Religion/belief and non-belief

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career National Careers Service

I've created a Word Cloud based on the Belief in a Career project page:

 

http://worditout.com/word-cloud/452425

I've found it a good way to reflect on the project: the challenges we faced and also the successes. A great experience.

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career - National Careers Service

I've been getting the resources together for the dissemination event next week. I had a very reassuring telephone discussion with Julie Sharma from Leicester College on how our projects will work together (with Pitra from Newcastle College) so that Religion, Belief and Non-Belief gets the focus it deserves.

My conclusion after working on this protected characteristic is that faith/no faith really does impact on career decision making and if we as advisers don't acknowledge that, we are really doing our customers a disservice.

I do believe that the learning journey we have been on would be just as relevant to educators and other professionals so please, do come and speak to me at the dissemination events!

You also don't want to miss Julie's project 'All For One and One For All' and Pitra's 'Canny Faces of Newcastle'.

P.S. Many thanks to Pitra for lending me a display board for next week!

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career - National Careers Service

I had a fascinating discussion with a National Careers Adviser based in South London who identifies himself as a Christian.

He told me:

'My belief in the Bible and in God does have an impact on the way I deliver the service because I believe in going the extra mile and just really trying as much as possible to give the clients the best. I put myself in their shoes because that's what God would expect of me.'

He then told me about his experiences advising customers of various faiths including a Muslim who refused to apply for a 24+ Adult Learning Loan because it went against his faith. The adviser said to me:

'I found that very intriguing but I respected him because he wouldn't compromise his faith.'

The adviser gave another interesting example of a customer who wanted to be a medium. He said:

'I thought ok, so what does it take to be a medium? She was educating me. She worked under a medium in another country- I can't talk her out of it as that's what she wants to do. It's just understanding that people have a faith and respecting that.'

He added:

'I couldn't find any medium courses!'

I have written up our discussion and it will be presented alongside other case studies in our adviser guide. I have really enjoyed getting different perspectives from advisers, customers and employers on this rich topic.

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career - National Careers Service

This has been a really great week for me. I attended the fbfedefinition/AFANdefinition London FEdefinition Faith Forum on Tuesday and was given a slot to discuss our project 'Belief in a Career'. It was very helpful to reflect on the project and what has been discovered and learnt.

I explained that using legal cases looking at religion/belief and employment as a starting point for discussions with careers advisers had worked well. For example, how would we advise a customer who wants to wear a long headscarf but is worried that it will be seen as a trip hazard when working in a nursery? This question was based on a real case which the employee lost as she wasn't prepared to wear a shorter headscarf at work. It was agreed in court that in this case the safety of the children and staff needed to be protected above the employee's wish to wear a longer headscarf. Looking at cases has helped our advisers see the complexity of issues but also the importance of dialogue in order to educate customers, employers and ourselves as professionals. We want to empower our customers so they feel they can express their requirements, make adjustments and also demonstrate the benefits of their faith in the workplace, e.g. charity work; desire to do good deeds; teaching skills etc.

The project has also helped me to reflect on how we train our advisers. For example, when looking at career theories we tend to focus on psychological approaches based on Western academic thought. I will now include other approaches that have also been considered as important in the career decision making process, for example: prayer and meditation. I think having this awareness will make our advisers more sensitive to customers' needs and more confident to support them.

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career - National Careers Service

Project update. Our Equalitydefinition Champions - Fatma Emin and Leroy Kraku are interviewing NCS customers to find out their views on religion, belief and their careers. When asked whether she thought the NCS project 'Belief in a Career' was a good idea, one customer who is a Christian said: 'I think it's an excellent idea and should have been looked into ages ago, because advisers will have more of an understanding of someone as a person and their client will feel more valued as an individual'.

We will include the case studies in our training guide for advisers as they present an authentic customer focused perspective on the importance of faith in their lives. We will use them as discussion points that will help advisers reflect on the support customers with a faith may need when applying for learning, training and work.

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career - National Careers Service

I met up with consultant Amanda Pavon-Lopez this Monday to discuss the careers adviser guide she is going to write for our project. She was extremely enthusiastic about the project and had lots of ideas and useful insights.  

The key areas we are aiming to cover in the guide are:

Catina's picture

Facilitating Dialogue on Faith and Sexuality in Further Education: Resource Pack (EDI 3 project)

Resource content
Type: 
Document
Author: 
NUS
Publisher: 
LSIS
Place: 
Coventry
Year: 
2012
Month: 
July
Day: 
30

This resource pack was published in 2012, as part of the National Union of Students UK (NUS): Student-led dialogue on LGBT and Faith (Skills Funding Agency/LSIS EDI 3 project). The overall aim of the initiative was to support staff and learners to tackle real and perceived tensions between lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equalities, and religion and belief equalities, in FEdefinition colleges. The project focused on dialogue as a means to increase and improve inter-personal communication between learners relating to the subject of faith and sexuality. The project provided training and offered support in running college-based activities. It also provided this resource pack of training materials and background information on the dialogue based approach for staff and learners to foster good relations and build mutually respectful relationships.

The impact of the project are being monitored through the ‘Kirkpatrick Learning Evaluation Model’. The overall impact is a medium-long term measure and was not felt within the six month timeframe of this project.

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career

We delivered the second Belief in a Career workshop on Monday to 14 National Careers Service advisers. Some very stimulating and at times, challenging discussions. For example, one adviser spoke of her experience of a customer who refused to shake her hand because of his faith. She was upset by the experience and also wondered how she could advise the customer about etiquette at job interviews where handshaking is often a common greeting? This led to a discussion about various strategies advisers and customers could use, e.g. researching employers before going to interview, educating employers about possible religion/belief-based needs and supporting customers in explaining their requirements to avoid embarassment and misinterpretation.

 

I also had a meeting today with one of the Belief in a Career Champions, Fatma Emin who works in Bromley-By-Bow. She has agreed to interview 3 individuals: a female Muslim ESOLdefinition Tutor, an NCS customer who is Christian and a local employer to discuss their experiences regarding religion, belief, non belief and the workplace. She will write up the interviews so they can used as case studies in our Belief in a Career guide. Hearing the voices of our customers - both those in work and job-seeking, plus hearing the employer perspective will enrich our project - so many thanks to Fatma!

Catina's picture

Religion and Belief in Adult Learning: Learner Views

Resource content
Type: 
Online resource
Publisher: 
Babcock Research
Year: 
2012
Month: 
October

This research was commissioned by the Skills Funding Agency. The report will be reviewed soon as part of the RRCrowd project. Meanwhile, why not check out the  3 EDIFdefinition projects that are specifically addressing the recommendations in this report at:  http://www.equalitiestoolkit.com/content/learner-views-religion-and-belief

Michaela Moher's picture

Belief in a Career

We ran the first 'Belief in a Career' workshop for London-based National Careers Service advisers on Friday 31 January 2014. 11 advisers attended and we spent the morning discussing how we can:
•Provide an inclusive interview environment that demonstrates a commitment to supporting customers with religious or non-religious beliefs
•Embed practical support for customers with religious or non-religious beliefs so that they can make informed career decisions
•Improve customers’ awareness of how to deal with discrimination and increase knowledge of support and career pathways for those with religious or non-religious beliefs
We had some fascinating discussions. For example, one adviser had a customer who was a vet but had recently converted to Buddhism. He now felt his beliefs were in conflict with his occupation so he was now looking for a career change. We also looked at career decision making strategies and how prayer and meditation are used but may not be discussed in the career interview due to the customer not being sure what an adviser's reaction might be. We also looked at The Equalitydefinition Act 2010 and how religion, belief and non-belief are defined legally and what are customers' rights.
I look forward to running the next workshop on Monday 17 February 2014.