About Emma

Practical and innovative careers researcher and practitioner based in Scotland

➡️I can work with you to support your own career development, or help you to develop your skills as a practitioner to help others progress with their career aspirations.

➡️ My research is focused on collaborative work to improve career opportunities for individuals and, in turn, to benefit employers and the economy.

🗣️ I am a confident media speaker, available to discuss topics relating to career development, work, the labour market, jobs, volunteering, education and training.

➡️ I have 20+ years' experience working in education and careers as a lecturer and careers practitioner, and undertake volunteer roles advocating for pupil and parent voice in statutory education. 

🧒🏻🧒🏻🧒🏻 I'm a mum of 3 children (currently aged 12, 7 and 2): I am always happy to chat about parenting topics, especially in relation to neurodivergent children.

🏃🏻‍♀️ 🎲 When I'm not working you can find me in the gym, enjoying the Scottish outdoors or at home playing board games. 

You can find out more about my work on this website: I have a blog where I post updates on what I've been doing recently and links to information on current projects. If you'd like to access my lists of resources for career development or resources for career professionals, you can find them via the direct links on my LinkTree. 


🌐 Please do connect with me. I use these networking/social media sites:

🔗LinkedIn: /DrEmmaBolgerCareers (company page) / bolgeremma (profile)
🔗BlueSky: @emmabolger
🔗Linktree:  /emmabolger 

Emma Bolger Headshot

Author Headshot for Trotman (2025)

Emma Bolger on TV

BBC TV (2024)

Popular posts from this blog

Why would someone choose to be a careers adviser?

One of the modules I’m teaching this trimester at UWS is Career Development Theory, examining the theories that explain how and why people make career decisions. A career decision I often wonder about is “Why would someone choose to be a careers adviser?” I’m not being flippant; I see few reasons why the media representation of the role would influence anyone to become one. From the outside, it’s not a job that gets good press. There is a heck of a lot of bad-mouthing of the careers profession and its purpose, the occasional high-profile media story (nobody mention  Mary Poppins ) and then there’s the section in every celebrity life story ever: “They told me to/not to do it, the clueless adviser, and they were so, so wrong.” We know that high profile TV programmes boost the profile of certain careers.  CSI  led to a raft of wannabe forensic scientists.  Call the Midwife  and  One Born Every Minute  respectively give young people a dramatised and f...
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Veilederforum, Guest Editor

I have again been working closely with colleagues in Norway, delivering training and recording resources and a podcast for the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills. The resources and podcast will be published later in 2023. I am also the current guest editor for Veilederforum , for whom I have been commissioning new articles by experts in career guidance and development. Two articles have been published to date (at the end of the articles linked below, you will find a link to the English language translation).  Dr Laura Lebec and Dr Louise Ritchie: Career guidance through the lifespan: Working with clients with dementia Gill Frigerio: Practitioner Wellbeing Two further articles are forthcoming, a piece focusing on career guidance work with refugees/asylum seekers and migrants, authored by Dr Deirdre Hughes & Prof. Füsun Akkök, and another on client mental health wellbeing authored by Dr Deirdre Hughes, Chris Percy & Liane Hambly.   I will be writi...
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Exploring the relationship between guidance practice and self-care

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*republished today from an earlier LinkedIn post to enable open access* In 2023-24, I was delighted to be a guest editor for Veilederforum , operated by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills . Direct links and summaries of the articles are available here: Career guidance for marginalized groups and below. Many thanks to Mari Thorbjørnsrud for inviting me to take on this role and for the many conversations we had on how to ensure equitable, diverse and inclusive practice in the career guidance sector. The articles: Career guidance throughout the lifespan: Working with clients with dementia , Dr Laura Lebec and Dr Louise Ritchie Practitioner Wellbeing , Dr Gill Frigerio Career guidance for refugees and migrants , Professor Füsun Akkök and Honorary Associate Professor Dr Deirdre Hughes Career development and mental wellbeing , Honorary Associate Professor Dr Deirdre Hughes , Liane Hambly and Dr Chris Percy A note on gender The articles were fully or l...
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