Career Development

Career exploration encompasses the active reflection of personal interests, abilities and values as well as the exploration of possibilities in the world of work. As such, it is a crucial developmental task in adolescence which lays the foundation for informed career decision-making, self-determination, and achievement of vocational identity. This books describes a longitudinal panel study with Swiss adolescents investigating antecedents of active career exploration and its effect on development of confidence. The four predictors - emotional stability, active goal orientation, capability beliefs and perceived social support - were also examined and discussed. Furthermore, gender disparity in education and professional careers is well-researched in Western culture, including North America and Western European countries. However, not much is known about factors related with gender affecting women''s education or career choices in Eastern culture. This book presents a review and synthesis of the literature on women''s education and career development in Turkey. Within discussions, comparisons are made to highlight similarities and differences of the factors affecting women''s career choices in Turkish and Western contexts. A study which takes on a culturally sensitive approach is also included in this book to investigate the influence of learning values on approaches to learning of Malaysian Malay and Chinese adult learners who engaged with professional development programmes in higher education. Other chapters discuss career development in public health, a review of the current research on successful internship programs and their establishment for professionals and managers in diverse occupations, specific ways of staffing project teams and managing career development of project managers, and approaches of constructivist philosophy which are offering promising possibilities for the construction of a new identity and a new narrative for career counselling in the 21st century.