Webinar number 8: Career guidance for all?

Presenters: Dr Yelda Devlet Karapinar, David Savard & Prof. Fusun Akkok

Presentation slides are available upon request : Email – [email protected]

Career guidance is designed to support individuals as they learn about themselves and their place in the world. This complex process is made that much more difficult when supporting members of marginalised communities: e.g. migrants, ethnic minorities, low-skilled workers, those not in education, employment or training (NEET), or people engaged in new forms of work (platform work, gig workers and the self-employed) (ETF, 2020). Moreover, career guidance supports the creation of a better society with dignity, livelihood and respect underpinning both social integration and cohesion.

This webinar will:

• Focus on a range of career guidance interventions that support migrants to identify good and interesting policies and practices. It will draw on examples from Turkey and specialist work with Syrian refugees and migrants.
• Discuss multi-cultural counselling and guidance support that can be embedded in local communities.
• Consider key factors associated with labour market integration and careers/employability capacity building and the implications for policy and practice.

Dr Yelda Devlet Karapinar, has over fifteen years’ experience in diverse thematic areas of migration in the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Turkey. Her research and development work includes: labour migration, human development, youth employment, counter trafficking, delivery of social services for vulnerable groups and migration issues. She is currently acting as Head of Labour Mobility and Human Development Unit and Government Liaison Officer for IOM Turkey.

David Savard is a former High School history teacher who has worked for the IOM since 1999 in the Balkans, Iraq, Pakistan, Jordan, Washington, DC and Cuba, prior to assuming the post of Emergency Coordinator in Ankara. Born and raised in Chicago, he is passionate about the importance of employment as more than a ‘paycheck’ e.g. dignity, respect and making a place in local communities are vital.

Prof. Fusun Akkok has more than 40 years of academic and practical experience in guidance and counselling. She has carried teaching and research work in the field of guidance, career guidance, parent counselling, teacher training and parental involvement in education and career guidance. She is a prolific writer, researcher and policy adviser in Turkey. She is an international expert on lifelong guidance issues and works for international organisations such as: the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the European Training Foundation and World Bank.