The secret to finding happiness in your career will be one of the many things explored when a world-renowned psychologist presents at the University of Southern Queensland this week.
Professor Kobus Maree, who has three doctorates and is an Educational Psychologist from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, will speak at two events hosted by the Faculty of Education to share his expertise in the field of career counselling.
Professor Maree said he had a ‘two-fold mission’ at USQ — to share his views on the guidance and supervision of Masters and PhD students, and to press the importance of people finding ‘major themes’ in students’ lives to help them guide their own careers.
‘I support the notion that a career is a story — your career story is your life story,’ Professor Maree explained.
‘The career counsellor should listen to a person’s story and help them to find their own themes and construct their own career.’
‘Your only career expert is you and, really, the options are limitless.’
But Professor Maree said there were just two simple rules for finding happiness in a career.
‘First, you have to do things that are meaningful to you.’
‘Secondly, you have to do something that is meaningful to others. You have to make a social contribution.’
Professor Maree said while career counselling was generally quite advanced in Australia there needed to be a major improvement in the way the profession is approached.
‘Career counselling really starts at birth,’ he said.
‘So we need many more properly trained career counsellors in schools right across the world.’
On Thursday, April 26, 2012, from 1pm to 3pm, Professor Maree will conduct a research seminar to examine the importance of career counselling in schools.
It will focus on 21 ‘general’ principles to achieve the goals of providing students with a clear sense of the future, knowledge about which careers to pursue, reasons for working hard and realising their potential and guidelines to help them design and achieve successful lives.
Later, from 5pm to 6.30pm, Professor Maree will give a second research presentation examining the shift in emphasis from advising clients on what is most suitable and ‘right’ for them towards encouraging them to reflect on their own ideas under the guidance of a skilled career counsellor.
‘It is essential to design a strategy to enable young people to script their own life story, to explore personal meanings and deal with the many problems involving that meaning,’ Professor Maree said.
Professor Maree has received a number of awards for his work and was recently honoured by receiving the Stals Prize for exceptional research and contributions to psychology.
Details for the two presentations are as follows. Both USQ staff and members of the wider community are welcome to attend these Faculty of Education events.
Research Seminar:
Optimising Self Construction: The Value of Career Counselling
Thursday 26th April 2012
1:00pm to 3:00pm Toowoomba Campus, Room G421, 4th Floor, G Block
Research Evening:
‘No More Experts’: Enabling People to Advise Themselves
Thursday 26th April 2012
5:00pm to 6:30pm Toowoomba Campus, Room G314, 3rd Floor, G Block
Drinks and light refreshments provided
Contact Details:
Jim Campbell, USQ Media, +617 4631 2977
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