‘This book will increase your confidence in and enhance your understanding of how to engage effectively and ethically with all of the multi-faceted individuals who make our working lives such a privilege.’ Claire Johnson, CDI Head of Professional Development and Standards, RCDP and CDI, ICCI and NICEC Fellow
Transform your career guidance practice to meet the unique needs of all of your clients.
The need for specialised career guidance for individuals with an impairment, health condition, learning support need or disabling factor has never been greater. This dedicated guide supports career development professionals to successfully adapt their practice to ensure it is inclusive of people with a variety of needs.
Written by two hugely knowledgeable and widely respected authors with considerable expertise in the field of careers guidance and inclusion, this definitive guide offers:
- Real-world case studies: to demonstrate proven, real-life techniques employed by professionals in their practice and illustrate their methods
- Actionable insights: with tools, techniques and strategies to help overcome specific challenges, including non-verbal communication and literacy difficulties
- Professional standards: closely mapped against industry training benchmarks for career professionals
- Accessibility: written in a clear, engaging and accessible format, it has illustrations throughout to support different learning styles.
Drawing on real-world, tried-and-tested techniques, this comprehensive handbook equips career development professionals with the tools they need to provide effective guidance, foster inclusivity and improve accessibility.
Table of Contents:
Contents
Ch1. A bit about our book
Why we wrote it
What’s in it
What we mean by career guidance
Format
Reflective practice
Disability and learning support needs
About us
Taking a very personal view
Ch 2. Regulate, Relate and Communicate
Senses - taste, smell, sight, hearing, and touch, proprioceptive and vestibular
Sensory toolkits
Auditory and visual illusions
Too much information
Speech
Assisted communication
Asking questions
Pre-session information
Ch 3. ‘Disability’
Models of disability
Nothing about us without us
How does disability affect decision making?
Ch 4 Impairment and adjustments
Making reasonable adjustments to career guidance
Engaging/relating
Planning
Making changes to the environment
Making changes to the format of interventions
Changes to how we provide information
Ideas for reflection
Speech, including
- Dyspraxia/developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD)
- Dysarthria
- Dysphasia
- Stammering
- Selective mutism
- Non-verbal autism
- Tourette syndrome (TS)
- Cerebral Palsy
- Down Syndrome
- Brain injury
- D/deaf
Signing
Ch 5 Navigate the systems of support
Education learning support systems in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Special Educational Needs, Additional Support for Learning, Additional Learning Needs, Additional Educational Needs
Local offer
Colleges
Specialist colleges
Higher Education
Supported Internships
Inclusive apprenticeships
Support in work and for job-seeking
‘Disability Confident’
Grants, bursaries and charitable organisations
Health and social care
Transition
Ch 6 Ethics and Agendas
Impartiality and transparency
Reflective practice
Inclusivity within ethics
Common challenges
Government agendas
Education agendas
Funding
Ableism
Media
Ch 7 Creating individualised approaches
Self
Social stories
Comic strip conversations
Opportunities
Decisions
Transitions
‘Important to’
Supporting families.
Short lives - Parallel planning
Just one thing
Demand avoidance
Ch 8 How we organise interactions
Length of session
Introductions
Room set Up
Someone else in the room?:
Circles of support
Working with the staff who support learning
Pen profiles
Ch9 Action Planning and Information sharing
Things to consider when you’re writing a plan:
SMART/Er
Diversify the questions:
Thinking differently
Triggers and blockers
Punk action planning
Do it together
Time
Back up plans
Sharing action plans
Information sharing
Enthusiastic consent!
Inclusive approaches
Inclusive by design
Colours matter
Person-centred planning
Paths, maps and circles
Cloud map
CH10 Using Theory in Our Practice
Career theory
Social pedagogy
Sensory integration
Play
Loose parts
Our ‘Relate’ model
Ch 11 Legislate and Advocate
Policy and legislation
Equality, equity and discrimination
Mental capacity
Safeguarding
Advocacy
Disclosure
Ch 12 Glossary
Online – Links to Resources
Afterword
About the Author :
Chris Targett is a dynamic and innovative careers adviser who received the CDI’s ‘UK Careers Adviser of the Year’ Award in 2021. His background in art and philosophy informs his creative approach, supporting young people, schools and colleagues across the guidance community. Chris currently works as an Area Manager & Careers Adviser and he is also Chair of the Careers Writers Association (CWA).
Jules Benton has over 35 years’ experience working as a careers guidance professional, trainer and consultant. She specialises in careers guidance for individuals who are disabled, have learning support needs or experience other barriers to inclusion. Jules is also Chief Executive of Cosmic Cactus, a service that provides support for transitions to employment, training and education.
Review :
All clients have individual needs, some clients also have additional needs. Knowing how to meet these needs in ways which are safe and comfortable for all of our clients is a vital aspect of inclusive practice.
Reading this book will not only enable you to understand the range of strategies and techniques that can be used to engage with clients with learning and additional needs but also show you how these can be used with neurotypical and non-disabled individuals.
For anyone working in the career development sector or allied areas this book will enhance your understanding of different conditions and how these affect each individual in different ways; improve your ability to communicate effectively with all of your clients and enable them to feel at ease and happy to work with you.
Drawing on the vast experience of its authors, this book buzzes with such enthusiasm about all of its content that it can easily be read from cover to cover as well as being one that can be returned to time and again as a reference source. It is also an excellent tool to use to truly reflect on how you work with clients and to ask yourself how inclusive your practice actually is.
If you are new to working in the career development sector, studying a career development qualification or have worked in the sector for many years, this book will increase your confidence in and enhance your understanding of how to engage effectively and ethically with all of the multi-faceted individuals who make our working lives such a privilege.
It is also a valuable source of information for those who fund and manage provision as it shows how employing professionally qualified staff and giving them the time and resources needed for the role can lead to all clients being enabled to pursue a career path that is right for them.
I am delighted that this book is now available as it draws together so many sources of information and inspiration into one very accessible document and I have no hesitation in recommending this motivating book to everyone.
Claire Johnson, RCDP and CDI, ICCI and NICEC Fellow
CDI Head of Professional Development and Standards
This book is a gentle reminder that inclusive practice should be at the heart of all that we do as careers professionals. Inclusion is about working with the client in front of you as much as it is about understanding a named condition or perceived requirement.
Bringing in a wealth of ideas from contemporary best practice in the areas of equity, accessibility and inclusion, the book takes a real-world and informal approach. This is a practice-focused guide, in which the authors encourage practitioners to pick and choose their own strategies and tools from those they present. Readers keen to learn more about a topic are directed towards a wealth of wider resources to bolster their own knowledge.
Rather than seeing tools and strategies as an adaptation the authors reinforce the importance of mainstreaming these as typical features of inclusive practice. By encouraging readers to continuously reflect on their practice through an inclusive lens, the principals that underpin career guidance can flourish.
Dr Emma Bolger, Programme Leader, MSc in Career Guidance and Development, University of the West of Scotland
I highly recommend this excellent book.
Associate Professor Deirdre Hughes OBE
