New professional challenges, unemployment, training aimed at job inclusion: these are the social challenges that await us in the future economic scenario.
Tourism is one of the sectors that is most affected by the negative effects of the recent health emergency. It also represents a fundamental factor for the economy of countries such as #Bulgaria, #Croatia, #Italy and #Romania.
For this reason, the #ProYouth team interviewed Cinzia Zummo, an expert in work psychology and Career Counselor, to understand how professional consultancy activities can help unemployed candidates when they are looking for a job and to analyze the characteristics of the future job market.
Today more than ever, the world of work is facing one of the most difficult challenges in recent history. Many people have lost their jobs and are looking now for a new career path.
Career counseling plays a crucial role in this scenario. It represents a precious tool supporting candidates and help them define a professional project to be carried out successfully.
Ms. Zummo, please introduce yourself and your working experience…
I am Cinzia Zummo and I am a psychologist specialized in occupational psychology. In addition to the Master's degree in psychology, I also awarded a post-university Master's degree in Management and Development of Human Resources in Work Organizations, obtained in 2004. Since then, I have worked in the field of occupational psychology as specialized Career Counselor, trainer and personnel selector.
The role of the Career Counselor is therefore fundamental for nowadays society and requires essential skills to be conducted.
In your opinion, what are these key competences necessary to cover this role?
And above all, are these skills innate or can they be cultivated through exercise and training?
The key skills of a career counselor are heterogeneous. They can be summarized as follows. ability to support the candidate through a process of acquiring self-awareness and knowledge of the available opportunities, ability to help the candidate to define his-her own objectives. Certainly, a Career Counselor must have relational and listening skills that fall within the natural attitudes of each of us.
What are the most usual task in the daily activity of a Career Counselor?
Listening to the people needs and concerns and above all, understanding their previous life and work experience to optimize the training and job inclusion process related.
In your experience, how old are candidates applying for support on average?
What are they looking for in terms of career goals?
What are their most common past skills?
In my daily work, I deal with candidates of all ages. They seek the opportunity to feel satisfied through their profession and to feel up to their professional goals. There are no recurring skills according to my experience. Each candidate has his-her own story to tell.
According to your point of view, being accompanied by an expert during a CAREER COUNSELING process is fundamental or is there a part of work that can be carried out independently by each candidate?
In my opinion, being supported by a career counselor greatly facilitates the process of achieving the candidate's professional objectives in terms of time and effectiveness.
Furthermore, the presence of a career counselor guarantees the candidate to direct his / her objectives towards the real needs of the market.
What will be the most difficult challenges to be faced in the world of work that awaits us?
Which are the social actors destined to manage this current situation of emergency?
Competition between candidates, mostly. The professional opportunities will be less than the past. So, that’s why candidates, today more than ever, will have to acquire specific high skills to fulfill the needs of the future world of work.
What government policies are in place to include those who lost a job during an emergency and who have never had a job and would like to embark on a professional career?
There are several active policies that are expressed in career counselor and highly specialized training courses aimed at people looking for new jobs.
What would you recommend to a young person or unemployed person looking for a professional place in today's world?
To identify the sector to which he-her belongs and to start on training paths in line with the skills required by the world of work. This will help candidates to be protagonists and leaders of their own careers.
Text and 2nd image by Promimpresa
Work vector (1st image) created by freepik - www.freepik.com
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