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In this article, we provide a balanced critique of Sen's Capability Approach (CA) with reference to its potential to inform career guidance theory and practice. There are varying understandings and interpretations of the CA. Some see capabilities as universal, whilst others favour a more relativist view. The CA is also vulnerable to misunderstanding. Critiques based on misunderstanding are easily dismissed, so our focus is on substantive conceptual and practical critiques. Three main challenges are explored: conceptual debates about the nature of freedom and justice; limitations arising from the disciplinary origins of the CA; and challenges in operationalising the CA.

This article provides an account of current public policy for career guidance in the Republic of Armenia. Brief background information is provided in terms of key geographical, political, social and economic facts about Armenia. Then, a more specific context is outlined with a brief overview of the education and skills system and of the labour market environment. Career guidance in Armenia needs to be understood in relation to recent public policy initiatives to introduce active labour market programmes. The scope of these programmes is outlined and a critique of current policy is provided. Finally, priorities for future development are considered.

Active labour market policies aim at supporting people entering and, importantly, remaining in the labour market. Initiatives to this end have often been characterised by a mixture of 'human capital' and 'work-first' approaches, although both have had a relatively limited effect on achieving job sustainability for those most distant from the labour market. This paper explores a distinctive approach to supporting job entry and sustainable employment that we have called 'career-first'. The career-first approach to labour activation draws on three separate traditions of thinking: labour market, career development, and the capability literatures. Common ground is found in these three perspectives so each complements the weaknesses of the others. A career-first approach may be able to help deliver benefits to the individual, their family, and the wider society.

Youth unemployment can be understood as a public health risk. This paper explores the multi-disciplinary literature in this field, and its relevance to support for NEET (not in education, employment or training) young people. Unemployment may have a scarring effect on health, with lifelong consequences for individuals and for society. To the extent that illness has social causation, it may potentially have social remedies. Evidence for the effectiveness of mental health prevention with young people is limited, but recent research suggests that moving people on from unemployment leads to health improvements. Schools, colleges, training providers, and the welfare benefits system all have a role to play in reducing the impact of unemployment. Career guidance services are particularly well placed to reach potentially vulnerable young people.

In the UK, the concept of employability is influential in current conceptualizations of career development. It is an example of a discourse underpinned by faith in individual transformation as a response to unstable labour markets, a position that is not unproblematic when structural factors are taken into account. This article introduces an alternative perspective, the capability approach, to encourage debate about its value, and to begin to outline what it means for career counselling and development practice. An overview of the capability approach is provided, and the resonance between the concerns of the capability approach and those of career development practitioners will be highlighted. Key difficulties in applying the approach are identified before implications of the capability approach for practice are considered.

This qualitative study focuses on the impact of a supportive 12-week programme intended to empower young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) to pursue life-career goals of their own choosing. The programme is viewed through the conceptual lens of the Capability Approach of Amartya Sen, an approach to social justice that stresses the power to make and implement lifestyle choices. Fourteen young people who attended the Prince's Trust team programme were interviewed. Their accounts of their experience of the programme were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Participants found the programme to be a positive confidence-building experience, and it enabled them to deploy their existing resources in pursuit of a personally meaningful goal.

Positive psychology has been an influential movement within psychology in the early years of the twenty-first century. It is now timely to assess the value of its contribution to career education and guidance. This paper provides a critique of this perspective. Positive psychology can enrich approaches to career development. It can provide a fertile source of concepts and an empirical basis for some elements of practice. However, the application of approaches derived from positive psychology is problematic if it neglects the socioeconomic context in which careers are lived and experienced, or if claims made for its efficacy cannot be supported by the evidence base.

Drawing upon influencing factors in public organizations' performance, this paper systematizes organizational culture and strategic management factors to improve school management. The team conducted a survey with 407 principals from public schools in Brazil, along with a factorial analysis to explore the cultural and strategic management factors. The results show two factors influencing school management, technical and political. More specifically, six factors influence the process, such as planning, participation, citizen formation, innovative practices, pedagogical practices, and community participation. The conclusion points out factors and establishes elements to provide a guide for public organizations toward improved management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amartya Sen's capability approach characterizes an individual's well-being in terms of what they are able to be, and what they are able to do. This framework for thinking has many commonalities with the core ideas in career guidance. Sen's approach is abstract and not in itself a complete or explanatory theory, but a case can be made that the capability approach has something to offer career theory when combined with a life-career developmental approach. It may also suggest ways of working that are consistent with educational (human capital) approaches to development in emerging economies.

Structural explanations of career choice and development are well established. Socioeconomic inequality represents a powerful factor shaping career trajectories and economic outcomes achieved by individuals. However, a robust and growing body of evidence demonstrates a strong link between socioeconomic inequality and health outcomes. Work is a key factor explaining differences in income and lifestyle. It seems unavoidable that inequality in careers has profound consequences for health and well-being, but this relationship is largely ignored by career scholars. Some implications of health inequality for career guidance interventions are suggested.

Career guidance may have the potential to promote public health by contributing positively to both the prevention of mental health conditions and to population level well-being. The policy implications of this possibility have received little attention. Career guidance agencies are well placed to reach key target groups. Producing persuasive evidence to support claims of health outcomes from guidance is problematic. Although rare, there are some studies of health impacts from employment related interventions, suggesting it is not impossible to generate such evidence. There is a need to develop an evidence base addressing well-being outcomes which may require adopting health-style research methods. There is also a need to open a dialogue with policy makers concerning the potential for career guidance to contribute to public mental health.

The potential for career guidance to impact on well-being has received insufficient attention in the UK. There are both conceptual and empirical reasons to expect that the impacts may be positive, but a lack of evidence directly testing this proposition. Career guidance has commonalities with therapeutic counselling suggesting analogous effects, and it promotes positive engagement in work and learning, which may be associated with health benefits. There are implications for services in reconciling health and employment objectives. However, the promotion of well-being need not imply quasi-clinical ways of working. A call is made for more research and debate in the career guidance community as to the extent and implications of the potentially important relationship between career guidance and well-being.

Examines 22 case studies of schools in four North American school districts to assess process and outcomes of school-based-management reforms, guided by a theoretical model. Schools exhibited positive changes in two areas: decision-making processes and school culture. Strategic and operational reforms, individual behavior, and school quality were less likely to undergo positive change. SBM has potential for improving schools. (35 references) (MLH)