February 20 is celebrated by the United Nations as International Social Justice Day.
The 2022 Theme: Achieving Social Justice through Formal Employment. Sharing some guiding questions to start a career conversation on social justice and integration of career development:
1. As the career services sector how can we promote formal economy? How can career services professionals advocate the transition to formal employment as shared by UN vision ‘it is a necessary condition to reduce poverty and inequalities, advance decent work, increase productivity and sustainability of enterprises and expand government’s scope of action, notably in times of crisis’.
2. The UN in its advocacy article shares that in ‘many countries are utilizing new technologies to facilitate the transition from informal to formal employment through E-formalization tools, such as electronic database systems for proper identification of employment and wider access to ICTs and e-commerce’. How is the situation in your country what measures are being taken to reduce the gap?
3. As career services sector how often do we engage in social justice activism and advocacy when can it start to optimize impact?
4. How often do we initiate social justice career guidance research that seeks to make changes?
5. How frequently do we integrate social justice in inclusive career education curriculum/ programs for educational institutes?
6. Let’s pause for a second…which are some of the leading social justice influencers in our career professions in our respective countries/ region…..sharing some eminent names in our profession: Dr. David Blunstien, Dr. Tristram Hooley.
7. Dr. David Bluestein strongly recommends career services professionals to read articles by Ellen McWhirter and Ishbel McWha-Hermann and by Melanie Elyse Brewster and David Alejandro Lopez Molina. These two articles are game-changers in the social justice mission in our field; to read and reflect on these contributions in depth.
8. As career services professional how are we advocating and creating meaningful and dignified lives that promotes social justice and decent work?
Some possible career pathways that integrate social justice: Educator, Journalist, Victim advocate, Grant writer, Lawyer, Social worker, Community mobilizer, Lobbyist, Policy analyst, Researcher, Anchor, Blogger etc. Let’s keep the careers advocacy movement flowing as it is promoting co-existence contributing to a socially just society