Religion/belief and non-belief
Belief in a Career National Careers Service
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Thu 24-Jul-2014 16:12I'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.
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Belief in a Career - National Careers Service
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Thu 19-Jun-2014 15:14I'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!
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Belief in a Career - National Careers Service
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Fri 30-May-2014 16:21I 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.
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Belief in a Career - National Careers Service
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Thu 15-May-2014 16:31This 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.
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Belief in a Career - National Careers Service
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Fri 11-Apr-2014 12:07Project 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.
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Belief in a Career - National Careers Service
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Wed 26-Feb-2014 16:23I 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:
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Facilitating Dialogue on Faith and Sexuality in Further Education: Resource Pack (EDI 3 project)
Submitted by Catina on Sat 22-Feb-2014 19:30This 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.
Belief in a Career
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Wed 19-Feb-2014 17:28We 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!
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Religion and Belief in Adult Learning: Learner Views
Submitted by Catina on Mon 17-Feb-2014 13:21This 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
Belief in a Career
Submitted by Michaela Moher on Tue 11-Feb-2014 9:27- Michaela Moher's blog
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