At the Diploma Courses in Career Counselling at UCC, we are working with CMS from a variety of different approaches, stemming from contemporary Career theories – e.g. from the starting point of Donald Super, who defines the term ‘career’ as being: “The combination and sequences of roles played by a person during the course of a lifetime” (Super, 1990). Subsequently the skills and attitudes needed to manage a career will vary in accordance with the individual’s personal and unique career and life patterns. Subsequently, we understand CMS as being both fluid and changing, and, in each case, depending on the unique context and situation in which various skills are being called for. (Højdal, 2011)

In general, our approach to dealing with CMS, are inspired by a number of different theories – mainly theories based on constructivist thinking. As an example, we introduce our students to the Social Cognitive Career Theory/SCCT – which suggest, that guidance counsellors pay attention to: Self-efficacy beliefs, Outcome expectations, Personal goals and Vocational hope (a subjective approach). Other career theorists, like John Holland, would put more emphasis on more objective features of the self, e.g. an individual’s self-knowledge and occupational personality types (an objective or positivistic approach to the understanding of the individual choice and the skills and attitudes involved herein).