Getting the help of a career coach to sort out my career

elsietanner71

Zazen999 wrote: »

It may well be efficient; but not effective.

Depends on whether you want quality or quantity.......

You seem to speak from experience, Zazen999. What makes you say telephone guidance is ineffective?

Older: it's called the Careers' Advice Service and I'm afraid you've been misinformed: they do offer guidance, not just information and advice.

I would agree that email guidance may not be effective but telephone guidance is another matter and I believe it actually offers some advantages over face to face guidance.

You both make negative statements but neither of you are offering any evidence to back them up.

If you'd like to start another thread so we can open the debate up then please do. I don't think the OPs thread should be hijacked further (apologies OP - I hope you find a service that suits your needs).

Zazen999

elsietanner71 wrote: »

You seem to speak from experience, Zazen999. What makes you say telephone guidance is ineffective?

10 years in the training & development industry...but you're out to sell your service by the looks of it.

Just to try out your recommendation; I'm gonna call them on Tuesday and I'll report back on my experience.

[P.S...we don't have to offer evidence to back up our comments - this is an internet forum not a courtroom].

Street_hawk_2

Hi.

'10 years in the training & development industry...'

and yet you can make the following statement:

[P.S...we don't have to offer evidence to back up our comments - this is an internet forum not a courtroom].

Wow. So anyone can make a series of baseless comments and it doesn't matter because it's not in a courtroom.

If someone asks a question on a forum they expect people to be able to back up what they say in response especially when they claim to be stating facts and have specialist knowledge and experience. Otherwise someone can be very easily misled (intentionally or unintentionally).

The following comments have been proven wrong so far:

'guidance is too subtle a process to be done by phone'
- It has been proved valid, effective and recommended by The Institute of Career Guidance, the largest professional association for career guidance practitioners in the UK. This is also true for:

The Association for Careers Education and Guidance (ACEG)
The Ask iCeGS Information Service
The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services
Careers Research Advisory Centre (CRAC)
The Federation of Guidance Practitioners
The National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling

'Careers Service Direct only seems to offer Information and Advice.' - They offer Guidance as well as Information and Advice and have fully qualified Careers Coaches, and the correct name is The Careers Advice Service.

'This is usually only within 3 years of graduation.' - Universities offer an ongoing careers advice service.

I work in telephone guidance and I'll happily challenge the two nay-sayers: I'll help career changer, and so can you, and let's see who does a better job.

Step up...:cool:

cit_k

I cannot see any reason why guidance cannot be conducted successfully over a phone, its not like a medical examination which requires the person to be present. Any form of 'advice' for matter that do not require face to face contact can be given over the phone, just as easily as in a face to face meeting, if the person on the end of the phone is experienced and qualified to give the advice.

Unless you need to see the person, what difference does it make if you talk in the same room, or over the phone?

Zazen999

Street_hawk wrote: »

Wow. So anyone can make a series of baseless comments and it doesn't matter because it's not in a courtroom.

Yes, that's how it works. I can type pretty much what I want as long as it doesn't break the rules. I am allowed to have worked in the Training Industry for 10 years and to form an opinion - and to share it on the internet. It is perfectly allowable, even under a Tory government.

However, feel free to assist the OP - rather than to 'challenge' me and Older; we have done this little thing called 'giving our opinions based on our experiences'. I'm a little too long in the tooth to rise to inane 'challenges' when no challenge actually exists. Bearing in mind, I am unlikely to actually meet the OP and discuss their future prospects; it is impossible to 'step up', isn't it?

And for me, my experience of listening to the 'advice' given on these telephone guidance services was not good. It was limited to the areas that the person could type into google and was scripted answers rather than shaped around the person. And that's from watching from the inside not the outside...

Oldernotwiser

elsietanner71 wrote: »

Older: it's called the Careers' Advice Service and I'm afraid you've been misinformed: they do offer guidance, not just information and advice.

I would agree that email guidance may not be effective but telephone guidance is another matter and I believe it actually offers some advantages over face to face guidance.
.

I was going by their website rather than their title, and only advice and guidance are mentioned; if that's not the case, I apologise. I still think that being able to see someone's facial expression and body language are important aspects of the process and that something will be missing with a telephone service.

However, use of one service doesn't preclude using the other so the OP can use both services.

Oldernotwiser

Street_hawk wrote: »

Hi.

'10 years in the training & development industry...'

and yet you can make the following statement:

[P.S...we don't have to offer evidence to back up our comments - this is an internet forum not a courtroom].

Wow. So anyone can make a series of baseless comments and it doesn't matter because it's not in a courtroom.

If someone asks a question on a forum they expect people to be able to back up what they say in response especially when they claim to be stating facts and have specialist knowledge and experience. Otherwise someone can be very easily misled (intentionally or unintentionally).

The following comments have been proven wrong so far:

'guidance is too subtle a process to be done by phone'
- It has been proved valid, effective and recommended by The Institute of Career Guidance, the largest professional association for career guidance practitioners in the UK. This is also true for:

The Association for Careers Education and Guidance (ACEG)
The Ask iCeGS Information Service
The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services
Careers Research Advisory Centre (CRAC)
The Federation of Guidance Practitioners
The National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling

'Careers Service Direct only seems to offer Information and Advice.' - They offer Guidance as well as Information and Advice and have fully qualified Careers Coaches, and the correct name is The Careers Advice Service.

'This is usually only within 3 years of graduation.' - Universities offer an ongoing careers advice service.

Having been out of the profession for a couple of years now, I've checked my information. The two most local universities to me are Porstmouth and Southampton; Portsmouth offers its graduates a service for up to 5 years after graduation and Southampton offers it for up to 3. Always a good idea to check before correcting someone.

I work in telephone guidance and I'll happily challenge the two nay-sayers: I'll help career changer, and so can you, and let's see who does a better job.

Step up...:cool:

As someone who qualified as a Careers Adviser (then Officer) over 30 years ago and who has many years experience of working with adults, my opinions are based on my experience and are valid, even if you don't agree with them.

Careers help for adults has been so problematic throughout this period that the ICG are happy that there is any service at all, even if it isn't ideal. Nobody's going to admit that a service is second best if that's what's being funded, if the alternative is no service.

The ICG and everyone in the area of adult IAG would have loved for there to be an all age guidance service as in Wales and Scotland but this was never goint to happen after the introduction of the Connexions Service and it would no doubt, have been cut by this new government even if it had been introduced.

Oldernotwiser

cit_k wrote: »

I cannot see any reason why guidance cannot be conducted successfully over a phone, its not like a medical examination which requires the person to be present. Any form of 'advice' for matter that do not require face to face contact can be given over the phone, just as easily as in a face to face meeting, if the person on the end of the phone is experienced and qualified to give the advice.

Unless you need to see the person, what difference does it make if you talk in the same room, or over the phone?

That may well be true for advice and information, as I said earlier, however I don't think that you understand how different and more subtle the guidance process is than simply giving advice. There really is more to it than someone asking how many GCSEs are required to start training and a simple answer being given.

elsietanner71

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I don't think that you understand how different and more subtle the guidance process is than simply giving advice. There really is more to it than someone asking how many GCSEs are required to start training and a simple answer being given.

With the greatest respect Oldernotwiser, there is a difference between imagining that it isn't effective and having the experience to say that for certain. Have you spoken to anyone who has used the guidance service? Or have you tried it yourself?

It's also quite unfair to dismiss an entire group of individual's (the Careers Advice Service career coaches) work as 'second best' don't you think?

There are other ways of picking up on the clues to a clients state of mind in the absence of body language and facial expression. Tone is very revealing, for example. I have read that when deprived of one of the senses, the other's work harder to compensate for it.

Maybe someone should tell the volunteers at The Samaritans that telephone counselling doesn't work so they can close their service down because that can't work either can it?

Oldernotwiser

elsietanner71 wrote: »

With the greatest respect Oldernotwiser, there is a difference between imagining that it isn't effective and having the experience to say that for certain. Have you spoken to anyone who has used the guidance service? Or have you tried it yourself?

Yes to both, I'm afraid.

Maybe someone should tell the volunteers at The Samaritans that telephone counselling doesn't work so they can close their service down because that can't work either can it?

The Samaritans offer an excellent service but I don't think that they would claim to offer the equivalent of a full counselling service to anyone.

I am very happy that there is a service available to people by phone and email but I do not think that it replaces a face to face service, either in counselling or guidance.