What is Carrier Guidance ?
Career guidance
Career guidance refers to services and activities intended to assist
individuals, of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make
educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers.
Such services may be found in schools, universities and colleges, in training
institutions, in public employment services, in the workplace, in the voluntary
or community sector and in the private sector. The activities may take place on
an individual or group basis, and may be face-to-face or at a distance
(including help lines and web-based services). They include career information
provision (in print, ICT-based and other forms), assessment and self-assessment
tools, counseling interviews, career education programmes (to help individuals
develop their self awareness, opportunity awareness, and career management
skills), taster programmes (to sample options before choosing them), work
search programmes, and transition services.
CAREER EDUCATION AND GUIDANCE IN SCHOOLS
Policy Issues
In compulsory schooling
The foundations of career self-management skills (for example decision making,
self-awareness, self confidence) are laid at an early age. However career
education and guidance in the primary school are limited or non-existent, and
little systematic provision is made to explore the world of work.
Young people need to make a smooth transition from primary school to the
initial years of secondary education: the choices that they make at this point
have major implications for later education and work options. Career guidance
needs to be part of the process that helps them to make a smooth transition.
Career education is increasingly present in the curriculum at the lower
secondary school level, either as a separate subject or included in another
subject. However it is included in widely differing ways, and at times these
seem designed to suit the organisational needs of the school rather than the
career development needs of the student. Often career education has little
connection to the wider school curriculum.
In lower secondary school personal career guidance frequently targets students
at key decision making points (when they are choosing subjects; prior to the
end of compulsory schooling; at the transition to upper secondary level or to
work). However often those who are targeted for personal interviews are not
selected on the basis of well-defined need (for example low vocational
maturity; readiness for decision making).
In upper secondary schooling
It is often assumed that upper secondary students have made specific
educational and career choices and that they do not need further support. This
assumption is especially made for students in vocational education pathways. In
many countries they receive significantly less career assistance than do
students in general education pathways. This takes little account of the
increasing flexibility that is included in upper secondary vocational education
programmes or of the wide range of career options and jobs that can flow from
broadly designed vocational education and training.
Within general education pathways career guidance staff often spend substantial
time preparing students to choose and compete for tertiary education places.
This can result in those not intending to enter tertiary education receiving
little help. It can also lead to little account being taken of the occupational
and labour market consequences of particular tertiary education choices.
Some issues that apply to all levels of schooling Those who provide career
education and guidance in schools often lack specialised training.
CAREER EDUCATION AND GUIDANCE IN SCHOOLS
Those who provide career education and guidance in schools are often not career
guidance specialists. They very often combine career guidance with other roles:
teaching other school subjects; providing counselling and guidance for personal
problems and study difficulties. The number of people employed to provide
career education and guidance in schools is often not enough to meet student
need and demand. Often services continue to be provided largely on an
individual, face-to-face model. This reduces the capacity of the service to
respond to the needs of all learners. Often career guidance staff do not have
the resources that they need to do the job properly: a private space where
students can be interviewed; a library of up-to-date career information; a
computer; access to a telephone; secretarial assistance.
Many school career guidance services have tenuous links with the world of work:
Teaching staff know little about the labour market and what is involved in
different types of jobs; Little contact exists with the public employment
service; Students have very few or no opportunities to take part in work
experience; Few employers are invited in to the school to talk to students;
Parents have little involvement in the school’s careers programme; and Careers
fairs in which groups of employers come to the one location to provide
information to students do not take place. Career education and guidance are
often considered to be the sole responsibility of the specialist career
guidance staff, rather than the joint responsibility of all members of the
teaching staff.
Few career guidance services have structured approaches aimed at helping
students develop an entrepreneurial spirit and skills. They therefore tend to
focus on guidance for paid employment, rather than for self-employment. School
career guidance services are often not audited, and users have little
opportunity to signal
satisfaction or otherwise with the services provided. No data is collected on
student, teacher, parent or employer satisfaction with the service.
