The career usually refers to individuals’ working life, education and training and to life in general. The studies and reports evaluating the relations between these components mainly justify the power of educational attainment level in gaining employment or higher socio-economic status. In contrast to Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital providing the theoretical background of these reports and studies, the concept of career management paradigm shift, elaborated by Jarvis, justifies the power of career management skills over the educational attainment level in gaining employment or higher socio-economic status.
Such approach towards the evaluation of someone’s career entirely overlooks the individuals’ notion of what would be relevant for their working life, education and training or life in general. Secondly, neither the concept of career relevance from the individuals’ point of view nor the career management skills were included when the relation between different career components was evaluated. The survey addressing these two problems was based on quantitative empirical methodology, conducted in 2016 in Slovenia. The non-random sample of 150 men and 468 women, born between 1940 and 1998, was collected through an online questionnaire.
Four different variables were set: career relevance, career management skills, social, cultural and economic capital. The indicators of career relevance were built upon various definitions of career. Career management skills were conceptualised according to Law’s and Krumboltz’s theoretical discourse of social learning and career learning. Their forms of capital were conceptualised according to the Bourdieu’s conception of social, cultural and economic capital which is in direct relation to the OECD concept of socio-economic status.
Bivariate analysis proved a statistically significant correlation between career relevance from individuals’ perspective and career management skills, educational attainment level, social, cultural and economic capital. However, the multivariate linear regression model confirms that only career management skills and economic capital, as independent variables, influence the dependent variable career relevance from individual’s perspective. One-way ANOVA proved that employed and unemployed differ statistically significant in the level of career management skills, career relevance, social and economic capital. In this respect, the results imply more systemic approach to career management skills learning in formal education.