Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling
The NICEC Journal is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal publishing research and practice-informed scholarship in career development, career education, and career counselling. The Journal welcomes contributions from academics, researchers and research informed practitioners from across the world aims to advance global dialogue across research, policy, and practice. Contributions can focus on all aspects of career development, including: - Career guidance and career education - Careers work in schools, colleges, universities, training providers, in the workplace, in organisational and in community settings. - Career theory, policy, research, and practice - Support for diverse needs and service user groups, and associated equality issues The journal is multi-disciplinary and welcomes a variety of perspectives. Some issues will be themed around an area of current interest. For further information see our Author guidelines including our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement. Open access statement This is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. Material published in the Journal is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This means that the article may be shared freely, provided the source/author is clearly acknowledged and no changes are made to the text.
National Institute for Career Education adn COunselling (NICEC)
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book review: The careers leader handbook (3rd Edition)
This is a review of The careers leader handbook (3rd Edition)
Copyright (c) 2026 Claire Nix https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Exploring how ethics, philosophies and principles (EPPs) impact policy and practice in career development
This editorial sets out the rationale for a themed edition exploring ethics, philosophies and principles (EPPs) and how they impact policy and practice in career development work. It argues that EPPs underpin career development practice, as well as theories and policies, and may be manifest formally in professional development standards, or more broadly in deeply held assumptions or beliefs about the nature of career making and ways to best help clients make progress in their life and work.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jane Artess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Exploring one-to-one career guidance: Appointment lengths, guidance models, and existential topics
This study investigates career guidance practice, focusing on the length of appointments, use of guidance models, and exploration of existential topics in one to-one settings. Data from 84 career guidance practitioners working across diverse institutions and sectors reveal significant variation in appointment lengths and approaches to guidance model usage. The findings show that existential topics – such as career-related anxiety, sense of purpose, and self-identity – are widespread in practice and are viewed as relevant by practitioners. The research offers considerations for future practice and policy.
Copyright (c) 2026 Robin Stevens https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Ethics in Canadian career development: Reflecting on lessons learned
The Canadian Career Development context is presented as a case example of how a professional code of ethics can be developed, disseminated, and regularly renewed, as a tool to strengthen ethical fitness. Using the four stages of learning model, the progression from unconscious incompetence through to unconscious competence is examined, illustrating the importance of a systematic approach to building awareness of relevant ethical codes, developing competencies in ethical decision-making, and engaging in open discussions about ethical dilemmas. This case example has applications to the UK and beyond as the challenges of non-regulated contexts, lack of awareness and support from employers and funders, and working under multiple ethical codes are also explored.
Copyright (c) 2026 Roberta Borgen, Deirdre Pickerell, Gillian Johnston, Cassie Taylor https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A philosophical consideration of career counselling: Pragmatic idiographic truth
This article is an exploration of career counselling through a philosophical lens, highlighting its epistemic and ethical dimensions. Career counselling is a technology of the self, reliant on narrative constructions that pragmatically function as enabling fictions rather than predictive truths. The concept of ‘pragmatic idiographic truth’ is proposed to describe narratives validated through lived experience and consequences. Ethical reflection is positioned as integral to practice, challenging assumptions of neutrality and emphasising counsellors’ roles in shaping vocational narratives. Philosophical perspectives illuminate the existential demand for agency and responsibility in navigating work and life.
Copyright (c) 2026 PETER McILVEEN https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Measuring engagement with green guidance: Validation of new instruments and a mediation model
This article validates two new instruments which measure careers practitioners’ engagement with green guidance (GG) and their perception of clients’ attitudes towards GG. It builds on existing research focused on the relationship between career guidance and environmental/climate issues. It is a secondary inferential analysis of data collected within a practice-development project focused on the engagement with GG amongst 666 European practitioners. Findings support these measures’ validity, and suggest that practitioners’ attitudes towards GG are influenced by their attitudes towards climate change, in which their perception of their clients’ attitudes towards GG is a mediator. Implications for practice are discussed.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mariana Lucas Casanova, Tristram Hooley https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book review: Supporting achievers to unblock sustainable career success: Theory, strategy and practice
Book review of Supporting achievers to unblock sustainable career success: Theory, strategy and practice by Carolyn Parry
Copyright (c) 2026 Michelle Stewart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Embodying integrity in careers education and guidance practice: Looking through the DOTS window
This article explores what professional integrity looks like in careers education, information and guidance. It draws illumination from the work of Bill Law, especially the DOTS model which he developed with Tony Watts. It encourages the reader to reflect on their own professional mindset and behaviour as career practitioners, offering questions inspired by the DOTS framework and suggests ways in which applying approaches which we might more usually apply to our clients might help us to develop our professional integrity
Copyright (c) 2026 Liz Wilkinson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Approaches to the education of career development professionals: Current realities and future directions
This study explores the approaches that are used in the education of career professionals in the UK and beyond. Using a survey of providers of initial education for career development professionals, we gathered data to examine the practice and philosophy of these programmes. We find a high degree of consensus around the key areas of education for career professionals and that this broadly maps onto the framework set out by the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe (NICE). There is strong agreement that the education of career professionals should address theory, practice and professional issues and that there are a range of emerging concerns that need to be addressed more in the future (technology, social justice, working across contexts, and emerging practices). Analysing the survey data, one of the key challenges that emerges is that programmes tend to be more focused on individualistic approaches and that this focus often provides limited space for attention to systemic approaches to career guidance. The study also finds some important epistemic and philosophical differences in the way initial education providers consider the role of theory and its relationship to practice. These issues are discussed and implications for initial education providers and researchers set out.
Copyright (c) 2026 Gill Frigerio, Dr Rosie Alexander, Professor Tristram Hooley https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
What constitutes a good career? A vision of responsive careers and choices in the broader interest
This article examines the tension between individual freedom of choice (personal fit) and collective necessity (social fit) against the backdrop of the current labour market crisis. Whereas the focus has historically shifted from social necessity to personal self-development, shortages in crucial sectors are now forcing a moral and political revaluation of what constitutes a ‘good career’. The authors advocate the development of responsive career paths that explicitly link individual desires with societal interests. Through value-driven guidance, a new balance can be found between personal meaning (personal fit) and the solidarity necessary for a sustainable society (social fit).
Copyright (c) 2026 Jouke Post Msc, Jan Woldendorp Msc https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Point of view: the need for moral compass in career guidance
This article revisits research on the ethical tensions experienced by professional careers advisers from the former English Careers Service after they were transferred into the Connexions service as Personal Advisers. It examines how austerity distorted their practice and intensified the ethical labour required of them. By reconsidering these dynamics through the lens of this special issue on Ethics, Philosophies and Principles, the article identifies enduring questions for contemporary career education and guidance, particularly around care and control, professional impartiality, and the need for policy on and management of career services to sustain moral compass in practice.
Copyright (c) 2026 Helen Colley https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Career counselling in a highly constrained context: ethical reflections from a school-based pilot in Sierra Leone
Career guidance is often framed around informed choice and individual agency, yet these principles are tested in contexts where opportunity structures are severely constrained. Drawing on routine documentation from a school-based counselling pilot in three secondary schools in Freetown, Sierra Leone, this article presents a practice based ethical analysis. Situating the pilot within small-state career guidance research, it examines how professional principles, including those of the IAEVG, require contextual interpretation. The article argues that ethical career counselling in low-resource settings depends on enacting universal standards through locally grounded practice.
Copyright (c) 2026 Pontus Edenberg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
What is the purpose? Career guidance, professional identity and democracy
This article examines how the purpose of career guidance is articulated and embedded in professional identity. Drawing on professional identity theory and John Dewey’s philosophy of education, it analyses contemporary articulations of purpose with particular attention to historical Danish policy texts. The analysis shows that contemporary formulations of purpose are often indirect, whereas earlier texts framed guidance as a democratic and educative practice. Although based on Danish material, the discussion speaks to wider international debates about the societal role and purpose of career guidance. The article argues that purpose should be understood as an immanent normative orientation embedded in professional practice.
Copyright (c) 2026 Bo Klindt Poulsen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reframing later life: The ThriveSpan framework for ages 60-80
Increased longevity has reshaped later life, yet many psychological and career development models continue to reflect assumptions formed in earlier demographic contexts. In particular, the period between approximately 60 and 80 remains under theorised, often compressed into narratives of decline, disengagement, or retirement transition. This paper reviews selected life-stage and ageing theories and examines their limitations in relation to contemporary later life. Drawing on this analysis, alongside empirical research on meaning and sustained career psychology practice, the paper introduces ThriveSpan, an integrative, meaning-centred framework designed to support wellbeing, identity, and intentional living in the 60–80 life phase.
ageing; ThriveSpan; later life; life stage theory; lifespan development; gerontology
Copyright (c) 2026 Denise Taylor https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Skills, growth and the role of career development: Report from NICEC’s 50th anniversary event
This article summarises an event which celebrated NICEC’s 50th anniversary and set the context for future discussions about career development policy. Speakers from various policy contexts discussed skills, employment and workforce development strategies and explored the challenges and opportunities for providing career support services.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nicki Moore https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Examining secure childhood parental attachment, age, and academic progress in relation to vocational identity in undergraduate students
Vocational identity, a critical factor in career development, reflects an individual’s clarity and commitment to career goals. This study examined the influence of age, secure childhood parental attachments to mother and father figures, and academic progress (credit hours) on vocational identity among undergraduate students. Using a cross sectional design, data from 298 students were analysed via multiple linear regression and descriptive statistics. The My Vocational Situation Scale measured vocational identity, with mother safe and father safe assessed via the Adult Scale of Parental Attachment-Short Form. Results indicated that the model explained 15.7% of variance in the total score of My Vocational Situation Scale. Age, mother safe, and father safe were significant predictors, with credit hours marginally significant. Descriptive analyses revealed higher vocational identity means for high mother safe and high father safe groups, with the high mother safe/high father safe group showing the strongest vocational identity. Findings suggest that secure childhood parental attachments and younger age enhance vocational identity, with academic progress playing a marginal role. Implications for career counselling include attachment-informed interventions to support students’ career clarity. Future research should explore longitudinal designs and additional predictors to enhance model explanatory power
Copyright (c) 2026 Tony Michael https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Information about the Career Development Institute
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book review: Sustainable careers: Navigating career options for a resilient and sustainable future
Review of Sustainable careers: Navigating career options for a resilient and sustainable future by Liz Painter
Copyright (c) 2025 Korin Grant https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book review: Developing employability capital in university students: A practical guide
A review of Developing employability capital in university students: A practical guide by William E. Donald
Copyright (c) 2025 Fiona Christie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Book review: Decent work, inclusion and sustainability
Review of Decent work, inclusion and sustainability by Deirdre Hughes and Maria Eduarda-Duarte.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anne Chant https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Career education as a practice of social justice
Welcome to the 55th issue of the NICEC journal. This issue contains a special collection on Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) in career development. This issue brings together new voices alongside established scholars, reflecting the diversity of perspectives and lived experiences that shape the field today. When this special collection was planned over a year ago, we were unaware that global events would mean that this issue could not be more relevant or timely. Less than two weeks before our call for papers was released, US President Trump had signed Executive Order 14151, titled ‘Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing’ (The White House, 2025), whose wide-reaching implications include the obliteration of government funding for a range of progressive programmes and the rolling back of hard-fought freedoms within the US. By virtue of global interdependence, we must pay attention.
Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI)
Copyright (c) 2025 Emily Róisín Reid https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The world is their oyster? Exploring the factors that help and hinder refugee-background young people in Scotland fulfil their career potential with a focus on post-secondary education.
This qualitative study, based on interviews with nine participants, explores the post-secondary education and career pathways of refugee-background youth in Scotland. A key finding is that Scotland provides unique supports from state and voluntary sectors. However, these must contend with significant barriers, including academic challenges, and constrained progression from Further Education (FE) to university. This exploratory study, while identifying examples of best practice, concludes that significant structural barriers continue to limit career potential for refugee-background youth.
Scotland, Education, Refugee Background Youth
Copyright (c) 2025 Angela Comer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Rise High: An investigation of a pilot careers and skills development programme for young people in rural and semi-rural areas in Derbyshire
The Rise High programme, a collaboration between the University of Derby and the Chatsworth House Trust, explores a progressive, sustained approach to careers outreach with under-represented young people in rural and semi-rural areas. This case study examines emerging evaluation findings, showing early evidence that the programme has strengthened participants’ understanding of career pathways over time and supported the development of skills and confidence. Impacts on university aspirations or motivation in current studies are less conclusive, highlighting potential for future programme development. The case study concludes by situating the programme within the local and wider political context of rurality and hidden disadvantage.
Copyright (c) 2026 Krisha Bainham https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reimaging and operationalising ‘meaningful’ work experience in England: The PERE model – An illustrative case study
This practice-led case study introduces the PERE (Prepare, Execute, Reflect, Evaluate) Model as a practical framework for delivering meaningful experiences of workplaces in secondary education. While the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) define what high-quality career learning should achieve, and professional bodies, including the Career Development Institute (CDI) and National Institute for Career Education and Counselling (NICEC), articulate why careers education matters, PERE focuses on how to operationalise these intentions through repeatable routines, adaptable tools, and clearly defined roles for schools and employer partners. The paper presents an illustrative example to demonstrate the model’s feasibility and transferability.
Work Experience, Gatsby Benchmarks, PERE Model, Careers Development, Equitable Access, Reflective Practice
Copyright (c) 2026 Ladi Mohammed-Chapman, Shani Wijemuni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A guidance process gap: Exploring school guidance provision in a multicultural Ireland
This research explores the guidance needs of young people from immigrant backgrounds in Ireland and the competencies of guidance counsellors in schools to address those needs. Findings indicate that the traditional school guidance approach, developed for a homogeneous student group of the majority population, is not appropriate for this cohort of young people. The author proposes that a Guidance Process Gap arises when the relationship between the young person of immigrant background and the guidance counsellor is negatively impacted by various barriers to engagement and makes recommendations to address this gap.
School Guidance, ‘Guidance Process Gap,’ multicultural, intercultural, guidance counselling, Ireland
Copyright (c) 2025 Dr. Jennifer D. McKenzie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Creating space for resonance: Supporting career development through photovoice
This reflective article explores the use of photovoice, a participatory visual practice, to support international students navigating the emotional and relational challenges of transitioning into employment in the UK. Drawing on a small-scale project, it considers how participatory practices can foster inclusion and agency in career development. The reflection is situated within Hartmut Rosa’s account of social acceleration, using resonance as the conceptual lens to examine how shared dialogue and storytelling can counter alienation and create conditions for connection. It highlights the potential and limitations of creative methods to deepen relational engagement in career education.
International students; Social Acceleration; Resonance; Photovoice; Inclusion; Hartmut Rosa.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Levett https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reframing student voice and participation in the UK education system for socially just career work
This integrative review explores the extent to which student voice and participatory practices in UK education reflect genuine power-sharing, and their potential application to socially just career education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG). Twelve sources were synthesised using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis method, generating four key themes: structural constraints, psychological safety, agency and representation, and the potential for citizen power. Findings highlight tensions between participatory rhetoric and practice, and propose an original conceptual model combining Arnstein’s Ladder, ethical pragmatism, and participatory action research. The review concludes that future inclusive CEIAG practice must embed student co-design to avoid reinforcing inequality.
Copyright (c) 2026 Natalie Freeman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
From representation to leadership: A case study in inclusive career progression
This case study explores Accelerate, a leadership and career development programme delivered in partnership with a research-intensive UK university to support the progression of underrepresented staff at Grades 7 and 8. Drawing on practitioners’ insights, participant feedback, and light-touch career theory, the article examines how inclusive leadership development can serve as a career intervention while also contributing to cultural change. The paper reflects on programme design, facilitation, and early outcomes, and offers transferable implications for career practitioners working in complex organisational settings.
Inclusive leadership, career progression, higher education, positive action, underrepresented talent, organisational change.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nishi Mehta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Conceiving conscientisation and critical consciousness in career guidance and counselling: A reflection from voices in the Global South
The concept of critical consciousness has been embraced by various approaches that advocate social justice within career guidance. In this context, we revisit the Latin American origins of the ideas of conscientisation and critical consciousness, primarily associated with Paulo Freire in education and Ignacio Martín-Baró in psychology. We also examine their application in the career guidance of Rodolfo Bohoslavsky to emphasise the significance of these concepts in a global framework. We conclude that incorporating critical consciousness into career guidance and counselling is vital. However, we argue that there is a pressing need for contextualisation to refine these concepts politically and conceptually.
Critical consciousness; Global South; interculturality; career guidance and counselling; Latin America.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcelo Afonso Ribeiro, Paula Morais Figueiredo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0