History of Career or
Vocational Guidance
Career Guidance
• Developed in parallel to Counseling.
• Vocational Guidance came first
• Counseling grew out of Vocational
Guidance
• Counseling is bigger than vocational
Guidance
Before 1900s
• Not much help for someone wanting to look at
various careers.
• Knowledge of what opportunities existed
resulted from contact with family, friends,
church, community, and education.
• Very little literature on the subject.
• No organized effort to help people except thru
some schools after education was completed.
Turn of the Century
late 1800s and early 1900s
• Population moving from rural to urban (agrarian to industrial
society), resulting in more diverse work opportunities.
• Immigration from Europe and other Countries
• Vocational Guidance Movement
• Elimination of poverty
• Improving living conditions
– Living conditions and depersonalization during industrial revolution
– Concentration on children
Labor day becomes a Holiday
First Monday of September
• Research seems to support the contention that Matthew
Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the
International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J.,
proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of
the Central Labor Union in New York
• Samuel Gompers, -- founder and longtime president of the
American Federation of Labor said. "All other holidays
are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and
battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for
greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over
another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead,
to no sect, race, or nation."
More on Labor Day
• The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday,
September 5, 1882, in New York City.
• In l884 the first Monday in September was selected as the
holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor
Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow
the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's
holiday" on that date.
• In 1894, the federal government made Labor Day (the first
Monday in September) a federal public holiday.
• http://www.infinet.com/~dzimmerm/Ld/links.html
• http://sea-man.com/laborday.html
• http://www.ptialaska.net/~nstanley/LaborDay.htm
Movement toward education
for purpose and assessment
• 1890 James Cattell publishes article in
which he referred to mental tests as
measures of individual differences
• John Dewey calls for social reform in
education - lead to more focus on individual
motivations, interests, and development
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
MOVEMENT
• 1907 Jesse Davis -- Started first Voc. Guid. Program
in schools (Grand Rapids Michigan) - not very
systematic.
• 1907 Frank Parsons -- Credited with first system or
theory of career guidance, consistent with social
reform at time. Known as the “founding father”
to Vocational Guidance.
Parson’s Background
• Born in 1854, died in 1908.
• Trained in Civil Engineering at Cornell.
• Later taught Mathmatics, history, and
French in public schools.
• Was on Faculty at Kansas State University
in 1897-1899.
• Later on faculty at Boston University.
Frank Parsons-- founding father
of Vocational Guidance
• In 1908 Parsons opened the Vocational
Bureau of Boston with the purpose of
helping people learn of careers.
• Wrote book called Choosing a Vocation.
First published in 1909. New York: Agatha Press
(reprinted 1967).
Parson’s Motivation
• Parsons believed that immigration constituted a drag on the
advancement of society industrially. Parsons and others observed that
too many individuals, especially European immigrants, were being
economically and socially wasted “due to the failure of the overly
academic school system to come to terms with the new industrial
society, which caused students to drop out into the world of work. This
not only hurt the individual, but also made the factory inefficient.
• From 1894 to 1904 parsons devoted much of his effort to reforming
industries, in terms of occupational conditions. During this time period
he did not focus on the individual’s vocational needs.
• He gained a positive view of vocational education when he was
professor at Kansas State University (1897 and 99).
• In 1905 Parsons turned from the reform of the industry to the reform of
the individuals who would work in it.
Parsons Motivation continued….
• Parsons developed a scientific procedure for helping people choose a
vocation by helping them become more aware of their needs, aptitudes,
and the demands of certain occupations.
• Following self study, with the help of a vocational counselor, people
could make rational and free decisions about the work for which they
were best suited and the education then needed.
• Parsons argued that this approach would ensure efficiency for both
factory and the individual and thus improve society.
Vocational Bureau of Boston
• Formed in 1908, the Bureau was organized to deal
with occupational adjustment problems of youth
and adults.
• Parsons found that people were greatly interested in
seeking advice on occupations. In time individual
counseling gave way to group instruction about
career options.
• Parsons was the first to use the term "Vocational
Guidance" in his first report on the work of the
Bureau.
National Conference on Guidance
• 1910 first National Conference on Guidance
sponsored by the Vocational Bureau of Boston, an
outgrowth of Parsons work.
• At the 3rd National Conference (1913) the
National Association of Guidance was formed.
PARSON’S Book
• 1909 Frank Parsons publishes "Choosing a
Vocation"
Careful Inspection of Parsons’
Writing Reveals 10 Principles:
• It is better to choose a vocation than merely to hunt a job
• No one should choose a vocational without careful selfanalysis, thorough, honest, and under guidance
• The youth should have a large survey of the field of
vocations and not simply drop into the convenient or
accidental position
• Expert advice (from persons having studied vocations)
must be better and safer for a young person than the
absence of it
• Process the information on paper
Parson’s Principles
continued…….
• No person should decide for another what occupation he
should choose
In the choice of vocations, consider (1) understanding of
self, (2) knowledge of the requirements of the work, and
(3) true reasoning on the relations among these two
• Counselor should be frank and honest
• Special effort is made to develop analytic power
• One who would be a vocational counselor should
familiarize himself with a high degree of industrial
knowledge
Three main points that have
not changed much since then.
• Awareness of self and personal strengths
and weaknesses
• Awareness of the requirements of different
kinds of jobs/occupations
• Making informed choices / matches of self
with a job.
Current Goals of Career
Education in Arkansas
• Provide students with an opportunity for selfanalysis.
• Provide students with experiences which allow
tentative selection of a career.
• Provide students with a general knowledge of
careers.
• Develop understanding of what is required to enter
a career.
• Develop a plan of how to achieve that goal.
Parson’s Work is Sited
• At the beginning of the century, Parsons
emphasized the importance of helping young
people transition from school to work. After more
than eight decades, half of the nation's student
population is still beset with circumstances that
limit their prospects for a good life.
• Original Source: The William T. Grant Foundation Commission on
Work, Family, and Citizenship, 1988.
• Secondary Source: Career Guidance and Counseling: Recent
Legislation Office of Special Populations' Brief Volume 6, Number 3
(January, 1995)
Choosing a Vocation
Parsons, 1909, p. 4.
• There is no part of life where the need for guidance is
more empathic than in transition from school to work--the
choice of a vocation, adequate preparation for it, and the
attainment of efficiency and success. The building of a
career is quite as difficult a problem as the building of a
house, yet few ever sit down with pencil and paper, with
expert information and counsel, to plan a working career
and deal with the life problem scientifically, as they would
deal with the problem of building a house, taking the
advice of an architect to help them.
• Secondary Source: Career Guidance and Counseling: Recent
Legislation Office of Special Populations' Brief Volume 6, Number 3
(January, 1995)
ARIZONA STATE
UNIVERSITY
• CPY 644 Psychology of Careers
– Required and Supplemental Readings, Fall 1996
– Class 1, Historical Perspectives (8/26)
– Parsons, F. (1909). Excerpts from Choosing a vocation. New
York: Agatha Press (reprinted 1967).
Charles Prosser and his
Doctrine of Social Efficiency
Relative Events of the Times
• Smith Lever Act, 1914
• WW I - military in need of placement
specialists. Focus shifts toward assessment
• Smith Hughes Act, Vocational Education
Act of 1917
• Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1918
Time Marched On!
• EK Strong - tried to upgrade interest assessment to
level of Binet’s IQ assessment
• 1920’s - Minn. Mech. Abilities Project (later to
become Minn. Employment Stabilization
Research Institute)
• 1927 - Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Boys
• First Dictionary of Occupational Titles published
in 1939
CHANGES IN THE EMPHASIS IN
COUNSELING AFTER THE 1950'S
• It shifted away from an occupational choice
to…..
• An analysis of why and how a person
chooses a particular occupation.
Time Marched On!
•
•
•
•
More women in the work force
Veterans training programs
Fewer farmers needed
Level of skill needed to work in industry was
increasing
• More people were going to college
• Some states began building technical schools
Time Marched On!
• 1954-- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Supreme Court
unanimously agrees that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and
must be abolished.
• 1955 The Vietnam War begins
• 1957 Soviet Union launches Sputnik, a satellite
• 1958 -- National Defense Education Act - provided assistance to state and
local school systems for strengthening instruction in science,
mathematics, foreign languages, and other critical subjects; improvement
of state statistical services; guidance, counseling, and testing services and
training institutes higher education student loans and fellowships
experimentation and dissemination of information on more effective use of
television motion picture, and related media for education purposes; and
vocational education for technical occupations, such as data processing,
necessary to the national defense.
Career Related Games
Milton Bradley -- 1955
"WHAT SHALL I BE" GAME
EXCITING GAME OF CAREERS FOR GIRLS
1966 Selchow & Righter co.
Time Marched On! continued….
• 1963 -- Manpower Development and Training Act - provided training
in new and improved skills for the unemployed and underemployed.
• 1963 -- Vocational Education Acts of 1963 - increased federal support
of vocational education, including support of residential vocational
schools, vocational work study programs, and research, training, and
demonstrations in vocational education.
Time Marched On! continued…
• 1963 -- Higher Education Facilities Act - authorized grants and loans
for classrooms and laboratories in public community colleges and
technical institutes as well as for undergraduate and graduate facilities
in other institutions of higher education.
• 1964 -- Economic Opportunity Act - authorized grants for college
work-study programs for students of low income families; established
a Job Corps program and authorized support for work training
programs to provide education and vocational training and work
experience for unemployed youth; provided training and work
experience opportunities in welfare programs; authorized support of
education and training activities and community action programs
including Head Start, Follow Through, Upward Bound; authorized the
establishment of the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA).
Sidney J. Marland
(Commissioner of Education-1971)
• He proposed an emphasis on career
education
– In a 1971 address to the convention of the
National Association of Secondary School
Principals, he proposed that persons
completing school programs at grade 12 would
be ready to enter higher education or to enter
useful and rewarding employment.
MARLIN’S Four-Fold Plan
for Career Development,
Components 1 and 2
• Major improvements and updating of
occupational education emphasizing newer
vocational fields and sound educational
base underlying all specific skills training
• More flexible options for high school
graduates to continue on to higher education
or to enter the world of work
MARLIN’S Plan, Continued…
Components 3 and 4
• A closer liaison of vocational education and
people from business, industry, and
organized labor with more work experience
opportunities for students
• A new commitment at all levels -- federal,
state, and local -- toward developing
leadership and commitment to the concept
of career education
Experimental models for career
education developed by the U.S.
Office of Education
• Four models
–
–
–
–
School Based Model
Employee-Experience-Based Model
Rural-Residential-Based Model
Home-Community-Based Model
• 1971
• 15 million
School Based Model
• The object of Model 1 was to develop and test a career education
system (K-12) in six school systems (representing varying sizes,
geographic locations, and cultural ethnic populations) that would help
students to develop (a) a comprehensive awareness of career options;
(b) a concept of self that is in keeping with a work-oriented society,
including positive attitudes about work, school, and society, and a
sense of satisfaction resulting from successful experience in these
areas; (c) personal characteristics, such as self-respect, initiative, and
resourcefulness; (d) a realistic understanding of the relationships
between the work of work and education to assist individuals in
becoming contributing members of society; and (e) the ability to enter
employment in a selected occupational area and/or to go on for further
education.
Employee-Experience-Based Model
• The objectives of Model 2, the employer-based model (also called
experience-based) (17), were (a) to provide an alternative educational
program for students, aged 13-18, in an employer-based setting; (b) to
unify the positive elements of academic, general, and vocational
curricula into a comprehensive career education program; (c) to
increase the relevance of education to the world of work; and (d) to
broaden the base of community participation, particularly by involving
public and private employers more directly in education.
Rural-Residential-Based Model
• This experimental demonstration activity involved various individuals,
agencies, and other resources in preparing adults and children of rural
unemployed and underemployed families in Wyoming, Montana,
Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska for rewarding
employment.
• Goals: (a) contribute to their own growth and to the growth of their
society; and (b) make prudent use of their personal as well as their
society's resources and energies. The ultimate goal of the residentialbased model was to determine whether low-income rural residents
could develop career roles through specially adapted in-house
experiences.
Home-Community-Based Model
• The fourth model, a home-community effort, used television and radio
programming to encourage unemployed or underemployed adults to
take advantage of local retraining programs. Through the use of the
home-based model, the U.S. Office of Education hoped to (a) enhance
the quality of the home as a learning center, (b) develop educational
delivery systems into the home and community, (c) provide new career
education programs for adults, (d) establish a guidance and career
placement system to assist individuals in occupational and related
roles, and (e) develop more competent workers
Time Marched On! continued…
• 1973 Comprehensive Employment and Training Act consolidated previous labor and public service programs;
authorized funds for employment counseling,
supportive services, classroom training, training on the job,
work experience, and public service employment;
incorporated essential principles of revenue sharing, giving
state and local governments more control over use of funds
and determination of programs.
Terrel Bell was First Commissioner of
Education After Marland
Note: President Carter make this a Cabinet level position
• He continued the push for career education.
• Section 406, Title IV, Public Law 93-380
(Educational Amendments of 1974), made
career education a law of the land,
establishing a National Advisory Council on
Career Education.
Three Main Provisions
of Title IV, Section 406 of P.L. 93-380; (1974)
• Every child should, by the time he has
completed secondary school, be prepared
for gainful or maximum employment and
for full participation in our society
according to his or her ability.
Provision 2
• It is the obligation of each local educational
agency to provide that preparation for all
children (including handicapped children
and all other children who are educationally
disadvantaged) within the school district of
such agency; and
Provision 3
• Each State and local educational agency
should carry out a program of career
education options which are designed to
prepare each child for maximum
employment and participation in our society
according to his or her ability.
THE CAREER EDUCATION
INCENTIVE ACT 95-207 (1977)
• Purpose of the Act:
– to assist states and local educational agencies and institutions of
postsecondary education, including collaborative arrangements with the
appropriate agencies and organizations, in making education as preparation
for work, and as a means of relating work values to other life roles and
choices (such as family life), a major goal of all who teach and all who learn
by increasing the emphasis they place on career awareness, exploration,
decision making, and planning, and to do so in a manner which will promote
equal opportunity in making career choices through the elimination of bias
and stereotyping in such activities, including bias and stereotyping on account
of race, sex, age, economic status, or handicap.
Career Education in Arkansas
• Since the mid 1970s (ASU involved from the start)
• Workshops and projects to develop Objectives and
Curriculum
• Workshops and projects to develop Materials to
support the efforts of the teacher (posters, materials
for hands-on activities).
• 1991 -- AR adopted a statewide text for the course
(Your Career Adventure)
• Threat to CO as a course 1996
• 1998 -- AR dropped the text for the course
CHANGES IN THEORIES UNDERLYING
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE SINCE THE
TURN OF THE CENTURY
as noted by Calhoun and Finch
• Once is not enough
• The single occupational-choice-at-a-pointin time focus of the early practitioners of
career guidance has given way to a broader,
more comprehensive view of the individual
and his or her development over the life
span.
Age focus is out the window
• The specific age focus of traditional career
guidance is not valid. Instead of the notion
that a permanent occupational choice is
made at some point, usually during late
adolescence, we now understand that
occupational choice is a process which
takes place over a period of time and is a
result of a combination of
interacting determinants.
Work to understand who you are
• People at work are no longer seen only as
objects through which occupations are
analyzed and classified. Rather we now
understand that a work setting can be used
as a medium to help people better
understand themselves.
Continuous Process,
Cradle to Grave
• Career guidance activities are important
over the life span of the individual;
therefore, educational personnel at all level,
kindergarten through adult, have a part to
play. When viewed as a continuous
process, career guidance is a program in the
mainstream of education rather than an
ancillary service.
Human Development
• Career guidance is more than a simple
process of matching people to jobs; it is a
complex process of human development
and should be treated as a major educational
goal.
History marches on…...