About

I am Professor of Career Education at the University of Derby.

I am also a Visiting Professor at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and at Canterbury Christ Church University. 

I am the Chief Editor of the Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, a Winston Churchill Fellow and a member of the Board of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy and the Career Development Policy Group.  I am a member of the Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions Careers Policy and Delivery Forum and was previously the specialist adviser to the House of Commons Education Committee inquiry into career guidance and have worked with a range of governments around the world on career guidance policy.

I also write the Adventures in Career Development blog.

Teaching responsibilities

I'm available to supervise EdD and PhD theses in areas related to career, career development and education policy, technology and social justice. I am currently supervising doctoral work on:

• Career decision making amongst arts students
• Careers education in schools and the future of work
• Educational deprivation
• Employer engagement in higher education
• Labour market integration of migrants
• Leadership and management in career guidance services
• School ethos in private schools

Researchers that I have supervised have completed theses on the following subjects:

• Business leaders: Career capital and role transitions
• Communities that care: an insight into male career patterns in a small neighbourhood
• How teachers conceive their role when working with Generation Z pupils in a technological learning environment
• ‘It’s not a career’: Platform work among young people aged 16-19
• No culture for career: Conceptualisations of career as a cultural phenomenon and as experienced by tenth graders and career counsellors in Norway
• Quantifying the economic impact of career guidance in secondary education
• Parental involvement in career education and guidance in senior general secondary schools in the Netherlands
• The impact of island location on students’ higher education choices and subsequent career narratives: A case study of the Orkney and Shetland islands
• The platformisation of career
• Youth mentoring across professional settings: a pedagogic approach to social inclusion

I have examined 21 doctoral theses (13 PhD and 8 professional doctorates, 14 in the UK, 2 in Australia, 1 in Canada, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Malaysia, 1 in Dubai and 1 in Spain). I have also Chaired 1 viva.

Research interests

My main research interests address the following topics:

• The role of career guidance in supporting the development of social and environmental justice
• The intersection of policy and practice in career work
• Identifying the impact of career development interventions
• The role of AI and online and digital technologies in education, career guidance and career development

Membership of professional bodies

I am a member of the Career Development Institute and a fellow of the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling. 

Qualifications

I have a PhD from the University of Leicester which focused on perceptions of the future during the second world war. 

Visions of a new Jerusalem: predictive fiction in the Second World War - University of Leicester

Recent conferences

2026

• September 2026. Presenting a keynote and workshop at the Greenlandic conference of career guidance, Nuuk. 
• June 2026. Chairing a plenary session on work experience at the National Careers Leaders Conference, Birmingham, UK.
• May 2026. Acting as a discussant for new research published by the University of Stavanger on career education and guidance. This event was on the invitation of the Norwegian Government and took place in Oslo, Norway.
• May 2026. Keynoting the World Association of Public Employment Services conference, Sarajevo, Bosnia.
• May 2026. Keynoting the Critical Approaches to Career and Career Guidance conference in Porto, Portugal.
• April 2026. Delivering a one day workshop at the University of South Eastern Norway based on my new book The Career Development Handbook.
• April 2026. Delivering a keynote in Bratislava, Slovakia in the final conference of the Exploring Green Guidance project.
• March 2026. Delivering a keynote presentation on Will there still be jobs in the age of AI, climate change and Trump for the University of Nottingham Trent’s annual conference on the future of work.
• February 2026. Delivered a keynote presentation to the Institute of Guidance Counsellors conference in the Republic of Ireland addressing the provision of excellent evidence based careers education and guidance in schools.
• February 2026. Delivered a webinar for the World Association of Public Employment Services looking at our research on the skills of PES counsellors.
• January 2026. Launching the Exploring Green Guidance project reports and resources in Lillehammer, Norway.

2025

• December 2025. Presenting on our research on the professionalisation of the careers field to the Career Development Institute Conference in Birmingham.
• November 2025. Presenting on NEET young people to AQQUT in Greenland.
• November 2025. Participating in an international online discussion as part of Global Careers Week, addressing advocacy in a disrupted world of work.
• November 2025. Participating in an international online discussion as part of Global Careers Week, addressing the role of career guidance in supporting people to find decent work.
• November 2025. Presenting on green guidance to Skolverket (the Swedish National Agency for Education).
• November 2025. Keynoting the Swedish Guidance Association (Sveriges Vägledarförening) Conference on the subject of career guidance.
• October 2025. Presenting the UK career guidance system as part of a series of international webinars organised by professional associations from across Africa.
• October 2025. Presentations to the Nornet conference in Iceland.
• September 2025. Keynoting the NICE Academy in Malta on the subject of career guidance and social justice.
• June 2025. Presenting to the AGCAS (UK) conference on social justice through co-creation.
• May 2025. Presentation to business and local government representatives in Sherwood on AI and careers.
• April 2025. Presentation on career guidance and social justice to staff and students at Maynooth University, Republic of Ireland.
• March 2025. Presentation to the Growing Great Education conference at the Canterbury Christ Church University. March 2023. Masterclass on evaluating careers programme. Leicester LEP, UK.
• February 2025. Presentation on Surviving the future to Nottingham Trent Business School’s annual conference on the future of work.
• February 2025. Presentation on the career development framework that I developed for the ILO to the ILO Africa Skills Hub.
• February 2025. Presentation on career guidance and social justice to the Solihull Careers Hub.
• January 2025. Presentation on the future of public employment services to the World Association of Public Employment Services.

Experience in industry

I regularly engage in and provide forms of consultancy to a range of different clients. In recent years I have undertaken consultancy on career development systems for a range of governments including England, Greenland, New Zealand, Norway and Wales. I have also been involved in short term consultancy on key issues related to the career development system e.g. providing expert seminars or input as well as longer projects looking at the monitoring of data on school’s engagement with the career development system in England, the role out of the Higher Technical Qualifications and extended expert input to Phoenix Insights review of the adult career development system. I have also been involved in providing expert input into the policy and strategy of international bodies such as the OECD and the ILO.

In the media

The development of a media and social media strategy has been key to my practice. I am a leading commentator on careers and labour market issues, including appearances on television (e.g. Channel 5 News), radio (e.g. You and Yours), podcasts (e.g. the New Normal, Change Life/Work, Vancrux Podcast, Veilederforum-podden and the Career Info Show), newspapers (e.g. the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph) and online news services (e.g. Huffington Post). I have also built an extensive profile in the trade press (e.g. Times Higher, FE News & WONKHE).

My blog receives around 20,000 views per year, and I have an active academic social media profile across multiple platforms (Linkedin, 10,830 connections, YouTube, 1090 subscribers).

Recent publications

Books

Hooley, T. & Thomsen, R. (Forthcoming 2026). The emancipation of career: Careering within and beyond capitalism. Trotman.

Andrew, D. & Hooley, T. (2025). The careers leader handbook. Third edition. Trotman.

Thomsen, R. & Hooley, T. (2025). Careers. Aarhus University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.29787135

Hooley, T., Alexander, R., & Frigerio, G. (2024). The career development handbook. Trotman.

Hooley, T., & Buchanan, R. (2024). Online research. Bloomsbury Academic.

Andrews, D. & Hooley, T. (2022). The careers leader handbook. Second edition. Trotman.

Robertson, P., Hooley, T. & McCash, P. (2021). The Oxford handbook of career development. OUP.

Hagaseth Haug, E., Hooley, T., Kettunen, J. & Thomsen, R. (2020). Career and career guidance in the Nordic countries. Leiden: Brill.

Hooley, T., Sultana, R. & Thomsen, R. (2019). Career guidance for emancipation: Reclaiming justice for the multitude. London: Routledge.

Andrews, D. & Hooley, T. (2018). The careers leader handbook. Trotman.

Hooley, T., Sultana, R. & Thomsen, R. (2018). Career guidance for social justice: Contesting neoliberalism. London: Routledge.

Hooley, T. & Grant, K. (2017). You’re hired! The graduate career handbook. Trotman.

Hooley, T., Bright, J. & Winter, D. (2016). You’re hired! Job hunting online: The complete guide. Trotman.

Hooley, T. & Barham, L. (Eds.). (2015). Career development policy and practice: The Tony Watts reader. Stafford: Highflyers.

Articles

Lucas Casanova, M., & Hooley, T. (2026). Measuring engagement with green guidance: Validation of new instruments and a mediation model. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 56(1), 141-161. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.5612

Frigerio, G., Alexander, R., & Hooley, T. (2026). Approaches to the education of career development professionals: Current realities and future directions. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 56(1), 125-140. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.5611

Hooley, T., & Vahidi, G. (2025). Comparing the conservative and labour party’s proposals for skills: what’s the problem represented to be?. Journal of Education Policy, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2025.2498893

Hooley, T. (2024). Career and sustainability. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 53(1), 3-7. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.5301

Hooley, T., Hertzberg, F., Mariager-Anderson, K., Saur, H., Sundelin, Å., Varjo, J., … & Valdimarsdóttir, S. (2024). A systematic review of research into career guidance policy in the Nordic countries (2008-2022). Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2024.2352004

Hooley, T., Thomsen, R., & Debono, M. (2024). A legacy of solidaric critique and hope for a better world: A meditation on the scholarly contribution of Ronald Sultana. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 52(1), 10-24. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.5202

Rice, S., & Hooley, T. (2024). How can and should secondary school teachers be involved in building students’ career knowledge and skills? A Delphi study of the expert community. Journal of Education and Work. 37(5-6), 483-501. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2025.2456849

Schulstok, T., Kjærgård, R., Hanson, J., & Hooley, T. (2024). Is the Concept of Calling still Relevant to Career Decision Making in Norway? Validating the Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ) with Norwegian Career Counsellors. Indian Journal of Career and Livelihood Planning, 13(1), 20-42. https://jivacareer.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2-Schulstok-Kjaergard-Hanson-and-Hooley.pdf

Brown, C., Hooley, T., & Wond, T. (2023). Personal agency and organisational attachment: A career capital perspective. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 51(4), 587-602. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2021.1937940. Rated 3 star through peer review.

Hooley, T. (2023). Impartiality: A critical review. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 50(1), 41-53. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.5005

Hooley, T., Hanson, J., & Clark, L. (2023). Exploring students’ and graduates’ attitudes to the process of transition to the labour market. Industry and Higher Education, 7(1), 121–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222221111298

Dodd, V., Hanson, J., & Hooley, T. (2022). Increasing students’ career readiness through career guidance: measuring the impact with a validated measure. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 50(2), 260-272. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2021.1937515

Bakke, I.B. & Hooley, T. (2022). I don’t think anyone here has thought about career really: What the concept of ‘career’ means to Norwegian teenagers and school counsellors. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 66(1), 73-87. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2020.1833242

Hooley, T. (2022). The impact of Covid-19 on career. Journal of the National Institute of Career Education and Counselling, 48, 3-12. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.4802

Hooley, T., & Godden, L. (2022). Theorising career guidance policymaking: watching the sausage get made. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 50(1), 141-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2021.1948503

Hooley, T., Hansen, J., & Clark, L. (2022). Exploring students’ and graduates’ attitudes to the process of transition to the labour market. Industry and Higher Education, 7(1), 121–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222221111298

Rice, S., Hooley, T. & Crebbin, S. (2022). Approaches to quality assurance in school-based career development: policymaker perspectives from Australia. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 50(1) https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2021.1919860

Thomsen, R., Hooley, T., & Mariager-Anderson, K. (2022). Critical perspectives on agency and social justice in transitions and career development. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 50(4), 481-490. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2022.2106551

There is also a full list of my publications available to view.