What is Guidance
July 12, 2010We are going through a process of updating our definition of Guidance. I discover that I am quite at odds with the one we currently use – and the proposed new one we are considering. It seems that we have come to see Guidance as something which is closer to what used to be known as career counselling. I think this is a mistake. Career counselling is a very necessary tool in the kit-bag of the Careers Adviser. But the beauty of the notion of ‘guidance’ is that it is able to include a whole varity of activities which help people choose what they do next in (or for) their career: a careers fair, an employer forum, the writing of a hand-out, a careers lecture, a careers workshop, a Facebook update or blog post. No one of these is ‘guidance’ but guidance could involve any or all of these things.
One key issue here is the role of ‘advice’. In advice the professional does not play the role of impartial facilitator. In ‘advice’ the practitioner offers ‘judgements’ based on knowledge of the matters under discussion. ‘Advice’ comes from an expert witness – one in our case who has made it his or her business to gather relevant information and assess it in order to relate it to the client. Some of our clients need and require this – and some complain when they do not get it.
It is a legitimate need and students are entitled to expect it to be met within reason ( No I have no idea of the job market for Circus performers).
The debate about advice and guidance is similar to the debates about teaching and learning. All professionals agree that the key element is ‘learning’. Teaching is hard to assess unless you place it against some template of learning. However, this should not detract from the way that ‘teaching’ can dramatically improve the quality of learning ( or dramatically damage it). Advice is a kind of Teaching process. It does not steer the client step by step through a series choice points ( helpful though that sometimes be) it invites the client to climb to a constructed eminence to view the future or a map of it. ” Applications to big 4 accountancy firms do not require you to have A-level mathematics – so you should not rule it out for that reason” So there’s a statement of ‘fact’ and a ‘should’. Risky things to offer: what if the fact were not true, and what is the force of ‘should’? Risky things but taking those risks is what the CA should be prepared to do. The clue, by the way, is in the job title.
