study population). altogether 256 members (39.9%) of the 642 potential participants completed and submitted their questionnaires. i then analysed the resulting quantitative data and identified the significant factors that warranted further investigation. qualitative data were collected through focus group interviews that were conducted with respondents who had indicated their willingness to participate in the interviews. invitations were sent to all those who had responded to the online questionnaire to participate in the focus group interviews, and 70 respondents responded in the affirmative. eventually, only 47 participants pitched up for the interviews and they were divided into smaller groups of five to seven each. the qualitative data were used to supplement the quantitative data, and all the data were integrated. i opted to employ the likert scale in some questionnaire questions. likert (cited in mcleod, 2008) developed the principle of measuring attitudes by asking people to indicate the extent to which they agree with statements regarding a topic. the measuring instrument used in this research was a five-point bipolar likert scale. it allowed respondents to signify the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with statements and approved or disapproved suggestions. in this research, i employed a five-point likert scale but decided not to include a neutral point. the reason was that i expected some participants to give a higher proportion of neutral responses because they did not want to say one way or another, which might lead to response bias. the number of respondents who marked ‘strongly disagree’ and ‘disagree’ were grouped together, as well as those who marked ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’, so as to get a result on those who indicated a positive outcome and a negative outcome, respectively. the survey questionnaire was the instrument that measured participants’ self-reported attitudes and convictions regarding the factors that assisted them to pass all their first-year modules. as the online questionnaire (quantitative approach) was expected to only partially describe and explain the factors that contributed to successful transitions, i then conducted the group interviews (i.e. qualitative approach) to gather more data for analysis and interpretation. rigour of the study despite the large sample size, i was careful not to generalise any findings. i also understood the need for transparency and transferability during all stages of the research. thus, i strove to include detailed descriptions of the research context and to keep detailed records of each participant’s perceptions and experiences. the goal of the research was to determine why some variables prompt successful transition from high school to higher education, whilst others fail. my research strategy adhered to the principle of locating the study within a particular social, cultural and historical context. i therefore attempted to remain aware of the social constructs within these contexts, and of the particular identities of each participant. ethical consideration ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the research ethics committee of the department of education management and policy studies at the university of pretoria on 27 march 2015 (clearance number: em 14/01/01). the research purpose and ethical issues were explained to all participants via an e-mailed letter that clarified their rights with regard to participation. if they decided to participate, the participants had the option to open the survey through an attached e-mail link. they had to grant their permission for the anonymous publication of the findings. to overcome the potential problem of researcher bias, the market research office in the department of institutional planning at up oversaw the handling of the questionnaires. in order to prevent bias of the researcher’s personal views, reflections and conclusions, it was decided to use a professional moderator to conduct the focus group interviews. the author afterwards used all the feedback received with respect to the research. results academic factors as positive contributors academic factors are all factors related to classical studies, where a formal education determines a student’s academic prowess based on calculated test averages. specific factors are considered in the grading of students’ achievements or to illustrate their mastering of the course content (wormeli, 2006). in this section, the academic factors analysed are high school curriculum, poor selection of study fields, training of teachers, differences between grades 11 and 12 marks, study skills, the language of teaching and learning, and mathematics and physical science skills. in the quantitative research on academic factors, the data received were systematically linked in the online questionnaire that had been specifically designed for this research. the analysis presented here focuses primarily on the academic factors that influence the successful transition from high school to higher education, as well as on the interventions in which students participated to ease their transition. although numerous questions were asked in the survey, the focus here was on the factors that could influence their transition in a positive way. according to the survey results as shown in table 1, the participants indicated that the study methods training (96.48%), their teacher’s level of training (85.66%), the extra classes they received in grades 11 and 12 (71.49%) and their grade 12 end-of-year results (51.06%) all had a positive influence on their own successful transition. table 1: quantitative responses related to academic factors. in the qualitative research, participants had to compile a list of academic factors that they thought could have had an influence on their successful transition from high school to higher education. they were given the opportunity to make a selection out of the factors compiled in the quantitative research. according to the survey results, the interviewed participants believed that the three factors with the greatest influence on their transition from high school to higher education were study methods, the language of teaching and learning (including reading skills), and mathematics and physical science skills. of the 47 participants in the focus group interviews, 34 (72.43%) stated that the development of their study skills constituted a factor that influenced their transitioning experiences. four of these participants explained why they believed study skills to have a determining influence on new students’ transitioning from high school to higher education (quotes are cited verbatim): ‘it [developed study methods] helped learners realise that it is more about understanding key concepts of the work rather than just going through and applying methods in past papers.’ ‘[it] helped the learners to study smarter in order to get the required marks for admission into higher education.’ ‘it helped match the study methods suitable for different personality types and this helped improve learners’ marks.’ their remarks, as well as the percentage (72.43%) of participants, agreed with the research findings of jansen and suhre (2010), namely that successful study skills depend on advanced time management skills, regular tutorial attendance and satisfaction with a chosen degree. results obtained from the focus group interview revealed that 34 of the 47 participants (72.34%) indicated that the language of learning and teaching influenced their transition to higher education. when asked to explain why they selected this factor as influential, most of the participants mentioned the positive influence of lectorsa’s lab-on-line reading development programme on their own development in terms of the language used in teaching and learning. the reading development programme consists of 20 lessons, each lasting for 40–60 min, which jts completed over a period of 10 weeks. it assisted them to increase their reading speed and to improve their comprehension as well as their academic achievement. below is a selection of verbatim comments made in this regard: ‘learners were at the advantage because it [lectorsa] assisted with understanding the terminology used in most subjects and those who don’t necessarily have english as a home language were still able to understand what’s going on.’ ‘the lectorsa reading development programme helped improve our literacy level, helped us to use the allocated time in tests and examinations effectively and we learn to read and write faster.’ almost two-thirds of the participants (31 of 47; 65.96%) in the seven focus groups indicated that their mathematics and physical science skills (as an academic factor) could have influenced their transition from high school to higher education. this result correlates with arnold and straten’s (2012) research by acknowledging the importance of mathematical readiness in the pursuit of successful higher education studies. the following comments were recorded during the interviews: ‘it [mathematics and physical science skills] helped with the current curriculum because it is included in most foundational courses of various degrees.’ ‘it gave learners background information and gave learners an advantage because the learners could reason logically, not only in their respective study fields but also in the daily lives.’ most of the learners in the jt initiative attended extra classes over weekends and during holidays as part of their enrichment at specific centres all over south africa. during the interviews, the following comments were made concerning extra classes: ‘it [extra classes] not only improved our marks, but also assisted us to have a better understanding of the content in the subjects [mathematics, physical science and english].’ ‘the teachers who taught us [in extra classes] teaching style differ from our own teachers and contribute to the better understanding of the content.’ ‘in the extra classes, we had more time to grasp certain difficult concepts because in school there is limited time to do revision.’ other factors – such as high school curriculum, grade 12 marks as indicator of success, poor selection of study fields and teachers’ level of training – also influenced some of the participants’ transition, but at a lesser extent, study methods, language of learning and teaching and mathematics, as well as physical science skills as indicated in table 2. table 2: qualitative responses related to academic factors. non-academic factors as positive contributors social skills social skills constitute a set of competencies that allow an individual to initiate and maintain positive relationships, achieve peer acceptance and behave acceptably in the larger social environment (walker, 1988). the jt initiative promotes the role that advanced social skills can play in empowering learners and students in south africa’s multiracial and multicultural environment. the initiative primarily guides learners and new students to develop mutual respect, acknowledge diversity and work together towards a successful future, whilst maintaining the various cultural realms. during the quantitative research phase, the vast majority of survey respondents (95.58%) indicated that the jt initiative contributed to their social skills development, thereby positively influencing their transition from high school to higher education. during the qualitative research phase, 59.57% of respondents also indicated that the jt initiative contributed to the development of their social skills, and hence it positively influenced their transition from high school to higher education. a few verbatim remarks made by participants in the focus group interviews explain how the jt initiative helped them to develop their social skills: ‘it [social skills] exposed learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to various other learners and different culture groups.’ ‘the juniortukkie initiative focused on social skills and empowered us not only to developed social skills but also to use our social skills when we met other culture groups.’ the above comments regarding the influence of the development of social skills in the jt initiative correspond with hinkley and anderson’s (1996) arguments that human beings have a need for acceptance by social groups, and that individuals may benefit from exposure to other persons with healthy self-beliefs. during the development of social skills – as practised by the jt initiative – the participants become exposed to other cultural communities, which can assist in fostering healthy and productive interactions within diverse groups (tett, cree, & christie, 2016). the high percentages of participants in both the quantitative and qualitative research phases who selected social skills as an influential (non-academic) transitional factor mean that the participants largely acknowledged the role of the development of social skills in securing future success. it is important to develop a person’s social skills whilst he or she is still young to enable him or her to adapt quickly to new environments, and to interact productively with strangers of all personality types. financial support bourn (2002, p.16) (as cited in jones, coetzee, bailey, & wickham, 2008) suggests that a lack of funds can ‘easily lead to problems of achievement, by provoking anxiety and reducing the time available for study and socialising, which in turn might persuade a student to withdraw’. this view correlates with the jt student recruitment division’s policy of offering financial awards as incentives for prospective students. of the 47 participants in the focus groups interviews, 24 (88.43%) stated that financial factors could influence the transition from high school to higher education. whilst the percentage selecting financial status as a factor that may determine the success of transition to higher education is lower (51.06%) in the qualitative research population, the participants’ recorded comments strengthened the view of finances as a deciding factor. some interview participants highlighted positive as well as negative effects that bursaries may have on students: ‘getting a bursary can influence how you perform in your academics and you won’t have to stress or worry where you are going to get funds.’ ‘sometimes having a bursary may contribute to stress and thus affect a student negatively because of the pressure to perform well in order to maintain the bursary but on the other hand, however, it can motivate you to work harder in order to reward one.’ interestingly, the interviewees stressed that the receiving of adequate funding for studies may motivate the student to improve his or her academic results. such an achievement will place the student in a more advantageous position to be considered for further financial assistance, especially in the case of financially needy students. skilful financial advice and guidance become vital approaches in assisting students to manage their finances responsibly. >learners should know how to manage their finances and draw up a budget: some researchers – such as dunnett et al. (2011), jones et al. (2008), roble (2017) and thomas (2002) – focused on the effects of having low-income parents on students and the difficulties faced by these students when they lack sufficient funds. a high percentage of participants in the focus group interviews (88.43%) stated that financial support, as well as their families’ financial status, could influence their successful transition to higher education (roble, 2017). the comments recorded during the quantitative research phase covered both positive and negative aspects of received a study bursary. the comments related to the positive influence of bursaries correlate with the view published in the dhet green paper of 2012, which states that a bursary contributes significantly to a student’s effective transition and completion of his or her studies. judging by the manner in which participants shared their views on the influence that finances may have on academic prowess, it becomes clear that a lack of sufficient funding can negatively influence the transitioning phase from high school to higher education. interpersonal relationships researchers like stein and book (2011), (as cited in mangal & mangal, 2015, p. 238) describe an interpersonal relationship as a strong or close association or acquaintance between two or more people, ranging in duration from being brief to enduring. interpersonal relationships, according to them, are established within the context of social, cultural and other influences. in this research, i focused on the building and development of interpersonal relationships amongst students who were affiliated with jt programmes. i encountered different opinions regarding the types of skills needed for maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships in the literature, but found the skills as determined by hinkley and anderson (1996) in their research as the most suitable combination of skills in terms of my research aims. hinkley and anderson (1996) believe that new students’ interpersonal skills need to be tended to whilst they transition to higher education. accordingly, the jt initiative incorporated the following skills as focal points in its approach: verbal communication, listening, problem-solving, decision-making and assertiveness. the only skill type that hinkley and anderson (1996) additionally focused on (but that was not included in this research and the jt initiative’s programmes) is the negotiation skill. as illustrated, almost all the quantitative survey respondents agreed that the jt initiative enhanced their personal skills (the types included in this research) in one way or another. problem-solving and listening skills were the most frequently improved sets of skills, followed by assertiveness, decisionmaking and verbal communication skills (hinkley & anderson, 1996). although only 28 of the 47 respondents (59.57%) who participated in the focus group interviews (qualitative research) regarded interpersonal relationship as an important transitional factor, the percentage still indicates that the jt initiative had been instrumental in their overall development of personal skills. various participants supported this statement as recorded below. some participants promoted the utilisation of a personality test to help learners understand themselves better and to establish a healthy self-esteem. the following participant commented that sound interpersonal skills and relationships can help to lay the foundation for a successful study career: ‘interpersonal relationships with other students of different culture groups, family members and teachers at school are very important for success.’ ‘good interpersonal relationships made the gap between matric and first year at higher education easier.’ ‘meeting new friends in the initiative and develop good interpersonal relations with other participants helped a lot because it exposed me, as a learner, to more friends, their ideas and thus made me to be more open-minded towards things.’ responses obtained from both the quantitative and qualitative research phases revealed that the participants valued interpersonal relationships as one of the (non-academic) factors that influence the transition from high school to higher education. productive interaction not only with peers and friends but also with other cultural groups exposed them to new ideas and nurtured respect for other communities. the views of participants on the positive influence of interpersonal skills correlate with the arguments found in the studies conducted by bar-on (2007), (as cited in mangal & mangal, 2015), hinkley and anderson (1996) and tett et al. (2016). co-curricular activities whilst previous researchers – including andrews (2013), khan, jamil, khan and kareem (2012), prasad (2012) and streb (2009) – highly regarded the influence of co-curricular activities (extra-curricular activities), my research reveals that the jt participants valued the influence of co-curricular activities on the transitional process, but to a lesser extent. participants in the focus group interviews only commented on the extra-curricular activities that were instrumental in their transition. in the quantitative research phase, approximately half of the respondents agreed that both sports and cultural activities at university assisted them during their transition from high school to higher education. cultural activities, however, appeared to be more influential in transitioning than sports activities, according to the interviewees (55.51% vs. 42.29%). the contribution that extra classes in subjects such as mathematics and physical science could make to a successful transitioning from high school to higher education was an important focus point in the quantitative survey (prinsloo, 2008; santhi, 2011). almost three-quarters of respondents (73.45%) agreed or strongly agreed that extra classes could be a supporting factor during transition. during the qualitative research phase, 21 of the 47 participants (44.68%) stated that extra-curricular activities could have been influential transitioning factors. these were amongst the few comments recorded during the discussion of this factor: ‘it [extra-curricular activities] helped to keep a balance with social and academic life. participation in sports helped in keeping me sane.’ the lack of resources and opportunities to participate in sports and cultural activities could explain the low response rate of the focus group participants, with only 44.68% of participants having indicated that co-curricular activities could have contributed to their transitioning experiences. reasons that explain why many of the participants felt those activities had borne no influence on their transitioning are found in these recorded remarks: ‘i did not have the opportunity to participate in cultural activities as well as sports activities because i only focus on my academics.’ ‘higher education focuses on academic achievements to select learners for university and therefore i spend my time on focusing on my academic skills.’ in the qualitative research phase, participants considered the attendance of extra classes in mathematics and physical science as a co-curricular experience. comparatively, more quantitative (online) respondents than qualitative (focus group) participants felt that the extra classes they attended could have influenced their transition. more respondents selected cultural activities rather than sports as a possible co-curricular factor to influence the transition from high school to higher education. the low number of agreements in the qualitative phase can possibly be ascribed to the fact that many did not participate in sports or cultural activities as learners, and some prioritised academic achievements as the more vital endeavour in gaining admission to higher education. firstand second-generation students heyman and carolissen (2011) described a first-generation student as a student whose parents or guardians never earned a degree or diploma, whilst a second-generation student is a student whose parents or guardians have earned at least one tertiary qualification. several researchers found that parents’ expectations (gonida, kiosseoglou, & voulala, 2007), parents’ socio-economic status (alexander, entwistle, & horsey, 1997) and parents’ education (hornby, 2011) play elemental roles in learners’ development and their transition from high school to higher education. engle and tinto (2008) argued that first-generation students are significantly less likely to graduate because of a lack of family support. the jt initiative maintains a strong support system to assist such first-generation students. all jt participants receive academic and emotional support from jt staff members and jt student ambassadors (senior students). nearly half of the sample population in the quantitative research phase (48.61%) were students whose parents (father and mother) never studied at a tertiary institution; just over a quarter of students (25.90%) had parents who both studied at tertiary institutions, whilst almost the same number of students (25.49%) had either a mother or a father who studied at a tertiary institution. only nine of the 47 participants (19.50%) amongst the seven focus groups (qualitative research phase) indicated that differences between firstand second-generation students could constitute a non-academic transitional factor. those participants praised the positive contributions that their parent(s), who attended higher education institutions, had made to prepare them for the transition to the tertiary sphere: ‘it was easier for me because my parents were able to prepare financially for university because then you too attended a tertiary institution like one of your parents, so they knew what would be expected not only from them but from me too.’ ‘my parents understood the stress that comes with being at a tertiary institution, so they were able to prepare me for it.’ a first-generation participant, however, highlighted the intriguing possibility that having no parents with tertiary backgrounds may also have a positive effect on a new student’s transition from high school to tertiary education: ‘if you are the first one to go to university in your family, it motivates others and they look up to you as a role model.’ the interview sessions revealed that only a small number of participants perceived that differences between firstand second-generation students could influence the transition from high school to higher education. their statements indicated that those students who had parent(s) with tertiary backgrounds benefited in their efforts to transition successfully to higher education because of their parents’ knowledge regarding the demands of tertiary studies and the latter’s financial readiness to support them. at the same time, an argument can be presented that first-generation students could be motivated, as role models, to achieve and hence encourage other family members to aim for higher education studies. although many jts were first-generation students, the relationships they had built and the support they had received through the jt initiative helped them to offset the relatively strong connections that first-generation students generally have with their homes. the statements made by other participants in relation to the positive effects of being a second-generation student corroborate the findings of pascarella and terenzini (2005), who found that students whose parents had a bachelor’s degree or higher were five times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than the first-generation students. whilst the first-generation students could face certain disadvantages in comparison to other students, their parents may harbour higher expectations for their university-attending children, especially when these children had achieved high grades at school (hamrick & stage, 2004). culture shock (school vs. higher education) several researchers have investigated the culture shock that students can experience during their first year at a tertiary institution. mccoy, smyth, watson and darmody (2014) argue that high school learners are in need of a self-directing style of learning (especially with regard to time management), in contrast to the directive approach adopted by schools, in order to overcome the culture shock experience. diversity within the education system ranks amongst the greatest challenges facing higher education institutions and may exacerbate students’ transitional culture shock (kish, 2003). the jt initiative values all activities that assist prospective students to become comfortable with diversity, not only to help students to manage situations of diversity relating to cultural practices, gender and language barriers, but also for students to obtain social and interpersonal skills that will minimise the culture shock caused by exposure to a new environment. the jt initiative takes both positive and negative emotions or feelings of first-year students into account. discussion in this study i investigated a variety of academic and non-academic factors that could influence new students’ transitional experiences and determine their success. the results of both the online participants and the focus group interviews differ from those of the study of bangser (2008), who found that students’ high school experiences often do not prepare them well for a successful transition to higher education. he suggested that efforts should be made to increase the rigour, relevance and engagement of the high school curriculum for students who have traditionally faced barriers to the successful transition to higher education. the participants’ remarks are in contrast with the assumptions found in the literature (bangser, 2008; dlomo, jansen, moses, & yu, 2011), where researchers perceived the higher education curricula to differ from and present more strenuous challenges to students than high school curricula on account of increased workloads and higher volumes of learning material. interpretation of results several researchers, such as balduf (2009), damico and qucy (2009) and jansen and suhre (2010), have focused on the relationship between study skills and successful academic achievements. success in a study career is achievable when the student’s study and time management skills are functional (jansen & suhre, 2010). the quantitative data and participants’ comments in this research agree with the perception that inadequate study skills can have a negative impact. the results of this research concerning the question of whether the language of teaching and learning can act as a predictor of success in the transitioning from high school to higher education correlate with wedekind’s (2013) study of south african universities, in which he suggested that academic success in the language used for learning and teaching at a learner’s school is a reliable predictor of academic success – in the same language – at a higher education institution. the findings of the present research, namely that participants’ mathematical and physical science skills (as an academic factor) could have influenced their transition from high school to higher education, complement arnold and straten’s (2012) research by acknowledging the importance of mathematical readiness in the pursuit of successful higher education studies. naidoo, motala and joubert (2013) found in their research that a high correlation existed between matriculation scores and degree averages. this correlates with the findings of the present research, namely that nearly 50% of the participants indicated that their grade 12 marks were an indication of their success in higher education (first year). the other 50% correlates with the findings of müller (2013), who presents a case that the national senior certificate (nsc) grade 12 examinations are not a good indicator of success in higher education. when researching financial factors as part of the non-academic factors that can influence successful transition, i found that both the quantitative and qualitative results complemented the findings of researchers like dunnett et al. (2011), jones et al. (2008), roble (2017) and thomas (2002). all of them focused on the effects of having low-income parents and insufficient funds on these students. although engle and tinto (2008) argue that first-generation students are significantly less likely to graduate because of a lack of family support, the present research findings show that only a small percentage (19.5%) of participants indicated that the differences between firstand second-generation students could constitute a non-academic factor. on balance, some of the participants’ comments corresponded with the findings of billson and terry (1982), namely that there are no noticeable differences between the educational aspirations of firstand second-generation students. other participants’ statements regarding the positive effects of being a second-generation student agree with the findings of pascarella and terenzini (2005), who argued that students whose parents held a bachelor’s degree or higher were five times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than the first-generation students. the results of the questionnaire (quantitative research) show that the participants experienced positive and negative emotions or feelings in almost equal measures during their first study years. they confirm the perception that students may experience a culture shock whilst transitioning to a higher education institution (zhou, jindal-snape, topping, & todman, 2008). responses obtained from both the quantitative and qualitative research phases of the study reveal that the participants valued interpersonal relationships as one of the (non-academic) factors that influence the transition from high school to higher education. this finding correlates with the arguments found in the studies of bar-on (2007) (as cited in mangal & mangal, 2015) and tett et al. (2016). the findings of this research complement those of moursound (1995) (cited in eisenberg & johnson, 2002), namely that the productive utilisation of computers and computerised content is either neglected or underdeveloped in many schools. it also correlates to the view of eisenberg and johnson (2002) who argued that programmes used to develop computer literacy will manage to develop skills that are best applied when meeting learning outcomes. the results regarding the influence of the development of social skills in the jt initiative as a non-academic factor support the arguments suggested by hinkley and anderson (1996), who believe that human beings have a need for acceptance by social groups. during the development of social skills as part of the jt initiative, the participants become exposed to other cultural communities, which can assist in fostering healthy and productive interactions within diverse groups (tett et al., 2016). according to bangser (2008), students’ high school experiences often do not prepare them well for a successful transition to higher education. he suggests that efforts should be made to increase the rigour, relevance and engagement of the high school curriculum for students who traditionally face barriers that hamper their successful transition to higher education. however, the remarks made in the focus group interviews of this study are in contrast to the assumptions found in the reviewed literature. in total, only 17 (36.17%) students who participated in the focus group interviews indicated a belief that a poor selection of study fields could influence the transitional process. this is in contrast to the findings of bourdabat and montmarquette (2007) who argue that expected economic return has a primary influence on the choice of a study field. although prasad (2012) found a positive correlation between sports participation and academic performance, and andrews (2013) and zia-ul-lslam, khan and khan (2016) argued that participants in sports and co-curricular activities generally achieve better grades than non-participants, a lower percentage of participants in the focus group interviews in the present study stated that those activities could have eased their transition to higher education. as most of the respondents in this study lacked the resources and opportunities to participate in sports and cultural activities, their response rate was low. in the reviewed literature, i found no evidence of other programmes designed to specifically address poor study skills prior to new students’ arrival at higher education institutions. the jt initiative, however, incorporates a study skills programme to assist participants in improving their study methods (skills). what emerged from the findings of this study was that most students who had successfully transitioned from high school to higher education were convinced that a variety of academic and non-academic factors could influence new students’ transitional experiences and determine their success. the respondents identified certain factors as highly influential, whilst others were not negligible but had less influence on transitions. lastly, in contrast to studies such as those conducted by bowles et al. (2013) and goldrick-rab et al. (2007), which largely focused on the types of assistance once students had arrived at a higher education institution, the current study focused on factors and experiences of students before they entered higher education. a reasonable assessment provided by this study is that a well-functioning support system, combined with programmes to aid the development of various skill sets (e.g. academic, social and personal), could greatly enhance new students’ successful transition from high school to higher education. possibilities for further research this study’s findings helped me to appreciate the importance of sufficiently preparing high school learners for their pending transitions to higher education (especially learners identified as prospective students in south africa’s public schools), and to keep supporting and encouraging them to complete their first academic year within one calendar year. as the scope of this study was limited to the factors that enable successful transitions (with a resultant focus on jt participants who achieved academic successes in their first years), a new area of wider research could be developed that will complement this study’s findings. a new study could, for instance, determine the factors that led to the success of those students who had transitioned well and completed not only their first years successfully, but also had graduated in the minimum amount of time. a second new area of investigation could involve participants who had attended the jt initiative’s programmes at their high schools in 2014 and 2015, and then completed their first years at universities in 2016 and 2017. this new study would establish if the changes and additions implemented by the jt initiative (as a consequence of this study) had any greater effects on new students’ transitional and academic successes at higher education. table 3: overview of the academic and non-academic factors that influence student success or failure. as a third suggestion, as the jt initiative incorporated extra e-learning programmes and escalated its focus on the development of personal skills, the degrees of influence that these specific programmes had on students’ transitioning and academic successes could be investigated in the near future. conclusion there is a general consensus about the fact that both academic and non-academic factors will influence prospective students’ transition from high school to higher education. as has been demonstrated in the findings of this research, certain academic factors played a bigger role in participants’ successful transition, whilst others had less influence. the same trend was found with respect to non-academic factors, which not only affected the successful transition of students from high school to higher education, but also contributed to their success in further studies. the academic benefit and competitive advantage gained by students who made a successful transition from high school to tertiary education cannot be underestimated. hence, it is vital to introduce a pre-arrival programme – already in high school – to address both the academic and non-academic factors that may affect transition. successful transition to higher education can reduce the dropout rate of first-year students and decrease their fear of failure. closing the successful transitioning from high school to higher education is paramount for learners and students in the south african context. school preparation is often inadequate for ensuring a successful transitional period, and many new students find it difficult to remain in control of their transition and studies without the necessary preparation, skills or motivation. academic and non-academic factors work together ‘as a unit’ to ensure (or ruin) the study success of a first-year student; therefore, it is important to assess and evaluate all the factors that may assist in successful transition from high school to higher education. acknowledgements the author would like to thank prof. kobus maree for reviewing the manuscript. the article is partially based on the author’s thesis for the degree of doctor of philosophy in the department of education at the university of pretoria, south africa, with supervisor prof chika sehoole, received may 2018, available at http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/67771/lombard_factors_2018.pdf?allowed=y&sequence=1. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial and not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references alexander, k.l., entwistle, d.r., & horsey, c.s. 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(2008). theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education. studies in higher education, 33(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070701794833 zia-ul-islam, s., khan, s., & khan, a. (2016). parental constraints in the way of sports participation among the secondary students of khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan. journal of physical education research, 3(3), 66–72. abstract introduction background literature review methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) boitumelo m. diale department of educational psychology, faculty of education, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation diale, b.m. (2022). ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili’: using indigenous knowledge practices to support first-year first-generation african students in their career transition to higher education african journal of career development, 4(1), a62. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v4i1.62 original research ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili’: using indigenous knowledge practices to support first-year first-generation african students in their career transition to higher education boitumelo m. diale received: 07 july 2022; accepted: 25 aug. 2022; published: 30 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: the study explored indigenous knowledge systems’ role in tutoring first-year first-generation african students (fyfgas) transitioning from high school to higher education. during this process, tutors and students implicitly engage in indigenous knowledge systems (iks) that allow for enculturation and holistic support for fyfgas. objectives: drawing on schlossberg’s career transitioning theory as an underpinning framework, the researcher explored how fyfgas experienced tutoring sessions as a positive conduit towards their successful transition into their first year at university, embedded in the tutor’s use of iks processes. method: this article adopted a phenomenological qualitative design within an interpretive paradigm. data were collected using a semi-structured individual interview schedule with six participants who were first years and the first generation to attend universities in their families. these included four females and two males between the ages of 19 and 21 years. five of the participants were black south africans, and one was originally from zimbabwe but a naturalised resident of south africa. data were analysed through inductive thematic analysis. results: the findings revealed that tutors were role models to fyfgas as they transitioned. tutors further acted as agents of empowerment, thus fulfilling the role of change agents. students believed that tutoring sessions promoted active learning. through their active engagement, students developed problem-solving and knowledge-acquisition skills. conclusion: there is a need for higher education institutions (heis) to build systems that embrace the diverse iks in supporting the fyfgas. developing a holistic understanding of iks and using these practices during the tutor sessions of fyfgas will help transform hei spaces and fully embrace diversity. this will allow these students’ career transitioning to be inclusive. contribution: the study contributes towards guiding higher education institutions on how to embrace and support students who are the first generation in their families to attend university. it brings further insight to the university leadership on the lived experiences of these students and h ow universities can adapt their first year experience programs to be more inclusive of these students keywords: indigenous knowledge systems; tutoring; higher education; first year; first-generation students; career transition. introduction transitioning from high school to higher education institutions (heis) is challenging for some youth. however, since the dawn of democracy, most youth entering heis in the south african context are from previously disadvantaged contexts and thus find themselves underprepared in their transitioning because of socio-economic, historical, political and community circumstances (council on higher education, 2013). research has shown that most south african students need additional support when entering heis to persist through their first year of study (lombard, 2020; motsabi, diale, & van zyl, 2020b). there is literature on career transitioning from high school to higher education (lombard, 2020; meehan & howells, 2018) first-generation students’ persistence in higher education (engestrom & tinto, 2008; motsabi, diale, & van zyl, 2020a; o’shea, 2016) the use of indigenous knowledge systems (iks) and tutoring in higher education (pidgeon, 2016; stahl, mcdonald, & stokes, 2020) and the value of tutoring programmes in higher education (carnow et al., 2020; rodríguez & ossola, 2019). however, there is a scarcity of research focusing on the use of indigenous knowledge practices supporting first-year first-generation african students (fyfgas) in their career transition to higher education within the south african context. this study explores indigenous knowledge practices used during tutoring sessions to support fyfgas as they transition to higher education. in this study, fyfgas are black south african students, as classified in the south african population registry (mda, 2011), whose parents have no higher education qualifications (mehta, newbold, & o’rourke, 2011) and who are the first in their family to attend university (bangeni & kapp, 2005). they come from families where the understanding of academic norms, expectations and demands differs from families where at least one parent attended higher education (heymann & carolissen, 2011). first-year first-generation african students are more likely to come from low-income families, poor socio-economic backgrounds, under-resourced basic education and schooling systems and poor communities. some of these students grow up in families where the grandmother is the main breadwinner, and all grandchildren look out for each other (mtshali, 2015). for these students, the family system, including parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, becomes an important source of support; thus, they never become fully break up from the rules of the family and learn to become independent from these systems (covarrubias, valle, laiduc, & azmitia, 2019; motsabi et al., 2020b), affirming the african proverbs that ‘ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ [a person is a person through other people] and that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. the combination of the act of ubuntu and the indigenous practice of a ‘village’ is needed in their first year of study as they transition to higher education, which can be embedded into the tutoring system. background compared to international, first-generation students from minority groups, fyfgas in this context come from the black south africans that are the majority of the population. they are from diverse contexts ranging from families where parents have no education or only primary or secondary education and come from townships or rural contexts; others are caregivers in child-headed households, thus facing multiple psychosocial adversities during their first year of study in heis, yet are able to succeed (naidoo & van schalkwyk, 2021; van breda, 2017; wills & hofmeyer, 2018). for these students to persist in higher education, academic, economic and social support are important. the first year is a transitional year from basic to higher education. it is generally the most difficult year for most students and a year where students find it easy to drop out. according to the council on higher education in 2013, the attrition rate of first-year students was 33%. most of these students were african and most probably the first generation. first-year first-generation african students need all forms of academic and social support for them to be able to navigate higher education and persevere through the challenging first year. tutoring programmes have proven effective in transitioning from high school to university. the intensity of the interactions during these sessions and the relationships between tutors and students lead to academic knowledge acquisition (rodríguez & ossola, 2019). integrating indigenous african ways of learning during the tutoring sessions further enhances academic development as it draws from the ways of being that they are familiar with. they provide access, participation and support for first-year students to manage their transition into university life. given the changing demographics in south african heis, universities must develop systems that consider students’ identities in becoming socially integrated and attaining learning and generic skills and qualities such as critical thinking and intellectual rigour (tinto, 1993). this process has far-reaching implications for educational thought and practice. to cater for this adjustment, heis must set clear transformational goals to redress past inequalities, serve a new social order, meet pressing national needs and respond to new realities and opportunities (chipunza & gwarinda, 2010). higgs (2008) further argues for a need for a philosophical framework that respects diversity, acknowledges lived experiences and challenges western forms of universal knowledge. before an institution can take steps to enhance student success, it must first understand who they are, what they have been prepared to do academically and what they expect from the institution and themselves. it further needs to take into consideration the current student profile within the institution. in the case of the institution under investigation, the students’ profile is mostly african, with first-generation students from predominantly poor socio-economic backgrounds who have not been adequately prepared for higher education as expected and are faced with adjusting to cultural capital and institutional habitus that are alien to them. higher education institutions must take into consideration that the first years of a degree allow for an opportunity for both students and academic institutions to create learning opportunities (leibowitz, van der merwe, & van schalkwyk, 2009). according to tinto (1993), the first year of university is the most likely year that a student will leave. for students to persist, institutional conditions should encourage a smooth transition. tinto (2012) believes that students persist when conditions within an institution are conducive to success; therefore, heis should create environments that enable students to succeed. against this background, this article argues that in an institution where first-year students are predominantly african, indigenous ways of tutoring should be integrated into the current western tutoring systems to support and enhance the programmes implemented by the institution, thus creating an inviting experience (siegel, 2010) for fyfgas and assisting them in adjusting to the complexities of higher education. the tutoring programme can be empowering, nurturing and supportive if managed correctly. it can consider the students’ knowledge, positively impacting first-year students’ personal, social and academic outcomes (mcgowan, saintas, & gill, 2009; o’shea, harwood, kervin, & humphry, 2013; rogers, 2011). the tutors provide academic and personal support to students by encouraging participation and allowing for guidance. conditions are set to promote a reciprocal relationship, a learning relationship and a nurturing relationship. this enables the students to adapt, acquire the required competencies and learn from their experiences. this relationship becomes mutually beneficial as both tutor and the tutee learn from each other. literature review indigenous ways of tutoring owuor (2007) states that indigenous knowledge includes the society’s means of learning and knowledge accumulation. furthermore, demssie, biemans, wesselink and mulder (2020, p. 4) define indigenous knowledge as ‘a comprehensive system of a particular society that encompasses its worldviews, practices, laws, holistic know-how and guidelines regarding interrelationships within the society’. it is largely communitarian as the discovery, experimentation, transmission and knowledge sharing are collective rather than individualistic endeavour within a community (emeagwali, 2003, higgs & van niekerk, 2002). according to pidgeon (2016), to reconcile systemic and societal inequalities, it is the responsibility of heis to decolonise education, leading to the meaningful inclusion of indigenous knowledge as an integral part of the institution’s tutoring programmes. carnow et al. (2020) define tutoring as an intervention to improve students’ academic performance. this intervention is facilitated by high-achieving senior students appointed to guide and support novice students to be actively involved in their learning and development and gain cognitive skills that will lead to their success (carnow et al., 2020). tutoring typically happens as experienced people recognise and develop new beginners who seek to explore their talents through the counsel of knowledgeable elders. in the african culture, the ancestors knew that if the family wants to survive, the children must learn the ways used by the tribe in order to survive. as they learn, they are tutored in the skills, the ceremonies and the ways of life of the tribe. thus, tutoring ensured cultural survival for the people. tutoring is important in transmitting knowledge and skills (azevedo, moraes, & lira, 2021), and learning how to learn is the key element in education. tutoring in indigenous education promotes skills such as listening, observing, experiencing and intuition, all of which play an important role in learning. in transmitting knowledge, the emphasis of learning is to allow for the uniqueness of the individual learning style and to encourage the development of self-reliance and self-determination (cajete, 1994). the tutors are found in the various developmental stages of young people, and the relationship promotes learning through the emulation of an experienced practitioner and supervised guidance. these wondrous relationships mirror the processes of the wisdom of indigenous knowledge and tutoring, such as preparing, asking, making, understanding, sharing and celebrating between the mentor and the mentee. it is important to acknowledge that in the south african context, where we have nine official languages with different cultural practices, there are general common practices across these cultures, one of them being the role of mentors in the developmental stages and the coming to age of children and youth. whilst the author acknowledges that participants are from different cultural backgrounds, it is beyond the scope of this article to use examples from all cultural groups. thus, the author chose to use the amazulu cultural processes as an example of relating the role of iks in the tutoring of fyfgas. however, in the data analysis section, the terms used for mentees or mentors in the participants’ cultures will be mentioned where possible. the amazulu culture places a lot of emphasis on tutoring, hence the proverb indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili [you can only ask directions from those who have travelled the path before you]. learning takes place in a group situation, and sharing opinions is valued. for example, in the amazulu culture girls who have gone through teenage hood and are presumed to still be virgins are called amatshitshi and are placed under the mentorship of older, matured female called iqhikiza. the role of iqhikiza is that of a guiding mentor who will help amatshitshi negotiate this transition period. during this period, the young girls are taught how to navigate the robes of becoming young adults, including lessons on what to expect, what to do and how to behave. iqhikiza prepares them for adulthood and acts in place of parents (in loco-parentis) (vilakazi, 1965). she must lead by example, as the young women will emulate her behaviour. she allows them to question and freely discuss their experiences, and she engages their curiosity in a way that allows them to feel part of their development. a major role played by the mentor ‘iqhikiza’ is that of a nurturing, supportive and protective leader to her protégés. in the isizulu culture, the practice of mentoring is used not only with girls but also with boys during their developmental stages. the male mentor, igoso lezinsizwa [a leader of young men], is a grown-up mature male who is a leader of the younger group of boys said to be ibutho. the role of the leader is to teach his protégés how to use sticks for fighting, approach girls and deal with rejection. in this way, he helps them gain insight into their subculture and develop. during the tutorship period, the men are taught skills of hunting, raising a family and general manhood ways. this helps clear misunderstandings and conflicts, especially amongst boys in the same group. idiomatic expressions such as injobo ithungelwa ebandla [a problem is solved by a community] (nxumalo, 2021) encourage sharing information and joint problem-solving. therefore, according to indigenous culture, learning occurs through interaction, transference and emulation. this leans more on the tutoring system as a favoured methodology. this study capitalises on using indigenous systems during tutoring sessions with fyfgas. to this end, the study sought to answer the following main research question: how are iks utilised to support the fyfgas during the tutoring sessions in an hei in south africa? theoretical framework this study is underpinned by schlossberg’s transition theory (1995), which focuses on the transitions that individuals experience throughout life and how they cope and adjust (schlossberg, waters, & goodman, 1995). schlossberg describes the transition as ‘any event or non-event that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles’ (goodman, schlossberg, & anderson, 2006, p. 33). to understand the meaning of transition for fyfgas, the transition type, context and impact must be considered carefully (killam & degges-white, 2017). according to chickering and schlossberg (1995), transitioning can be anticipated, unanticipated or non-event. in this article, fyfgas transitioning from high school to hei can be considered an anticipated transition (bailey-taylor, 2009). thus, the student should be able to prepare for a successful transition adequately. however, for most fyfgas, this transition is not smooth as they face myriad challenges that threaten their success in higher education. for those who can break through the first hurdle of challenges and make it to heis, they are likely to face unanticipated events when they get to heis, such as under-preparedness, socio-cultural shock, lack of financial support or realising that the hei context is completely different from their experiences – thus finding themselves not able to adjust to the transition. finally, a non-event for fyfgas can relate to a situation where they are ready to transition but, because of various contextual reasons, the transition to higher education does not occur. this transition theory further posits that four factors affect an individual’s capacity to cope with a transition, situation, self, support and strategies (schlossberg et al., 1995). killam and degges-white (2017) explain the situation factor in schlossberg’s transition theory as encompassing precipitation, timing, control, role modification, duration, experience in similar transition, concurrent stress and evaluation. the self encompasses the fyfgass’ personal (age, gender and ethnicity) demographic and psychological (ego-development, commitment and values, coping aids and self-efficacy) resources that are important enablers in the transitioning phase. the support factor of schlossberg’s transition theory stresses the importance of fyfgas social relationships as support structures constructed by family members, peers, community members and support services from hei. this factor plays an important role in the indigenous tutoring systems of many fyfgas as an institutional support mechanism. the final factor focuses on strategies that can be used in heis to modify their situations through various institutional strategies such as tutoring and on-boarding of fyfgas (killam & degges-white, 2017). the diagram (figure 1) explains four major sets of factors that influence an individual and are likely to determine fyfgas ability to cope with a transition (schlossberg et al., 1995). figure 1: schlossberg’s four ‘s’ factors of transitioning concerning first-year first-generation african students in higher education institutions in south africa. through schlossberg’s four ‘s’ factors (situation, self, support and strategies), the researcher hoped to understand better how using indigenous knowledge and practices in the tutoring sessions could enable a smooth transition to higher education. methodology research design this study adopted a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design focused on the essence of a lived experience or phenomenon open to observation or perception by diverse individuals with diverse viewpoints (tomaszewski, zarestky, & gonzalez, 2020). it also focuses on the depth and complexity of phenomena (guest, namey, & mckenna, 2017), which is the role of iks in the tutoring of fyfgas in higher education. the researcher aimed to yield a systematic reflection of the participants’ lived experiences (guest et al., 2017) of the tutoring system as fyfgas. hence, information about the use of indigenous systems during the career transition into higher education and their deeper understanding and meaningful indigenous learning during the tutor sessions were sourced from students as participants. participants and sampling using purposive sampling, participants were sourced from a class of 35 students from racially diverse backgrounds registered for an elective support module at the bachelor of education undergraduate degree level. from this diverse group, 16 identified as african students. although all 16 were willing participants, 10 students did not meet the inclusion criteria as either their parents or elder siblings had previously attended heis. only six participants were involved as they met the criteria of being fyfgas. all six came from previously disadvantaged family backgrounds and were the first to attend any form of higher education beyond grade 12 in their family systems. table 1 describes the participants and their parents’ educational backgrounds. pseudonyms were used to conceal their identities. table 1: biographical information of participants. tutors are seen as senior matured students in their second, third or fourth year of study at university, and tutors are appointed by academics in different modules based on their excellence in performance. their role is to tutor these year students and assist them in transitioning into higher education and also mentoring and coaching them outside the formal academic sessions. data collection and analysis for this study, data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with six participants to allow them an opportunity to express themselves in a ‘safe’ space. the interview schedule covered the students’ experiences and therefore covered the following: (1) describe your experiences of the tutoring sessions as facilitated by your tutors; (2) how do these sessions relate or identify with your indigenous knowledge practices as an fyfgas? (3) as an fyfgas, what benefits did you experience from the tutoring sessions? (4) what skills have you found that relate to your indigenous skills and values during the tutoring sessions? all data were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. maree’s (2017) process of cross-checking and comparing the transcribed data with the audio recordings was followed to ensure trustworthiness. creswell’s (2014) guidelines of reading through the data, dividing data into segments of information with codes, reducing and overlapping the redundancy of codes and collapsing the codes into themes were followed to analyse data. to ensure the study’s trustworthiness, the transcribed data were cross-checked with the recordings (yin, 2017). ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg, faculty of education research ethics committee and permission to conduct the study was granted by the faculty in which the participants were registered as first-year students, and participants also signed consent forms. the research is part of a larger project on career transitioning (ethics clearance sem 2-2020-055). the researcher asked to address students in one of the colleague’s classes where they did not teach to avoid biases and students feeling coerced to participate. all ethical protocols were adhered to, and participants were informed of the right to withdraw at any stage without repercussions should they feel uncomfortable continuing. results presentation of findings the findings yielded three main themes from the individual interview discussions. each theme yielded subthemes. the overarching themes and subthemes are presented in figure 2. all these themes contributed to the benefits experienced by fyfgas during tutoring sessions as they transitioned to higher education. verbatim quotes are used as evidence of the presented results. the following section discusses each theme and the subthemes with supporting quotes from the fyfgas. figure 2: themes and subthemes derived from data. theme 1: tutors serve as role models participants in this study attested to how their tutors were role models for them, and this inspired them as they became self-aware of their potential to succeed in higher education despite being first-generation university students. a male participant from kwazulu-natal commented: ‘for someone like me who comes from the deep rural natal and being the third of four children in the family to come to uni[versity], my tutors acted as my mentors and role models for me. they reminded me back home of my elder brothers who guided me through manhood when i went to the mountain to become a man, and although they did not go further in schooling, i can relate to their lessons in some of my tutors’ sessions.’ (sizwe, 18-year-old, male, from the amazulu ethnic group) when probed further about the guidance through manhood, he explained: ‘you know ma’am, in my culture, as teenagers, we go to the mountain to transition into manhood. during this period, we have young men [igosolezinsizwa], similar to my tutors, and older men, similar to my lecturers, who teach us ways of being. the young men become our mentors as they had gone through this path before and were taught by the older men. this prepares us better for manhood and practices such as ukushela [proposing love to a girl]; ukulahlwa [rejection] and nokulwa ngezinduku [stick fighting]. these lessons made me preserve, and i will still use them here [smiling]. i, therefore, relate tutoring to this as my tutors prepare me better for university studies.’ (sizwe, 18-year-old, male, from the amazulu ethnic group) this comment indicates that tutoring sessions allowed the participant to relate to his indigenous practices of transitioning from one stage of life to the next with the help of those who had gone through the path before him; thus the idiom ‘indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili,’ loosely translated as, ‘you can only ask for direction from those who have travelled the path before you.’ alluding to the experience of tutors providing inspiration and corroborating sizwe’s experience, a female participant who is an orphan and was brought up by her grandmother said: ‘for me, my education studies tutor has been my inspiration to do my best. i spent two years at home after my matric as my granny could not afford registration fees. so, i find myself a bit older than my classmates, who are between 17 and 19 years. this initially made me feel awkward and out of place, but when my tutor, who is much older and from zimbabwe, told us her story in the tutor session, i felt inspired and belonged.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) tsakani’s experience can be related to the indigenous ways of mentoring where she sees her tutor as mudyondzisi [a female mentor] in the matsonga culture similar to iqhikiza [older female mentor] who is nurturing, supportive and protective of izintombi [younger females], her protégés. these experiences are similar to the indigenous practices the fyfgas know and can relate to, which helps them transition better into higher education, increasing their persistence and decreasing the possibility of high attrition rates and dropout. similarly, a 19 yeard old female from the batswana ethnic group, mpho, said, ‘most of my tutors inspire me to do my best’ whilst mfundo added that, ‘they make this seem all possible and doable, they are a true inspiration and remind us of our african way of being, that is to look after each other and learn from those who have gone before us, that is the way of being ma’m, they show true ubuntu.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) according to the participants, tutors provided them with the support they needed to manage their first year successfully. they also helped them understand the material taught in class by their lecturers and made it simple and ‘digestible’ [tsakani]. tutors played the role of being their guides. a participant explained their experience as follows: ‘my tutors [in setswana called bakaedi] remind me of back home, where my elder cousin was my inspiration and guide to success. even though she did not finish school, she was a successful businesswoman and was the reason i was inspired to finish school and come to university. my tutors’ support reminds me of the support i got from her as she was a good example for me that i can succeed as a black girl.’ (thato, 19-year-old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) the above experiences can be related to schlossberg’s transitioning process of the fyfgas’s ability to control and manage their transition because of the support they receive from their tutors. it further alludes to aspects of the self as some are self-conscious of the personal characteristics they bring into the situation, such as age, gender and ethnicity. theme 2: tutors act as agents of empowerment when participants were asked about their understanding of the benefits of tutor sessions and the role tutors played in their transitioning, their responses alluded to the role of their tutors as agents of empowerment. in her response, tsakani explained her experience with her history tutor as follows: ‘she allows us to question freely and share our stories and experiences, something i am scared to do in class with my lecturers. when she validated my opinions and allowed me to express myself in my home language even though she did not know it and asked others to help interpret, i knew there and then that she has my back and it’s possible to make it.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) refiloe supported tsakani’s statement and indicated that ‘i can express my personal views in the mentor session’ and said, ‘as students, we feel valuable.’ (refiloe, 19 year old, female, from the basotho ethic group) her opinion was further supported by thato, who stated, ‘i feel that i have valuable contributions to make in the mentor session.’ (thato, 19-year-old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) participants felt that they were allowed to express their opinions even if they did not agree with the others. this thought was passionately shared by mfundo, who explained that there was a debate around the former president of zimbabwe in the session, and his personal opinions differed from the class as a zimbabwean. he felt whilst the rest of the group was talking from a third-person perspective, he had a first-hand lived experience from his home country. his experience of how the tutor handled the ‘hot debate’ was ‘my opinions are considered important in the mentor session, and i feel validated by my tutor. for me, he is a true agent of empowerment.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) the experiences shared by participants allowed them to transition without feeling insecure, as their tutors assisted in building their self-confidence. because of this positive experience, participants were willing to go the extra mile to succeed in their studies. this relates to schlossberg’s second ‘s’ of self. through the mentor sessions, they were enabled to develop their egos, coping aids, values and self-efficacy and be fully committed to their holistic development. moreover, the fourth ‘s’ of strategies was used by fyfgas to adapt to higher education through peer engagement, debates and critical discussions. this process can only occur in smaller tutor sessions versus the big lecture classes. theme 3: mentor sessions promote active student participation the tutoring sessions enabled participants to participate in their learning and development actively. the active participation was indicated by three participants who said: ‘the mentor session promotes participation which boosts my self-confidence.’ (mpho, 19 year old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) ‘i enjoy taking part in discussions during the mentor session because i can express myself without fear or favour as a zulu boy.’ [with a smile] (sizwe, 18 year old, male, from the amazullu ethnic group) ‘the mentor encourages all of us as students to participate actively.’ (refiloe, 19 year old, female, from the basotho ethic group) when asked about skills, they found that related to their indigenous skills and values during the tutoring sessions, participants’ responses indicated two major skills: problem-solving and knowledge acquisition. they indicated that they had been taught these skills as children by their grandparents, parents and other elders in their villages and communities. in explaining problem-solving skills, tsakani explained: ‘the mentor session teaches me to think critically not only about my studies but about life in general. this reminds me of my granny who used to say to me as a little girl, “tsakani,” [and i knew when she calls me by name, there is something wrong i have done as she called me makhadzi, meaning aunt as i was named after her aunt], you don’t just do things, you think first. otherwise, you will always be in trouble and will never succeed.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) tsakani alluded to this indigenous knowledge by her grandmother as a lesson she has taken throughout her whole life. mfundo alluded that the mentor session ‘promotes problem-solving.’ when asked to explain further, as school is thought to be the place where problem-solving is taught, he argued and said: ‘you see, ma’am, doc, school is supposed to do this, but it doesn’t; all you guys do with your western knowledge is to make us do “cpf,” and that does not teach us to problem solve; it actually makes us forget the skills we learned from the home of problem-solving, and the tutor sessions at least try to bring this skill back.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) as i was uncertain what cpf means, i asked mfundo to explain, but he rolled his eyes and laughed out loud, and said: ‘serious, doc,’ to which i nodded my head. mfundo’s response was: ‘teachers and lecturers make us “c”cram, “p”-pass and “f”forget. they don’t engage us in those big classes thus, we are unable to critically think, but if you focus during the tutor sessions, you learn a lot as these sessions provide the opportunity to critically think and problem solve.’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) mfundo further explained that as a boy back in zimbabwe, he and his siblings and cousins were raised by his grandfather as he did not know his father. his grandfather would give them challenging tasks when they took his stock out for grazing, and the one who came up with solutions would receive incentives and privileges over the others. as he puts it: ‘this continuously kept us on our toes to find solutions; thus, i found my own solution of coming to south africa to study, with no one’s help [smiling].’ (mfundo, 20 year old, male, from the vashona ethnic group) one could tell from his facial expression how proud he was about the lessons learned from his grandfather, and mfundo was one of the top students, not only in my module but in the programme. thato corroborated mfundo’s narration in saying: ‘the mentor session teaches me to look at things from a different point of view.’ (thato, 19-year-old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) given the challenges students who are fyfgas and from disadvantaged contexts face, heis need to provide a conducive and student-friendly context that will allow students to develop knowledge-acquisition skills and provide the support that will bridge the gap that emanates from the poor schooling system they come from. it was evident from the data provided that fyfgas found tutor sessions provided them with the opportunity to develop knowledge-acquisition skills that they needed to cope with learning at a university. to support this assertion, participants stated that: ‘i learn new skills in every mentor session.’ (mpho, 19 year old, female, from the batswana ethnic group) ‘the mentor session gives me the ability to achieve set outcomes.’ (refiloe, 19 year old, female, from the basotho ethic group) ‘the mentor session teaches me to apply the theory i have learned.’ (tsakani, 21-year-old, female, from the matsonga ethnic group) discussion according to karcher (2008), students require good role models to guide them to navigate the new school environment successfully. coyne-foresi, crooks, chiodo, nowicki and dare (2019) also indicate that tutors can serve as role models for individual mentees in tutoring programmes. in previous research, tutoring was shown to promote a strong relationship between students and tutors (tolbert, 2015). klinck et al. (2005) note that in the indigenous tutoring system, it is important for mentees to have good role models that will guide and support them in their journey towards personal growth. karcher (2005) shows that a mentor’s (tutor) behaviour, such as attendance rate, can directly affect mentees’ self-management of behaviour, skills and self-esteem, thus agreeing with the four ‘s’s of schlossberg’s transition theory (schlossberg et al., 1995). karcher (2009) suggests that having tutors with positive attitudes and connectedness that foster student achievement is essential to a tutoring programme’s success. indigenous tutoring holds many benefits for students. the indigenous tutoring system is useful for improving educational aspirations and reducing educational disparity amongst students from disadvantaged backgrounds (bodkin-andrews, harwood, mcmahon, & priestly, 2013). previous studies indicate that the indigenous tutoring system can foster student learning outcomes and is a mechanism for student empowerment, knowledge acquisition and skill improvement (o’shea, mcmahon, priestly, bodkin-andrews, & harwood, 2016; priestly, lynch, wallace, & harwood, 2015; reano, 2020). o’shea et al. (2013) observe that tutoring can foster imaginative thinking about university education amongst students and serve as a tool for improving students’ access to and participation in university education. also, burgess and dyer (2009) observe that tutoring provides students with the opportunity to rise above their disadvantaged situation. windchief and brown (2017) suggest that indigenous tutoring programmes can help to address the educational gap and enable students to succeed in pursuing higher education without losing their cultural identity and values. mangan and trendle (2019) show that tutoring can increase student programme completion rates. also, another study suggests that learners who have been tutored are less likely to drop out of a training programme than those without tutors (trendle, 2013). karcher (2009) observes that a tutoring programme can enable students to gain knowledge, skills and attitudes that could assist them in comprehending better and respecting themselves and others. researchers like peralta, cinelli and bennie (2018) show that tutoring can be used to increase the engagement of indigenous students. hackett et al. (2016) recorded improvements in students’ confidence, knowledge and skills after participating in a tutoring programme. tutoring fosters connectedness amongst students by providing them with the opportunity to bond socially and experience belongingness (karcher, 2005). according to karcher (2008), tutoring is a mechanism for transmitting values to students, instilling in them hope for the future as well as improving their academic skills. this is further supported by carnow et al. (2020) who assert that the cooperative nature of tutoring allows students to engage with peers and exchange learning experiences and success strategies. these values, experiences and strategies support the fyfgas to transition easily, taking cognisance of their personal characteristics, psychological resources and support structures as outlined in the transition theory (schlossberg et al., 1995). tutoring greatly benefits disadvantaged youths by providing them with a forum for developing competence and school bonding (zand et al., 2009). coyne-foresi et al. (2019) show that tutoring contributes positively to students’ self-development, cultural connectedness and interpersonal relationships. kram and bragar (1992) emphasise that tutoring helps in skills development amongst mentees. indigenous tutoring programmes can help increase mentees’ skill levels (vujcich, thomas, crawford, & ward, 2018). furthermore, tutoring enhances students’ experience in the university; it enables them to develop confidence, create a group identity, appropriately navigate the school environment, develop good communication abilities and support one another in difficult times (mills et al., 2014). tutoring is an effective learning and teaching tool for improving student retention in the university environment (shields et al., 2012), allowing students to develop and sustain beneficial relationships and engage in reflective thinking (mills et al., 2014). it allows mentees to collaborate, solve problems and share ideas with others (mills et al., 2014; palermo, hughes, & mccall, 2011). tutoring is a practical approach to mastering essential life skills and ensuring positive changes in youth’s academic, behavioural and vocational outcomes (du bois, portillo, rhodes, silverthorn, & valentine, 2011; ware, 2013). however, paasse and adams (2011) note that for the indigenous tutoring programme to be successful, its structure must be flexible and informal and should be able to adapt to the skills and knowledge of the local community and their services. the most profound finding of the study is that all participants acknowledged the indigenous lessons they learned from their homes and communities that they could overtly or covertly observe and experience during the tutor sessions, which helped them persist through the first semester of the year. all six participants experienced tutor sessions positively. this indicates that if we are to truly transform higher education and decolonise its curriculum, embedding iks should not be a tick box exercise only. the transitioning of fyfgas should be an intentional and institutionalised priority in all programmes, and tutors must be empowered to play this role. however, it also talks to academic staff about being prepared to transform their ways of being and doing, as they are the mentors of the tutors in their programmes. limitations of the study there are some limitations to be considered in this study. the study focused on students from one of the small modules in the faculty as it is perceived by many as a methodology-related module that is not a school curriculum subject but more of a support role subject. thus, getting a teaching post in most township schools is difficult. there were only six participants who met the inclusion criteria as the subject is perceived to be difficult by most african students as it is neurodiversity. because of the small number of participants, the study results cannot be generalised. a future study based on a mixed-methods approach and taking large samples of students from different modules could be undertaken. recommendations a future study based on a mixed-methods approach and taking large samples of students from different modules could be undertaken. conclusion failure by academia to embrace indigenous ways of knowing and doing for fyfgas will continue to deepen existing inequalities in heis. to address issues of equality, decolonisation of education, social justice and embracing the diverse student population, heis need to ensure that they not only mark the box of policies in their spaces but are actively engaging to ensure that fyfgas are fully integrated into their institutions as they transition. this integration goes beyond equity statistics. it also includes fully embracing the socio-cultural, historical and iks and practices diverse african students bring into the classroom, including preparing their tutors to engage in practices that validate and acknowledge these knowledge systems. only then can we begin to talk about transforming the higher education system that prepares students for the world of work where they can fully be adaptable without losing their sense of identity and the rich knowledge they bring from their contexts. although this was a small group of participants, this study acknowledges the role played by the tutors who practice indigenous ways of mentoring in the tutoring processes that validated the fyfgas and thus allowed them to engage in their learning, leading to their active persistence. developing a holistic understanding of iks and using these practices during the tutor sessions of fyfgas will help transform hei spaces and fully embrace diversity. this will allow these students’ career transitioning to be inclusive. acknowledgements the author would like to thank ms nikki watkins, dr eseadi chiedu and dr soraya motsabi for their assistance and support while writing this article. competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author contribution b.m.d. is the sole author of this article. funding information the author received financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article from the university of johannesburg (urc). data availability the author is willing to make data that supports this study available upon request taking into account issues of privacy or ethical restrictions. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references azevedo, v., moraes, a., & lira, h. 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(2009). the mentor-youth alliance: the role of tutoring relationships in promoting youth competence. journal of adolescence, 32(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2007.12.006 abstract introduction trauma-informed care goals of the study research methodology rigour of the study synthesis of the findings career construction counselling for work traumas recommendation for an integrated approach deconstructing and reauthoring work trauma narratives identifying problem-saturated stories deconstruction restructuring and reauthoring through co-construction limitations of the study implications for research, practice, policy, and future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jennifer j. linnekaste school of education, old dominion university, norfolk, united states of america citation linnekaste, j.j. (2021). trauma-informed career counselling to address work traumas resulting from the covid-19 pandemic. african journal of career development, 3(1), a42. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.42 review article trauma-informed career counselling to address work traumas resulting from the covid-19 pandemic jennifer j. linnekaste received: 11 aug. 2021; accepted: 26 aug. 2021; published: 30 sept. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: sudden work traumas as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic have left thousands displaced from their current jobs and occupations. traditional career counselling approaches that overlook the role of emotion are not adequate to address the numerous emotional difficulties that arise after a sudden unexpected job loss. objectives: the objective of this research is to examine to what extent career counselling theories and interventions incorporate a trauma-informed career counselling approach and are prepared to address the emotional, psychological, and career counselling concerns that arise from work traumas as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. methods: a qualitative systematic literature review of all career-related journals that have trauma-informed career counselling in the title or body of the manuscript was conducted. additionally, career related articles, books, and book chapters specifically mentioning work traumas and interventions to address these issues were also examined. results: only one article on trauma-informed career counselling was found given the parameters of the literature review. currently, no articles outline how to integrate career counselling and emotion-focused therapy for trauma in order to address work traumas related to covid-19. conclusion: a trauma-informed career counselling approach that integrates career construction counselling and emotion-focused trauma therapy is needed to address the emotional, psychological, and career counselling concerns that arise from a work trauma as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. an integrated approach to provide trauma-informed career counselling has been provided. keywords: covid-19; work trauma; trauma-informed career counselling; narrative; career construction theory. introduction the global covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on workers’ career trajectories and work climate resulting in unexpected job loss, significant changes within the work environment, and in some instances, traumatisation within the workplace. globally, millions of workers became unemployed in 2020 as a result of their employer closing or losing their business because of the pandemic (bls, 2021). global employment losses registered 114 million; more job losses being reported in 2020 in comparison to 2019 (ilo, 2020). those hardest hit included women (5% higher than men), younger workers (8.7% higher than older workers) and workers in the travel, food services, arts, retail and construction sectors (ilo, 2021). unemployment and a reduction of work hours have disproportionately impacted less skilled labour harder than those in the technology sector who have been able to adapt more easily to working remotely and online. the loss of employment has been correlated with elevated depressive symptoms (posel, oyenubi, & kollamparambil, 2021). in addition to the unexpected job loss, social distancing measures have forced workers to adapt to the changing work environment in unforeseen ways. global lockdowns and the associated restrictions have led to an increase in the number of employees working from home. prior to the covid-19 pandemic, approximately 17% of employees worked from home five or more days per week. but this rate has increased to 44% after the pandemic (miltz, 2021). workers with limited telework and technological skills suddenly found themselves striving to adapt to new software applications and programmes to retain their job. the stress of learning new skills in a short amount of time was coupled with social isolation. workers were no longer able to socialize or discuss work-related challenges with their colleagues. social isolation can result in psychological distress (i.e. anxiety, low mood, stress, fear, frustration and boredom) (razai et al., 2020). sudden adaptation to working online was seen most strikingly within the education sector, in which many teachers were forced to adapt to teaching online. globally, 1.6 billion students in more than 200 countries have experienced a disruption in their education because of the covid-19 pandemic. as a result, thousands of teachers throughout the world from primary to secondary schools and universities were forced to teach remotely in order to comply with governmental measures to ensure safety during the pandemic. whilst some schools and universities had already begun to adopt distance-learning prior to the pandemic, educators who taught solely in person expressed ambivalence about teaching remotely (moralista & oducado, 2020). teachers cited concerns about academic integrity, quality of the education, student success, and the need for technological support (moralista & oducado, 2020). teacher exhaustion and burnout whilst teaching online during the pandemic have been correlated with a perceived lack of accomplishment or teachers’ self-efficacy (sokal, trudel, & babb, 2020). burnout is characterised by emotional exhaustion, cynicism or depersonalisation, and low professional efficacy that can lead to anxiety, depression, and stress which in turn leads to low job satisfaction and poor job performance (chen et al., 2020). burnout is not only evident amongst educators, but also amongst healthcare workers which are on the front line of this pandemic. burnout rates for healthcare workers sharply increased worldwide as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. in one cross-sectional survey of six hospitals in iran, 53% of respondents (n = 326) experienced high levels of burnout (jalili, niroomand, hadavand, zeinali, & fotouhi, 2021). this study mirrors a larger cross-sectional survey amongst intensive care workers across 85 countries, 12 regions, and 50% university-affiliated hospitals (n = 1001) in which the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression or severe burnout was 46.5%, 30.2%, and 51%, respectively (azoulay et al., 2020). healthcare workers are faced with extraordinary challenges during the pandemic to care for and treat the patients whilst also trying to protect themselves from contracting this deadly virus. the most cited reasons for burnout include the working conditions of healthcare workers (i.e. long hours, shortage of personal protective equipment, lack of preparedness), fear of transmitting covid-19 to their loved ones or becoming infected themselves, disruption of work-life balance, disruption to standard operating procedures and role changes, moral dilemmas (i.e. deciding who to treat) and stress related to relationships with their supervisors, colleagues, and patients (chirico, nucera, & magnavita, 2021; greenberg, docherty, gnanapragasam, & wessely, 2020; roslan, yusoff, razak, & morgan, 2021). studies are just beginning to surface within individual countries that indicate the increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout amongst healthcare workers (vagni, majorano, giostra, & pajardi, 2020). vocational psychologists and career counsellors have traditionally overlooked the role of emotion within career counselling (hartung, 2011). instead, they have taken a more intellectualised approach towards helping clients align their vocational goals and strivings with their abilities, personalities, values, and interests. yet the adverse effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the psychological and emotional well-being and the careers of their clients cannot be overlooked within the field of career counselling. newer studies have found that normative stressful life events such as job loss are capable of causing post-traumatic stress (robinson & larson, 2010). furthermore, high workloads, fear of contracting the covid-19 virus, social isolation because of distancing measures, and the need to adapt to new working conditions have resulted in higher rates of traumatic stress (boyraz & legros, 2020; shevlin et al., 2020). trauma-informed care trauma-informed care is a term and approach articulated by the substance abuse and mental health services administration (samha) in 2001 designed to inform physicians, educators, and other social providers on how to effectively approach, recognise, and respond sensitively to patients, students, and clients who have experienced trauma (samha, 2015). trauma is defined broadly as abuse, neglect, loss, disaster, and other emotionally harmful experiences (2015). as a growing body of evidence demonstrates the significant impact of trauma on learning, behaviour, cognition, mental health, physical health, and educational success, professionals have recognised it important to outline a trauma-informed approach in order to ensure that educational institutions and service systems are aware of the policies or practices that could unintentionally further traumatise or induce trauma (i.e. abruptly removing a child from the home in the child welfare system, or harsh disciplinary practices in schools). a trauma-informed approach helps organisations and social systems in the following ways: (1) realise the widespread impact of trauma exposure, (2) identify how trauma may impact patients/students/clients, families, and staff within the system, (3) respond by applying this knowledge into practice and institutional policies, and (4) prevent re-traumatisation (2015). as a result of trauma-informed approaches, educational and social institutions have increased trauma awareness, and they are able to incorporate their knowledge and skills into their organisational cultures, practices, and policies (nctsn, 2021). the field of vocational psychology and counselling, however, is just beginning to address how to provide trauma-informed career counselling, particularly in light of the covid-19 pandemic. goals of the study the goals of this study are to examine (1) what extent current recommendations for providing trauma-informed care are being utilised within the field of career counselling and development and (2) which career counselling theory and practice can address the emotional, psychological, and career counselling concerns that arise from work traumas as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. the guiding (explorative) research questions are as follows: (1) to what extent is trauma-informed care being incorporated into career counselling practice? (2) what career counselling theories are best suited to provide counselling to individuals who have experienced work trauma as a result of the covid-19 pandemic? and finally (3) how can career counselling provide an integrated trauma-informed approach towards work traumas? research methodology i conducted a brief, adapted, qualitative systematic review of the literature. data was gathered by conducting a search on all career-related journal articles, book chapters, and books utilising google scholar and also the university library search engines that included the keywords ‘trauma-informed career counselling’, ‘work traumas’, or a combination of ‘trauma and career counselling’ in the title or body of the manuscript. the journals that did not have a snip score greater than 1, and a sjr ranking in top 50%, were excluded from consideration. in addition, articles that did not address career counselling practices were excluded. additionally, i searched and reviewed scholarly peer-reviewed articles, books, and book chapters that referenced work traumas, trauma and career, covid-19 and career counselling implications, and those addressing emotion in the context of career counselling, until i reached data saturation, whereby repeating material overlapped with one another (booth, 2016). subsequently, the findings were integrated and synthesised. rigour of the study rigorously reviewing the literature is important for planning and conducting future empirical studies (synder, 2019). this review is comparative and deductive in nature. because of the narrow definition of trauma-informed care (sasha, 2005), the recent materialisation of the covid-19 pandemic, and the theoretical limitations inherent in integrating current career theories with the current theories of trauma counselling, there were few articles, books, and book chapters for consideration, thereby increasing the comprehensiveness and accuracy of this review. synthesis of the findings the extensive search on trauma-informed career counselling yielded only two results, which include an article published in 2020 in career development quarterly titled, ‘toward trauma informed career counseling’ and an article published in 2019, in the journal of human services titled, ‘trauma-informed career counseling: identifying and advocating for the vocational needs of human services clients and professionals’. based on the exclusion criteria, the article in the journal of human services was excluded because of the low sjr value (0.152) and ranking (22 986) of the journal (scimago, 2021). the findings reveal that the integration of trauma-informed care within career counselling is in its early stage, with respect to peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, as only one article, published in career development quarterly in 2020, has offered general guidelines on how to provide trauma-informed career counselling to clients who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ace) (powers & duys, 2020). adverse childhood experiences are traumatic experiences in a person’s life before the age of 18 which include experiencing violence, abuse, neglect, having a family member attempt or die by suicide, and growing up in a household where there is substance abuse, mental health problems, or instability because of parental separation (i.e. incarceration) (cdc, 2021). adverse childhood experiences can increase the risk of poverty, unemployment, and attachment-related issues that can impact later relationships (liu et al., 2013; prescod & zeligman, 2018; zielinski, 2009). as a result, powers and duys (2020) recommend career counsellors to provide trauma-informed counselling by learning the science behind aces, toxic stress, and resilience, exploring ace with clients, understanding how childhood trauma and toxic stress affects the biology of the brain, and by building connections with other healthcare providers who are aware of trauma-informed care (powers & duys, 2020). in light of the covid-19 pandemic, however, trauma-informed career counselling must go beyond tackling aces to also address work traumas that have arisen as a result of unexpected job loss, traumatic stress in the workplace, and disruptions in education and training in adulthood. trauma-informed career counselling should also address the challenge of enabling people to integrate what they know about themselves consciously with their subconscious insights (maree, 2020). traumatisation in the workplace can be caused by or lead to a significant unwanted disruption with one’s career path or ability to continue working in one’s current position (del corso, 2015). in order to provide trauma-informed career counselling to this population, it is important to understand how trauma-related symptoms impact career decision-making and career adaptability. furthermore, trauma-informed career counselling also ensures minimising the risk of re-traumatisation or replicating prior trauma dynamics by empowering clients to create a safe environment in which counsellors work collaboratively with clients to foster autonomy, control, and choice over their career decisions (samsha, 2014). in order to promote resilience, career counsellors need to utilise strength-focused approaches to foster resiliency skills in their clients (2015). these protective factors include cultivating clients’ belief in their ability to cope, stay connected to their sources of support, increase their sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem, regulate their emotional arousal when confronted with problems, and create meaning to their life (agaibi & wilson, 2005). after reviewing the current approaches to career and trauma counselling, i concluded that career construction counselling is well-suited for providing trauma-informed career counselling for the following reasons. firstly, it relies heavily upon a collaborative counsellor-client relationship that affirms the client’s authority as expert and author of their life story (savickas, 2015). this helps to foster the client’s sense of agency and autonomy over their decision-making process and reduce the likelihood that the counsellor will operate from the role of career ‘expert’ or advising consultant. an expert stance by the counsellor can replicate power dynamics felt by trauma survivors who had initially experienced a sense of powerlessness and lack of agency during the initial trauma incident (butler, critelli, & rinfrette, 2011). secondly, career construction counselling allows clients the opportunity to share their storied experience and engage in meaning making as they construct their careers (mcmahon & watson, 2008; powers & duys, 2020; savickas 2020). understanding a client’s subjective experience in narrative form allows clients the opportunity to process and make sense of their experience. for example, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (tf-cbt) and emotion-focused therapy for trauma (eftt), both encourage clients to share their narrative as part of the therapeutic process (angus & greenberg, 2011; mannarino, cohen, & deblinger, 2014). as a result, narrative career interventions can be both trauma-informed, as well as trauma-focused, enabling career counsellors to participate in the primary goal of trauma recovery, in accordance with the trauma-informed care guidelines. finally, narrative career interventions are inherently strength-based which aligns with trauma-informed care initiatives to encourage practitioners and educators to use strength-focused perspectives to promote resilience (samsha, 2014). career construction counsellors listen for stories of resiliency to empower and strengthen clients’ sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy (pordelan, hosseinian, & lashaki, 2021). they help clients narrate their vocational identity and provide guiding principles to help them construct careers to overcome pain, struggles and crisis points along their career path (savickas, 2011). career construction counselling for work traumas the covid-19 pandemic challenges career counsellors to be cognizant and empathetic towards the emotional changes and cognitions that impact career decision making and adaptability as a result of potential work traumas. work traumas are unanticipated painful events that cause significant emotional distress or traumatisation and result in two or more of the following: (1) significant unwanted disruption of one’s career path and/or ability to continue working within one’s current position; (2) re-examination of previously held beliefs about the workplace or occupation; (3) re-examination of continuity within one’s current profession or career trajectory; (4) vocational identity or role confusion; and (5) erosion of one’s sense of self-efficacy and confidence as it pertains to work performance or career adaptability (del corso, 2015). the findings reveal that there is a lack of information on how to provide career construction counselling and trauma counselling in an integrated manner. career counsellors can provide career counselling to clients who have experienced a work trauma by integrating career construction counselling with eftt because both rely upon narrative processes within the context of an empathetic, trusting, and caring counsellor-client relationship. career construction counselling is a process by which career counsellors invite clients to share their current career circumstances or concerns in story-form. language provides the vehicle for which reality is constructed and experienced. by understanding how clients describe their career identity and career decisions, counsellors can help clients tell a clearer and broader (or thicker) narrative about who they are, what matters to them, and how they have adapted resiliently to challenges in the past. every career concern is unique and specific. counsellors listen for restrictive simplified narratives that are problem saturated (i.e. i’m a failure) and that may impact career adaptability. career counsellors help draw out these narratives and re-author problem-saturated narratives through the process of de-construction and co-construction with the counsellor. in a similar manner, eftt uses narrative processes to help clients assimilate their emotions, psychological needs and beliefs into a narrative that helps them organise the emotional events they have experienced (angus & greenberg, 2011). many trauma narratives are incoherent because traumatic events or stressors have a disorganised influence on the self. an individual’s narrative or imagined view of oneself and the future can become disorganised and disrupted. as a result, there is a clash between two competing plotlines: the previously dominant expected of hoped for plotline and the emerging or actual plotline (angus & greenberg, 2011). painful emotions may make it difficult for clients to construct a complete and emotionally coherent understanding of what they feel or think. maladaptive secondary emotions (i.e. shame, guilt), in particular, can lead clients to avoid talking about their experiences (angus & greenberg, 2011). as a result, traumatic symptoms such as avoidance, intrusive thoughts, over-arousal, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and depersonalisation can occur when clients fail to share what happened (external narrative sequence), process emotions (internal narrative sequence), and make sense of what happened (reflexive narrative sequence), (angus, levitt, & hardtke, 1999; crespo & fernández-lansac, 2016). thus, the findings reveal that career counsellors can utilise the process of career construction counselling (eliciting narratives, de-construction, and reconstruction) to address work traumas that are associated with the covid-19 pandemic, by integrating the narrative processes in eftt (practice) with the use of narrative in career construction counselling, and in a manner that is consistent with trauma-informed care principles (samsha, 2014). recommendation for an integrated approach recommendations based upon the absence of an integrated counselling approach include: (1) eliciting the client’s narrative related to the work trauma, problem-saturated narrative impacting career adaptability, and vocational identity, (2) de-constructing problem-saturated narratives, and (3) reconstructing narratives through the process of co-construction in order to facilitate agency and adaptability. the counselling process begins by establishing safety and trust with the client. next, career counsellors seek to draw out client narratives that relate to their present career problem, specifically, what career difficulty has led them to seek out career counselling. depending on the type of career concern, career construction counsellors may elicit narratives that pertain to a client’s vocational identity, that is, what they consider to be their abilities, needs, values, and interests (savickas, 2005). they may also elicit narratives that relate to their career adaptability, that is, how they have narrated their attempts to adapt or handle their current career problem. in addition, counsellors listen for signs of a break in the narrative that reflect evidence of an unprocessed work trauma. the final step is to de-construct and reconstruct/reauthor client narratives to help them have a cohesive understanding of their vocational identity and strivings to help facilitate their ability to adapt. the process of de-construction and re-authoring often happens simultaneously in the counselling process as the counsellor asks open-ended questions from a curious investigative stance, that then allow the client to begin to re-author unique stories and outcomes. as counsellors summarise and reflect back to clients’ life themes, and/or stories of resiliency within their narratives, clients are able to re-author the dominant narratives through which they perceive themselves and the world. furthermore, the role of emotion is not overlooked. the counselling relationship serves as an emotionally corrective experience to clients as they are allowed space to narrate and make sense of their emotions which facilitate emotional regulation and adaptive coping, which in turn, help clients successfully adapt to the career challenges they face (greenberg, 2004). establishing safety the first step in the process for providing trauma-informed career counselling is to create a safe space for clients to share their story. the relationship between client and counsellor is important in career construction counselling because it serves as a secure base for which clients feel comfortable in communicating their ideas and life stories (savickas, 2011). trauma impacts a client’s sense of safety and trust. therefore, establishing it at the onset of the career counselling process is vital (rosenbloom, pratt, & pearlman, 1995). this can be done in several ways that include clarifying the career counsellor’s role and expectations for counselling, grounding and mindfulness techniques, and demonstrating unconditional positive regard and empathy towards the client. firstly, career counsellors can establish a sense of safety by clearly defining the counsellor’s role in the career counselling process so that ambiguity and confusion are minimised. clients who seek career counselling have different expectations about counselling than those who seek personal counselling (lewis, 2001). they may expect the counsellor to be an expert or provide them with career advice. therefore, it is important to explain to the clients that they are the experts of their own lives and that the role of the counsellor is to provide a space and reflective audience to help the client hear their own voice, strivings, and strategies to adapt (savickas, 2011). open-ended questions such as ‘how can i be helpful? or how may i be useful today?’ set the stage for this collaborative relationship in order to formulate clear goals for counselling (savickas, 2020). just as the client can voice what they wish to gain from the career counselling process, counsellors also have a responsibility to clarify what they can and cannot do. for example, career counsellors do not give career advice, nor can they promise to resolve the client’s immediate existing problem if it goes outside the scope of career counselling. some traumatic experiences in the workplace, for example, may require the intervention of a trained trauma specialist if the counsellor recognises signs of significant post-traumatic stress (i.e. intrusive thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks) that altogether supersede the client’s existing career concern. career counsellors do not possess the necessary skills to address mental health disorders (ncda code of ethics a.1.b, 2015). career counsellors can, however, provide trauma-informed career counselling when the scope of the primary problem is directly related to a client’s career, as they possess the professional and therapeutic skills that differs from that of a career planner, advisor, or consultant. career counsellors can clarify that their role is to help clients adapt to unexpected work traumas that significantly disrupt their vocational identity or career path, so that they can confidently construct or design their future movements in line with their needs, interests, and goals. secondly, counsellors can establish a sense of safety at the beginning of the counselling session by letting clients know that they are in control of the counselling process as the expert author of their career story (savickas, 2005). clients who have experienced a traumatic or painful experience in the workplace are more likely to have experienced a sense of powerlessness (caplan, 2006). therefore, clients should be informed that they can control the pace at which they tell their story, what information they wish to share, and can stop the process at any time if they become too emotionally aroused during the session. grounding techniques (such as deep breathing, having a glass of water, or movement) help to engage one or more of the clients’ five senses and allows them to take a moment to reduce emotional arousal that can arise from discussing painful experiences (treleaven, 2018). counsellors who are trained in teaching mindfulness techniques (i.e. noticing one’s breath, bodily sensations) can help clients become aware of their surroundings and body throughout the counselling process to notice when they need to take a moment to slow down their emotional reactivity. it is important that trauma-informed career counsellors understand that it is difficult for clients to think or engage in career decision making when they are over-aroused (van der kolk, 2006). therefore, it is important to help clients regulate their emotional arousal in order to solve the problem. as a result, clients will feel empowered and emotionally safe. a final way to establish safety is for the counsellors to demonstrate warmth, empathy, and hope. many trauma survivors have experienced a diminished sense of self-esteem and self-efficacy (allen, 1995). research has found that individuals who have undergone a traumatic experience have lower expectations for empathy from their career counsellor. therefore, it is important that the career counsellor demonstrate empathy and support to clients at the beginning of the counselling session in order to build trust (coursol, lewis, & garrity, 2001). conveying warmth, empathy, and compassion also creates a sense of psychological and emotional safety for clients to cope with their maladaptive feelings of shame and guilt. additionally, it is important for counsellors to be hopeful for clients as many clients may struggle with a sense of despair or hopelessness as a result of their work trauma. career counsellors can cultivate hope by believing in the strength-based nature of career counselling to help clients imagine a future self and career possibilities. eliciting the narrative the next step in the counselling process is for the counsellors to draw out client narratives that relate to the client’s reason for seeking career counselling. the narrative surrounding the existing career concern is an important one, as counsellors are provided a window into how the client frames their perspective of the existing problem. career problems may involve a combination of challenges related to what to do in their current situation and how to construct a future career in line with their ideal self (savickas, 2005). clients may express difficulties related to career concern, control, curiosity, and/or confidence. these narratives also reveal how clients feel about their current situation. it is not uncommon for clients to be unsure as to what they need or how a career counsellor can help them. they may simply report feeling stuck or confused, but they now know exactly why is it so. trauma, in particular, can result in unstoried emotions which are undifferentiated and maladaptive emotional states which are not embedded in a narrative context (angus & greenberg, 2011). these narratives often fail to identify a specific cause or context for an emotional response as a person may not fully have insight into what their emotions mean. as a result, clients may make statements such as ‘i don’t know why i feel this way’. in response, counsellors can use emotional and content paraphrases to demonstrate patience and empathy as they help draw out the client’s narrative and clarify their career concern. additionally, counsellors can ask open-ended questions or utilise prompts to help clients who express difficulty knowing where to begin. when clients have experienced an abrupt disruption in their career development, it can be helpful to ask them to begin their story by picking a starting point when life made sense or felt normal to them. this helps the client organise their narrative in such a way that the arc, or episodic plotline, can be easily traced. it also enables counsellors to easily identify where the clash between two competing plotlines (the expected, or hoped for, and the emerging, or actual, plotline) exists (angus & greenberg, 2011). these disruptions can be identified by listening to how a client expresses their current career problem in before and after terms (i.e. ‘before this happened, i felt and or thought this about myself or others, but now i feel or think this’). deconstructing and reauthoring work trauma narratives after having elicited a client’s narrative, trauma-informed career counsellors can help clients make sense of their experiences by deconstructing narratives in order to co-construct new strength-based stories with the counsellor who facilitate personal agency to help clients adapt to their situation (merscham, 2000). this is done through the simultaneous process of deconstruction and re-construction, or re-authoring through a co-constructive process with the counsellor (savickas, 2011). deconstruction is the process of externalising one’s internalised discourse and opening up space in one’s story to understand how the clients make sense of themselves and their life experiences (brott, 2017, p. 97; white & epstein, 1990). because narratives are fluid, rather than static, they are open to interpretation and multiple meanings (besley, 2002). this allows for counsellors to co-construct new meanings and interpretations that can help clients move forward with respect to their career concern. this process of deconstruction within career construction counselling involves utilising the career construction interview (cci) or other qualitative career assessments, designed to identify themes related to a client’s perceived interests, abilities, skills, values and preferred work environment (savickas, 2011). within narrative therapy, (epston & white, 1991), deconstruction means externalising problem-saturated narratives by examining the context in which these narratives were first internalised and constructed. finally, within eftt, deconstruction, although not explicitly referred to as deconstruction, involves evocation and exploration of emotion in order for the client to express core primary memories and core interpersonal themes (i.e. self-doubt, feelings of failure) (angus & greenberg, 2011). the theme amongst each of these approaches is the process of breaking apart and analysing client narratives pertaining respectively to their vocational identity, problem-saturated stories that impact one’s vocational identity, career adaptability and emotional awareness in order to create space for unique outcomes and an alternative storyline. reconstruction is the complementary process to deconstruction whereby clients change or alter how their narrative, that is, how they make sense of their experiences and themselves (identity). in career construction theory and emotional focused therapy for trauma, reconstruction involves the integration of new narrative and personal meanings into pre-existing view of themselves or others or a radical reorganisation of one’s self-narrative (angus & greenberg, 2011; savickas, 2012). the process of reconstruction, however, differs between these two theories. career construction counsellors reconstruct narratives by reflecting back themes to help weave a tapestry of one overarching micronarrative to create a unifying of the self (vocational identity) plotted as the protagonist within their own life story. this process is called co-construction in which career counsellors form a cooperative alliance and function additional audience from which clients can co-construct a future story, or unique outcome that can then be enacted upon (mcmahon, 2017, p.228). on the other hand, emotion focused therapists seek to provide an emotionally corrective experience to clients through empathetic attunement (i.e. empathy, non-judging) (angus & greenberg, 2011). this allows for clients to feel safe to talk about their feelings and become aware of their primary emotions. narratives change as a result of creating a space whereby clients can slow down their emotional arousal, understand how emotions impact their structures of meaning-making, and give voice to unstoried emotions of pain. as a result, clients are reconstructing, consolidating, and assimilating coherent, new, and emotionally significant ways of viewing themselves or others. this simultaneous process of deconstruction and re-construction occurs within the context of co-construction with the counsellor. nevertheless, it is helpful to separate out these two processes by conceptualising the deconstruction process as creating space within narratives and reconstruction process as the integration of new narratives to help clients tell an adaptive and cohesive story that enables them to adapt. career construction counsellors work primarily to de-construct one’s vocational identity and help clients re-author who they are by weaving together a thematic story of one’s self. however, those clients who have experienced a work trauma often share problem-saturated storylines that impede career adaptability. therefore, it is helpful to begin the process by identifying problem-saturated narratives that reflect where a client’s view of themselves, their work situation, sense of safety, or sense of purpose has been disrupted in order to address those narratives that directly impede career adaptability. identifying problem-saturated stories problem-saturated storylines can be identified by several ways. firstly, these narratives often reflect confusion or loss surrounding one’s vocational identity or career trajectory. challenges reflected in problem-saturated narratives are often related to career readiness (concern for the future), career control (a sense of control over it), career curiosity (exploration of possible selves and social opportunities) and career confidence (to design an occupational future and execute plans to realise it) (savickas, 2020). clients who have experienced covid-19 related fatigue and stress as a result of their work might say, ‘i don’t know if this is where i’m meant to be any longer. i can’t keep continuing to work under these conditions’. furthermore, clients who have experienced an unexpected obstacle within their education or a job related to the covid-19 pandemic may say, ‘i don’t know what to do now with my life. i feel lost’. problem-saturated storylines often involve unstoried expressions of grief. work traumas create significant emotional distress because of the disruption of core representation models of the self and others. as a result, clients often experience feeling immobilised, helpless, panic, fear both during the traumatic experience and in the acute phase succeeding it if the threat to safety has not been neutralised (levers, 2012). anger, sadness, fear, and shame can persist as clients experience a lack of control over their situation. as a result, these problem stories can be identified because they tend to be narrow, thin storylines that reflect shame, anger, or sadness that rarely reflect the complexity and numerous contexts that influence a client’s behaviour, emotions, and cognitions. counsellors can identify these storylines, as well, by attending to where the greatest degree of emotional pain or arousal is present when the clients express their narrative. problem-saturated storylines can also be identified by attending to stories in which the clients often repeat over and over that reflect a contradiction between a core belief a client holds about him or herself in contrast to their behaviour, feelings, or thoughts. the inability to hold a cohesive storyline about one’s vocational identity indicates that a problem-saturated story is present. in order to adapt, clients must create a narrative that does not contradict core beliefs of themselves. finally, problem-saturated storylines can be identified by attending to the primary arc of the client’s storyline. mcadams (2006) identified two distinctive narrative scripts, namely redemption and contamination, that people employ when constructing their life stories and adapting to obstacles and transitions. in a redemption sequence, an individual narrates a transformation from a negative state to a positive one (mcadams, 2006). this sequence describes how an individual endures, seeks to reduce suffering, improve, or redeem heror himself in her or his present situation. redemptive scripts are associated with personal agency, self-efficacy, strength, and confidence (mcadams, 2006). this script is also associated with how an individual becomes the hero amidst his or her life trials. by contrast, a contamination script describes a loss of a once-positive state, one that has now become contaminated or ruined. deconstruction after the counsellor has identified key problem-saturated dominant narratives that reflect a significant disruption to how a client perceives themselves now in contrast with how they perceived themselves previously, it is important to help break apart or create space into these narratives through a process of inquiry by breaking down larger narratives into smaller ones, widening the audience, exploring the context in which these dominant narratives were first written, examining language, exploring exceptions to the current narrative, and exploring the role of emotion. each dominant narrative that poses a career adaptability problem for clients can be broken down into smaller narratives by asking clients to elaborate, explain, or provide details related to how they have made certain conclusions about themselves and others. later during the reconstruction process, the counsellor can reflect back values and interests that thematically run through a client’s career history, thus, clarifying the client’s guiding fiction or ideal self. this will allow them to evaluate future career decisions in light of this fuller narrative. exploring and expanding the client’s audience another way in which career counsellors can deconstruct narratives is to widen their client’s audience. a person’s audience includes significant individuals (i.e. family, friends, teachers, work colleagues, communities, culture) who influences how clients both shape and make sense of their vocational identity and career behaviour (del corso & briddick, 2015). the ‘self’ does not exist apart from the feedback of an audience. self-making is a task (savickas, 2011). counsellors can widen the audience by conducting an inquiry into past audiences, present-day audiences, and different audiences who have influenced or impacted the dominant problem-saturated narrative. the goal is to help the person deconstruct how the narrative was formed within a specific historical and developmental context. furthermore, they can begin to reflect on how individuals in their present-day audience perceive their situation. this inquiry allows clients to consider how their relationship or membership within a specific audience contributes to their emotional pain and distress. counsellors can intentionally invite new voices from a different audience into the conversation, including that of the counsellor, for consideration by the client. the goal is to open up space within a client’s rigid thin restrictive narrative. expanding a client’s audience allows space to explore how this audience influences each client’s interpretation of themselves, their choices, and their current career problem. this helps clients evaluate their narrative through the lens of various perspectives in order to help clients actively choose, rather than passively internalise, the feedback they receive from others. as a result of this inquiry, clients who have experienced burnout in the workplace as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, for example, may realise that the problem is not the type of work they are doing, but rather the audience, or employer, that they are working for. additionally, this deconstruction process allows clients to actively consider the motivation and the intent behind the feedback from others. as clients expand their audience and critically reflect on how they have formed key constructs about their vocational identity and career behaviour, they are able to employ more adaptable strategies by repositioning themselves relative to their career problem as they recognise their own influence over their self-narrative (savickas, 2020). exploring the role of emotion work traumas create significant emotional distress because of the disruption of core representation models of the self and others. as a result, clients often experience feeling immobilised, helpless, panic, fear both during the traumatic experience and in the acute phase succeeding it if the threat to safety has not been neutralised (levers, 2012). anger, sadness, fear, and shame can persist as clients experience a lack of control over their situation. consequently, emotion influences how narratives are written in several ways. firstly, individuals may narrate their experience in congruence with their emotional state. as a result, they may only attend to information that is consistent with their current feelings and discount information that does not. secondly, they may interpret the motivations of others or their situation in light of how they feel. if, for example, a client feels overlooked or discarded, they may conclude that it was an employer’s intention to make them feel this way because they (the employer) did not care. finally, undifferentiated states of high emotional arousal can make clients unable to affectively label internal emotional states or do so within the client’s limited range of feeling words. as a result, these narratives can appear disorganised. clients may also repeat words such as ‘hopeless’ without fully being able to label the underlying emotions of frustration, fear, and sadness. therefore, counsellors can work to help de-construct problem-saturated narratives by using externalising problematic affective states to help separate the client from the problem (merscham, 2000). when clients can externalise negative emotional states that impede adaptability by naming the problem (i.e. ‘the anger’, ‘the depression’, ‘the injustice’), it increases a client’s sense of agency by emplotting themselves as the dominant protagonist in their life story. it also helps clients facilitate reflexivity and differentiate from their emotional state by recognising that the nature of emotion is fluid and temporal. exception questions a final way to de-construct problem-saturated narratives is to inquire into areas of exceptions to when the problem is not occurring or present, because these exceptions are entry points into alternative stories (gonçalves, matos, & santos, 2009). trauma-informed career counsellors utilise strength-focused approaches to foster resiliency skills in their clients (samsha, 2014). exception questions are predominantly used with solution-focused therapy to help clients consider alternative stories or experiences that run counter to their narrative of the existing problem. this allows counsellors to create additional space within these problem-saturated narratives to consider an alternative story or narration of their experience. contradictory statements within the clients’ disorganised narratives are a helpful starting point for exploring exceptions to dominant storylines that impede adaptability. the counsellor can ask about times when the existing career problem is not present. are there times when the client does feel hopeful, trusting, or more confident? if so, what is different about those times? in addition, counsellors can ask clients who are struggling with hopelessness or defeat, exception questions related to times where they have experienced something impossible turning out to become possible, or a time when something turned out better than they expected. these types of hope-focused exception questions can instill hope and allow clients reflexively think about times, experiences, and stories within their past that have been overlooked (larsen, edey, & lemay, 2007). exception questions enable clients to articulate experiences and feedback from others that contradict his dominant problem-saturated story line, which in turn facilitates re-authoring new possible meanings and outcomes to facilitate successful adaptation. restructuring and reauthoring through co-construction as stated earlier, the complementary process to deconstruction is reconstructing or re-authoring client narratives through the process of co-construction with a counsellor. as counsellors deconstruct client narratives, they also seek to co-construct and re-author client narratives to facilitate adaptability by reflecting back to the client a new or expanded narrative to help the client gain an alternative awareness or meaning. whilst the process of deconstruction naturally leads to re-construction as the clients explore how they have made sense of themselves and their experiences, counsellors intentionally participate in the construction and re-authoring process in several ways. firstly, counsellors help clients organise their lived experiences into a larger unfolding life story, thus, participating in the client’s self-organising process. individuals who have experienced a work trauma often have difficulty accommodating these stories into their larger career story because of the disruptive nature of trauma (reisberg & hertel, 2004). therefore, career counsellors can help clients create a storied understanding of what happened, what was felt, and what it means (greenberg & agnus, 2011). this enables clients to cognitively process, organise, structure, and ultimately assimilate both their emotional experiences and work trauma into their unfolding career narrative (greenberg & agnus, 2011). during deconstruction, macronarratives are broken down into micronarratives and the language a client uses is elucidated and elaborated upon to provide a deeper understanding of how a client constructs and makes sense of their experience. during the reconstruction process, however, the counsellor helps weave together these micronarratives by intentionally reflecting back career themes related to a client’s interests, behaviour, career decision-making, motivation, skills, abilities, values, and needs across their vocational lifespan which can, in turn, help the client tell a unifying story about who they are (vocational identity), who they wish to be (future idea self-narrative) and how they seek to adapt (unique story outcomes) (hartung & santilli, 2016, p. 183; savickas, 2011).this is often done in career construction counselling by utilising the cci, whereby clients are asked to reflect on their role models, hobbies, favourite and least favourite school subjects, favourite television shows, books, stories, and magazines or websites that interest them (savickas, 2011). as clients answer these questions, themes appear. as these themes are reflected back to the client, it helps them organise their experience. secondly, counsellors help clients reconstruct narratives by not only intentionally inquiring about past and present audiences that impact the client’s current career concern but also as participating actively as another audience who helps a client tell the story about who they are and where they are going. the relationship between the counsellor and client is at the heart of constructivist career counselling as well as emotion-focused narrative therapy. constructing a sense of self involves an ongoing process both of identifying with and symbolising emotions and actions in a way that provides temporal stability and coherence (angus & greenberg, 2011). this is not done in isolation but within the context of a warm, empathetic, relationship in which a highly attuned therapist attempts to focus the client’s attention on emotions and experiences outside of their client’s awareness in order to offer meaning that will help the client clarify and co-construct new meanings (angus & greenberg, 2011). by assimilating primary emotions, such as sadness, clients can re-organise and re-author a dominant contamination script of loss into a redemptive script of growth and development. thirdly, counsellors help clients identify adaptive schemas and strategies where clients have used in the past or wish to use to in the future to overcome career adaptability challenges through the use of exception questions as well as expanding one’s audience to consider role models or fictional characters that have overcome similar hardships. clients are seen as change agents functioning as authors and actors within their life story who possess knowledge as to how to best adapt and adjust to their situation as experts of their own lives (bruner, 2004). as such, career construction counsellors believe that clients tell themselves the stories they need to hear (savickas, 2020). clients may not be able to make the connection between these stories and how they relate to their career concern as they often lie on the periphery of their consciousness. furthermore, for clients who have experienced a work trauma, it may be even more difficult for them to hear the advice and encouragement they are telling themselves because of emotion, anxiety, or disorganised thought patterns. therefore, counsellors are cognizant and mindful to use the client’s words and systems of sense-making whilst they reflect or ask questions to help clients hear their own voice (bruner, 2004). there are several ways to identify adaptive schemas. counsellors can ask clients to share a motto they live by, books or movies that resonate with them, or times in the past where they felt contrary to how they feel today. mottos, metaphors, and key stories that a client shares often reflect the advice a client has for themselves with respect to the work trauma they currently face. lastly, counsellors can help facilitate narrative change by presenting alternative storylines, meanings, and reflections that the clients may then choose to incorporate into their own autobiographical narrative. the goal is to reconstruct a shift within a client’s perception that prompts a new understanding by which they can construct an action plan that will enable them to make career decisions (savickas, 2020). for example, a counsellor might reflect back that they hear the story of a worker who has faced incredible challenges only to continue striving and who has not given up. in turn, the clients may choose to internalise the counsellor’s perception, thereby co-constructing a new narrative that enables them re-author problem-saturated narratives that impede adaptability. limitations of the study the review of current trauma-informed career counselling research is limited by the degree to which articles appeared in the selected search engines and university databases. the term trauma-informed career counselling is relatively new and therefore, relevant materials related to trauma and career counseling may have been excluded. this qualitative overview and recommendation for an integrated model is consistent with the author’s area of expertise and knowledge in the area of career construction counselling and may overlook efforts made within the field of trauma counselling or psychotherapy or social work to address work-related issues related to trauma. the integration of eftt was selected because of overlap in utilising client narratives to promote growth and healing. however, this can result in excluding other trauma therapies such as tf-cbt that may be integrated with alternative career theories such as happenstance and social learning theories of career counselling. implications for research, practice, policy, and future research there is a need for future quantitative studies to be conducted to test the efficacy of the integrated approach outlined in this article. in addition, empirical studies are needed to compare traditional with trauma-informed career counselling approaches in order to evaluate outcomes in comparison to the trauma-informed career goals (i.e. promoting strength, resiliency). conclusion few career counselling and development theories have integrated trauma-informed care into practice and provide a conceptual basis for addressing the emotional, psychological and career counselling concerns that arise from work traumas experienced as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. counsellors can provide trauma-informed career counselling to clients who have experienced a work trauma as a result of the covid-19 pandemic by integrating career construction counselling with eftt. both cct and eftt rely upon narrative processes that utilise strength-based, resilient approaches to help clients emotionally cope and adapt to problem-saturated narratives that impact career adaptability. this article explains how career counsellors can utilise the process of co-construction (eliciting narratives, de-construction, and reconstruction) to address work traumas that are associated with the covid-19 pandemic in a manner that is consistent with trauma-informed care principles (samsha, 2014). trauma-informed career counsellors can help clients make sense of their experiences by deconstructing narratives in order to co-construct with the counsellor new strength-based stories that facilitate personal agency for the clients (merscham, 2000). in conclusion, the field of career counselling and vocational psychology need to develop theories and trauma-informed career interventions to address trauma in the workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions j.l. is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references agaibi, c.e., & wilson, j.p. 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(2009). child maltreatment and adult socioeconomic well-being. child abuse & neglect, 33, 666–678. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2009.09.001 abstract introduction conceptual framework methods results discussion limitations of the study implications and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) louise m. vital graduate school of arts and social sciences, international higher education program, lesley university, cambridge, united states of america citation vital, l.m. (2021). higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults: a focus on university students and graduates in haiti. african journal of career development, 3(1), a30. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajcd.v3i1.30 original research higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults: a focus on university students and graduates in haiti louise m. vital received: 26 oct. 2020; accepted: 27 jan. 2021; published: 29 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: there is limited empirical research on students’ experiences in the haitian higher education system, and even fewer that examined university-based career counselling and the career trajectory of university graduates in haiti. objectives: the purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of the higher education experiences and career development of university students and graduates in haiti. method: this study emerged from a larger qualitative case study conducted in 2013 on higheredorg (pseudonym) – a higher education-centred organisation in haiti – whose services for university students and organisation alumni include career counselling. data collection included semi-structured and focus group interviews, participant observation and document analysis. results: data analysis revealed two overarching themes: challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti and multi-pronged career guidance. a combination of country-level opportunity constraints and university-specific academic structures contributed to higher education and career challenges for emerging adults in haiti. conversely, these university students and graduates affiliated with higheredor, found the comprehensive support provided alleviated those difficulties. implications include the possibility of a new model of haitian higher education that integrates career counselling as a new area of focus. conclusion: although emerging adults in haiti experience considerable challenges in their higher education and career development experiences, the findings revealed a pipeline between higher education attainment and positive career outcomes for those affiliated with higheredorg. recommendation for future research includes analysis of the career guidance offered to university students in haiti, which will inform the design of targeted and relevant research projects to address this understudied issue. keywords: haiti; higher education; career counselling; emerging adulthood; non-government organisations; low-income country. introduction there are positive outcomes associated with educational attainment, with increased schooling resulting in benefits to individuals and society (akinyemi & ofem, 2012; harper, patton, & wooden, 2009; kezar, chambers, & burkhardt, 2005; lewis & hearn, 2003). among the many benefits, individuals are likely to obtain more technical jobs and receive job promotions with the additional education and academic preparation they have received. not only do the individuals have the potential for a greater income, but they also experience an increase in wages for every year they attend school, apart from gains in critical thinking, skills development, employment readiness and socialisation, and life-long learning, amongst other outcomes (coates & edwards, 2011; tight, 1989). the benefits of increased education to society are considerable as well. higher education is important for social equity, mobility and integration (brennan & teichler, 2008), resulting in individual participation that in turn benefits the larger society (belyakov, cremonini, mfusi, & rippner, 2009). lowell and findlay (2001, p. 1) found that ‘the level and distribution of educational attainment has a strong impact on social outcomes, such as child mortality, fertility, education of children and income distribution’ (p. 1). earning a higher education degree leads to income growth, expanded range of choices and increased relevant skills (ozsoy, 2008). furthermore, obtaining higher levels of education leads to better living conditions, better jobs and social development (unesco, 2009, 2014). education, therefore, can be viewed as ‘a leveller reducing societal inequalities and enabling larger numbers of a population to share in the growth process’ (carlson et al., 2011, p. 10). given the benefits of higher education and the employment outcomes for those who have earned higher education degrees, it stands to reason that students who attend university have an expected positive career outcome after graduation. students choose to pursue higher education for a number of reasons: opportunities for financial security, a good quality of life and life-long learning are a few to mention (chamorro-premuzic & frankiewicz, 2019). depending on the country context, those enrolled in higher education institutions receive career training and are prepared to work in professional settings and perform in entrepreneurial, managerial and technical positions, amongst others (birdsall, 1996; maree, 2009; iakovleva, kolvereid & stephan, 2011). overall, it is expected that higher education meets the needs of three categories of stakeholders: students who want access to higher education, employers who expect graduates who are appropriately skilled for the market and countries that want to stimulate development by the presence of institutions of higher education (somers et al., 2006). despite what is known about the benefits of earning a higher education degree, and the connection between an earned university degree and positive career outcomes to both the individual and local society (hoyt & allred, 2008), career counselling is not a major function of the university experience for undergraduate students in haiti. the purpose of this study was to examine the higher education experiences and career training of university students and graduates in haiti. this study is drawn from a larger case study conducted of higheredorg (pseudonym), a higher education-centred non-governmental organisation (ngo) responding to university access and persistence in haiti (vital, 2015). amongst the range of services provided, higheredorg offers comprehensive career services to university students and alumni affiliated with the programme, which is the focus of this study. this research was warranted because as brennan and naidoo (2008, p. 293) summarised, ‘participation in higher education is important because of its implications for an individual’s life chances in the long term’. approximately 21 090 individuals receive vocational training in haiti (suzuta, 2011), and there is some scholarship and practice-based reporting on the efficacy of such training (bigelow, 2010; rti international, 2018). there is limited empirical research on student experiences in the haitian higher education system (vital, 2015; dumay, 2009; endicott, 2019; jacob, 2020; pierre, arrellano, ramírez, gómez, & romero, 2014; rameau, louime, & behar-horenstein, 2007; zanotti, stephenson, & mcgehee, 2016) and even less that specifically examined the university-based career training preparation programmes and trajectory of university students and graduates in haiti. this research addressed a gap in research on career counselling in the haitian context. more specifically, it advances the scant empirical research that exists, and discusses the connections between haitian higher education and career counselling. the researcher’s visit to haiti provided an opportunity to interview both students and alumni of higheredorg, who were also students and graduates of the haitian university system at the time of this research. together, this group of higheredorg participants were able to highlight the career counselling they were receiving at the time of the research and speak about the outcomes of the career counselling received as current university graduates working in the local job market. as the terms ‘emerging adults’ and ‘emerging adulthood’ describe the human development that occurs between the ages of 18 and 25 (arnett, 2000), these terms will be used interchangeably with ‘university students and graduates’ to reflect on the participants of this study who discussed their experiences as career-seeking university students and university graduates in haiti within this age range. interviews with the higheredorg staff members that provided career preparation and counselling along with external stakeholders from the haitian ministry of education and a local research institute offered a necessary contextual background to the career counselling and prospects of emerging adults in haiti. learning of the higher education and career preparation experiences of university students and graduates in haiti provides a lens for understanding the complex realities they face as emerging adults, as they seek to enter the local job sector. furthermore, examining the services and interventions provided by higheredorg staff members to mitigate those complex realities allows for a holistic understanding of the career development experiences of university students and graduates in haiti. thus, the question guiding this work was the following: what are the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti? emerging adulthood and career counselling in low-income countries in his seminal work, arnett (2000) focused on the ages of 18–25 years as a new concept of development that he referred to as emerging adulthood. according to arnett (2000, p. 469), emerging adulthood is distinguished by ‘relative independence from social roles and normative expectations’ and emerging adults’ emphasis on becoming self-sufficient as a marker of transition to adulthood (arnett, 1998). he further explained that during this time, ‘young people obtain the level of education and training that will provide the foundation for their incomes and occupational achievements for the remainder of their lives’ (arnett, 2000, p. 469). although his work in 2000 introduced a theory that offered new insight into human development, the framework arnett offered was limiting as it emphasised the period of emerging adulthood in the context of industrialised societies, including the united states of america. the work of juarez and gayet (2014) advanced the understanding of adulthood, specifically the transition to adulthood in the context of developing countries such as haiti. juarez and gayet (2014) described transition to adulthood from the economic, social and cultural contexts of africa, asia, latin america and the caribbean. focusing on the transition to adulthood in these contexts allows individuals to consider how ‘economic and social inequality, institutions, and families of origin have determined the course of young people’s transitions to adulthood’ (juarez & gayet, 2014, p. 522). given the increasing interconnectedness of the world community, juarez and gayet (2014, p. 522) explained that the transition to adulthood has changed over time and that country or regional specific norms, standards and expectations are influenced by a ‘globalized world that encourages new lifestyles beyond borders’. in their work on workforce development, tan, lee, valerio and nam (2013) also noted the influence of globalisation, along with technology, on the demand for skilled workers. the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has heightened awareness of the precariousness of those living in low-income and emerging economies. the pandemic has implications for decent work and economic growth, with 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy at risk of losing their livelihoods (un, 2015). understanding the factors that shape the lived experiences of emerging adults in developing countries is helpful when seeking to understand their higher education and career preparation experiences, and later, as they seek to enter the local job sector. job training, preparation, education or development can occur in various formats. broadly, career counselling is provided to individuals ‘to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers’ and the services available may be offered ‘in schools, in universities and colleges, in public employment services, in companies, and in the voluntary and private sectors’ (watts & fretwell, 2004, p. 2). in their report on the job-relevant skills required to enter the workforce in developing and emerging economies, tan et al. (2013, p. iii) noted the ‘mismatch in skills demand and supply’ in those contexts (p. iii). in low-income countries, most workforce development occurs through informal or private, formal technical and vocational education and training schemes (janjua & naveed, 2009; king & palmer, 2010). in this context, local governments often do not have the capacity to offer comprehensive, well-resourced technical and vocational education and training. furthermore, the development of career guidance programmes may be at lower priority as choice in occupation and preference for specific careers are not as readily available. counselling services programmes may have various components, including individual or group training that is in-person or online, specific career information and advice, opportunities for self-assessment, job preparation including interviews and print work, and the facilitation of apprenticeships or internships (watts & fretwell, 2004). there is evidence of career counselling in higher education contexts (bittaye, odukogbe, nyan, jallow, & omigbodun, 2012; maree, 2009; sidiropoulou-dimakakou, argyropoulou, drosos, kaliris, & mikedaki, 2016; sun & yuen, 2012). maree (2009) explored career counselling offered in south african institutions of higher education. in his work maree asserted that every student at every higher education institution should have access to career counsellors who are trained to assess, counsel and mediate career-related questions. bittaye et al.’s (2012) research on career counselling for medical students in gambia found that the opportunity for mentorship by senior colleagues was a significant factor for male medical students entering particular medical specialties. however, all the students reflected in their study indicated that there was no career counselling offered by the medical school, which the researchers indicated had implications on students’ choice of their intended medical specialties (bittaye et al., 2012). research on the experiences of greek university students noted that opportunities to gain and practise skills relevant to all work fields and particular occupations, experiential activities, seminar-type workshops and interventions that focused on students’ perceived self-efficacy beliefs in their career and career adaptability were effective strategies of career counselling in higher education (sidiropoulou-dimakakou et al., 2016, p. 47). sun and yuen (2012) concluded that career guidance and counselling for university students in china should not copy approaches from foreign countries and instead: chinese theories and strategies for career guidance and counselling should be created, with due reference to chinese society’s characteristics, practical problems … job market, employment system, educational philosophy and the social value system. (p. 207) taken, all together, emerging adults in developing countries often experience economic and social inequality, and less than favourable job options. yet, comprehensive career guidance and counselling that is coupled with higher education attainment may lead towards positive career preparation and more optimal outcomes. this brief review of emerging adulthood and career counselling in low-income countries was offered to highlight the uniqueness of career counselling in the higher education environment in haiti. higher education does not always lead to employment, or employment that aligns with skills and academic training, and this is true for haiti. in a global context, it is understood that there is a positive connection between higher education graduation and career attainment, broadly. however, although data collection for this study occurred in 2013, there does not seem to exist any empirical research that describes a university-to-career pipeline in haiti. more specifically, career counselling and the patterns for people who attend and graduate from university are understudied in the haitian context. this scholarly work is focused on the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti. the following section offers a contextual background of haiti, including the higher education and career experiences of university students in haiti. contextual background: higher education and career experiences in haiti haiti’s history is marked by periods of political and economic instability and catastrophic natural disasters, including its devastating 2010 earthquake and hurricane matthew in 2016, described as the ‘fiercest caribbean storm in nearly a decade’ (brice & marsh, 2016). given its complicated history and contemporary realities, haiti is noted as the poorest and least developed country in the western hemisphere (ferguson, desir, & bornstein, 2014), and it ranks 214 out of 217 countries in terms of unemployment rates (cia, 2019). in 2020, the unemployment rate in haiti was 16.74% for women and 11.37% for men (the world bank, 2020). in 2010, the labour force by occupation was 38.1% agriculture (farming, fishing and forestry), 11.5% industry (mining, manufacturing, energy production and construction) and 50.4% services (government activities, communications, transportation, finance and all other economic activities that do not produce material goods) (cia, 2019; index mundi, 2019). haiti’s economic position has implications for the higher education and career prospects of the emerging adults in the country. in 2019, haiti had a population of over 11.2 million individuals. given the challenging educational realities in haiti, the united states agency for international development (usaid, 2017) indicated that there is a generation of haitian youth who are at risk of lacking the knowledge and basic skills necessary to succeed in the labour force. less than 1% of the haitian population attends a university in haiti (dumay, 2010). of the less than 1% of those who study in haiti, only 50% of those students eventually earn a university degree, and 84% of university graduates leave haiti after graduation (jadotte, 2012; ratha & shaw, 2007). this phenomenon is known as brain drain; in 2012 haiti had a high rate of brain drain, which included more skilled people leaving the country as compared to other countries in the caribbean region (clinton, 2012; jadotte, 2012). the majority of graduates leave haiti for job prospects in other countries, mainly in the usa, canada and other parts of the caribbean (joseph, 2011). included in their reasons for departure is the lack of capacity in the local job market, and a mismatch between their disciplinary training and the positions available in haiti. this has resulted in a brain drain within the country (vital, 2015, 2017; lemay-hébert, marcelin, pallage, & cela, 2020). higheredorg higheredorg is a higher education-centred ngo located in port-au-prince, haiti. the organisation envisions all haitians having access to quality education and the ability to contribute to local society. it is an independent organisation and is not a function of the ministry of education, or any institution of higher education in haiti. higheredorg has staff located in haiti and new york, the united states of america. the haiti-based staff members work directly with the programme participants. the staff members in haiti strive to create and maintain relationships with local universities and the ministry of education. they also attempt to develop connections with companies in haiti and academic programmes outside of haiti for the purposes of generating internships and educational enrichment opportunities for its students. the staff members in new york primarily work on development and fundraising for the organisation. the ngo was founded in 1997 and its aim is to provide scholarships to talented young haitians who do not have the financial means to access higher education studies. higheredorg values gender development and sustainable practices. it operationalises these values by reserving 40% of the seats for women in each new class, and by having a staff that is comprised by a majority of women, who are also represented in leadership positions. initially it was supporting one university student, and presently supports approximately 130 students a year who are in various levels of study (first through fifth year). in addition, higheredorg has more than 30 alumni who have access to the career-related services and resources of the organisation. for the purposes of the scholarships it provides, higheredorg recruits high achieving students demonstrating the most financial need. once admitted, higheredorg students must attend universities recognised by the ministère de l’education nationale d’haïti [ministry of education] and the association of francophone universities and must maintain a 3.0 grade point average. the higheredorg scholarship provided to its scholars is comprehensive. acceptance into the programme includes full university tuition, textbooks and supplies, access to a computer lab with internet access, an onsite library, academic advising and study abroad opportunities in the united states of america. higheredorg scholars also attend three organisation-designed enrichment courses: 2 years in computer literacy, 4 years of english as the second language and 4 years of leadership courses that have a social justice orientation. students are also required to participate in extra-curricular activities that include a speaker series, field trips and retreats. higheredorg also offers students counselling support. the scholarship also provides housing in a higheredorg residence and a monthly living stipend. students in their final year at university are assigned a thesis advisor and receive national exam preparation support. higheredorg students and alumni receive career guidance, including workshops with guest industry and alumni guest speakers, cover letter and curriculum vitae reviews for future professional and academic opportunities domestically and abroad, and internship opportunities with local and international organisations, which is managed by the career and alumni services manager. table 1 presents higheredorg statistics as they relate to overall country statistics in key areas. table 1: higheredorg statistics. conceptual framework this study is framed by the work of holman (2014) who developed a report on good career guidance based on his visit to and analysis of six countries viewed as having positive career guidance and educational results (canada, finland, germany, hong kong, ireland and the netherlands) and five independent schools in england. the key components of the eight-part good career guidance benchmarks are the following: (1) a stable career programme, (2) learning from career and labour market information, (3) addressing the needs of each pupil, (4) linking curriculum learning to careers, (5) encounters with employers and employees, (6) experiences of workplaces, (7) encounters with further and higher education and (8) personal guidance. the eight benchmarks for providing good career guidance to pupils in schools are adaptable to the work of higheredorg. the organisation functions in a manner similar to that of higher education institutions as it responds to the academic, social, financial and emotional needs of the scholars associated with its programme. holman (2014) provided descriptions for each benchmark. a stable career program: ‘every school and college should have an embedded programme of career education and guidance that is known and understood by pupils … and employers’. learning from career and labour market (holman, 2014): every pupil should have access to good quality information about future study options and labour market opportunities. they will need the support of an informed adviser to make best use of available information. (p. 7) addressing the needs of each pupil: ‘pupils have different career guidance needs, at different stages. opportunities for advice and support need to be tailored to the needs of each pupil’. linking curriculum learning to careers: ‘all teachers should link curriculum learning with careers’. encounters with employers and employees (holman, 2014): every pupil should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. this can be through a range of enrichment activities including visiting speakers, mentoring and enterprise schemes. (p. 7) experiences of workplaces: ‘every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities and expand their networks’. encounters with further and higher education (holman, 2014): all pupils should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. this includes both academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and in the workplace. (p. 7) personal guidance: ‘every pupil should have the opportunities for guidance interviews with a career adviser, who could be internal or external, provided they are trained to an appropriate level’ (p. 6). these benchmarks offer a useful framework for examining the range of academic and career supports higheredorg provides to university students in haiti. at first glance, it may seem counter-intuitive to frame this study on a conceptual framework based on country contexts vastly different from haiti and its low-income country status. however, holman’s (2014) good career guidance offers a framework that illuminates the approach of higheredorg, an organisation that incorporates both haiti-based and international perspectives in its work with university students in the country. higheredorg is an innovative presence in the higher education landscape in haiti. the career development approach of the career and alumni services unit includes a combination of training and guidance that provides a foundation for higheredorg students and alumni to draw from as they prepare to engage in the local job sector. methods this was a qualitative case study of a higher education-centred organisation in haiti, higheredorg (pseudonym). stake (2005) emphasised that an ngo may be a case and higheredorg identifies as such in haiti. the case study provided a detailed description of the organisation and the strategies it utilised to respond to the challenges that university students experience within the haitian higher education system and post-graduation. the question guiding this research was as follows: what are the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti? findings provided insight into how higheredorg students conceptualised their university experiences in haiti and the implications to their future careers, the range of support provided by higheredorg related to career development, and the local career prospects for higheredorg alumni after university graduation. in this sense, participants both ‘described an intervention and the real-life context in which it occurred’ (yin, 2003, p. 15), which was useful for the data analysis for this study. participants the case study of higheredorg was conducted in port-au-prince, the capital of haiti. with regard to participant recruitment, after this study was conceptualised, the new york-based founder and executive director of higheredorg was contacted to learn if the organisation could serve as the site and focus of the research. after receiving approval, participant recruitment material written in french was sent to the haiti-based associate director of higheredorg to forward onto organisation students, alumni and staff. the email included information about the study, participant requirements and my expected arrival and duration in haiti. potential participants were given the option of pre-scheduling their interview or confirming an appointment with me after i arrived in haiti. snowball sampling (patton, 2002) was also utilised to recruit participants after i arrived in the country. the participants reflected in this study on higher education experiences and career development in haiti included higheredorg students (1), higheredorg alumni (2) and higheredorg staff (7). in an attempt to gain a holistic understanding of career preparation and counselling approaches in haiti, interviews with higheredorg staff (one of whom was also a programme alumni), an administrator from the haitian ministry of education and the associate director for the interuniversity institute for research and development (inured) provided the contextual background to the higher education experiences and career development of emerging adults in haiti. according to its website, inured’s (n.d.) mission is to ‘contribute to the development of high-level research and scientific training in haiti with the aim of improving the educational, socio-economic and political condition of haiti’s people’ (para 1.). participants either selected a pseudonym or asked that one was to be assigned to them. in total, 11 participants were interviewed. given the range of backgrounds and experiences of the participants interviewed, i was able to collect rich data that increased the trustworthiness of the interviews analysed (glesne, 2011), which offered insights into the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti and those who address these concerns in the country. data collection and analysis this study emerged from a larger qualitative case study conducted in 2013 on higheredorg that focused on university access and persistence in the haitian higher education system. additional analysis of the data collected revealed findings related to higher education experiences and career counselling that together reflected the career development experienced by university students and graduates affiliated with higheredorg themes specific to this study. i utilised a multi-method approach, including semi-structured and focus group interviews, observation and document analysis to collect the data. all interviews occurred face-to-face with participants and lasted for between 15 min and 60 min. semi-structured interviews of higheredorg stakeholders (students, alumni and staff) and focus group interviews of teaching staff occurred in various locations, including one in the student residences located in the capital provided by the organisation, in their staff offices and in the courtyard of the higheredorg centre. semi-structured interviews of the inured ad occurred at the inured office building and the interview with the ministry of education administrator occurred at a café in the capital. reflexive memos (glesne, 2011) were written after each interview for me to capture my initial reactions and learnings from each interview. interviews were conducted in haitian creole, french and english. non-english interview data were translated and transcribed after i returned to the usa. i completed the first round of the haitian creole translation to english. a native haitian creole and french speaker confirmed the accuracy of the haitian creole translation and made necessary corrections, and also conducted the translation of data from french to english. the translator confirmed that idioms and culture-specific terminologies were accurately translated and described in the transcription, and were understood by me, the researcher. the transcribed interview data went through first and second cycle coding, following a scheme outlined by miles, huberman and saldaña (2014). after in-depth analysis of the interview data, findings related to this study emerged. observation was another method of data collection. i resided in a higheredorg student residence during my month-long research visit in haiti. i observed student interactions, study habits and engagement with student staff, and we had informal discussions regarding their higheredorg experiences. i also observed the dynamics at the higheredorg centre, including those between students, students and staff, staff and staff, staff with external visitors, staff meetings, student and staff meetings and the annual student graduation. the data collected from my observation allowed me to ‘use my senses, especially looking and listening in a systematic and meaningful way’ (mckechnie, 2008, p. 573), which deepened my examination of higheredorg. my final data collection method was document review. in total, i reviewed 110 pages of the organisation’s documents, including its organisational chart, student handbook, monthly reports, information management system guide, student profiles, summary of student needs, advisory guide, and applications for admission and academic scholarship forms. the organisation’s website was also a source of relevant data. analysing the organisation’s documents provided background information and meaning to the interviews i conducted and dynamics that i observed (glesne, 2011), which provided a holistic understanding of higheredorg. overall, the qualitative case study approach allowed me to ‘close in on real-life situations’ (flyvbjerg, 2006, p. 235) and helped me to understand the problem under study. trustworthiness and validity i used several methods of testing to rule out validity threat. the first test included respondent validation and member checking. respondent validations included ‘systematically soliciting feedback about your data and conclusions from the people you are studying’ (maxwell, 2005, p. 111). this member-checking process occurred throughout my inquiry and via the ‘data i played back to the informant to check for perceived accuracy and reactions’ (cho & trent, 2006, p. 322). these processes helped me to ensure that what i understood i learned from the interviews was in fact what the participant intended to convey. their feedback confirmed my internal conclusions and that i was not misinterpreting what i gleaned from previous interviews. this was particularly important as the interviews were conducted in multiple languages: english, french and kreyòl ayisyen [haitian creole]. the second validity test was triangulation, which, in qualitative case studies, ‘is a common means through which researchers increase the trustworthiness of their representation of the case’ (grandy, 2010, p. 1). the larger study utilised multiple data sources (34 participants), data collection methods (semi-structured interviews, focus groups, observation and document review) and my field notes. the data collected revealed consensus between participants, the documents analysed and the observations concluded. lastly, i consulted with a peer who is familiar with conducting qualitative case studies. this peer review process (glesne, 2011) included discussing my data collection methods, coding scheme and themes that emerged. this feedback loop provided outside and objective suggestions that allowed me to refine my findings and strengthen my conclusions. researcher reflexivity as i conceptualised my study research in haiti, it was important that i reflect on any bias i would bring to this research project (maxwell, 2005). my mother and father were born and raised in haiti. i am a first-generation american and grew up in a close-knit haitian community in the united states of america. i am also a heritage speaker of haitian creole. given how strongly i felt connected to my ethnic heritage, it was critical that i examined how my positionality might influence my research process; i was aware of the potential bias i would bring and recognised the lens from which i would be conducting and analysing my haiti-based study. prior to the start of my research project in haiti, i reflected on the fact that i was a scholar who was born, raised and academically trained in the united states of america. i was concerned about being labelled an ‘other’ or viewed as an ‘outsider’ by haitians in haiti. i was anxious about revealing a subconscious bias that favoured my american self over my haitian self. smith (1999, p. 66) states that the ‘western culture constantly reaffirms the west’s view of itself as the centre of legitimate knowledge’. to combat any preconceptions that i may have brought to my work in haiti, i attempted to bracket the deficit narratives that i was inundated with throughout my life that overwhelmingly described haiti and haitian education from a negative viewpoint, and instead focus on the first-hand knowledge of educational experiences in haiti from the study participants. through my reflexive memos i continually checked myself on how i was thinking about education in haiti by listening to my participants, instead of introducing what i learned prior to my study of the interviews. i wanted to ensure that i was viewing participant responses and experiences as authentic and valid. i strived to make sense of what i was learning from their haitian perspective, and to limit as much as possible, juxtaposing my american perspective in meaning making and interpretation of the data collected (creswell, 2009). ethical considerations this study was approved by and granted exempt status from the michigan state university institutional review board (irb# x13-485e category: exempt 1.2) and informed consent was obtained from all the participants. the case study was conducted on an entity outside of any formal ministry of education or higher education institution purview. as such, a haiti-based irb application was not submitted or requested. however, an explanation of the study was submitted to higheredorg and permission to conduct the study was obtained from the organisation’s executive director. results analysis of the data from the larger case study revealed findings related to perceptions of higher education training and career prospects for university students and graduates in haiti, and the related implications on their career development and expectations. findings are organised by two overarching themes: challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti and multi-pronged career guidance. together, these themes highlight the necessity of addressing the combination of experiences of emerging adults in haiti as they relate to their higher education attainment, career development and employment opportunities in haiti. challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti the case study participants discussed a range of higher education and career prospect challenges experienced by university students and graduates in haiti. the challenges conveyed are categorised by the larger haiti country context, university-specific experiences, and what participants believed to be nepotism and neo-colonial practices embedded in the higher education and career structures in haiti. collectively, these challenges describe a broken university-to-career pipeline experienced by emerging adults in haiti. when discussing the experiences of university students in haiti, olivia jean reconceptualised the notion of brain drain broadly as a general lack of opportunity, and explained: ‘for me, brain drain is not just for people who leave the country only. i think that when a person is in a place that he can’t develop, even if he is in the country, but he doesn’t, his heart wants … he doesn’t find the opportunity, or he is doing something else that he does not want to do, he is just doing it because, he makes a way but his brain is not utilized, that means that he is not being utilized the way that he should, that is also a problem.’ (olivia jean, student, higheredorg) the lack of a financial aid system creates barriers to university access for students, impeding their opportunities for higher education attainment. the ministry of education administrator noted the financial challenges that were barriers for students wanting to pursue higher education in haiti: ‘there is a lot of effort for students to get scholarships in the country. that means that right now in the country, there is a lot of demand. at the same time, the state university in the country of haiti almost cannot respond to the demand of all of the students who want to enter the university. thus, this provides an opportunity for the private sector to [answer] the question of higher education not being good here in the country of haiti.’ (paul simon, administrator, ministry of education) from the perspective of staff members working at higheredorg, margreth mathieu discussed the complexities surrounding pursuing a university degree in haiti and described the following challenge: ‘entering a university is not just entering a university. even if he is a state university student, coming from province [the countryside], if he does not have a stable location to stay, stable like he knows in the morning that he will enter a place, it will not be easy for him. therefore, it is extremely difficult for a student to enter a university right now. to enter is one, to remain entered is another, and there is … every year this number is rising.’ (margreth mathieu, student recruiter/alumnus, higheredorg) for those students who find an opportunity to enter a university in haiti, they experience challenges to their persistence. many of the participants described various university academic structures that made it difficult for students to graduate. they conveyed that although students were motivated in their disciplinary areas of study, they often felt discouraged because the academic experience disrupted their matriculation and hopes for degree attainment, and consequently their future employment. farah paul provided a nuanced account of the teaching offered at the university level in haiti and its implications for potential employers: ‘it’s a major issue because you teach the person how to read and write. you teach them how to make subtractions and multiplications and stuff and then what? how is that person going to become the professional that he is? … universities, there’s not a lot of them with good quality … how do you assess the work that they are doing? same textbooks that [had] been used 20 years ago are the same ones that are being used this year. the people who are teaching at the university they are not … they’re just people who have time to teach. most of them are not educators. they are just people in the field. they have an extra hour or couple of hours extra. they come in they give a class they go away. this is not really a lot of emphasis on the educational part of it. and the quality. i think that’s what worries the potential employers. the quality of the education. it is very obvious that they are looking for that also. and they want their candidate, whoever it is applying for job, they want them to be able to write a letter in english or to write in french. good french. since french is the second language that we speak. so, you have expectations but how are you going to ensure the delivery of that? i don’t think universities do that. they don’t do it. i’m not going to say i don’t think. they don’t.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) an additional academic-related challenge described by participants was the university thesis requirement. once students addressed barriers to access and navigated various challenges to their university persistence, they were faced with a thesis requirement that must be completed prior to being awarded their baccalaureate degree. the inured associate director discussed this further: ‘although all students are required to complete this component of their baccalaureate degree, based on participant responses, it appeared that there were not enough faculty members to guide students to do so. so, the students are going into the systems and they are not finishing and most of them are not finishing them not because they are not passing their classes. most of them are not finishing because they can’t pass their thesis….’ (name not disclosed, associate director, inured) other participants explained that often students arrive to the thesis component of their post-secondary experiences without ever having enrolled in a research course, being taught about how to conduct a research or analyse data, and not understanding how to develop a line of inquiry, let alone conduct a review of the literature. the thesis requirement was seen as a barrier because of the lack of training and preparation to develop a thesis and because a clear indication of how the thesis requirement related to their career aspirations had not been articulated by the faculty. an additional challenge described by participants included ones that they believed university students had no control over, which contributed to their sense of defeat. higheredorg students, alumni and staff discussed the discouraging reality that the haitian university degree was not seen as valuable in haitian contexts. furthermore, they explained that local entities and even haiti-based international organisations seemed to value degrees earned outside of the country. participants noted that any foreign academic experience, even if it was short term, provided an edge for the university graduate on the local job market. olivia jean captured this sentiment: ‘the first thing that i can say, because like i said before, our education does not have international value. we could get some recognition if there is a school that is affiliated with a school outside. that can give us an opportunity to continue with school. but for us to have an international value, that means more than just getting an education. if we are in haiti only, you will always have in mind if you want a professional, international … do your master’s another place, you will not want to do your master’s here. if you have an opportunity, a person on your side, you go.’ (olivia jean, student, higheredorg) the final challenge discussed by participants was broadly perceived to be corruption embedded in the employment sector in haiti. this was discussed by nearly every higheredorg participant. guy andrew, the english as a second language (esl) and leadership instructor for higheredorg, highlighted that ‘there’s a huge, huge amount of nepotism in haiti. and a lot of people get jobs just through family and a lot of people, they are not qualified for.’ conversely, higheredorg associate director described the neo-colonial practices that kept haitian nationals out of the job sector all together. the associate director underscored: ‘it’s like, how bizarre, how that in haiti, this extremely impoverished country, how, with an unemployment rate of like 90%, is importing middle management and at the same time, we are exporting the educated haitian, like that’s just stupid. it just doesn’t make any sense.’ (name not disclosed, associate director, higheredorg) emerging adults in haiti experience considerable challenges to both their higher education experiences and career expectations. because of country-level opportunity constraints and university-specific academic structures participants explained that post-secondary students face barriers to their access and persistence in university in the country. furthermore, university graduates must contend with what has been perceived to be a corruptive employment environment, which has implications for their career trajectory in haiti. multi-pronged career guidance as noted previously, this study is framed by holman (2014), whose work highlighted eight key benchmarks of a good career guidance programme. the benchmarks are as follows: (1) a stable career programme, (2) learning from career and labour market information, (3) addressing the needs of each pupil, (4) linking curriculum learning to careers, (5) encounters with employers and employees, (6) experiences of workplaces, (7) encounters with further and higher education and (8) personal guidance. the findings of this study reveal that these benchmarks are embedded in the multi-pronged career guidance offered by higheredorg. the range of services that the organisation provides that fosters the career development of its students and alumni are discussed below. higheredorg career and alumni services manager farah paul provided an in-depth understanding of services provided to current students and alumni of the programme. during her interview she discussed the overall career services she provided, the workshops offered and the support provided for post-graduation. when discussing the intent of the career services programme, she explained: ‘our first focus is to place the students. i want them to have this professional experience. it doesn’t matter if it’s haitian field, a haitian organization, or a foreign organization. i really look for the opportunities that can provide them with you know with an internship in their own field. so, this year we’ve made a lot of progress regarding this specific aspect placing the student in the field that is of interest to him.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) in her discussion, farah explained that offering a stage or internship experience was novel in haiti. additionally, some of the students were able to participate in opportunities for international engagement at various institutions in the united states of america. most university students did not have such opportunities as a component of their university experiences. higheredorg students stood out amongst university students because of the internship experience, and she found that the organisations often sought out programme alumni because of the career preparation they received. farah also provided insights into the career workshops she offered to programme students and alumni. she noted: ‘a lot of them [alumni] see it as “oh i’m done, and i just deposit my cv.” but they haven’t called me, but they don’t know it’s a continuous process, and it’s a project. and so, actually letting them know how it works really, and then the reality, and how it can work for them is what i’ve been doing in the past 3 years.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) when discussing the alumni support component of her role, farah explained that older alumni were not aware of her position and that she was available to provide them with support long after they graduated. although it took some time for her to reach the alumni, she explained that at that point she had developed a good network of programme graduates. the alumni had begun to seek her out for support in their post-graduate endeavours, sometimes for new professional positions or for additional academic pursuits. farah alluded to the challenges of the local job market in haiti. she described: ‘[a]nd if there are job opportunities as well, because some of them, all of them are placed, but maybe they are not well placed, maybe there are better opportunities, then i communicate that with them.’ (farah paul, career and alumni services manager, higheredorg) farah highlighted an issue that many of the case study participants discussed – namely, despite earning university degrees and having access to the comprehensive range of services provided by higheredorg, programme alumni must still contend with the job market realities in haiti, which some described as dire and incompatible with the degrees they earned. the three required enrichment courses were also discussed by higheredorg participants. when prompted, the alumni explained that the enrichment courses were not in existence when they were students of the programme. most programme students welcomed the enrichment courses as a function of their scholarship because they believed the courses prepared them for future employment and potential academic opportunities in other countries, including the united states of america and canada. however, some of the programme students found the course load overwhelming given the full academic load they were concurrently engaged in at their respective universities. course staff members discussed the aim of the courses and why they believed they were necessary. each of the course managers shared their insights. higheredorg computer science assistant manager viola persine explained that unlike experiences in the united states of america, many of the students were engaging in basic computer skills for the first time after becoming programme scholars. she described the support her unit provided: ‘i help the students troubleshoot. we do with them like, what is a computer, what is in a computer. this is something that you start small so that they can have abilities with it. there are some who do not know how to send an email. we show them how to do an excel document, create a formula … then we show them access … how to save a file.’ (viola persine, computer science assistant manager, higheredorg) program scholars also participated in the leadership course. embedded in the leadership course is a social justice ideal that speaks about higheredorg’s mission to create a more just society. higheredorg leadership programme manager marie belizaire discussed the benefits of the course further: ‘i really do think that the transformation is happening, and the students feel really empowered, really good, and have the tools and skills and knowledge of how to use their competencies to give back to their community. and [we] are seeing the value in that so i hope that, that is you know, is setting down some roots in the community.’ (marie belizaire, leadership programme manager, higheredorg) higheredorg esl programme manager myrtho izikyel discussed the esl enrichment course. in her discussion, myrtho alluded to the ‘neo-colonial practices’ mentioned earlier by higheredorg associate director who believed that these practices kept haitian nationals out of the job sector altogether. myrtho explained the role of the esl instructors: ‘so, we are helping the students by giving them more tools to be more successful in whatever professions they have. now after the 2010 earthquake, january 12, i think that english has become even more important in the sense now you’ve got all of these other international actors, ngos and we don’t necessarily want to be encouraging to work for ngos, because it’s not very sustainable. but at the same time, they need the tools to navigate those systems because of their work in the private sector. most likely they are going to have some sort of interaction with these nongovernmental organizations.’ (myrtho izikyel, esl programme manager, higheredorg) finally, ‘financial support’ as a sub-theme provides an opportunity to expand the good career guidance framework. for instance, all of the higheredorg participants discussed the benefits to not only the student but also their entire family when they were awarded a higheredorg scholarship. the scholarship eliminates barriers to university access, which provides a pathway to decent work, or a suitable career post-graduation and an overall improved quality of life in the country. two alumni described what it meant for them to earn a full university scholarship from higheredorg. ernest conveyed: ‘[i]t was a big relief, it was definitely, it was because i often said, i have my brother that finished one year before me, but he did not succeed to go into the public college, so he spent one year doing nothing.’ (ernest duncan, alumnus, higheredorg) ernest’s reflections speak about the lack of opportunity discussed earlier by higheredorg student olivia jean, who conveyed it as an internal brain drain. margreth mathieu also discussed the benefits of the full scholarship offered to accepted students. she said: ‘[a] lot of the students are coming from lower low-income, rural backgrounds where they would, you know, not first of all have the financial means to pay the tuition [fee] at a lot of these universities.’ (margreth mathieu, student recruiter/alumnus, higheredorg) both alumni underscored the economic challenges experienced by post-secondary students in haiti. they also conveyed the difficulty of attending university without bursaries or other forms of financial aid made available to prospective students. given the extent of unemployment in haiti, and the low average salary of the population, the scholarship provided by higheredorg is undeniably invaluable for the percentage of overall university students who are accepted to the programme. additionally, as all prospective higheredorg students must demonstrate their financial need in order to receive the full scholarship to attend a university in haiti, the funding awarded is a step prior to them achieving benchmark 6 ‘encounters with further and higher education’ (holman, 2014). in this regard, ‘financial support’ as a sub-theme extends holman’s good career guidance when applied to low-income contexts like haiti. more specifically, this theme highlights the necessity of coupling financial aid with university acceptance in order for benchmark 6 to be achieved. despite the extent and nature of university and career challenges described by case study participants, those participants affiliated with higheredorg believed that the comprehensive range of support and interventions offered by the organisation worked to alleviate the difficulties surrounding higher education and career expectations. the full scholarship and all it entailed helped to mitigate issues related to university access and persistence. the career and alumni services helped participants to develop skills required for the job market. the enrichment courses deepened student competencies and fostered their career development for the local job market. discussion this study examined the higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in haiti, who in the context of this study are university students and graduates. the analysis of the data collected highlighted the challenges experienced by this group, and the strategies provided by higheredorg to mitigate those career-related challenges. findings from the analysis conducted revealed two overarching themes: challenges to a university-to-career pipeline in haiti and multi-pronged career guidance. they are discussed below as they relate to previous research. the study participants affiliated with higheredorg explained the challenges experienced by university students in haiti and the related implications on their future career outcomes. all participants discussed haiti in the context of its economic realities. with respect to higher education matriculation, the lack of a financial aid system was a significant barrier for most university students, given the high rates of poverty in the country (cia, 2019; ferguson et al., 2014). as such, the full tuition scholarship offered by higheredorg was critical. the financial environment discussed by participants is consistent with the economic inequality that emerging adults experience in developing countries (juarez & gayet, 2014). brain drain was also a topic of conversation for participants, and particularly the administrators reflected on that aspect. however, one participant, a university student olivia jean, offered a nuanced understanding of the issue. as noted in the findings, olivia explained that despite pursuing and earning a university degree, a student often ‘makes a way but his brain is not utilised, that means that he is not being utilised the way that he should.’ this experience, of one’s intellect being underutilised in their home country because of local job market realities, was conceptualised as an internal brain drain in previous research on emerging adolescent and adult experiences in haiti (vital, 2015, 2017; ferguson et al., 2014). the ‘mismatch in skills demands and supply’ was also articulated by tan et al. (2013, p. iii). finally, the findings related to challenges indicated that the academic structure of universities in haiti made it difficult for students to graduate, which in turn impacted their ability to pursue a career related to their disciplinary background. as a result, university students miss out on the positive outcomes of degree attainment: better jobs, including increased wages; opportunities for promotion; and social mobility (brennan & teichler, 2008; coates & edwards, 2011; tight, 1989; unesco, 2009). research participants also discussed the career service strategies of higheredorg: they found the comprehensive support useful to their career preparation and career trajectory. higheredorg’s multi-pronged approach to career guidance and training is consistent with research on the topic (watts & fretwell, 2004). in particular, when reviewing the literature on career counselling at higher education institutions in developing country contexts, higheredorg’s strategies are similar to the effective practices discussed in empirical research (bittaye et al., 2012; maree, 2009; sidiropoulou-dimakakou et al., 2016; sun & yuen, 2012). holman’s (2014) good career guidance offered a useful framework for examining the components of the career services department at higheredorg and how it fostered the career development of university students. holman indicated that institutions must have a stable career programme, which presently exists at higheredorg despite it not being a higher education institution, specifically. career counselling must include personal guidance that addresses the needs of each pupil. this occurs as each student and programme alumni has access to the alumni and career services manager, who offers tailored individual and group support that mirrors the approach noted by watts and fretwell (2004). the good career guidance framework emphasises linking curriculum learning to careers, and encounters with further and higher education. this is most evidenced by the three enrichment courses by higheredorg. students are enrolled in programme courses focused on leadership, information technology and english, while being full-time students at their respective universities. these enrichment courses provide opportunities for life-long learning (chamorro-premuzic & frankiewicz, 2019), and ensure that they are prepared to work in professional settings with the skills necessary for quality job performance (birdsall, 1996; maree, 2009; iakovleva et al., 2011). the holman framework also captures the experiential learning that is necessary for career training (sidiropoulou-dimakakou et al., 2016), specifically learning from career and labour market, encounters with employers, and employees and experiences of workplaces. as noted by the study participants, all higheredorg students participate in internships as a function of the programme, while others have received opportunities for international engagement at various institutions in the united states of america. additionally, company representatives from internship locations as well as alumni working in their respective fields have served as guest speakers during the various workshops provided to students. limitations of the study as is consistent with empirical research studies, this study has also limitations (maxwell, 2005). firstly, the study was conducted during the busiest month of the year for higheredorg. the staff members were rewriting organisational handbooks, preparing for the close of the academic year, planning the higheredorg graduation in a period of staff transition, nearing the end of their recruitment season, and preparing for the start of their new student orientation. it was also a busy time for students attending the state university who were in the middle of their examination period. because of the ongoing staff and student commitments, it was difficult at times to schedule interviews and the length of many interviews was shortened because of participants’ multiple competing priorities. the lack of access to higher education officials in haiti was also a limitation. another limitation of the study was language as most of the participants spoke limited to no english. i am not fluent in french, and i am a heritage speaker of kreyòl ayisyen [haitian creole]. finally, the work reflected in this article was drawn from a larger case study on the haitian higher education system, which was not explicitly focused on career counselling and guidance of university students in haiti. as such, the findings related to this particular topic were limited. despite these limitations, this study contains rich data on the experiences of study participants within the higher education environment in haiti. it offers insightful perspectives on higher education and career development experiences of emerging adults in a developing country context. furthermore, it highlights strategies that have proven successful and can be drawn from in the design of interventions in contexts similar to that of haiti. implications and recommendations implications from this study re-imagine higher education and career development in country contexts like haiti. the findings highlighted the internal brain drain that occurs in haiti such that highly educated individuals have diminished opportunities to enter the local workforce. an implication of this research is the possibility of a new model of higher education for haiti’s particular context that integrates career counselling as a new area of focus. as noted by the scholarship on workforce development in developing countries, many qualified individuals are not able to secure positions that are aligned with their skills and academic training. yet, higheredorg serves as a model that both prepares university students for the job market and trains them with the soft skills that employers seek along with appropriate academic preparation. this understanding occurs through the partnerships developed by higheredorg with local companies and international organisations. other ngos and disciplinary departments at higher education institutions can model their approach in similar ways. this research also reveals implications for the provision of career guidance in higher education institutions that occurs at the start of the student’s university tenure and is embedded throughout their matriculation. this approach would be counter to the experiences of students who begin their search to secure jobs after graduation and are nearing the conclusion of their university career. while this timeline may work for university students in countries that have stronger economies, the higheredorg model suggests that this timeline may prove too late for students in countries like haiti. an implication for theory addresses the eight benchmarks embedded in holman’s (2014) good career guidance. benchmark 6 emphasises the necessity of increased education and the pursuit of higher education in particular. yet, less than 1% of the haitian population attends university, and tuition costs make this endeavour infeasible for most of them. the subtheme of ‘financial support’ as reflected in the findings underscores the critical need to couple funding with the university pursuits that holman indicates as a function of good career guidance. as such, theories, or frameworks as reflected in holman’s work, must be flexible enough to adapt to lower-resourced country contexts like haiti. finally, a significant implication of this research is the need for partnerships between the higher education sector, the higher education-centred ngos and the ministry of education. such a coalition would reveal the perceptions of corruption in the local workforce, as highlighted by the study participants, and will provide opportunities for coordinated interventions. additionally, it will diminish the duplication of efforts in response to local, country-wide and global events; for instance, the increased unavailability of jobs in developing countries as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. the extent of the economic fallout that will occur in haiti as a result, or in a similar context, is still unknown. recommendations for practice are challenging for countries that are resource constrained like haiti. however, they are worth mentioning and include the adoption of career guidance in higher education institutions, and as a function of the services provided to university students by the many ngos that exist in haiti. although there are contextual data on the range of vocational and technical education and training that exist in haiti, there does not seem to be a clear understanding of any career counselling specific to university students that exists, or any empirical research that has examined this topic previously. recommendations for policy include the ministry of education providing basic guidelines or standards for universities and stakeholders to follow as a way for career development to emerge as a service provided to students in the haitian higher education system. recommendations for future research include an environmental scan of the career guidance that is offered to university students in haiti. this scan will reveal what is and what is not occurring in the higher education environment, and will inform the design of targeted and relevant research projects. additionally, more stakeholders should be interviewed to determine a holistic and multi-pronged strategy between key stakeholders to address the career counselling and development challenges experienced by university students and graduates in haiti. recommendations for theory include an expansion of the good career guidance framework to incorporate the social and economic realities of developing countries like haiti, particularly as the career development approach may not resemble the process of countries reflected in holman’s (2014) research. conclusion overall, emerging adults in haiti experience considerable challenges in both their higher education experiences and career development. however, the findings of this study revealed that there is a pipeline between higher education attainment and positive career outcomes for those university students affiliated with higheredorg. more specifically, the academic advisories and support offered by the organisation, coupled with career counselling and guidance, resulted in an 80% graduation rate as compared to 40% for the entire country population, which in turn led to a 90% employment rate for higheredorg alumni, as compared to 50% for the rest of the country. these statistics are relevant. although career counselling and guidance might be customary for university students in many countries, it is unique to haiti and not readily accessible to the emerging adults there. thus, higheredorg serves as an innovative presence in haiti, and a model for other countries in similar contexts. acknowledgements competing interests the author declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions l.m.v. is the sole author of this research article. funding information no funding was provided for the development of this manuscript. funding was provided by michigan state university for data collection. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, l.m.v., upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the institution or funder. references akinyemi, s., & ofem, i.b. 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