Globalisation: Implications for Careers and Career Guidance

Abstract

Increasing globalisation presents both opportunities and challenges for the individual, and career practitioners must remain alert to these developments and their impact on careers. In this chapter we provide an overview of the important forces affecting careers in a globalised economy. For so-called global careerists, this new boundaryless world increases opportunities. However, for most, global labour mobility, outsourcing, technological advances, and automation have fuelled fears about job insecurity and wages growth, with unskilled and less well educated workers feeling most at risk of job displacement and unemployment. While the evidence reviewed suggests that there will be job growth rather than job loss, many current occupations will disappear, displacing workers; yet, other jobs will emerge. Jobs will increasingly require “twenty-first century” skills, such as creativity, adaptability, digital competence, and problem solving, which many workers currently lack. In addition, workers will face more job and career changes across their lifespan, meaning that access to lifelong learning and career guidance will be increasingly important for retraining and redeployment. A move away from career practitioners trying to fit clients to existing jobs and toward assisting them to develop adaptable twenty-first century skills will be critical to successful career guidance in a global world.