A Study On The Transformative Learning Happened In The Career Transitions Of Enterprise Employees

Adults always have to face various kinds of career transitions in their career lives. With the accelerating pace of societal development and the rapid change of society, there will be an increasing number of adults that need to be confronted with career transitions. During the process of career transitions, many adults will be exposed to problems and situations they have never encountered before. Thus, in order to adapt to the new working environment, adults are required to change and adapt in terms of knowledge, experience and emotional cognition. If an individual manages to go through this transition, he or she will adjust to the new occupation su ccessfully. However, a considerable number of people meet difficulties in their career transitions, which affects other aspects of those people’s lives as careers play an important role in the lives of adults.This study researches the process of career transitions through the lens of transformative learning theory. And a survey and a few interviews were conducted to identify transformative learning behaviors in the career transitions of adults. Subsequently, some suggestions are made from the perspective of transformative learning in the hope that they could help adults go through the career transitions efficiently and contribute to the career development of adults. This study is presented in six parts.In the first part, the research background of this study is introduced, which specifically refers to the construction of education-oriented society, the concept of “boundaryless career” and the trend of transformative learning. In addition, the purpose, the meaning and the researching methods of this study ar e elaborated.The second part gives attention to the research findings and research status of the researche relevant to this study, and reviews the research of transformative learning and career transitions. Adding to that, other relevant research is introduced as the theoretical supports for this study.The third part presents the findings of the survey and interviews. The findings of the survey reveal that: up to 40.0% of respondents feel quite frustrated in terms of psychological adaption; up to 54.6% of respondents feel quite frustrated in terms of behavioral adaption; and 40.0% of respondents feel frustrated in terms of environmental adaption. In addition, gender, education level and age are also factors that influence the career transitions of adults. As for the findings of interviews, it shows: when dealing with a new career, adults will feel frustrated and uncomfortable as there are discrepancies between their psychological expectations of the new career and the reality, so they will actively search for solutions and sometimes turn to their friends and families for help.In the fourth part, transformative learning factors and possible difficulties in the process of the career change, career deliberation and career option are identified.In the fifth part, through the lens of transformative learning, the factors that contribute to a successful career transition are discussed, and a conclusion that transformative learning theory positively contributes to a successful career transition. In the last part, a strategy on how to facilitate and instruct adults to achieve a better career transition using transformative learning theory is proposed, and the strategy is comprised of two parts: the first part is improving the vocational guidance system and providing more external support; the second part is improving the transformative learning abilities of adults and the overall abilities of adults.