With labour markets across the world and even in social democratic
Europe in a state of unprecedented flux, this exhaustive study addresses
the problem of how to balance job market demands, personal career
interests and private life becomes a central issue for millions of
employees. So how do modern work and employment arrangements restructure
individual careers and what is required of individuals in order to
manage career transitions successfully over time? This is one of very
few in-depth empirical studies to analyze how labour market trends,
organisational change and the subjective work orientations of
individuals interact. The author's detailed assessment is based on a
comparison of the structural contexts, work orientations and employment
histories of nurses and ICT technicians in Germany and the UK. These two
core service occupations, as well as the national contexts of the two
European nations, have quite different working environments and
vocational traditions. Nursing is an institutionalized semi-profession
with clear criteria of qualification and career continuity, while
information and communication technology (ICT) is a new, evolving field
with varied skill backgrounds and high job mobility. To arrive at an
understanding of how individual career trajectories are changing, this
book closely examines the interplay of labour market demands, employees'
work and career orientations and the development of their skills. It
records the ways in which employees adapt to increased labour market
flexibility, which, on the one hand, induces discontinuities of careers,
employment and work, and on the other, generates new skill requirements
and learning expectations, as well as unforeseen opportunities.
