CHAPTER 12:
Promoting Educational and
Career Planning in Schools
• ProvidingBackground
career assistance
to students hasand
always
beenPlanning
an integralInterventions
part of the work
performed by
for Educational
Career
in Schools
professional school counselors.
• During most of the 20th century, professional school counselors fostered students’ career decision
making by administering and interpreting interest inventories and aptitude tests.
• In the 1950s Donald Super proposed a developmental perspective emphasizing career
development as a lifelong process.
• Super suggested that development through the life stages could be guided, “partly by facilitating
the maturing of abilities and interests and partly by aiding in reality testing and in the development
of self-concepts.”
Background for Educational and Career Planning Interventions in Schools
• Changes in the economy, population, and technology have enhanced the need for professional school
counselors to focus on the area of educational planning and career development.
• Increased globalization has altered job titles, roles, and structure within the workplace.
• Markets are calling for skilled workers over unskilled workers and employment has become less stable.
Education and Career Planning Today
• The National Standards (Campbell & Dahir, 1997) specify three important areas of student
development:
• Standard A. Students will acquire the skills to investigate the world of work in relation to
knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions.
• Standard B. Students will employ strategies to achieve future career success and satisfaction.
• Standard C. Students will understand the relationship between personal qualities, education and
training, and the world of work.
Education and Career Planning Today
• Educational planning is the means through which linkages are forged for students, as well as
stakeholders, between academic achievement and postsecondary options.
• The educational planning process can help students become aware of how their school performance
relates to post-high school goal achievement, thereby increasing their motivation to work hard in
school.
• An effective educational planning process eliminates making a career choice by chance.
Education and Career Planning Today
•
In elementary school, students should first become acquainted with education and career planning through learning about the
relationship between school performance and the world of work and postsecondary education.
•
When students reach middle school, the stage will be set for them to start thinking in more concrete terms about their educational,
career, and life goals.
•
The goals students set in middle school will form the basis for making choices about the courses they take while in middle school,
as well as help them to create a tentative blueprint for their high school course taking.
•
This sequential process provides students with many and varied opportunities to learn about themselves and engage in mindful
planning and preparation.
Education and Career Planning Today
• The Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development (Lapan, 2004) highlights primary career development constructs
such as positive expectations and identity development
• The Hope-Centered Model of Career Development (HCMCD) (Niles et al., 2010) emphasizes the central role of hope in
career development
• Savickas (2012) proposes a new paradigm based on constructivist and narrative therapy approaches that empowers
students to become the author of their own lives
Education and Career Planning Today
• Life-span, life-space theorists define career as the total constellation of life roles that people engage in
over the course of a lifetime.
• Career development tasks include developing the skills necessary not only for selecting and
implementing an occupational choice, but also for selecting, adjusting to, and transitioning through a
variety of life roles.
Implementing Systematic and Well-Coordinated Career Planning Programs
•
Helps students acquire the knowledge, skills, and awareness necessary for effectively managing their career development (Herr,
Cramer, & Niles, 2004).
•
It is important to clearly connect career development interventions to student academic achievement.
•
Making sure to market a program to the school personnel is vital to the success of the program.
•
Use a team approach to reach goals.
•
Help teachers communicate to parents the ways in which career development programs enhance student achievement.
•
Professional school counselors are often the only professionals in the school system with training in career development, as well as
the primary figure for helping students with educational planning.
Career Assessment
• It is through formal and informal assessments that students begin to learn about themselves
and their interests, skills, and values related to the world of work.
• Results from assessments provide professional school counselors with a starting point for
guiding students in the career planning process.
• School counselors must remain current in their knowledge about which career assessments are
suitable for use with school-aged youth, as well as possess a general understanding of
assessment so they can make informed decisions about which assessments to use.
Career Assessment
• Types of assessments available to professional school counselors:
• Kuder Career Search with Person Match
• Kuder Skills Assessment
• Super’s Work Values Inventory
• Self-Directed Search
• Strong Interest Inventory
• O*NET Interest Profiler
• O*NET Ability Profiler
• O*NET Work Importance Profiler
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Career Assessment
• Professional school counselors must use emerging technology to sustain an
educational and career planning system.
• Recommended Web sites
• GENERAL
• Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) (http://www.bls.gov/OCO);
OOH for children (http://www.bls.gov/k12)
• O*NET (http://online.onetcenter.org/find/)
• JOB SEARCH
• Quint Careers (http://www.quintcareers.com/job-seeker.html)
• The Riley Guide (http://www.rileyguide.com)
• JobHuntersBible (http://www.jobhuntersbible.com)
Career Assessment
• JOB SEARCH (continued)
• Career Builder (http://www.careerbuilder.com)
• Monster (http://www.monster.com)
• Simply Hired (http://www.simplyhired.com)
• Indeed (http://www.indeed.com)
• COLLEGE ADMISSION AND FINANCIAL AID
• Peterson’s (http://www.petersons.com)
• U. S. News and World Report (http://www.usnews.com)
• College Board (http://www.collegeboard.com)
• Quint Careers (http://www.quintcareers.com/student.html)
• U. S. Department of Education (http://studentaid.ed.gov)
Elementary Schools
• In elementary schools children begin
formulating a sense of identity outside of
their immediate family.
• Television often provides children with
gender-stereotyped roles and occupations,
and limited perceptions of careers for
people of color.
• The use of non-traditional models, such as a
male nurse or female engineers, help expose
children to a broad range of occupational
possibilities.
• Children naturally express curiosity through
fantasy and play which can provide a
foundation for exploring careers such as
firefighting, nursing, and teaching.
Elementary Schools
• When students are encouraged to participate in activities that are related to their interests it
helps develop a sense of autonomy, an anticipation for future opportunities for exploring,
and the beginning of playful behaviors.
• When these interests connect with skills and capacities, a positive self-concept emerges,
providing the foundation for the future career development tasks of adolescence.
• Students in elementary school also can engage in career exploration by developing and
understanding the importance of educational achievement.
• The primary focus of career development interventions for elementary school children is
awareness, in its many facets.
Elementary Schools (cont)
• Educational planning in elementary school is also essential.
• Raising student awareness about the training and educational requirements for occupations that
interest them may serve to heighten their motivation to do well in school.
• Students at this age should become aware of how the skills they are learning in school are used in
various careers.
• Students’ performance in elementary school can have a significant influence on their future
course taking and postsecondary options.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
•
Ask students to identify and discuss the jobs that they have observed in their communities and then add to their knowledge base by
introducing a few new ones.
•
Encourage students to identify the “jobs” they currently have as students and sons or daughters. They can use this self-knowledge to
create a “Me and my Job” booklet that highlights their interests, as well as their “job” responsibilities at school and home.
•
Fill paper grocery bags with two to five items that are associated with a specific career. Take the items out of each bag one by one
and have students guess the type of worker that uses those items. For example, one bag could be filled with a stethoscope and blood
pressure cuff to represent a doctor.
•
Ask students to draw a picture of a job they might want to have when they are older.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
•
Give each student a letter of the alphabet and ask them to select a job that begins with that letter, draw a picture of the job, and
write three tasks or activities that are related to that occupation. Bind the students’ work together to create an “Alphabet Career
Book” for the school’s library.
•
Read a developmentally appropriate story (e.g., Worm Gets a Job by Kathy Caple for students in 2nd grade and below) to a classroom
and then have the students identify the various jobs that were discussed in the book.
•
Expose students to women who work in traditionally “male” occupations and men who work in traditionally “female” occupations.
•
For students in grades 3 to 5, require each student to complete an interview with an adult about his or her career. Questions should
focus on what the adult does and the schooling needed to prepare for that career. After interviews have been conducted, students
can share their findings with the class.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
•
Challenge students to look into the future and think about how the jobs they are currently interested in might be different in 15 to
20 years. Using a computer lab, provide students with time to research the education, training, and skills they will need to be
successful in these “future careers.”
•
Host a career day or career week where students’ parents and members of the community visit the school to talk about their
occupations.
•
Arrange field trips to nearby businesses to help students get a sense of the types of occupations that exist in those fields (e.g.,
hospital, grocery store, library, bank, etc.).
•
Provide parents with links to any Web sites used in the career development program so that they have the chance to explore these
sites with their children at home and reinforce the learning that occurred in school.
Middle Schools
• At the middle school level the interventions
are more complex and focused.
• Since middle school students are typically
preoccupied with belonging and are
influenced significantly by same-sex peers,
the focus of the interventions should be on
helping students crystallize and articulate
their ideas.
• In middle school, realistic expectations
should be held for students while also
encouraging them to develop a realistic selfconcept and learn more about possible
opportunities.
Middle Schools (cont)
• The link between school activities and future opportunities that was first developed in elementary school needs to
be strengthened in middle school.
• Stress the process of “lifelong learning” that can lead to occupational success.
• Inform students of the positive correlation between academic achievement and the amount of income workers
earn.
• The primary focus of career development in the middle school is on exploration.
• Students must learn the skills necessary for accessing and using educational and occupational information.
Middle Schools
• For students who wish to attend college, it is essential that they begin talking about these plans with their
parents and the appropriate school staff while in middle school so that they can take classes that will
adequately prepare them for the rigorous courses (i.e., college prep) they will need to take once they reach
high school.
• Students who do not have any postsecondary plans or goals will be at a distinct disadvantage later on in
their academic career if they find that they have not achieved high enough grades or taken the necessary
classes to prepare themselves for the occupation or continuing education they desire.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
•
Administer a career interest inventory, skills assessment, and values inventory. Using the results from these inventories, help students
pinpoint one or two career clusters that are of interest to them to begin exploring in more detail.
•
Present a classroom guidance lesson to students in the computer lab introducing them to the host of available online resources to
help them learn about careers. Ask students to make a list of occupations they think women most commonly work in and the
occupations they think men most commonly work in and have them share their lists with the class. Teach students about
nontraditional career opportunities and how certain jobs have been stereotyped and discriminated against as “male jobs” or “female
jobs.” Present common myths related to nontraditional jobs, as well as information about the realities of these jobs. End with a
discussion about the implications of such stereotyping.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
•
Inform students about the importance of educational and career goal-setting. Create a goal-setting worksheet that asks students to
list two educational goals and two career goals that they have for themselves.
•
Deliver a classroom guidance lesson on the connection between school and work and assign students the task of conducting one
informational interview with a professional in the community.
•
Prepare a presentation introducing students to the wide range of postsecondary possibilities (e.g., four-year college, community
college, vocational school, job training) and provide a sampling of occupations corresponding to each pathway.
•
Introduce students to the concepts of lifestyle and life roles and have each student write down how they currently spend their time
and their current life roles, as well as what they would like their lifestyle to be like and what life roles they think will be important to
them when they are adults.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
• Collaborate with teachers to find ways to integrate career development activities into students’ core classes.
• Host a career day or career fair where students have the opportunity to meet and hear from professionals who work
in a diverse range of occupations.
• Work with students to begin creating a career portfolio, either on the computer or in a binder, to house the results
from their assessments, as well as any other important documents, activities, projects, or research that they
accumulate throughout middle school that will aid them in the career and educational decision making process once
they reach high school.
High Schools
• In the transition from middle to high school,
students focus on the task of identifying
occupational preferences and clarifying
career/lifestyle choices.
• The next step is for students to improve
their skills of adjustment.
• Workforce readiness is a key to successful
career planning in high school because a
majority of high school students go directly
to work immediately following high school.
• Since transitions typically cause anxiety in
most people, students need emotional
support to lessen the anticipatory anxiety.
High Schools
• The transition skills acquired in high school build upon the self-awareness,
occupational awareness, and decision-making skills students have developed
throughout their educational experience.
• Acquiring information about jobs, colleges, and training programs, requires
research, technology, and reading skills.
• Providing career guidance is one of the most important contributions
professional school counselors make to a student’s lifelong development.
• Students need also to be aware of the choices they will make throughout
high school and beyond.
High Schools
• Community resources are a great way to expose students to a variety of
career experiences
• These include local businesses, colleges/universities, and community
members including parents and recent graduates
• Savickas (1999) discussed the necessity of helping students to understand
the decisions and tasks they will have to make in career development and
suggested tools such as the Career Maturity Inventory (Crites, 1978) and others
to help reinforce this concept
High Schools
• Educational planning culminates in high school—students must begin to
make serious decisions about their future.
• Students should formulate an educational plan delineating the steps they
will need to take to achieve their postsecondary goals.
• Professional school counselors should help with the educational planning
process by connecting students with opportunities to more fully
investigate, learn about, and prepare for the preliminary goals they have
set for themselves (e.g., elective classes, job shadowing, summer
enrichment programs, informational interviews).
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
• Administer interest inventories to students that provide them with information about careers
and college majors potentially suitable for them. Have students research two or three careers
and college majors that sound interesting to them.
• Help all students create a four-year educational plan (this is a requirement of many public
schools). Use students’ postsecondary goals and results from career assessments to help guide
course selection.
• Inform students that different occupations require different levels of education. In a computer
lab, show students a few helpful career Web sites and ask them to locate occupations that
require certain degrees.
• Present a lesson on decision-making to students and teach them a specific decision-making
model. Inform students that sound decision-making skills will enable them to make educated
choices about their postsecondary plans.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
• Run counseling groups for students on topics related to career development
and educational planning (e.g., choosing a college, succeeding in college,
finding a job, choosing a career).
• Connect with local companies and professionals to provide students with job
shadowing opportunities.
• Collaborate with English teachers to present lessons to 11th and 12th graders
on how to write a resume and cover letter.
• Host a mock interview day for 11th and 12th graders. Bring in members of the
community to conduct brief mock interviews with students, as well as provide
them with feedback.
Practical Ideas for Career Development
Activities
• Advertise local job and college fairs, or host your own.
• Invite college representatives to visit campus and hold information sessions
for interested students.
• Hold information sessions about financial aid and scholarship opportunities
for students interested in attending college.
• Offer job workshops to assist students in finding and applying for jobs.
• If the high school you work at has a career resource center, create a scavenger
hunt to orient students to the career and educational information and
resources available to them.
Multicultural Implications
• When designing a K–12 educational and career planning program, students’ cultural backgrounds are
salient and an important part of the process.
• The professional school counselor must be aware of how culture intersects and influences all aspects
of career and educational planning in elementary, middle, and high school to promote development
that is congruent with the client’s culture.
Developing Life-role Readiness
• The life-role readiness concept is based on developmental approaches to school counseling (Myrick, 2002).
•
The eight content areas:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Understanding school environment
Understanding self and others
Understanding attitudes and behaviors
Decision-making and problem-solving
Interpersonal and communication skills
School success skills
Career awareness and educational planning
Community pride and involvement
• These areas focus on specific life-roles that are needed to achieve life-role readiness.
Fostering Life-role Readiness and Life-role Salience
• In elementary and middle schools counselors can introduce students to the
primary roles of life (e.g., student, worker, family member, citizen).
• Students can talk about and decide the importance of each life-role.
• Middle school and high school students can be encouraged to participate in
activities that foster the development of life-role readiness.
• Students can examine the relationship between their goals and their current liferole activities.
• Counselors can achieve this by asking questions about what life-roles students
are involved in and which are most important to them or their family.
Fostering Life-role Readiness and Life-role Salience
• Patterns of life-role salience are significantly influenced by one’s immediate
family, cultural heritage, level of acculturation, economics, and environmental
factors.
• Counselors should make students aware of how they are influenced and help
them in their decision making.
• Group and individual guidance can both be helpful in discussing various
cultural perspectives that are generally assigned to specific life-roles.
• Borodovsky and Ponterotto (1994) suggested using a genogram as a useful
tool for exploring the interaction between family background, cultural
perspectives, and career planning.
Activities to Foster Life-role Readiness
• Once one has established how contextual factors influence one’s life-role
salience, counselors must engage students in activities to further develop
life-role readiness.
• Super (1957, 1977) suggests that to develop life-role readiness we must
plan for what the student is about to encounter. For instance, if a student
is college-bound, one should plan for the academic tasks ahead to see if
they match the abilities of the student.
• Another intervention would be to plan a “life-role portfolio” where
students are encouraged to plan, explore, and gather information for each
of their major roles in life.
Summary/Conclusion
• A major goal of professional school counseling programs is to facilitate student development toward
effective life-role participation.
• Professional school counselors must initiate appropriate developmental guidance activities in
elementary school (e.g., self-awareness, curiosity) and facilitate culmination of this process with
assistance in the transition to school, work, and a variety of life roles.