Career development: Profession or not?

Introduction

As a recognised occupation that requires specialised knowledge, training, and skills, career development is not a new profession. However, it has not progressed in establishing its identity in the same way as many other professions, such as law, medicine, teaching, and psychology. Some professions (e.g. medicine, teaching) have regulatory bodies that oversee registration and standards. Career development lacks such regulatory oversight.

Career development has a depth of well-established practices, an extensive theory base, and a relatively long history spanning many, for the most part Western, countries (McMahon & Arthur, 2019). The term career development not only describes the process of managing one’s life, learning, and work (The Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs, 2010), but is also used in some countries (e.g. Australia) as an overarching or umbrella term for the profession (Career Industry Council of Australia [CICA], 2019a). However, internationally the field itself uses two different umbrella terms: in Europe career guidance is more commonly used as the umbrella term; in Canada and the United States career development is the commonly used term, and in Australia and New Zealand career development and career guidance are used synonymously.

Unlike professions such as teaching, career development has been seen as a disparate field (Athanasou, 2012) as people have traditionally entered from a range of disciplines. A further contributing factor to its disparate nature is that career development practitioners, as members who practise in the field, are known by many different titles that are often used synonymously, for example: career advisor, career coach, career counsellor, career educator, career practitioner, and guidance counsellor. In addition, multiple terms are used to describe practice, such as career advice, career coaching, career counselling, career education, career guidance, employment services, outplacement, and recruitment. The range of terms reflects the diversity of career practice, but may also contribute to differences in understanding about an identity for the field and its members (Furbish, 2012). In this regard, the umbrella terms of career development and career guidance have provided some unity.

Professions establish their identity, social position, and status by asserting claims of authority over other occupational groups to practise in specific fields of expertise (Abbott, 1988). Therefore, to maintain autonomy, influence, and social standing, professions seek ongoing agreement from the public and the government that the practical application of specific areas of expert knowledge should be performed uniquely by expert professionals rather than by others as competitors who are less or alternatively qualified (Klegon, 1978). Career development, which is informed by vocational psychology, career education and guidance, and counselling psychology, shares some specialised expertise with other disciplines and professions (e.g. counselling skills). However, the specialised knowledge (e.g. career development theory, labour market intelligence) that underpins the work of career development practitioners to support people in developing satisfying and meaningful career paths diverges from that required for entry to other professions, such as teaching and psychology (Inkson, 2015; OECD, 2014; Patton & McMahon, 2014; Savickas, 2015).

A key difference between career development and other professions is their professional standards and regulatory systems. Although professional associations and professional standards guide career development practitioners in some countries, in established professions, such as teaching and psychology, governments regulate entry and practice. Career development has no such external or governmental regulation, with the exception of a limited number of jurisdictions, such as South Africa and the Canadian province of Quebec. Considerable work has been undertaken in some countries (e.g. Australia, Canada, England, South Africa, United States) to self-regulate and professionalise career development by developing and implementing professional standards, which are fundamental in establishing a professional identity for an occupational group (Furbish, 2011). Despite this, career development has not yet achieved professional status similar to externally or governmentally regulated professions, and policy makers have not been moved to ensure that only those with relevant qualifications and training enter the profession (Bårdsdatter Bakke, & Bezanson, 2019).

Consequently, career development has struggled to establish its identity as a profession. Despite this, the results from a small study in the UK (Gough, 2017), involving 19 participants from the education and government career services sectors, found the participants shared a belief they belonged to a profession, which suggested a common professional identity. The participants identified the characteristics of a commitment to ethical practice, engaging in client-centred work, and the importance of high-level qualifications to support their views. These characteristics are similar to those found in professional standards, although no apparent reference was made in the study to the UK standards for career professionals (Career Development Institute, 2014). This research may suggest themes for future professional identity construction research.

The purpose of this article is to consider the professional status of career development against the backdrop of a critical reflection on professions, professionalism and professionalisation, and professional identity construction. Potential implications of the differences between career development and other professions in relation to professional standards and regulation are discussed and questions posed for practitioners, policy makers, and other stakeholders about the construction of a professional identity for the field and its members.

Professions

Professions, such as the well-recognised examples of law and medicine, are specific occupational groups that require specialised training, skills, and knowledge (Beckett & Maynard, 2013). Professions typically share characteristics, such as approaches to practice, value systems, and expert knowledge and skills (Havnes & Smeby, 2014). Community, as an important dimension of a profession, involves the formal and informal systems through which a profession enables a sense of belonging with like-minded people (Leicht & Fennell, 2001; Pugh, 1989). Such systems include professional associations and informal networks. A common theme in the research on professions is the need to define a profession’s ethical standards (Oliver & McGhee, 2005). A profession’s qualification standards are typically associated with university degrees or additional requirements post-graduation (Calway & Murphy, 2011; Lester, 2009).

A profession maintains social recognition through governmental and public support for the profession’s systems (Dingwall, 2008). Because professions share features with other occupations, and many occupations include specialisations and requirements for training and development (Evetts, 2014), the concept of profession as distinct from other occupations is contested (Evetts, 2013; Sciulli, 2010). However, professions such as law and medicine are routinely distinguished from other occupations, such as trades, which do not require the same high levels of education and training (e.g. Adams, 2010; Carr, 2014; Cribb & Gewirtz, 2015). Research on the history of legislation of occupational groups in Canada (Adams, 2010) showed that professions were distinguishable from other occupational groups by the advanced education and training requirements to enter practice, and by the authority and autonomy they had for professional self-regulation. The level of autonomy of professions (Leicht & Fennell, 2001), and the research-based and theoretical knowledge that is essential to the expert knowledge base of professions (Havnes & Smeby, 2014), can therefore be understood as features that distinguish professions from other occupations.

As a distinct occupational group, a profession involves being recognised by the public and other professions, potential rewards of income and status, and autonomy to make professional judgements and determine relevant qualifications, thereby controlling entry to the profession and specified work sectors (Mieg, 2008). Similar to other professions, career development exhibits characteristics such as a relatively long history, established practices, and a theoretical underpinning.

Government and public support for a profession’s systems enables social recognition (Dingwall, 2008) and a professional identity for the field to develop. Professions such as psychology and teaching are governmentally regulated with professional standards and clearly defined entry pathways that include relevant qualifications and training. Career development has identified its entry level qualifications in several countries but, without government regulation, others who may not meet the entry level qualifications and training are also able to enter the field. In the school context in Australia and New Zealand for example, different standards apply to the employment in schools of teachers and career development practitioners. Unlike teaching, where entry level qualifications are mandatory, entry to school career development roles is possible without prior knowledge of career development practice or formal career-related qualifications (Schloss, 2011; Vaughan & O’Neil, 2010).

Professionalism and professionalisation

Professionalism, of both professions and individual professionals, reflects professional attributes, behaviour, and skills socially constructed in professional practice (Allan & Moffett, 2016). For professions, this involves scrutiny of professional roles and how the profession’s standards are defined, set, and defended (Cribb & Gewirtz, 2015), highlighting the integral role of professionalism in social recognition and an identity for a profession and individual professionals. Markers for professions and professionalism include the development, implementation, and monitoring of standards, and for individual professionalism, typically include a relevant entry level qualification, professional association membership, and adherence to professional standards (Law, 2011). As individuals learn the skills and knowledge of the field, they construct a professional identity (Gherardi & Perrotta, 2014).

Professionalism manifests in applying knowledge while performing professional roles (Avis & Orr, 2014). The process of individuals learning how to be a professional and retaining currency in their field is an iterative and reflective process of becoming, rather than an end stage (Scanlon, 2011). Accordingly, contemporary perspectives of professionalism pay particular attention to the significance of lifelong learning, including professional development (Havnes & Smeby, 2014). Therefore, although professionalism may be individually enacted and externally attributed, as a social value related to credibility, establishing professionalism requires more than simply claiming to be a professional (Law, 2011). For example, professionalism is often associated with an expectation that professionals have the competencies and qualifications to perform their roles (Allan & Moffett, 2016; Schloss, 2011), highlighting the relationship between professionalism, professional credibility, and a profession’s standards. Professionalism is inherent in the agreed standards to which members of a profession adhere (Oliver & McGhee, 2005), including meeting entry level qualification levels (Calway & Murphy, 2011; Lester, 2009). Qualifications and training specific to career development are relatively accessible in some countries, yet few of their jurisdictions or employing authorities have mandated them as a prerequisite for gaining employment in the field.

At the individual professional level, protecting people by ensuring the quality of products and services through adherence to agreed ethical standards is an important practical aspect of professionalism (Švarc, 2016). Internal forms of regulation and control inherent in a profession’s values and code of ethics encourage cooperation, professional pride, and satisfaction in performance of a role (Evetts, 2014).

The process of becoming through professionalisation is salient not only for the identity and professional identity of individuals but also for groups. At the group level, an emerging profession typically organises itself through a professional body or membership association responsible for developing and managing aspects of practice, such as adherence to a code of ethics (Wilensky, 1964). A role of professional associations is to promote professional development as a means for individuals to meet the minimum professional entry standards to the profession and to engage in ongoing professional learning (Calway & Murphy, 2011).

Career industry regulated professional standards have been introduced in several countries (e.g. Australia and Canada), which suggests that career development has made some progress in developing a distinct professional identity. In some countries, a level of regulation exists beyond that of the industry. For example, in Canada, provincial regulation of career development in Quebec is well established within counselling and psychotherapy services (Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, 2013). Such regulation involves qualifications founded on specific professional knowledge and skills, including career development. In South Africa, recent recognition of career development as a profession through governmental regulation involves minimum levels of qualifications and training through a benchmark of minimum competencies required by career development practitioners to offer career development services in South Africa (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2016).

The existing models in Canada and South Africa also highlight potential issues arising from transforming an unregulated industry to a regulated one. For example, recognition of career development as a profession in South Africa will require significant ongoing commitment and investment in systems to ensure the expert knowledge required will be available through relevant qualifications and training in institutions of higher learning, such as universities. In Quebec Canada, where career development is included within a range of counselling services, the career industry, its members, and its services may be defined under the overarching counselling field. There may be subsequent risk of subsuming the identity of career development, and with it, the professional identity of career development practitioners.

Professional identity construction

Professional identity reflects how people define themselves in professional work roles according to attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and motivations (Schein, 1978). Professional identity manifests in a person’s behaviours and activities in social roles, including work. Initial professional learning at university level, ongoing professional development (Billett, 2014), and membership in a professional organisation (Lester, 2009) are associated with the specialist knowledge and expertise related to an individual’s professional identity.

The career development field has, over time and in many countries, identified the specialist knowledge required of career professionals. For example, the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (2003), a global professional association, identified through international research a set of competencies that define the skills and knowledge required by career development practitioners, which have been used to guide the development of national competencies in some countries. Such competencies are fundamental components of the professional standards established in Australia, Canada, England, United States, and more recently South Africa.

Professional identity in work contexts is often highlighted by the titles and labels professionals use to define their roles (Oen & Cooper, 1988). Titles and labels serve a number of functions, such as delineating role tasks, expressing a person’s expertise, and conveying meaning about self-identity to others both inside and outside work contexts (Golant, Sillince, Harvey, & Maclean, 2015; Grant, Berg, & Cable, 2014). The use of multiple titles and labels, as is the case with career development, may create confusion, such as the synonymous use of the previously mentioned terms: career coach, career counsellor, and career advisor. Lack of differentiation between titles and labels in the field of career development could impact recognition of the expertise of career professionals (Neary, Marriott, & Hooley, 2014) and complicate the task of defining the field and articulating a professional identity for individuals and the profession.

Professional identity is complex, developmental, and multidimensional (Ibarra, 2003). An integral aspect of identity construction is self-presentation, which is demonstrated in how individuals craft and describe themselves to others (Vignoles, Schwartz, & Luyckx, 2011) through actively participating in social contexts (Baumeister, 2011). Social behaviours indicate that an identity has been constructed (e.g. Kroger & Marcia, 2011; Wieland, 2010); identity construction is a continuing social process. Presenting particular impressions of self to others develops and reinforces a sense of belonging to social groups (Dumont & Waldzus, 2015) and highlights attempts to shape audience impressions (Schlenker, 2012). For example, self-presentations may project a ‘public self’ (Baumeister, 1982, p. 3) to please others as an audience, or construct ‘ideal selves’ (Wieland, 2010, p. 511) to represent the person an individual would ideally like to be. Furthermore, the social context of work influences how individuals present themselves to others. Similarly, the factors that influence and support professional identity construction and reconstruction include the combined effects of context, change over time, and relational roles and responsibilities (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Day, 2011; Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, Hökkä, & Paloniemi, 2014; Remley & Herlihy, 2010). Professional identity construction is thus a complex self-developmental process related to personal and professional values, commitments, experiences, and aspirations (Khapova, Arthur, Wilderom, & Svensson, 2007).

Contextual influences on professional identity involve the interplay of an individual’s life roles within workplace settings and the social behaviours and cultural conditions of those contexts (Day, 2011; Eteläpelto et al., 2014). Professional identity is impacted by changes in work contexts and how individuals respond by adjusting to accommodate or resist those changes. Consequently, contextual change over time means construction and reconstruction of professional identities is an ongoing process (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011). Opportunities, for example, through professional learning for individuals to develop a sense of professional agency to confidently navigate changes impacting the work context, are important to support professional identity construction and reconstruction (Vähäsantanen, 2015; Vähäsantanen, Paloniemi, Hökkä, & Eteläpelto, 2017). Therefore, similar to other professions, professional learning in career development requires self-reflection on the theoretical and practice-based foundations of the professional role (Gough, 2017).

Relational and developmental influences on professional identity construction are highlighted in the sense of social belonging that individuals experience through professional group membership (Remley & Herlihy, 2010). Social inclusion in professional groups is often connected to specialist skills and expertise acquired through professional learning, including relevant qualifications. Professional identities constructed through group membership are therefore a means of distinguishing between groups. An individual’s perspectives about demarcations of ingroups and outgroups may reflect identification with or exclusion from a group, determining whether group classifications are defended or contested (Tajfel, 1982). Professional group affiliations may include attachment to more than one group simultaneously (Lammers, Atouba, & Carlson, 2013). It follows that an individual career development practitioner may belong to various professional networks, professional associations, and communities of practice related to specific areas of work.

In the field of career development, professional bodies may define work roles and support understanding of group membership within professional standards. In Australia, for example, the CICA (2019a), the national peak body responsible for oversight of the Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners, uses the term career development practitioner for those providing ‘a wide variety of services to diverse client groups in order to foster their career development’ (p. 28). In addition, the standards provide guidelines for the training and development of career development practitioners, which may assist them to identify with the field.

Despite the existence of professional career associations, constructing or reconstructing a professional identity as a career development practitioner is complex. Multiple roles and responsibilities highlight the complexity for individuals to determine a sense of who they are in a role, who they would like to become, and what is important to them (Baumeister, 1999). According to Jenkins (2014), identifying ourselves or others is not only a matter of meaning that involves negotiation and interaction, but it is also a process that can only be understood in relation to ‘“being” or “becoming”’ (p. 18). Similarly, professional identity is negotiated through continual changes in social and cultural contexts, which necessitates the infusion of lifelong learning for ‘professional becoming’ (Scanlon, 2011, p. 29).

Construction of a professional identity involves an interactional process that includes continuing professional development rather than the culmination of achieving a professional persona at a point in time. Professional standards establish shared expectations and provide guidance for practitioners’ initial training and continued professional learning (Furbish, 2012). Professional standards thus support the process of becoming a career development practitioner through the articulation of competencies that recognise the skills, knowledge, and experience needed for career development practice (Hiebert, 2009). However, career development is different from other professions, and as a consequence there are implications for those who work in the field.

A distinct professional identity for career development? Implications

Career development is a field that has over time been constructing a distinct professional identity within changing social and cultural contexts. The field has identified the theoretical knowledge base and profession-specific qualifications and training for career development practice that distinguishes it from other professions and other occupations. Expertise in a professional role is understood as a characteristic of professionalism. However, despite its establishment as a profession, career development differs from many other professions, specifically in the levels of regulation governing entry to and practice in the career profession. This raises the question whether, regardless of regulation, career development can create an identity for itself by developing and monitoring professional standards?

Gough (2017) addressed the issue of belonging to a profession by identifying common characteristics that contributed to a shared sense of professional identity for a group of career development practitioners from the education and government career services sectors. Despite the differences between career development and other professions, the career development practitioners were able to construct an identity. This then raises a further question about whether, irrespective of work sectors, there is a set of common characteristics for professional identity construction for career development practitioners or even whether professional standards are needed to construct a professional identity.

The process of professionalisation is complex and involves developing systems and procedures to claim the autonomy, status, and social acceptance accorded to other professions (Miller, 2014). Professionalising a field requires a prodigious and sustained effort. The Australian example of the process for introducing professional standards for career development practitioners highlights the level of effort involved: a scoping paper was written (McMahon, 2004), the first edition of the Professional Standards was published in 2006 (CICA, 2019a), implementation occurred in 2012, and in 2019 they were revised and updated (CICA, 2019b) to reflect changes in the field. The scale of the task for the field of career development can be understood in relation to the multiple countries and jurisdictions, diverse social and cultural contexts, and range of sectors and stakeholders to be considered in the process. Efforts by the career field to professionalise through a combination of professional and governmental regulation have involved ongoing steps by professional bodies and membership associations in several countries including Australia, Canada, England, and the United States. A recurring theme in those countries has been professional regulation of the field from within through professional standards. Replicating such efforts in countries seeking to establish or enhance systems and procedures for career development could offer hope and direction for the field.

Questions arise about how individual career development practitioners shape, define, or construct a sense of identity, and know what to do in career development work roles in countries where the field is not guided by professional standards? In addition, without professional standards to guide their selections, how do employers know what skills, knowledge, and qualifications to look for when recruiting for career development roles? Although the field has done its best to self-regulate in a number of jurisdictions, a lack of regulation by external bodies, such as governments, continues to present a challenge for career development, including for social recognition of the field. Construction of an individual professional identity for members of recognised, governmentally regulated professions may be different compared to individual practitioners seeking recognition and an identity as a career professional. Added complications for career development and its members include the diversity of terms and the impact of multiple roles and potential identity conflict that may make it more difficult to describe a professional identity.

Little is known about how career development practitioners construct their professional identity in a field where the entry pathway is less defined than in other professions, and that has, throughout its history, largely existed in the absence of professional standards. Consequently, knowing if they belong to a profession and constructing a professional identity may present unique challenges for career development practitioners. Understanding the social and institutional influences impacting career development practitioners may provide insights into how they conceptualise a profession, the extent to which they self-identify with their profession, and their professional identity construction. Research could explore the influence of professional standards on professional identity construction for individual career development practitioners and the profession.

Conclusion

Although similar to other professions, recognition by governments, employers, and the public of an identity for career development as a profession is not the same as for other fields. Research is needed to investigate professional identity construction by practitioners specifically, and the profession more generally. Achieving wider implementation of systems and procedures to advance professionalisation and recognition of career development will require targeted, multidimensional approaches. Foremost of those will be continued advocacy by career development practitioners to stakeholders: policy makers, employers who are recruiting for career development roles, potential clients who are seeking expert career support, and career development practitioners themselves, of the benefits of professional standards and appropriately qualified career development practitioners.