Career Development: Social Work, Counselling, Challenges, and Routes

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of career development, specifically focusing on the roles of social workers (particularly those working with single mothers from low-income families) and youth counselors. The essay delves into the nature of these professions, highlighting their responsibilities, such as improving the lives of vulnerable populations and assisting young people with emotional and social difficulties. It examines the challenges faced by these professionals, including lack of support structures, coordination issues, and evolving needs of young people. The essay further explores potential educational and practical routes into these careers, including relevant degree programs, internships, and required skills. It also analyzes the labor market for these professions, including employer expectations, job market trends, and the importance of skills like emotional intelligence, critical thinking, patience, and empathy. The USEM model of employability is discussed. The essay concludes by identifying areas for personal development and key actions individuals can take to advance their careers, such as pursuing additional education and certifications. The author emphasizes the importance of organizational and communication skills and the use of online resources to enhance professional knowledge.

Running head: CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Career Development
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Career Development refers to series of the activities that can aid in the process of the
development of the career of an individual (Gibson 2016). It helps in the management of the
career within the framework of the intra-organizational or the inter-organizational scenario. It
includes the training on the new skills that can help a person in moving to that of the higher
job responsibilities (Bush et al. 2018). It can be said to be related to goals along with the
objectives which has been set by a person. The career development can begin with the help of
the self-actualization and the self-assessment of the interests and the capabilities of a person.
Career development is related to personal and the professional growth of a person. Social
work can be defined as the profession that attends to the needs of vulnerable people in
society. It helps in alleviating condition of the people who are suffering in society on account
of social deprivation. A counsellor is an individual who provides advice to the people
regarding their personal problems. The counsellor gives the advice or provides the therapy
that can remove the misery from lives of the people. This essay talks about the nature and the
challenges in the professional position of the social worker and the youth counsellor. The
essay talks about professional routes that can help a person in gaining the entry to the chosen
profession. The essay elucidates on the labour market information pertaining to the career of
the social worker and that of youth counsellor. The essay discusses regarding areas for the
development and they key actions that can help in the development of career of a person.
The nature of the work of the social worker is to work with the young people along
with their families that can help in bringing about the improvement in the conditions of their
life. They are involved in making the best decisions pertaining to best course of the action for
the individuals along with their families. The social workers work in the alleviation of the
misery in the life of the single mothers that helps in lightening workload of these vulnerable
section of the population (Merriman 2015). They provide the single mothers with the
emotional support that helps them in coping with the element of the parenting. The children

2CAREER DEVELOPMENT
and the youth counsellor lends help to the people who experience the social along with the
emotional difficulties that helps them in getting a direction in life (Baldwin 2016). The youth
counsellors have the belief that the children along with the youth need the connection to the
family that can help them in maturing. I think that the challenges that are faced by the social
workers pertains to the fact that there exist few support structure that paves the path for the
staff burnout. Lack of the co-ordination poses the challenges for the social workers. It
interferes with their ability of extending the help to the single mothers coming from the lower
socio-economic background. The problems are faced by the youth counsellors on account of
the fact that they do not possess the skills that can help them in creating the dialogue with the
clients. It have been found that the young people in the present age are withdrawing within
the smaller social circles. The youth counsellor have to face the hindrances owing to the
changing nature of the young people in the modern age.
There are potential routes that can be undertaken that can help a person in entering the
profession of the social worker along with the youth counsellor. In my view, an individual
can obtain the bachelor’s degree in the social work that can help an individual in gaining
immense amount of knowledge in relation to the profession. It can help the students in
learning a great deal regarding the profession that can help them in evolving successful in
their profession. It can help the students in gaining the work experience and the classroom
training can help them in working within the framework of the real world settings. The
individuals can earn the master’s degree in social work that can help them in receiving the
advanced learning pertaining to social work (Knott and Scragg 2016). The individuals can
also take recourse to the specialized certifications that can help him in gathering the practical
knowledge pertaining to the social work. An individual who wants to become a youth
counsellor have to earn a degree in the area of the psychology. It can help them in becoming
strong in the verbal along with the written communication skills that can help them in

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attaining success in the profession. The individuals can also partake of the internship
programs that can help them in gaining the hands-on-experiences in relation to the realm of
the counselling (Tham 2017). It can provide the people with the opportunity of working with
various kinds of youth programs that can help the students in discovering the vital aspects in
relation to the world of the counselling.
The employers look for certain traits in the social worker along with the youth
counsellor that can help them in performing their job roles in the effective manner. In my
opinion, the employers look for the attribute of the emotional intelligence and critical
thinking in the event of recruiting the social workers. The social workers should have the
high emotional intelligence and they should have self-awareness that can help them in
reacting in a sensitive manner to the other people (Wagaman et al. 2015). The individuals in
the society can be said to be complex and the clients look for the help in relation to various
aspects of their lives. The faculty of the critical thinking is needed to solve the problem of the
clients (Baldwin 2016). The condition of the job market in Singapore provides ample
opportunities to the social worker that can help them in the process of their professional
development. I think that the career guidance is provided to the professionals that helps them
in excelling within the domains of their professional position. It have been found that social
service sector within Singapore would need 16,000 professionals by the end of the year 2019
(Straitstimes.com 2019). The number of the manpower needed for the carrying out of social
work would continue to grow that would be advantageous for the people who are looking for
a job in the sector of the social work. Role that is played by the social service professionals
would assume more importance over the passage of time in Singapore. The government of
Singapore have supported the skills development and built the capabilities that have helped in
meeting changing manpower needs.

4CAREER DEVELOPMENT
The employers in the event of recruiting the youth counsellor look for the attributes of
the patience along with the empathy that can help a person in dealing in a right manner with
the clients. I think that it can help them in building the right kind of relationship with the
clients which can aid them in solving the problem in the lives of the clients. The people in the
senior levels in the company think that the counsellors should develop the habit of the
reversible thinking that can help them in understanding the needs of the clients. The youth
counsellors should have the ability of communicating in an empathetic manner that can help
them in understanding the unique demands of the clients (Woo, Storlie and Baltrinic 2016). I
am of the opinion that the counsellors should have the faculty of the creativity that can help
them in communicating with the children of the various kinds of the age groups (Evans
2016). The economic growth rate of Singapore have slowed down and it has a detrimental
effect on the condition of the young people within Singapore. The unemployment rate among
the young graduates have been found to be low and it makes the young people feel stressed
that makes them take recourse to the services of a counsellor. The need of the children
counsellors have increased in Singapore as the children feel the stress of their studies
(Youngparents.com.sg 2019). The children suffer from various kinds of the mental health
disorders and so they take the help of valuable services of a children counsellor (Moro et al.
2016).
The USEM model of employability talks about the fact that employability is
influenced by the four components of understanding, skills, efficacy beliefs along with the
metacognition (Stoffers and Van der Heijden 2018). I have been able to gain the
understanding in relation to the social work with the help of my educational degree that can
help me in being successful in the professional position of the social worker. I have to
develop myself in the arena of organization along with the co-ordination that can help me in
attaining the success in the career (Peiser et al. 2018). The social workers have to deal with

5CAREER DEVELOPMENT
the problem of the busy schedules and hence they should know how to manage logistical
aspects in relation to a job. I have to improve myself in the area of organizational skills that
can help me in providing the meaningful service to the clients. I have to develop the ability of
the co-ordination that can help me in connecting the clients with services. I have to make the
improvements in the area of the listening on multiple levels that can help in addressing the
grievances of the clients in the right manner (Hannon 2016). The counsellor should have the
ability of listening that can help them in judging the clients in the right manner (Fellenz
2016). The clients come to the worker with the complicated issues and the counsellor should
excel in the art of the listening that can help them in lending support to the clients.
There are key actions that can be taken recourse to that can help in the development of
career of an individual. I can make use of the online social work programs that can help me in
gaining a large amount of knowledge about local community (Vondracek, Lerner and
Schulenberg 2019). It can help an individual in becoming adept in the work of social worker
that can provide the benefits to a person (Valeyeva et al. 2016). I can do the Associate degree
in Psychology that can help me in developing myself in the arena of counselling (Shuler and
Keller-Dupree 2015). It can help in providing the solid introduction to field of the psychology
that can help me in understanding the problems in the lives of the other people (Rønnestad,
Orlinsky and Wiseman 2016). I can do the master’s degree in that of psychotherapy that can
help me in the attainment of success in the profession.
The social workers provide the help to young people and their family so that it can
bring about the improvements in the condition of their lives. They take the best actions that
can help in serving the families of the vulnerable section of the population. The counsellor
who pertains to the needs of the children helps these people in leading better life. Employers
look for trait of emotional intelligence when they look for the social workers. Social workers
should be imbibed with the high amount of the emotional intelligence that can help them in

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fulfilling the responsibilities in the proper manner. It can help them in reacting in a sensitive
manner that can aid in the professional development of people. I have to make myself more
adept in the arena of the organizational skills that can help me in becoming successful.
Counsellors should have the capability of listening that can help in judging the clients in the
right manner. The social work programs can be made use of that can prove to be beneficial in
amassing huge amount of the knowledge. It can help me in serving the community that can
improve the overall condition of the society. I can make use of Associate degree in that of
Psychology that can help me in my development as a counsellor.

7CAREER DEVELOPMENT
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