1. Bæredygtig
karrierevejledning og
green guidance
- learning to live with and
“not of” the world

2. What am I going to share with you:
• The sustainability crisis and people’s discouragement - career guidance is the
answer
• Green Guidance and a move towards Sustainable Career Guidance – living
”with” the world, not ”of ” the world
• Ideas for sustainable career guidance and career education
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Miriam Dimsits, Alt om karriere, miriam@altomkarriere.dk 2

3. Your presenter….
• Miriam Dimists, Consultant in
Career Guidance, Founder EAC
• External lecturer, Danish School
of Education, Aarhus University
• Career guidance programmes,
train-the-trainer, expert and
collegial supervision, strategic
advisor to careers leaders and
managers e.g. on sustainability and
career guidance
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4. What future could we hope for?
It does not look too good - or
maybe it hasn’t looked better?
From crisis to potential!
Only a year ago.......The biggest challenge
in solving the climate/sustainability crisis
 Gjerris: To make people understand
that with power over nature follows
great responsibilty
 Safran Foer: We have not been able to
tell captivating stories that have
engaged us or inspired our ethical
feelings toward nature and planet.
 Our main preoccupation will always
be: ”What’s for lunch or dinner!”
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5. Global experience of
interconnectedness
• Giordano: ”We are forced to recognize
that we are insolubly connected to all
people, and that our choices does not
only concern ourselves. In the age of
contagion we are one organism” (How
contagion works, 2020)
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6. Can career guidance solve the climate
crisis and instill people feelings of hope
and encouragement?
Well, it was actually invented to help
people navigate and solve problems
in a modern globalized society!
(Mcleoud 2013)
Frank Parsons: Adressing
the ”new societal
problems” through career
guidance, e.g.
immigration, poverty,
inequality in education…
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7. Career guidance practitioners as social
architects
– ”the lubricant of society”
(A.G. Watts)
Well, we need professionals and experts
to work towards solving it!
Without hope, there is no action, just
drop out!
We need to build hope for both the
younger and older generations.
(Vocational hope – component in goal
setting/outcome expectations!) (Brown
2010)
”Hey, that is
actually what we
do best!”
”Let’s get
started! How
should we do
it?”
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8. Green guidance – a way
forward
• Professor Peter Plant, University of South
Eastern Norway: Green guidance- a guidance
approach that in its’ delivery and content
seeks to benefit the environment
• ”Which jobs are green or can work in green
ways?”
• Plant launched his idea in 1996…
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9. Green guidance in practice
 To create attention to the
ecological effects of a specific
vocational choices
 Being active in creating education
programmes and internships that
contribute positively to ecology and
climate
 That career guidance should have
green quality standards – and be
evaluated accordingly from green
measures
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10. Green guidance -
green careers
• A lawyer working with
environmental law
• A hairdresser working with
environmentally friendly
products
• A construction worker
working with environmentally
friendly materials
• A green keeper making
sustainable gardening in
cities
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11. From green to sustainability
- a concept that has moved
center stage!
Due to policy – SDG in 2015
Due to a young generation
growing up with this ‘information
campaign’ in formative years
Due to experiences and increased
awareness of changing climate,
inequality, poverty around the
globe
Could we install sustainability in
our guidance ethos – how could
that work?
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12. Sustainable Career Guidance –
Careers in a broader scope (not
just green…)
• In 1987 the UN Commision: Our common Future –
”The Brundtland Report”
“development which meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”
• Its’ about people - intergenerational solidarity
• Living “with” the world not “of” the world
• A categorical imperative – an ethics of duty
• And we need people to do this, so why not
through work and peoples’ careers!
Career
=
Sustainable career guidance
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13. Just focussing
on
”planet/nature
ressources”…
An ontological
decoction/afkobling/fejlslutning
Rethinking of capitalism: The triple
bottomline, John Elkington, Business
Consultant/advisor
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14. Sustainable career
guidance/bæredygtig
karrierevejledning
- an expansion of the ‘green guidance’ -
concept
• Just to focus on ”green” – the risk of
maintaining an anthropocene worldview ( I
am a human being – over there is
nature/nature is my ressource)
• ”Sustainable” career guidance underlines
the interconnectedness of human beings,
nature, culture, economy, labor market
 The world is not ours – we are a part
of it! We need to live ”with” nature,
not ”of” nature (Gjerris 2019)
 So how do we co-exist or exist with
each other in a sustainable way?
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15. Challenges
stereotypes
Tasks to be solved
for sustainable
living…
Where can career guidance
contribute?
On a societal, and institutional
level…
Provides recognition, acces,
support, perspectives Challenges
stereotypes
Challenges
stereotypes
Advocacy for low skilled
workers – e.g. acces to
education and career guidance
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16. Tasks to be solved….
How can career guidance
contribute on an individual
level – in practice!
What do you see here?
I see careers! To achieve these goals
we need professionals to solve or
contribute to these goals
Idea for career education exercise -
You can’t be, what you can’t see!
Discuss and explore which jobs
and which education programmes
contribute to each of the goals (or
select some, and work with them)
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Miriam Dimsits, Alt om karriere, miriam@altomkarriere.dk 16

17. Tasks to be solved for sustainable careers and lives:
Hope, well being, self awareness
and empowerment
What do you see here?
I see interests, identity, communities, and
means of action (hope)!
Individual og collective guidance exercise:
 Who am I?
 How does the world work?
 Where do I fit into the world?
 How can I live with others?
 How do I go about changing the
world?
(Hooley 2015)
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18. Tasks to be solved
How can career guidance contribute to
innovation, entrepreneurship –
changing, inventing the future
Exercise:
1) Discuss your different worries, feelings of
injustice and indignation about society,
planet and people
2) Which jobs do we have to create to solve
these injustices?
3) Which creative inventions might solve this?
4) What kind of training do you need to make
this invention?
5) Which professionals will be able to solve
these problems?
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19. Bæredygtig karrierevejledning:
“career development which meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs”
1. What inspired you?
2. Where are the challenges?
3. How could you work with this in your
practice?
 Discuss in Breakout-rooms 4-5 personer:
Thank you so much for listening! Stay well and
safe
Miriam Dimsits, Alt om karriere, miriam@altomkarriere.dk 3/18/2021 19

20. References
Brewer, J.M. (1942). History of vocational guidance. New York, NY: Harper
Brown, Stephen D. (2010):Vocational Hope: A Key Factor in Drop-Out Prevention: https://www.ug.dk/flereomraader/videnscenter/vcartikler/temaer/vocational-hope-key-factor-drop-
out-prevention-steven-d-brown
Foer, Jonathan Safran (2019). We are the weather. Saving the planet begins at breakfast. Farrar Strauss and Giroux
Giordano, Paolo (2020). I smittens tid Vidnesbyrd fra pandemiens frontlinje. Klim
Gjerris M (2019). Upraktisk håndbog i lysegrønt håb. Bibelselskabet
Hooley, T. (2015). Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery: self-actualisation, social justice and the politics of career guidance. Derby: International Centre for Guidance Studies, University
of Derby
NICE Handbook for the Academic Training of Career Guidance and Counselling Professionals (2012), edited by C. Schiersmann, B.-J. Ertelt, J. Katsarov, R. Mulvey, H. Reid & P. Weber.
Heidelberg: Heidelberg University.
P Van Den Hazel, The role of youth in the climate change debate, European Journal of Public Health, Volume 29, Issue Supplement_4, November 2019, ckz185.158,
Plant, P. (1996). Economy & Ecology: Towards a Change of Paradigms in Careers Guidance. Paper at the IRTAC/BCSCA/CGCA International Conference on Counselling: Enhancing
Personal Issues in the Global Community, Vancouver, Canada, May 1996.
Plant, P. (2014): Green guidance. In Arulmani, G., Bakshi, A., Leong, F.T.L., and Watts, A.G. (Eds.) Handbook of Career Development. Springer.
UNORG (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E
UNWCED (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future - A/42/427 Annex - UN Documents: Gathering a body of global agreements. Hentet fra
http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm
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