Ch 11/Ch 16

Brown’s Chapter Eleven discussed job searching in terms of employability skills and placement services (2012).  I found the information about job clubs and community supports interesting and think it would be useful in our community.  I think in Lancaster it is difficult to find this kind of support if you are not receiving benefits from the Department of Public Welfare or associated with an educational institution.  Personally, my fiancé went through a year of off and on unemployment with some large unemployment gaps.  He was not taught job search skills such as interview techniques or résumé and cover letter writing in high school.  I had to teach myself how to write résumés and cover letters for an undergraduate assignment and knew there was an expectation that I learned this information in high school, but had not.  While he was able to find some temporary jobs through temp agencies, they did not provide him any support or ways to improve his skills.  I can understand why many individuals who may not have the emotional support or knowledgeable support struggle for years with unemployment and unsuccessful job searches.  I think more community resources or agencies supporting places such as job groups would help those in our community who are in this place and also not taking advantage of unemployment benefits or welfare benefits where these opportunities may arise.  Advertising groups like this in the newspaper where job announcements are would be a good way of reaching individuals with less support.

Brown’s Chapter Sixteen discussed program evaluation and evidence-based practices (2012).  I was somewhat confused as to how the authors came up with the idea that you can answer causal questions with a quasi-experiment when the groups may be non-equivalent and you can’t manipulate the independent variable in some cases career development programs.  It would be unethical to exclude some students from career development programs and allow others in an experimental group, but in this case you have no control comparisons.  Correlational research seems to be more likely to use in these cases as the data is unlikely to provide a causal relationship.  I agree that qualitative evaluative designs should be used for interventions based in postmodern philosophy, because these evaluative designs provide more information that may rule out outside causes for change.  The difficulty with these evaluative designs is comparisons between subjects and groups, because the data is qualitative and not quantitative.  

Brown, D. (2012).  Career information, career counseling, and career development (10^th ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.