Unemployment in South Africa is presently at an all-time high. The gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Without sufficient perceived options for establishing a meaningful work life, many South Africans are left with a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. Clearly, it is necessary to find ways of instilling and restoring hope and empowering people with skills to earn a sustainable livelihood.
The unique foundation of the approach discussed in this paper, intertwines the theory of hope with a future orientation programme to assist young people make the transition from education into the world of work within a sustainable livelihood framework.
The paper begins by examining the role of language in making meaning of work-related constructs, followed by a brief discussion of selected dominant theories used as foundation to the approach. The structure of the blended approach is described. The efficacy of this way of working was tested in three different studies in the South African context. The studies used specific qualitative research designs. The effectiveness of the Hope Based Future Orientated Approach can be considered for the following reasons: It develops fundamental hope and enables preferred future orientated decisions as an essential part of the process; It is multi-faceted (internal and external factors); It is strengths based; It is flexible enough to address the diversity of individual and context; It is a relatively cost and time effective. The results obtained in these pilot studies indicate that this approach is worthy of consideration as a more ethical approach to counselling in the South African context.
