The conference format has been developed to offer delegates the opportunity to design a personal itinerary particularly suited to individual professional needs.
"I met so many people who were really passionate about what they do"
Parallel sessions
Delegates can attend four out of the 22 subject-specific sessions listed below:
TUESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER
1 The Role of the Guidance Counsellor as Researcher
Lucy Hearne, WIT
This workshop will explore the dual role of the guidance counsellor as researcher in adult guidance. In particular, it will address issues related to ethics, power relations and reflexivity in the choice of methodologies and methods employed by the guidance practitioner in the research process.
2 Higher Level Qualifications for Guidance Workers
Siobhan Neary-Booth, International Centre for Guidance Studies
The Skills Commission inquiry into IAG Services in England has identified the need to ‘reform the qualifications and continuing professional development framework for all involved in IAG’. This workshop will explore current opportunities available for practitioners to develop higher level skills and consider the requirements for effective CPD.
3 How to get off Problem Island and on to Solution Island
Bill O’Connell, Focus on Solutions Ltd
This workshop introduces participants to the key ideas and skills of Solution-Focused interviewing. Participants learn how to help clients focus on sustainable solutions. The presenter will demonstrate the technique and there will be an opportunity for a brief hands-on experience. This workshop was rated highly at last year’s conference.
4 The New Advancement and Careers Service – Improving individuals’ skills for the workplace
Peter Jones, VT Lifeskills
This workshop will focus on the added value a skills diagnostic tool offers, the benefits of a modular approach to personal assessment in helping clients understand their skills and strengths and the key features of the SkillCheckLive program. It will suggest areas for future development.
5 Working with Union Learning Reps – An Update
Lesley Haughton, NICEC/TUC unionlearn
This workshop will provide an update on the role and activities of Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) in delivering workplace careers services. The union learning climbing frame, an electronic tool used by unions to support learner’s progression, will be demonstrated to show how it can be used in different sectors and workplace settings.
6 Career Guidance for a Sustainable Future
Lyn Barham, NICEC
The career decisions that our clients make will have impacts on the future sustainability of society and the planet. This raises ethical questions for career practitioners. Should we introduce this into discussions? Are we prepared to endorse clients’ actions when they may have adverse implications for our own families? Come and discuss.
7 Changing the Guard?
Peter Smith, Reality Checkpoint Ltd
This workshop will focus on working with the defensive and resistant in custodial settings and preparing adult prisoners for effective IAG uptake. Peter will refer to his experience of working in prisons and to his consideration of motivation and attachment theory.
8 The Value of Supervision in Guidance Practice
Jane Westergaard, Canterbury Christ Church University
This session explores the need for supervision for professionals working in adult guidance to ensure that, when working with clients, they are adequately supported.
It will establish:
- A definition of supervision as applied to the helping professions
- The functions of supervision
- Key themes/tensions explored in supervision training.
9 Setting Up as an Independent Provider
Alison Chubb, Boundary Partnership and Aly Jackson, IAG Consultant
You’ve thought loads about branching out to work for yourself – but you just haven’t plucked up the courage to take the plunge! Hear a ‘warts and all’ tale of how two guidance practitioners set up their own businesses, focusing on what you always wanted to know but never dared ask.
10 14-19 Diplomas Tomorrow’s Adults
Alan Vincent, ACEG/North Oxfordshire 14-19 Consortium
A presentation will address the positioning of the new Diplomas in the Education Reform programme; subject areas offered; introduction to content; timescale for implementation; Advanced Diploma and progression; and some implications for guidance professionals. Will also include a questions and discussion session.
11 Beyond Trait and Factor: Implications of Recent Theory for Guidance Practice
Liane Hambly, Consultant/University of Huddersfield
Recent research suggests that people use diverse decision making mindsets and styles to navigate career choice and that no single approach is more effective than another. This workshop provides an overview of recent research and explores practical ways in which the role of chance, intuition and community can be incorporated into guidance practice.
WEDNESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER
12 Creating an Emotionally Intelligent Environment for Advancing Adult Guidance
Jo Maddocks, JCA
An interactive, research based seminar focusing on: What emotional intelligence is; what emotionally intelligent environments contain and look like; practical ways to foster such environments; the benefits to adult guidance and its development; the broader benefits of EI to people, society and the economy.
13 Delivering Online Services with CivvyStreet
Mike Harrison, Ken Parkinson, CivvyStreet
How online services, including guidance and training can be delivered by the CivvyStreet Partnership to anyone who is leaving, or has ever been in the Regular or Reserve Armed Forces, or their working-age dependents – potentially 10 million beneficiaries in the UK. The session demonstrates a number of the systems and tools and identifies how organisations can work with CivvyStreet.
14 Developing Lifelong Guidance Policy and Systems in Latvia
Angela Norman, Gloucestershire County Counci
lAn overview of a recent European Study Visit to Latvia. Feedback on the Latvian model to develop a lifelong guidance programme for citizens of any age, at any point in their lives. Improvements to quality, accessibility, support for practitioners, development of tools and work of the guidance forum.
15 Effective IAG through Telephone Working
Richard Peoples, Consultant
How can you deliver effective advice and guidance by telephone? Drawing on the Open University’s wide experience in this area, this practical workshop will demonstrate how a caller-focused framework can work with reactive and proactive, routine and ‘difficult’ telephone contacts.
16 What’s in a name? A lot!
Janice MacInnes, University of the West of England
We use the terms guidance, counselling coaching and mentoring – but what do they mean to customers? Do words affect client expectations? Is understanding dependent on age, culture, gender? This session reports on research that looked at these issues and asks participants to clarify what they mean by the terms and differentiate between the services being offered.
17 The Role of Psychometric Tests in Adult Guidance
Adrienne Rosen, Asmara Resources
Why use tests in Adult Guidance? Do they add value to the guidance process? What tests can be used? What are the benefits and pitfalls? This session looks at commonly used tests and how to maximise their effective use as well as linking 360 tools, career interest and values with psychometric test results.
18 Working with Mental Health Service Users
Kathryn James, NIACE
The aim of the session is to raise awareness of mental health issues and their implications for IAG services
19 Working to the Blueprint
Ruth Hawthorn, NICEC
The Blueprint for Life www.blueprint4life.ca/ is a framework of the competences that we all need to manage our careers, so it focuses on the desired outcomes of guidance rather than practitioners’ competences. Do we need a UK version? Would it be different from those in Canada or Australia?
20 The Research Blind Spot? Learning from guidance client’s needs, experiences and outcomes
Mark Ravenhall and Louise Peck, CFE
Drawing on their recent qualitative and quantitative research, CFE’s workshop will examine evidence-based approaches to client’s needs, experiences and outcomes of guidance interventions from the perspective of the user. The workshop will also look at the impact of this evidence on planning and tracking services, as well as implications for the new Adult Advancement and Careers Service.
21 Vocational qualifications are changing. Are you?
Paul Marijetic, Learning & Skills Network
The roll out of one of the largest and most important reforms to vocational qualifications starts in August 2008; delivering qualifications that are more responsive to employer and learner needs. This session will look at the implications of the UK Vocational Qualification Reform Programme (UKVQRP) on adult guidance.
22 Professional Ethics in Adult Guidance
Rico Stein, Kerry Adult Guidance Service
An exploration of ethical issues and the key principles needed to make better, professionally informed decisions in relation to one’s practice. This presentation will provide an opportunity for guidance counsellors to stop and take a closer look at their ethical decision-making in the course of their own work with clients and colleagues.
For further information email: naega@emmm.co.uk