Project Career Research Articles

Work education and educational developments around sustainable livelihoods for sustainable career development and well-being

Covid-19, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Climate Change, have disrupted work education, rendering sustainability of careers and livelihoods a concern. This paper outlines a collaborative response to that challenge, offering opportunities for sustainable livelihoods in a work education cloud collaboration, Project SLiC (Sustainable Livelihoods Collaboration). We have joined forces across nation states in the Global South/North to share cloud resources, focused on teaching a postgraduate course, Sustainable Livelihoods. Online modules are stored in a secure cloud site, from which local courses draw-down, autochthonously, whichever resources fit workforce development in context. We outline modules, and an evaluative process, in a proof-of-concept trial. Finally, we envisage how this initial collaboration may morph into a whole degree, including research supervision. We close with a call to career development professionals to share their unique expertise and experiences at the work education frontline, on how to develop this sustainable careers project, for the greater good.

Sexisme bienveillant en entreprise : perceptions, impacts sur les projections de carrière et stratégies d’adaptation

<p>The workplace is not free from gender bias. In recent years, efforts to eradicate gender-based discriminatory behaviours at work have emerged (EIGE, 2021). However, a form of sexism still seems to be accepted because of its subjectively positive dimension: benevolent sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996). This qualitative study examines the perception of benevolent sexism among female civil engineers, its potential impact on their career projections, and the strategies used to cope with benevolent sexist micro-aggressions. Semi-directed interviews were conducted with seven female civil engineer participants. The interviews were then analysed according to the steps of the interpretative phenomenological analysis method (Smith, 1996), combining a vertical and a horizontal analysis. Our results show a low perception of benevolent sexism by the participants interviewed and a very limited effective impact on their career projections. Seven coping strategies emerged from the interviews: confronting, desensitizing, recontextualizing, seeking support, refocusing, taking collective action, and leaving the company. The results obtained in this research can be explained by a habituation to sexist behaviours during studies in a predominantly male field, the importance of the contextual elements, particularly the high rate of employability of these women, and the potential effectiveness of the coping strategies implemented. Two main purposes were identified in these coping strategies: acting directly on perpetrators in order to decrease discrimination frequency and intensity (resistance), and reducing the impact of sexist behaviours on the target without affecting perpetrators (resignation).</p>

Early Career Project Managers: Well-being and Life Satisfaction Analysis

The essentials of the presented paper are the psychological well-being and life satisfaction of early-career project managers (maximum 18 months of experience in project management). The primary goal is to determine whether there is a relationship between the psychological well-being and life satisfaction of early-career project managers, and if relationships exist between these variables, to determine their strength. In the theoretical part of the paper, processed using the analysis of relevant information sources, we deal with the concepts of well-being and life satisfaction. As part of the research description, we define an early carrier project manager and describe a sample of respondents consisting of 88 early carrier project managers. To analyze the well-being and life satisfaction variables, we use the Psychological Well-Being Scale questionnaire and the Life Satisfaction Scale questionnaire, where the results of these questionnaires are subsequently subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. We found that there is a moderately strong and statistically significant relationship between the psychological well-being and life satisfaction of early-career project managers. The results of the research can serve as a basis for developing suitable adaptation programs for early carrier project managers, where HR professionals can devote their attention to improving the well-being of early carrier project managers and their life satisfaction and thus reduce the risk of burnout syndrome, which is a very common phenomenon not only among early carrier professions but also project managers. The issue of well-being appears to be relatively well researched and described, even in the context of project managers. However, the life satisfaction of project managers has not been analyzed in such detail, and it is no longer possible to find the issue of investigating the mutual correlation of well-being and life satisfaction of early-career project managers. It is our research that can narrow this gap in the theories of project management, human resource management, and work psychology. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-08-02-06 Full Text: PDF

Virtual Access to STEM Careers: In the Field Experiments.

The Virtual Access to STEM Careers (VASC) project is an intertwined classroom and virtual reality (VR) curricular program for third through fourth graders. Elementary school students learn about and take on the roles and responsibilities of STEM occupations through authentic, problem-based tasks with physical kits and immersive VR environments. This article reports on a round of curriculum and virtual environment development and in-classroom experimentation that was guided by preliminary results gathered from our initial VASC prototyping and testing. This specific iteration focuses on curriculum for learning about sea turtles and tasks regularly completed by park rangers and marine biologists who work with these creatures and a new backend data collection component to analyze participant behavior. Our results showed that educators were able to setup and integrate VASC into their classrooms with relative ease. Elementary school students were able to learn how to interface with our system quickly and enjoyed being in the environment, making a positive link to STEM education.

A Literature Survey on AI Driven Career Path Prediction

The field of career path prediction and professional planning has seen a significant change due to the growing convergence of AI and computational intelligence. This overview of the literature delves into the latest developments in AI-powered career path prediction, combining research results from several fields. Predictive models and approaches applied to scientists, IT professionals, MBAs, students, and individuals in a variety of industries are examined in this study. The study begins with an analysis of how mixed job expectations affect IT professionals' career satisfaction, emphasizing the careful balance that must be struck between administrative and technical tasks. The gender gap in MBA career trajectories is discussed in the following sections, with a focus on wage distribution, promotions, and patterns of mobility. After that, the review turns its attention to long-term career projections and presents cutting-edge models like NAOMI, Fortune Teller, and CareerBERT

Russian Youth Educational Choice Cultural Patterns: The Case of VET Choice

The aim of the study is to explore how adolescents make sense of various educational opportunities while making educational decision to go to college after grade 9. We seek to decipher which symbolic horizons adolescents derive from in order to shape their decision irrespective of grades or family SES. To do so, we draw on data from in-depth interviews collected in 2013 as part of the Trajectories in Education and Careers project. We find that, on the one hand, decisions about the choice of trajectory are not made randomly, solely because of grades, but at the same time they are not only rational. As a result, we identify 4 symbolic horizons of decision-making, which indicates the heterogeneity of cultural patterns of decision-making to leave school and go to college.

Early career project managers’ work readiness: Adopting a self-efficacy lens

Early career project managers’ work readiness: Adopting a self-efficacy lens

Ipsative Assessment and Peer Feedback in an Orthopaedic Junior Doctor Teaching Programme: A Project Plan and Narrative Review of the Literature.

The main aim of this study is to describe a plan for a project to introduce the use of formative ipsative assessment and peer feedback within an orthopaedic junior doctor teaching programme. These changes will ensure that students demonstrate objective progress and understand that they are making progress in their learning journey. It will also improve learner collaboration through the creation of communities of practice. Key stakeholders involved include the junior doctors, tutors, consultants, medical education department, research/audit department, and orthopaedic company representatives. Outcomes will be measured using a four-point Likert scale on Google forms digital portfolios for the domains of clinical knowledge, technical skills, communication, teamwork, and basic research skills. Progress will be audited at six-month intervals. Full project implementation will be within 6-12 months. A narrative review of relevant literature and theories of learning in relation to ipsative assessment and peer feedback within a clinical teaching context was also performed. The future of medical education will still contain large components of ipsative assessment. In addition, a problem-based collaborative learning approach is now utilized in many medical schools and peer feedback will become more frequently utilized as a part of this in future. The author looks forward to implementing this project successfully and anticipates that the knowledge/skills gained from this will be useful for any future career projects both within and outside medical education.

Management of fortuity: Workplace chance events and the career projections of up-or-out professionals

How much control do people have over their career? We explore this question in the context of professional service firms, long thought of as providing predictable, agentic careers in the up-or-out model. Specifically, we seek to understand how chance events in immediate work circumstances are experienced in this context, and the responses they elicit in terms of career construction. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 68 pre-partnership professionals from three large professional firms using the up-or-out promotion system, we find that chance developments in proximate work conditions, especially with respect to key relationships and project allocation, shape the possibilities that professionals see for their careers going forward and the actions they take in response. Even in this seemingly predictable career, being continuously attuned to fortuitous turns of events informs how people enact career agency. It also prompts a heightened awareness of the fragile nature of the up-or-out career path, triggering a gradual reconsideration of career possibilities that includes career confirmation, ambivalence, pivot, and fading. Our study contributes to better understanding the interdependence between context and agency in contemporary careers, highlighting the widespread and consequential role of proximate chance events in people's career construction process.

Contributing factors to turnover intentions of early career project management professionals in construction

The construction industry is facing global skills shortages, with demand for certain roles (such as project managers) projected to outstrip supply over the next decade. With the industry serving as the backbone of the economy in many countries, this projected lack of skilled construction professionals poses dire consequences. This qualitative study investigated the early career transition of project management (PM) professionals into the construction industry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 employer representatives and 20 early career professionals to ascertain the factors affecting the turnover intentions of early career PM professionals in construction. From the perspective of the early participants in this study, the major factors affecting their intentions to leave were related to workplace culture: (i) bad workplace behaviour; (ii) high levels of work-related stress; and (iii) poor work-life balance. While employers also noted that bullying and long working hours contributed to early career PM professionals’ intentions to leave the industry, they believed that the key contributing factor was that young employees were seeking higher salaries. These findings on the need to improve workplace culture have the potential to positively influence the issue of early career retention within the construction industry.

Media crisis and its effects on digital journalism careers in Canada

This article discusses how the evolution of media industry in Canada affects the construction of identities and careers in digital journalism. It is based on 17 in-depth interviews with professionals working in Canadian Anglophone and Francophone media. Based on an interactionist theoretical approach, this article underlines how journalists negotiate their career project in a scenario of precariousness and deterioration of the job market in Canadian journalism. In this regard it highlights the strategies of resistance and resilience adopted by some interviewees in contrast to the international discourses that aim to restructure their practices and identities. This results in a conservative approach to adapting to the professional identity in digital journalism – which in fact translates into segmentation and diversification of the status that comes with this profession.

대한체육회 주관 선수진로지원사업 및 교육프로그램 문제점과 개선방안

Objectives The purpose of this study was to present the improvement measures of athlete career support program implemented by Korean Sport & Olympic Committee by analyzing the program and the problems. Methods For the purpose, literature review and interview for 8 stakeholders were performed. In-depth interviews were conducted from November to December 2021. In-depth interviews were conducted for business managers of the Korea Sports Association, external users of the program, and former and current athletes. The analyzed programs were those for career education for youth athletes, career events, promotion activities, career counseling, career competency education, and mentoring. Results The identified problems were top-down type lecture in career education for youth athletes, students' avoidance due to coercion in career events, a gap in contact path between promotion provider and consumer in promotion activities, lack of counselors who can communicate empirical facts in the field of sports in career counseling, inconsistency with the skills practically required by the society in career competency education, and lack of systematization of the mentoring curriculum in mentoring. The presented improvement measure were opening of career education program and modifying the lecture method into them centered on participation in career education for youth athletes, complementary to induce voluntary participation in career events, production of promotional contents mainly of short videos in promotion activities, placement of counselors specialized in sports area in career counseling, education through regular internship agreements with local companies in career competency education, and establishment of mentor management process in mentoring. Conclusions It is necessary to operate a career support project for athletes and develop an educational curriculum that does not lag behind the times. In addition, it should be established as a career and education project centered on student athletes and retired athletes who are consumers, not for the project.

Empower Peers 4 Careers: Positive Peer Culture to Prepare Adolescents’ Career Choices

For youth with special needs, where cognitive difficulties, behavioral and psychosocial issues are more common, career choice is particularly challenging. The Positive Peer Culture (PPC) approach uses the resource of peer support to systematically build social–emotional competence. Important key elements are that adolescents feel safe to share their own problems and challenges with others, to overcome difficulties and challenges, to take responsibility for their lives, and to help each other. The Empower Peers 4 Careers Project aims to apply the PPC approach to the context of career choice to promote the development of important competences for the transition from school to work. The pedagogical background of the PPC approach in the setting of career choice, as well as the required learning environments for the peers are presented. The peer group meetings are organized following a defined process through which learning forms social–emotional competence, as well as the class climate can be strengthened. In addition, the role of the moderators of the peer groups – such as class teachers or special education teachers – is examined in more detail and the concept is presented of how they are trained on topics such as resilience promotion and strengths orientation in the context of career choice preparation. The project “Empower Peers 4 Careers” will be cientifically monitored over 2 years using a quasi-experimental control group design, which includes quantitative and qualitative methods. A total of 15 classes of the 8th grade (age group: 14-year-olds) of regular and special schools as well as 10 classes as control classes are participating. The results of the evaluation will not be available until 2023. The article presents the concept with the long-term goals, the implementation and didactics, as well as the hypotheses and the procedure for the evaluation.

MASCULINIDADES E FEMINILIDADES A BORDO: PROJETO(S) DE GÊNERO NA CARREIRA DE COMISSÁRIAS E COMISSÁRIOS DE VOO

ABSTRACT This article resumes the interactionist bases of career studies to analyze the construction of gender project(s) regarding masculinities and femininities in the careers of flight attendants. We used a qualitative-oriented research methodology divided into five main stages: documentary and bibliographical research; 16 months of general immersion with field observation and journaling; specific immersion with field observation (participating in a flight attendants’ training course); collection of 23 professionals’ biographies; and construction and analysis of thematic narratives. The information was analyzed based on the perspective of collective narratives in three relational moments: training, joining an airline, and work routine. The discussions point to the necessity of constructing career projects as gender projects and the potential for personal metamorphosis by emphasizing and embodying masculinities and femininities, as well as trajectories negotiations in the field of possibilities - temporal, dynamic, and contextual dimensions. The research findings broaden the debate on gendered careers and bring an original methodological and theoretical contribution to collective careers.

Supporting early career project managers in construction: a multi-vocal study

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the support that project managers receive from construction project-based organisations (PBOs) in their early careers.Design/methodology/approachFifty-seven semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with four key stakeholder groups including early career project managers (ECPMs) and employers from Australian construction PBOs, project management professional bodies, and university educators to ascertain (1) what organizations are currently doing and (2) what organizations can do better to support project managers in their early careers.FindingsThematic analysis revealed that construction PBOs' responsibilities to ECPMs entailed: (1) providing mentoring, (2) offering training, (3) collaborating with universities, (4) giving time and feedback and (5) assigning manageable workloads. However, the findings revealed inconsistencies in companies enacting these responsibilities.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is limited to the context of the Australian construction industry, yet the findings shed valuable insights into the current practices of construction PBOs in supporting ECPMs. From a strategic resource-based view perspective, ECPMs have the potential to serve as long-term valuable organizational resources. Failure to invest in new professional entrants constitutes an area of untapped competitive advantage.Practical implicationsConstruction PBOs looking to better support their ECPMs may use the results of this research as a guide to tailor their early career professional development initiatives.Originality/valueThe study adopts a holistic, multi-vocal approach by interviewing four key stakeholder groups. The findings contribute new insights into the role of construction PBOs in supporting ECPMs and the implications this has on the sustainability of their project management talent pool.

Risk Intelligence as a Resource in Career Transition: The Role of College Satisfaction on the Visions about Future Jobs.

(1) Background: University transition is a critical step in career construction due to the uncertainty and unpredictability of socioeconomic conditions; these conditions compel people to manage a greater quantity of perceived risks associated with their career projects than in the past, and to face unexpected situations that could compromise their quality of life in educational and work contexts. After all, experiencing well-being during the university path can undoubtedly affect the visions of one’s future work, especially when a transition period is nearby. The present study aimed to explore the role of subjective risk intelligence in expectations about future work, analyzing the potential mediational role of academic satisfaction in this relationship. (2) Methods: A longitudinal study was carried out on 352 Italian university students at the end of the degree course. We used the following measures: in T1, Subjective risk intelligence scale, College Satisfaction scale; in T2, three items assessing the expectations about future work. (3) Results: The main findings showed that subjective risk intelligence has both direct and indirect effects (through the mediation of college satisfaction) on the expectations about future work. (4) Conclusions: The ability to manage risks, also through the contribution of domain-specific satisfaction, can lead to positive expectations toward one’s future work. This could increase the likelihood to perform career-related behaviors in a more proactive way if people have high risk management skills and high levels of academic satisfaction with their university path during transition.

Professional digital journalists and entry in the Portuguese labour market

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the conditions in which Portuguese digital journalists enter the workplace by looking at certain choices they made while studying, during internships, and entering the ever-growing labour market. Thirteen biographical interviews were conducted with professionals who started working in journalism after 2005. The results show an opposition to the regressing conditions surrounding entry into journalism, as well as a set of strategies for insertion and permanence in the profession. The results also show that a journalist’s entry into journalism is a result of a combination of having a career project, of the individual choices that journalist makes, and how he or she has had to adapt their identity based on labour market limitations and the opportunities that have opened up ever since the onset of digital media.

Determining the Lifetime Return on Investment of a Career in Physical Therapy or Occupational Therapy – An Educational and Financial Analysis

Background: In the United States, student loan debt has been a subject for national and political discussion. Professional associations have expressed concern and taken action in ways to combat high levels of student loan debt. What has not been discussed is the lifetime earnings, debt, and retirement (or loss thereof) which would produce an overall lifetime return on investment (ROI) for the graduate and associate’s degree levels of careers in physical therapy and occupational therapy. Method: A literature review on student loan debt in the United States was performed. Specifically, statistics were obtained from various sources relative to the fields of physical and occupational therapy. Salaries and salary projections were obtained for both graduate and associate’s/technical degree levels in physical and occupational therapy. Data was calculated to obtain overall cost of education (tuition plus debt-based interest), lifetime earnings of salary, and available retirement contributions when replacing contributions with potential loan repayment. Results: Literature review showed that while value can only be determined subjectively, current career projections and cost of education for obtaining graduate degrees in physical and occupational therapy have an overall negative return on investment in relation to lifetime earnings. By comparison, the associate’s degree level of training provides for a relatively high lifetime earning and high return on investment when factoring in a debt-to-income ratio and lifetime potential retirement earnings. Conclusion: Value can only be determined by the one pursuing a degree or career goal. However, numeric and financial data shows that the lifetime earnings and overall investment in a graduate career in physical therapy and occupational therapy is negative when compared to the associate’s degree level. Limitations: Limitations of this review are the lack of consideration of loan forgiveness, as well as grant funding from research groups, Pell grants, and other methods of loan payment or repayment. Also not taken into account for these calculations are the career burnout rates for physical and occupational therapy professionals.

Qualitative Inquiry in the Neoliberal Public Sphere: Contesting Accountability Metrics

Based on a critical and constructive dialogue that I articulate drawing from different authors concerned about the differentiated value that is given to academic publications at present, I reflect from the standpoint of a particular Latin American context on how we can meet the demands of governments regarding education and science, contributing to the development of our universities while complying with international and local quality standards, but without losing the sense of an academic career project aimed at generating knowledge in social sciences that can be put at the service of communities that are researched and contribute to the improvement of people’s lives.

Long-term benefits of field trip participation: Young tourism management professionals share their stories

Research on field trips within hospitality and tourism programs have started to draw academic attention in recent years. However, there is still room for a deeper reflexive analysis on the long-term benefits that field trip participation may bring to students - even after they graduate - by approaching field trips as a broader component of the learning experience, which take place continuously throughout the program. This article tells the stories of seven young Peruvian tourism management professionals, from the moment they decided to enroll in a tourism-related program until their current involvement in the tourism sector. Special attention is given to exploring their perception of how field trip participation has impacted them so far as well as their career projections. The stories suggest that despite differences among participants’ socio-demographic backgrounds, personalities, student performance, current employment status, and professional goals, they all agree that field trips provided them with numerous benefits at academic, professional, and personal levels. While in the short-term participating in field trips helped them succeeding in their courses, in the long-term the knowledge gained during these trips allowed them to feel more empowered and self-confident at the current stage they are in as young professionals who keep acquiring experience in the field. Findings suggest that field trip participants may develop a certain level of place attachment that may lead to implement tourism development actions later when they become professionals. Valuable insights are provided for educators as well as tourism management program directors.