In terms of uncertainty career counsellors have to search for new opportunities about how career guidance can be carried out. The change in economic structure triggered by advancing digitalization, crises and changes in the organisation of work, increase the demands on career management skills, such as resilience and career adaptability. Orientation, decision-making and coping issues have become a central theme of our contemporary society. Therefore, more support is needed to prepare young people in a proper way for the future of work. Different strategies of coping, orientation and decision-making may help young people to deal with these unknowns, this unpredictability and maintain their resources and strengthen their resilience in context of uncertainty.

 

We live in an age of disruption, where powerful global forces are changing the way we live and work. These changes in the contemporary society are because of digitalization, crises and the way to do your work in general. Therefore, much more support is needed to prepare young people in a proper way for the future of work.

As a result of this development, a huge number of challenges are posed for the individual, such as the need to be creative in gainful employment or higher qualifications, to be increasingly self-organised and self-responsible, and to respond to the ever-changing employment environment.

These changes have inflamed a public debate about potential job losses and the risk of mass unemployment. This leads to an uncertainty and unpredictability. From a scientific perspective such bad news is clearly exaggerated for three reasons.

Firstly, the technological potential for automatization of jobs is in many cases significantly overestimated. Next, not all automation potential is used in practice. Finally, a division of employment between (hu)man and machine that is always adaptable often prevents job losses.

We now turn to the question of whether it would be much better for people to try to consider the complexity in the change of skill requirements. There is a wealth of evidence that the skills of self-organization, self-rationalization or personal development have become much more important alongside the still central technical qualifications.

It should also be emphasized that the future of work is not something that will happen to us. More accurately, it is shaped by people within the framework of power relations and is under a variety of influences. However, education can help to ensure that workers can participate more actively in this shaping, both individually and collectively, than they have in the past.

It is obvious that any solution to the problems mentioned above will involve much more self-motivation.  The work on one's own competencies, the reflection on one's own biography and learning and work experiences might expand the view of one's own strengths and abilities, such as strengthening self-esteem or being inspired to undertake further education.

In the discipline of career guidance, we have a huge amount of solid evidence for disorientation not only in terms of the uncertainty in modern society but also because of not being well prepared in secondary school. What’s more there is poor decision-making among young people. This underlines the fact that work world of the 21st century provokes feelings of anxiety and insecurity among individuals who are on the journey of choosing jobs and constructing careers. So, researchers in the field of career guidance strongly recommend starting career education at a very early age.

However, it is hoped that new initiatives to cope with the current challenges, will enable people to evaluate their skills to build a more sustainable career path. The focus is not on solving the concrete decision-making question, but on enabling decision-making competence.

 

PERMA.teach Perma.teach is for evidence-based interventions and methods from Positive Psychology (=PERMA) as a principle of teaching/counselling, learning and attitude in everyday (school) life in every situation in every context no separate lessons necessary Encourages and empowers teachers/counsellors as well as children and young persons to take responsibility for themselves and others. A project of IFTE – Initiative for  Teaching Entrepreneurship and University College of Teacher Education in Vienna/Krems (www.permateach.at)

For that reason, it should be focused on effective decision-making, action and solution strategies and attempt to have the following questions answered: Which strategies are effective for young adults feeling disoriented or unable to cope in an era that allows for great freedom of choice? What are the most important counselling concerns, trends and challenges, and how can career guidance connect to the real-life experiences of young people? What are effective strategies and approaches helping individuals to overcome anxiety?

In the Austrian School System, a comprehensive model for Career Education and Guidance at Schools is applied. It’s a concept of lifelong guidance including information, counselling and orientation for education and career. Different activities are carried out to implement the Austrian concept of career guidance. It includes different strategies of coping, orientation and decision-making which may help young people to deal with these unknowns and unpredictability in order to keep up their resources and strengthen their resilience in context of uncertainty.

It should be utterly refused to use the methods of career guidance that intend to make the young person fit for a world of work. Our focus should rather be on helping young people to find their own way in the new world of work and to find out their strengths.

Among the most urgent tasks is how to address emotional and social needs of youth (Šapale et al., 2021). Methods and interventions based on the PERMA.teach model, presented on the Cross-Border Seminar in Riga, provide a possible strategy of coping, orientation and decision-making.

The Science of Flourishing

Modern decision-making theories freely admit that an individual builds a subjective career, that is, a story about their working life. The idea of an essential self, defined by a list of properties, served career counselling well during the second half of the 20th century. But no longer.

What’s needed now is: Effective strategies in

• orientation
• decision-making and
• coping

The objectives of the PERMA.teach model are to integrate evidence-based interventions and methods from positive psychology into (school) life across subjects and to introduce well-being rituals/habits that support the flourishing of ALL and strengthen psychosocial health.

The founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, selected five components that people pursue because they are intrinsically motivating and they contribute to wellbeing.

These five elements or components (PERMA; Seligman, 2012) are

1. Positive emotions

Positive emotions are a prime indicator of flourishing, they can be cultivated or learned to improve wellbeing (Fredrickson, 2001).

2. Engagement

Flow, or this concept of engagement, occurs when the perfect combination of challenge and skill/strength is found (Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989).

3. Relationships

Relationships are included in the model based on the idea that humans are inherently social creatures (Seligman, 2012).

4. Meaning

A sense of meaning is guided by personal values, and people who report having purpose in life live longer and have greater life satisfaction and fewer health problems (Kashdan et al., 2009).

5. Accomplishment

Flourishing and wellbeing come when accomplishment is tied to striving toward things with an internal motivation or working toward something just for the sake of the pursuit and improvement (Quinn, 2018).

Together they form the acronym PERMA. The acronym PERMA captures five central elements of human flourishing, each independently measured and enhanced.

Research has shown significant positive associations between each of the PERMA components and physical health, vitality, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and commitment within organizations (Kern, Waters, Alder, & White, 2014).

Thus, the PERMA-model by Seligman (2012) was further developed to PERMA.teach model by the Initiative for Teaching Entrepreneurship and the University College of Teacher Education in Vienna/Krems, Austria.

The PERMA.teach model aims to establish PERMA in schools as a principle of PERMAnent teaching and learning and an attitude to encourage and empower all stakeholders (teachers, children and their families) to take responsibility for well-being - for themselves and others.

The vehicle for this is the PERMA-hand, which reminds us to include PERMA in every subject and context. The concept of PERMA.teach is not fixed to any single lesson, but should be understood as an interdisciplinary theme to empower young people.

 

Perma.teach is like supercharging your well-being and happiness. It’s like flourishing. Flourishing is a loaded word, but in short, it means having a lot of social, mental and emotional well-being.

Many activities can be used to systematically increase positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement (PERMA). The good thing is that the areas of PERMA can be mutually exclusive, but in most ways, they are not. For example, by using mindfulness exercises to increase engagement, one will probably also experience more positive emotion and meaning in life.

In order to prepare young people for a working world 4.0 that is characterized by new working models, new technological trends and tools, and agile processes, they need to acquire important life skills and competencies in order not to become one of the groups of well-known NEETs. To reduce the number of NEEts is not that simple but here are some points to remember:

• skill young people in career management
• maintain their resources and
• strengthen their resilience in context of uncertainty

The Perma.teach model demonstrates one way to achieve these needs. The practice of the principle of flourishing is not limited to the school system. For people of all ages it seems relevant to be able to move flexibly in a dynamic working world and to be able to access one's personal strengths.

To conclude, it is important to stress that young people need to be supported in the process of career education but the current levels of uncertainty around future employment prospects mean it is difficult to decide which is the most effective orientation and coping strategy.

However, as most career counsellors recognize, many individuals need to be prepared properly for the future of work. In that sense effective strategies of coping and decision-making have to be provided in order to help young people to deal with these unpredictable prospects. This is why a consideration of this situation should lead to more effective career guidance.

About this article

This article was written in the context of the Euroguidance Cross Border Seminar 2022  Hope in time of uncertainty- Riga, Latvia 

References/Resources/Websites

Csikszentmihalyi, M., & LeFevre, J. (1989) Optimal experience in work and leisure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(5), 815–822.

Kashdan, T. B., Mishra, A., Breen, W. E., & Froh, J. J. (2009). Gender differences in gratitude: Examining appraisals, narratives, the willingness to express emotions and changes in psychological needs. Journal of Personality, 77(3), 691–730.

Kern, M., Waters, L., Alder, A., & White, M. (2014). Assessing employee wellbeing in schools using a multifaceted approach: Associations with physical health, life satisfaction and professional thriving. Psychology, 5(6), 500–513.

Quinn, A. (2018). Theory of well-being: Elements and interventions. GoodTherapy Blog. Retrieved from https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/theory-of-well-being-elements-interven…

Šapale, S., Iliško, D., Badjanova, J. (2021). Sustainable Career Guidance During the Pandemic: Building Pathways into a “New Normal”. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, vol.12, no., 140-150.

Seligman, M. E. (2013). Building the state of well-being: A strategy for South Australia. Government of South Australia.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2012). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Atria Paperback.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish. New York, NY: Free Press.

https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/Themen/schule/schulpraxis/ba/bo.html

https://www.ifte.at/

http://www.permateach.at

https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/#home