A career guidance service can only be understood in relation to the options a client can access and the barriers they face. At the COCAG conference in Porto, WG3 members addressed this question through inclusion, participation and everyday practice. The programme listed Kristina Mariager-Anderson and Nurten Karacan Özdemir under “WG3: Practice”.
On the first day, Anna Bilon-Piórko considered career learning through relationships between people, society and the environment. In her presentation, “Using Utopian Pedagogies to Reimagine Career Guidance Practice”, Sanna Toiviainen discussed how alternative futures could be developed through career guidance practice. In the session on uncertainty and emancipation, João Vasco Coelho considered careers as processes shaped by changing circumstances. Seyithan Demirdağ discussed the relationship between employability, community and sustainability. Fırat Ünsal asked how career guidance might be rethought in an age of artificial intelligence and insecurity. Tristram Hooley’s presentation on the emancipation of career also formed part of this discussion. In a session on artificial intelligence and algorithmic control, Bilal Çankır examined how career development systems related to insecure working lives. Tom Staunton addressed the ideological foundations of artificial intelligence. Donovan Barba-Reynoso critically examined the vocational assessment experiences of students in technical fields in a work-and-study programme in Mexico.
On the second day, Keren Coney discussed how Freirean transformative pedagogy could be used in inclusive career services. Lea Ferrari examined resources and constraints that often go unnoticed in disabled adults’ career experiences. Taísa Oliveira discussed the potential of participatory research with young people for knowledge justice and structural change. Emma Lennox focused on sustained support for non-linear career paths, while Emilda Roseni examined careers taking shape amid insecurity in Albania. In the policy session, Kübra Yenel considered career guidance policies in education systems, Yi Wang examined the effects of artificial intelligence and platforms on careers, and Nuala Whelan explored the relationship between adult guidance and conditionality. Victoria Metcalf chaired the session and considered the effects of the green transition on career guidance and employability.
The Porto presentations brought disability, young people’s participation, digital systems and insecure work into the WG3 discussion. By focusing on how career guidance services respond to the conditions people face, these contributions moved the discussion of practice beyond method choice.
Recordings of sessions featuring WG3 presentations can be viewed on COCAG’s YouTube playlist.
Evrim Erol, PhD, Research Scientist, Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Sciences, Kütahya Dumlupınar University, Türkiye, evrim.erol@dpu.edu.tr
