Career adaptability and attitudes to low-skilled work by individuals with few qualifications: ‘getting by’, ‘getting on’ or ‘going nowhere’

ABSTRACT

Individuals who pass through low-skilled work in their careers can represent this phase as showing strength of character as obstacles are overcome. However, continuing to work in low-skilled employment has so many negative consequences that finding ways to assist those individuals’ career development is an important challenge for guidance policy and practice. The progress, or lack thereof, by individuals from low-skilled employment in seven European countries is examined in the light of ideas about career adaptability. Do individuals differ in how they envisage the future (concern); the extent to which they take responsibility for their own development (control); explore visions of possible future selves (curiosity); and believe in their ability to succeed (confidence) [Savickas, M. L., & Porfeli, E. J. (2012). Career adapt-abilities scale: Construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80, 661–673]?

KEYWORDS:

• Career adaptability
• low-skilled work
• career development
• narrative approaches
• strategic career
• learning biographies

ORCID

Alan Brown http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1936-6315

Notes on contributors

Alan Brown is a Professorial Fellow at the Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick. His current research, which has a strong international orientation, focuses mainly upon changing occupational identities, continuing vocational training, developing adaptability in the labour market, and supporting knowledge sharing and development and learning in professional communities of practice.