Managing the careers of careers advisers : some preliminary steps

This paper sets out to chart some critical milestones in the on-going task of providing career management for a specific occupational group - secondary school careers advisers employed in New South Wales Department of Education and Training high schools. To overcome what can be a difficulty in the analysis of career management, a specific career management schema as developed by Arnold (1997) will be used as both a proxy for a definition of career management interventions as provided by employers. As an account of the evolution of this occupational career management is revealed in this paper, it will be compared and contrasted with the schema. As a result, a number of areas of practice, which appear to need implementation and/or modification, will be identified. The topic og managing the careers of secondary school career advisers is timely and important. This is so because of the current interest being shown in the process of career guidance for secondary school students by both Australian State and Federal governments and international organisations (such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). The topic is also significant because of the current development of more rigorous training standards for secondary school careers advisers who are charged with the responsibility and task of providing such guidance for their students.