Despite spatial metaphors of ‘paths’ or ‘journeys’, the spatial elements of career development have often been overlooked. However, the spaces that people grow up in and move through shape the development of career aspirations and access to opportunities. With nations across the world experiencing growing issues of spatial inequality between rural and urban areas, and between economically thriving and economically deprived areas, understanding the spatial dimensions of career development and guidance is increasingly important.

In this webinar, Rosie Alexander will identify how and why greater consideration of the role of place in career guidance is necessary, and what practitioners can do to ensure that their practice is appropriate for the places that they work in. In addressing this topic Rosie draws from her own experiences as a careers practitioner in rural communities in the UK, her PhD research with young people from rural island communities in the North of Scotland, and her current research with career guidance practitioners in rural Danish communities. Throughout all of her work, she has been driven to understand the role of place in how individuals think about their futures (including their career futures), and how the places they come from shape the pathways they take. In her most recent research with practitioners in Denmark she has extended this focus to ask what the role of place is or should be in the practice of career guidance.

In this webinar Rosie will present key findings from her research. In the first part of the webinar she will outline the limitations of existing models of career guidance and development and present a new theoretical approach: the spatio-relational model. The second part of the webinar will focus on the practical implications of this model and, utilising a range of international examples, will explore the evidence for how career guidance practices can be developed to become more spatially sensitive.

The key aims of the webinar are to:

introduce a theoretical model for understanding the relationship between career development and place
present examples of how career guidance practice can be developed to address issues of place
provide space for discussion and reflection on participant’s own practices and experiences.

CICA Compentecy - Career development theory, Diversity and inclusion, Professional practice application

Presenter

Rosie Alexander is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Aarhus University in Denmark. Prior to her academic career she worked as a careers adviser in Scotland and England, and for ten years developed and led the careers service at the University of the Highlands and Islands. More recently she has taught on postgraduate courses in career guidance and development at the University of the West of Scotland. In 2024 she co-authored a handbook for trainee practitioners, The Career Development Handbook with Tristram Hooley and Gill Frigerio. Her research expertise particularly focuses on the spatial dimensions of career guidance and development, and she has published and spoken widely on the topic. The book based on her PhD Higher Education, Place and Career Development: Learning from Rural and Island Students, was published by Routledge in 2024.