Professional Identity Transformation: Supporting Career And Employment Practitioners At A Distance (Vol 47, Pg 757, 2019)

The professional identity of career counselling and employment practitioners is somewhat fragile. Balancing tensions like meeting targets that exist around funding, whilst attending to the individual needs of the clients they serve, can prove challenging. Maintaining professionalism is increasingly also challenging for practitioners because they need to attend continually to their professional learning needs, ensuring familiarity with new theories, research and ways of working. This article draws on European research (2014-2018) that examined how career guidance counselling and employment practitioners can be supported at a distance using technology, to facilitate their professional identify transformation. Results from an international online learning course designed to support practitioners across Europe as part of this research are presented and the implications for practice discussed.