WAXING THE GAZA: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL

ASSOCIATIONS

Key note address at the IAEVG-PACE conference, Capetown, South Africa, 19 October 2011

ByDr John McCarthy, Director, International Centre for Career Development and

Public PolicyE-mail: jmc@iccdpp.org

Henry Thomas Buckle 1856

• “All the changes of which history is full….must be the fruit of a double action: an action of external phenomena upon the mind, and another action of the mind upon the phenomena”

Thomas Carlyle 1830

• “…actual events are nowise simply related to each other like parents and offspring are; every single event is the offspring not of one but of all other events, prior and contemporaneous, and will, in turn, combine with all others to give birth to new: it is an ever-living, ever-working Chaos of Being, wherein shape after shape bodies itself forth from innumerable elements…”

Paul Ricoeur 1955

• "We carry on several histories simultaneously, in times whose periods, crises, and pauses do not coincide. We enchain, abandon, and resume several histories, much as a chess player who plays several games at once, renewing now this one, now the another" (History and Truth 186)

What if?

The global reach of educational and vocational guidance services 100 years on

Within the ray of light!

• Activity• Profession and academic communities• Policy development and policy making communities• The relationships between these three components and

the people presently and not presently reached

Activity (learning, sharing and

teaching)• Family, including extended

• Friends

• Community

• Other networks

• Media

• Culture

• Learning

communities

The IAEVG: an association of professionals

• Mission:• …. competent and recognised professional• …minimum qualifications…• … methods for evaluating guidance and

counselling• …research effective methods and materials for

guidance• …code of ethics• …address diversity and social justice issues

in education and work• ..work with policy makers …

Different positions held by the professional and academic communities

• Concerned with professional issues only -no political statement to make

• Some political statement to make especially when services (and livelihood/profession or work conditions) threatened

• Political involvement as an integral part of leadership: guidance as a socio-political activity related to achieving societal (social, economic) goals -

Challenges for professional associations and academic communities

• Making themselves and their work “policy relevant”: workforce preparation, workforce development, social equity, education and labour market efficiency

• Working with and through significant social agents: policy partners (social partners; economic and social policy research organisations; leading national institutions/organisations/agencies)

Challenges for the professional associations and the academic communities

• Know government (national, regional) policies and the language of policy makers

• Engage with policy development and policy making processes• Articulate what educational and vocational guidance is (in words

and images comprehensible to the public), and how it can contribute to achieving public policy goals

• Produce knowledge/evidence to support policy development and evaluation

The cosmic nature of policy development!

• Champions within ministries and within other lead organisations (officials, civil servants)

• Champion ministers!• Informal networks and contacts• Social unrest• Not a rational process but a political process "We carry on several

histories simultaneously, in times whose periods, crises, and pauses do not coincide”

The start/stop/start nature of policies: EUROPE

1966-better coordination between ministries and services

-expand access and review usage; equality of geographical access

-improve the quality of careers information, methods, means of diffusion

-improve training

-obtain data annually on usage and coverage

-European Commission to publish an annual review/synthesis of progress

2004, 2008-improve coordination and cooperation of services

-broaden access

-implement quality assurance mechanisms: citizen perspective

-career management competency skills

-structures for stakeholder involvement

-improve training

-develop the evidence base

-regular reviews within the EU Education and Training 2010 programme

What macro challenges might look like for guidance professional and academic communities in South Africa

• To support and make their work relevant to government policies for workforce preparation and development

• To grow an evidence base to support government and agency policy and systems development for educational and vocational guidance

• To undertake policy relevant research as a normal feature of academic life

• To meaningfully engage with policy partners such as SAQA, Business South Africa, HSRC

• To promote equality of conditions for educational achievement

What micro challenges might look like for guidance professional and academic communities in South Africa

• To train guidance workers to deliver both virtual/distance and physical services

• To develop different training programmes for different guidance worker roles

• To develop a citizen centred quality assurance approach to service delivery

• To develop service delivery in different languages• To train guidance workers to work with unemployed

young people and adults and with cultural diversity • To prepare young people for unemployment,

underemployment as well as employment

Politically engaged professional leader

Professionally engaged political leader

Waxing the gaza!