What is a Career Guidance and Counseling Program?
It is a comprehensive, developmental program designed to assist individuals in
making and implementing informed educational and occupational choices. A
career guidance and counseling program develops an individual's competencies
in self-knowledge, educational and occupational exploration, and career planning.
Why is Career Guidance and Counseling Key to the Delivery of VocationalTechnical Education?
Career guidance and counseling programs help individuals acquire the
knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to identify options, explore
alternatives and succeed in society. These programs better prepare individuals
for the changing workplace of the 21st century by:
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teaching labor market changes and complexity of the workplace
broadening knowledge, skills, and abilities
improving decision making skills
increasing self-esteem and motivation
building interpersonal effectiveness
maximizing career opportunities
improving employment marketability and opportunities
promoting effective job placement
strengthening employer relations
Who Benefits from Career Guidance and Counseling Programs?
Everyone benefits--youth and adults, male and female, disabled, disadvantaged,
minorities, limited English proficient, incarcerated, dropouts, single parents,
displaced homemakers, teachers, administrators, parents and employers.
Where are Career Guidance and Counseling Programs offered?
Everywhere--elementary, junior and senior high schools, community colleges,
technical institutes, universities, career resource centers, correctional facilities,
community-based organizations, human services agencies, community and
business organizations, skill clinics, employment and placement services.
Where is Career Guidance and Counseling Working?
During 1997-1998, four career guidance programs were selected as exemplary in
the following sites:
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Dorchester District Two Career Development Initiatives, Summerville, SC
La Crosse Central High School Guidance/Career Center, La Crosse, WI
Lewis and Clark Community College: Career and Employment Services,
Godfrey, IL
Rich South High School: Horizon Program, Richton Park, IL
Additionally, States implementing the National Career Development
Guidelines have many success stories.
What are the Key Components of Successful Career Guidance and
Counseling Programs?
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A planned sequence of activities and experiences to achieve specific
competencies such as self-appraisal, decision making, goal setting, and
career planning
Accountability (outcome oriented) and program improvement (based on
results of process/outcome evaluations)
Qualified leadership
Effective management needed to support comprehensive career guidance
programs
A team approach where certified counselors are central to the program
Adequate facilities, materials, resources
Strong professional development activities so counselors can regularly
update their professional knowledge and skills
Different approaches to deliver the program such as outreach,
assessment, counseling, curriculum, program and job placement, followup, consultation, referral
What does the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology
Education Act Highlight about Career Guidance and Counseling Programs?
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Ensures qualified leadership and supervision
Continues expenditures for program support
Ensures program quality and effectiveness
Requires career development and activities for special populations
Promotes counselor training and retraining
Encourages elimination of sex bias and stereotyping
Strengthens tech prep programs through recruitment, retention and
placement
What are some Opportunities for Career Guidance Counselors under the
Perkins Act?
Counselors have opportunities to participate in an education and training system
that integrates academic and vocational education, to encourage individuals'
greater participation in further education by articulating secondary and postsecondary education, to renew their commitment to servicing the most at-risk or
disadvantaged of our society, to promote program outcomes and performance
measures, and to respond to business and economic development.
CAREER GUIDANCE:
How much value will it
add to our school
products?
"What do you want to be in future?," a teacher
randomly asks a Senior One student of a school in
Remera, Gasabo district in Kigali City. "I want to
become a doctor like my father," the student replies
and on and on the discussion continues. What is
clear from this interaction is that children have
different dreams but they cannot logically explain
why they want to take that path or how to get there.
And that is when the concept of career guidance
comes in.
By
Solomon Asaba
Published : September 24, 2014
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If a child is passionate about computers, they should be advised to pursue a career
in information technology or computer science. (Solomon Asaba )
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“What do you want to be in future?,” a teacher randomly asks
a Senior One student of a school in Remera, Gasabo district in
Kigali City. “I want to become a doctor like my father,” the
student replies and on and on the discussion continues. What
is clear from this interaction is that children have different
dreams but they cannot logically explain why they want to
take that path or how to get there. And that is when the
concept of career guidance comes in.
According to an online source, career guidance is a
developmental process that facilitates the acquisition of
attitudes; skills and knowledge to help students better
understand themselves while exploring viable education and
career options that eventually result into making informed
decisions with developed plans to achieve their career
aspirations.
Is there career guidance in schools?
According to Dr John Bosco Mutenzintare, who works with
Rwanda Education Board (REB) and is the head of career
guidance in schools, there is no formal policy on career
guidance but plans to introduce it exist.
“The Rwandan government realised that students need career
guidance and counseling in order to achieve optimum gains in
their varied life situations,” Mutezintare says.
“The programme will help students in secondary schools to
see a variety of available academic options that would help
them through their preferred learning styles, and be helped to
find how to develop plans to reach their educational and
occupational goals,” he adds.
In fact while visiting a school in Rulindo district recently, The
Education Times during an interaction with students
discovered how urgent the policy on career guidance should
be implemented.
“We were given combinations at random. I am not good at
mathematics and hate it with passion. Every time I sit in class
I see stars and I’m sure I will fail it,” one of the students said,
adding that administrators ought to take each student’s
interests and abilities into consideration.
Whether that is possible or impossible, it is evident from the
student’s complaint that she doesn’t know that Math’s is very
important and therefore finds no motivation to improve her
grades. Most likely if she had that information, her attitude
would be better and so would her performance.
Theophile Uweseyima, a teacher at Ecole Primarie de
Kibagabaga, believes that students should be just guided on
choosing subject combinations rather than being ‘forced’ to
do something they are completely uncomfortable with.
“When students are given a wrong combination, they lose
morale and end up failing exams. This can completely
disorganise a child’s future ambitions,” says Uweseyima.
It is therefore clear that without career guidance, students miss
out on “what to do” and “where to go” after completing
A’level.
“They only look forward to orientation into the university,”
Mutezintare argues.
Way forward
Fortunately, REB is embarking on a venture aimed at
improving career guidance in Schools. According to
Mutezintare, the Ministry of Education through REB
commissioned Kudar Group Unlimited and LLC, an
American International Career Guidance Specialist Group, to
implement an organised set of specialised career guidance
services in schools.
He says they will start with 10 schools which will become the
training centers for 90 pilot secondary schools and later the 90
schools will be used as training grounds for teachers from the
rest of the secondary schools around the country.
“The teachers will be trained in career guidance. They will
become counselors in schools and together with the head
teachers will guide the students on which career path to take,”
Mutezintare reveals.
“Five districts will be selected with each district having two
training centers. The number will however be increased to 10
eventually. Each centre will be installed with computers that
have career guidance programmes,” he adds.
Stakeholders speak out
This development has excited school administrators, teachers
and parents.
Valence Kaberuka, the headmaster of Excella School in
Kimironko, says introducing career guidance in schools has
been long overdue “Guidance should be done at every stage of
a child’s life and should focus on what students are going to
do when they finish school. However, the mentor must take
keen interest in the student’s areas of interest,” he notes.
Although Husaifa Nitegeki, a parent, is excited about the idea
of career guidance in schools, she says early identification of a
child’s talent is also very important.
“If a parent knows where their children’s strengths are, they
are likely to support them to develop their talent other than
just wasting all the money on academics where the child
might be weak,” Nitegeki says.
Seemingly, this may not to be the case as most parents leave
the teachers to take on the task of teaching and giving career
advice to their children simply because they are naïve about
its importance. But what should be the role of career
guidance?
The role of good career guidance
Career guidance, according to a statement from the
government of Singapore, should nurture the individual’s self
awareness, self-directedness, and life skills to set viable goals,
to continually learn and add value to their future workplace
and explore viable education. It should also in addition to
career options through the provision of accurate and
comprehensive information, inculcate an appreciation for the
value of all occupations and how they contribute to the wellfunctioning of society, equip students with skills and means to
positively engage their parents and other career influencers.
Mutezintare also has a lot of optimism in the programme.
“Career guidance systems in secondary schools in Rwanda,
will also enable the government of Rwanda to target well
trained human resource needed for the national development
purposes,” he says.
Modern career guidance
Some developed countries such as the UK have adapted to an
arrangement where students are charged a certain amount of
money to receive guidance from a tutor via a telephone line.
The fee charges when converted to the local currency are
about Rwf48, 000 for a single phone call that lasts about 10
minutes. Such is an example of how much career guidance is
valued.
New research with regard to the above setup in a report titled
“Career Advice – Helping the In betweeners” highlights that:
parents and family of this group are often supportive, but at a
loss to give career guidance beyond their own day-to-day
experience, meaning that these young people are presented
with a predictable and narrow range of career options which
limits their future outcomes.
Such parents will tend to leave the careers of their children at
the mercy of the academic institutions.
However, another report titled “Going the right direction”
published on September 10, 2013, junks the principle that all
students need the same level of career guidance at the same
time and that schools themselves understand best the
individual needs of their students.’
The report cites two problems. First, the erroneous claim that
schools know best the full range of needs of their learners.
How can they? Schools have become experts in the area for
which they are held to unrelenting account, the author
questions the premise.
Secondly such a model for career guidance requires the
individual to be proactive and skilled in accessing the
available support and concludes that young people are not as
digitally competent as it’s often perceived.
Good career guidance therefore plays a critical role in
preparing students for the world of work by equipping them
with the skills to remain relevant in the global economy and
lead purposeful lives. Research has shown that career
planning programmes can positively impact academic
performance leading to optimal education and career
decisions.
To minimise challenges, Mutenzintare advises that a career
guidance unit with efficient structures should be established at
REB to have enormous effort for effectiveness.
Public reactions to career guidance
Eric Buhigiro
Eric Buhigiro
Career guidance in schools if well implemented will be key in
shaping the future of students. And because it will be
implemented by teachers who are well versed with the
subject, the results will be good. How I wish this programme
can be rolled out to every school in the country.
Sisca Muhire
Sisca Muhire
Career guidance if given its full attention will produce
graduates with outstanding values and attitudes towards work
and people. The school products will most likely be focused
and knowledgeable. We were not very lucky to have career
guidance talks.
Fredrick Kaweesi
Fredrick Kaweesi
The initiative will be key to effective education. These days
some students finish school before even knowing their career;
they are neither here nor there. A child should know the career
they intend to pursue at a young age.
Henry Muchuti Samsoni
Henry Muchuti Samsoni
Career guidance is the most important tool that we can use to
develop our education system. It is the only way our schools
can produce the most productive academicians as it helps the
learners to make up their mind early enough.
Odette Mujawamariya
Odette Mujawamariya
This is an important step in our education system. However, it
is alittle bit costly as a lot of money is needed to put into
practice what career guidance requires. We all want to nurture
our children basing on their areas of interests but are limited
by money.
Brian Pascal Olal
Career guidance is a very important factor as regards our
education system and the earlier the better. Some students
reach Senior Six before they actually decide on which courses
they should do. Once that is done,it will help in nurturing the
Rwandan citizen