Career Development as Freedom

This lecture explores the Capability Approach and its potential to provide a way of thinking about career development that links theory, practice, and policy.

Considering theory first, the Capability Approach provides a broad-brush way of looking at how people’s careers are going. It shows how they can be supported to take steps towards doing what they want to do, being what they want to be, and leading a life that they have reason to value. 

Turning next to practice, the Capability Approach can describe how pragmatic guidance helps people to recognise and build on their strengths, broaden their options, and make choices aligned with their values. The key role of autonomy and freedom in ethical practice will be highlighted. 

Finally, it will explore the potential for the Capability Approach to inform how the career development profession engages with public policy in a way that is attuned to the politics of freedom, and to the new economics of the 21st Century.