Fifth John Killeen Lecture (Understanding career decision-making and progression)16 October 2008

Event overview

Phil Hodkinson

 
(Emeritus Professor of Lifelong Learning, University of Leeds) drew upon his research career to present his latest ideas about career decision-making and career progression. Career decision-making was one of his first research interests, as part of a longitudinal study of the short-lived Training Credits scheme for young people, in the early 1990s. Based upon that work, he, Andrew Sparkes and Heather Hodkinson developed a new theory of career decision-making, which they termed 'careership'. They attempted to integrate views of career based predominantly on individual agency, with issues of social structure (including opportunity structures) and of serendipity or chance. Since then, further research conducted by Phil (with others) and also by other researchers, has thrown further light on careership. In this lecture, Phil explained how such new evidence further confirmed major parts of the careership theory, whilst showing the need for some significant modifications to parts of it. He concluded by briefly identifying some important issues for policy and practice, that arise from what this research and theorising show. 

Phil Hodkinson is Emeritus Professor of Lifelong Learning at the University of Leeds. He has researched widely on vocational education, transitions to work, and workplace learning. Much of his research focuses on relating individual biography and learning to wider social and participatory learning perspectives. Phil is a qualitative researcher, with an interest in the relationships between empirical data and the theoretical orientations and constructions of researchers.

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Contact Allister McGowan for further information.