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The [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic has led people to experience significant personal and professional challenges. Although many studies were carried out during the pandemic and in the short term, few of them have focused on medium-term impacts. This article raises awareness on the situation of vulnerable young people and discusses the role of contexts and psychological resources in mitigating the detrimental effects of this pandemic. Twenty-three young people aged 18 to 25 registered at a career center in France took part in a semistructured interview. Thematic content analysis reveals an impact on some psychological processes, leading to four types of coping strategies. It shows that biographical disruptions occur in three successive stages. The discussion refers to a career counseling intervention program with a focus on sustainability.

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The book aims to point the attention of professionals in adult education, vocational training, and human resources towards the importance of taking into account the competence development of adults in the world of work, through theoretical and practical approaches. The evolution of the world of work is described to help readers understand why people at work are approached through their competences. The main concepts and models that can be useful to develop reflexions and research on the topic of competences as well as connections between competence and professionalization processes are explained.

The book also addresses professional didactics, which is presented as a heuristic approach using activity analysis to translate observations made at the workplace into general concepts connected with competences. The main tools and methods of assessment are introduced and competence management and its links to career development are explored. One idea regarding the relationship between competence and adult education is that the growing importance of competences in adult education calls for an evolution of the adult training profession.

Excerpt from publisher's website.

Chapters: 1. Introduction / Valerie Cohen-Scali; 2. Changes in work and competences / Alain Kokosowski; 3. Professionalisation and the development of competences in education and training / Richard Wittorski; 4. The role of professional didactics in skills development for training and education professionals / Thierry Piot; 5. Competence evaluation processes in adult education / Valerie Cohen-Scali; 6. Competence management and adult education / Valerie Cohen-Scali; 7. Changes in vocational training and new models of competences for individuals / Alain Kokosowski. Show less

In France, trade union officers are former shop stewards who have chosen to work full-time for the union for several years. This research investigates the career transitions of former union officers who have returned to the labour market following extended experience with high-level responsibilities in the union. Semi-directed interviews were conducted with 23 subjects and were analysed using thematic content analyses. The results indicate the existence of different perceptions of the career change and four types of transitions that are dependent on the level of support provided by the union and individual expectations regarding new jobs.

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France has been a host country to immigrants from the Maghreb (Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco) for more than a century. This chapter focuses on the children of these migrants, most of whom were born in France and have French citizenship. And yet, as first or second generation citizens with a Maghrebi background, they nevertheless manifest particular patterns when it comes to school achievement and subsequent inclusion in the labour market, areas in which educational and occupational guidance play a mediating role. The chapter shows that this particular group experiences cultural and linguistic difficulties at school, as well as discrimination, resulting in socially inequitable outcomes. Educational and guidance policies and practices aimed at addressing and reducing such inequalities are described, noting, however, that such efforts have a paradoxical effect: by identifying this group as targets for specific and compensatory support, policies end up reinforcing stigmatisation processes. Students with a Maghrebi background are confronted with all sorts of difficulties throughout their years in education and training, starting from the first years of schooling onwards. Most end up unfavourably positioned when it comes to making a transition to the labour market, particularly given limited opportunities in a competitive environment. The ways guidance, as part of a broader range of strategic interventions, can be mobilised to address such a situation, are examined.

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