EngineeringUK estimates that the UK will require 87,000 new engineers a year over the next ten years. However, with skills shortages threatening to derail the UK's engineering industry, it is clear that immediate action needs to be taken if this quota is to be met. In this article, Vincent English, managing director of Vernier Europe, offers his…

The authors provide a reaction to the Major Contribution by Richardson in this issue of "The Counseling Psychologist" on the counseling for work and relationships perspective. The authors examine the trajectory of Richardson's work, beginning with her seminal article in 1993, which set the stage for a new paradigm for vocational psychology.…

Invited commentary on Armstrong and Vogel's (2009) article on interpreting the interest-efficacy association stimulated an appraisal from a broader perspective. Like empirical research, scale development, and theorizing emanating from social cognitive career theory (SCCT), their conclusion about the importance of assessing both interests and…

Examines personality types, then goes beyond defining types to match type characteristics with similar aspects of jobs that could lead to "perfect" careers. Looks at differences between extroversion and introversion, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, and judging and perceiving, and gives career implications of these differences. (NB)

Describes the purpose and theoretical origins of the Career Factors Inventory, a measure of the antecedents of career indecision. Discusses potential applications, giving examples of its use in counseling, career development, and administrative planning. (SK)

Achieving both career development and a successful relationship requires a give and take in career choice between partners throughout the stages of a relationship. Whose career takes precedence at different stages of the relationship? How are spousal career decisions today made differently than in the past? How can partners' career decisions be…

Explains Kelly's (1955) Personal Construct Theory and illustrates the uses of two techniques for using personal constructs in career assessment: the Role Construct Repertory Test and the laddering technique. (SK)

Analyzes similarities of career choice and development theories to determine whether vocational research and counseling field are moving toward integrated theory. Concludes that commonality exists but that theory differences, which are useful for specific populations and purposes, remain. (Author/CM)

Vocational realism is discussed as it relates to women in our changing society. A distinction is made between status quo realism and self-actualizing realism. (Author/ABB)

A four-component model for career decision-making counseling relates each component to assessment questions and appropriate intervention strategies. The components are (1) conceptualization (definition of the problem); (2) enlargement of response repertoire (generation of alternatives); (3) identification of discriminative stimuli (consequences of…

Reviews a theory of decision making that has implications for the decisional counseling of youth facing the transition from school to work. Suggests that the conflict theory model may be useful in counseling adolescents in occupational and educational decision making. (JOW)

Four sources of self-efficacy than can be useful in career counseling are enactive attainments, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological arousal. Self-efficacy interventions may benefit women, minorities, and disadvantaged individuals. The Career Search Self-Efficacy Scale is a useful instrument for such interventions. (SK)

Reports on 30 career counseling interviews reviewed using a discourse analytic method. Findings indicate that clients present various dilemmatic themes of career in their talk. Three types of dilemmas were pervasive: uncertainty versus certainty, interests versus practical, and focus versus options. Suggests that career theorists and counselors…

Describes how the logical positivist perspective on indecision as an objective phenomenon has evolved. Explains how constructivist counselors view indecision as clients' subjective attempts to give meaning to crisis points in their lives. This view permits a conceptualization of career counseling as a process of articulating a clients' life theme.…

This model proposes that individuals' subjective structure and the objective structure of the environment are influenced by a lifelong process of socialization and development and a process of cultural and social change. Three types of career counseling are suggested: technical, practical, and conceptual. (SK)