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This article reports the findings from a phenomenographic investigation into career experts' conceptions of innovation in career development. The results show that conceptions of innovation in career development varied from (1) initiating service, (2) developing demographic-based programmes, (3) professionalising the sector to (4) exploiting cross-sectoral synergies. The findings give us a more profound understanding of critical aspects that may have an important role in improving innovation in career development.

This study contends that phenomenography offers both a useful research method and practical tools for developing education and training for career practitioners. After introducing the basic principles of phenomenography, the study reviews previous research on its potential in developing pedagogical practices. It explores how the phenomenographic findings were utilized to design an online skills training programme for career practitioners. The study finds that phenomenographic research serves three practical pedagogical purposes: (1) revealing how learners understand certain concepts or phenomena, (2) elucidating how these understandings differ; and (3) identifying critical aspects in helping learners to widen and deepen their understanding.

We examine the role of counselors and other practitioners in delivering career interventions using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Current benefits and limitations of ICT use provide the basis for recommendations. Potential benefits of increased ICT engagement include cost-effectiveness and improved access to resources and support. Potential limitations include poor assessment and information quality, limited practitioner support when needed, problems with distance intervention and social media, confidentiality of client records, inequality of access, inadequate competencies, and poor implementation. Specific practitioner roles are identified, and those related to social media are elaborated. Implications for theory, research, training, and policy are provided.

This article reports the findings from a phenomenographic investigation into guidance counselors' conceptions of career management skills (CMS). The results show that CMS was conceived as (a) information-based knowledge, (b) personal skills development, (c) interpersonal skills development, and (d) autonomous application of skills. The differences appeared along six dimensions of variation that included awareness of CMS, emphasis, promotion of CMS, teaching practice, assessment, and attitude. The findings give us a more profound understanding of critical aspects that may have an important role in the development of individual's CMS.

This article reports on a phenomenographic investigation into practitioners' conceptions of ethical practice in social networking in career services. The results show that ethical practice was conceived as stemming from: (1) an information orientation, (2) a networking orientation, (3) an educational orientation, and (4) a collaborative orientation. Differences appeared along six dimensions including: approach, activities, level of usage, perception, strategy and ethical principles. The findings give us a more profound understanding of critical aspects that may have an important role in relation to further developments and the successful implementation of existing and emerging technologies in the career service sector.

This article aims to identify different ways of using mobile devices in students' learning in higher education. This qualitative research presents the findings from a phenomenographic research of students' conceptions of mobile learning (m-learning) in higher education. A cohort of 16 students from four universities of Bangladesh took part in semi-structured interviews to explore their in-depth understandings and experiences of m-learning. The findings indicate that university students perceived five qualitatively different ways of using mobile devices in their learning: a medium for communication; a medium for management of learning materials; a tool for effective learning; a means for collaborative learning; and a means for development of new ideas. The findings of this research demonstrate students' pedagogical understanding of using mobile devices in higher education. The outcomes of this research could play a crucial role in informing students on how they can use their mobile devices for learning purposes and providing educators with empirical evidence on students' pedagogical practices of using mobile devices in other developing and more developed countries in the world.

This article reports the findings from a phenomenographic investigation into career development experts' conceptions of challenges involved in the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) in career services. The results show that these challenges varied from (1) inadequate access to ICT, (2) inadequate access to information, and (3) inadequate skills and competencies, to (4) inadequate integration. These findings provide a deeper understanding of critical aspects that may have an important role in the further development and successful implementation of existing and emerging technologies within the guidance service sector.

This paper examines phenomenography as a viable qualitative approach in guidance and counselling research. A phenomenographic study maps the qualitatively different ways in which people experience a specific phenomenon and helps researchers to describe the aspects that make one way of experiencing a certain phenomenon qualitatively distinct from another. This paper presents an overview of phenomenographic research, encompassing theoretical, methodological and practical considerations. The application of this approach in guidance and counselling studies is illustrated with examples.

This article reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network representatives' conceptions of the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) related to national lifelong guidance policies. The role of ICT in relation to national lifelong guidance policies was conceived as (1) unexploited, (2) emerging, (3) acknowledged but fragmented, and (4) strategic. The hierarchical structure of the findings may serve as a tool to enable policy makers and other stakeholders to deepen their understanding of critical aspects that may have an important role in relation to further developments and the successful implementation of existing and emerging technologies in the guidance service sector.

This article reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into career practitioners' understanding of competency for social media in career services. Sixteen Danish and Finnish practitioners with experience using social media in career services were interviewed in focus groups. Competency for social media in career services was conceived as (i) an ability to use social media for delivering information, (ii) an ability to use social media for delivering career services, (iii) an ability to utilise social media for collaborative career exploration and (iv) an ability to utilise social media for co-careering. The findings can be used to develop pre-service and in-service training of career practitioners and support for the deepening of their competency, using the critical aspects that were identified.

Much progress has been made in integrating information and communications technology (ICT) into careers practice, but there is still room for improvement. An international lens is adopted to examine some key elements that contribute to the successful integration of ICT into careers practice. We start by exploring the role of policy, using the UK as a case study. Next, the perceptions that Finnish career practitioners have of ICT are reviewed using research findings into the different ways they think about social media and its purpose in career services. Finally, lessons learned from the design and integration of online services within career development programming in Canada are discussed that ensure accessibility both to practitioners and their clients.

This article reports the outcomes of a study, undertaken from a phenomenographic perspective, of career practitioners' conceptions of social media usage in career services. Fifteen Finnish career practitioners--representing comprehensive, secondary and higher education as well as public employment services--were interviewed in focus groups. The analysis of the interview data revealed five distinct descriptive categories reflecting the career practitioners' conceptions of social media's use in career services. Social media in career services was conceived as (1) unnecessary, (2) dispensable, (3) a possibility, (4) desirable and (5) indispensable. The results indicated associations between career practitioners' conceptions and their practice. Moreover, the critical aspects identified in this study can be used to support the career practitioners' understanding of new technologies in career services.

The increasing use of technology is placing new demands on career guidance practitioners. This article examines what changes, if any, have occurred in the perceptions of guidance practitioners regarding their role and the role of the internet in meeting guidance goals and delivering career guidance services. The data were collected in focus groups in 2001-2002 and a follow-up study in 2010. A total of seven focus groups were held. The data were analysed using combined methods. The results indicated that practitioners now observe that the need for differentiated service delivery modes is more explicit due to varied levels of readiness in decision-making and ICT literacy. (Contains 1 table.)