Last post......

Can't really believe that this is the last post! Initially I was sceptical about the blog page, but I have found it to be extremley helpful and it has helped me to become more of a reflective student.

I'm sure I'm in the same boat as a lot of people when I say that I'm not sure where I'll be working yet. Ideally, I would love to set up on my own in the community and feel like I was really making a difference....something like 'Adult community link' or the mobile bus unit, rapid response service, which was a great idea! It's just difficult to do these things without the financial backing or security.

Anyway, as many of you know I went for an 'interview' with a University Careers Service this past week. It was a two stage process and initally there were wanting us to simply come in, do a 5 min pitch, answer questions on it and then leave! After the process I reflected on what had happened and what kind of people they were looking for as careers advisers. Obviously people with a lot of business accumen that can present and perform confidently....What about the 'careers advice part?' But that got me thinking, what does 'Careers advice' mean at an HE level these days? This is maybe something we haven't discussed so much on the course, that might have been useful.....Seems to me that the two key words for HE Careers services are 'employability' and 'enterprise'. If this is the case, then I would say that future students of the QCG course definitely need teaching/discussion/essay writing on these key terms.

Careers Guidance and Mental Health

Have just completed my final placement and discovered that I seemed to be reflecting on what I had experienced quite a lot, so thought I would share a few of my thoughts.....

The placement was a mental health charity aimed at helping people with mental health issues, who are ready for work, making those steps back into employment. I really didn't know much about mental health issues and found it very interesting. At least 1 in 4 people will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their lives. In fact, there was a piece on the lunch time news today highlighting that a lot more men are suffering from depression, in this recession, due to unemployment and lower incomes.

On reflection, I really think it would be a good idea to have a 'mental health awareness' training session as part of our course as there definitely seems to be a link between satisfying employment and good mental health. As careers advisers of the future (!!) I strongly believe that we are going to come accross people with mental health issues in all areas of careers advice work and therefore it would be good for us to have an understanding and sensitivity of their particular needs and concerns.