Proposing a Model for Green Career Counseling in the Context of Sustainable Development and Green Jobs

Abstract

Context: The emergence of the sustainability paradigm is a response to global environmental and climate-related challenges, accompanied by economic and social transformations. Achieving sustainable development and growth requires the adoption of a green economy that considers both individuals and the environment. As part of the just transition to an eco-friendly green economy, new green occupations are emerging and existing occupations are changing in terms of their workforce and skill requirements. Accordingly, individuals need to update their green job-related competencies and acquire new green skills. At this point, career interventions can support the necessary skill transformation in the green transition and support individuals in building sustainable careers.

Approach: This study is based on a narrative literature review and proposes a model of green career services. While narrative-based literature reviews are interpretive and less replicable (Agarwal & Dewan, 2016), they are effective for identifying emerging patterns and proposing new interventions (Ferrari, 2015). Given that green career guidance and counseling is a newly developing area, this approach is well-suited and justified for the present study. A review of the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases on green career counseling revealed both the field’s historical development and notable gaps in the literature, which informed the proposal of a new conceptual model. Grounded in Savickas's (2013) career construction theory, specifically the scheme for career interventions. Within this context, the roles and responsibilities of career counselors are discussed in relation to supporting a just transition toward a greener and more sustainable world. The authors propose a Green Career Services System by adapting Savickas's (2013) three career interventions (education, guidance and counseling) for the context of green careers.

Conclusions: Career counselors can intervene at the micro level to help clients identify and cope with career problems and at the macro level to remove structural and institutional barriers to social justice (Nota et al., 2020). Career counselors should rethink their role in designing a sustainable future for all and develop different strategies by increasing their knowledge and skills. In this framework, it can be said that the green career education, green career guidance and green career counseling practices proposed in this article involve inclusive services that contribute both to supporting individuals' career development within the framework of sustainability principles and requirements at the micro level and to contributing to economic, social and environmental sustainability at the macro level. The transition to a green economy, green jobs, and green employment has the power to transform the field of career counseling, and career counseling has the power to contribute to the development and transformation of these fields.