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Career education and acquisition of career management skills

 

Individuals and communities differ in their capacities to find information about learning and work opportunities, interpret that information and make meaningful decisions, which they can successfully implement over a lifetime. Career education at schools, and guidance and counselling services, are the main policy instruments which help individuals to learn the above-mentioned career management skills.

 

Career education refers to a range of pedagogical services, structured programmes and activities which help students to link their learning to the acquisition of lifelong career management skills and employability skills. These kinds of programmes promote critical reflection about the world of work, awareness of opportunities for further learning and awareness of training opportunities. Some programmes prepare students for work, and stress adaption and coping to the world as it is. Other programmes encourage critical reflection about work and an active role in shaping the future world of work (Sultana, 2018). Promoting career decision-making and career management skills is one of a range of lifelong guidance activities, which include, for example, informing, advising and counselling. Career learning and career exploration include these above-mentioned elements and can take place in groups, as well as through individual dialogue when necessary (Sultana, 2018).

 

At schools, career education programmes can be delivered as a stand-alone and timetabled subject, as a series of themes taught across different subjects in the curriculum, or through extra-curricular activities. A cross-curricular approach helps students to think through work-related issues in different subject areas. However, an efficient programme requires careful leadership, co-ordination and co-operation between teachers and in the curriculum design among different teachers. Extra-curricular activities can include career weeks or career fairs, workplace visits, work experience programmes or employer visits in schools. These kinds of events provide opportunities for learning about work, but require a model with regular inputs and experiences, which help students to think about the links between further studies and the world of work. The most comprehensive approach is to include career education as a compulsory or optional timetabled subject within the curriculum.

 

Career education programmes can be delivered by career teachers or career practitioners based either in or outside the school. A third model is a partnership between school-based and external personnel.  A well-functioning partnership model can link the curriculum content to a more up-to-date and in-depth knowledge of the world of work. It is also important that the needs of individual students are identified holistically, and that when appropriate there are opportunities to refer students to services where their other needs can be met.

 

Career education or career guidance is not one intervention but many, and works most effectively when a range of interventions is combined and sequenced in a programmatic fashion (Hooley, 2014). Sultana (2018) distinguishes the curriculum based and work-based pedagogical methods in the delivery of career education in addition to career guidance services. The involvement of employers and working people in work-based experiential learning is critical for an individual’s career learning.

 

Career education acts as a link between school, community and working life, promoting social justice, equity, equality and inclusion and preventing marginalization in terms of education and employment.

 

The ELGPN (2015b) notes that in order to inform strategic decision-making on the provision of CMS, it is necessary to raise awareness of what CMS are, why provision of CMS development is needed, how such provision is used and what the benefits are of mastering CMS both for individuals and for society. Based on the experiences of the Network, member countries agreed on a number of principles of good practice.

 

ELGPN Guidelines for Policies and System Development for Lifelong Guidance: What is good practice to promote career management skills?

Policies and systems that:

  • Support the development of a framework that outlines the competences a citizen needs to effectively manage their learning and work choices in a long-term perspective, and that differentiates in CMS expectations and outcomes according to the citizen’s developmental stage.
  • Support the teaching and acquisition of CMS in formal education and training settings as either specialised education programmes or as cross-curricular competences.
  • Support the teaching of CMS by the public employment service to its target groups.
  • Training the trainers: Promote staff and practitioner training to ensure that they are effective in assisting citizens to acquire CMS.
  • Favour the teaching, acquisition and development of CMS in workforce settings (human resources development, retraining and interventions for the unemployed and for groups at risk of unemployment).
  • Support the evaluation and assessment of the outcomes of such teaching and training.
  • Take into account the context of learning (culture, education, training, retraining, curricular and pedagogical tradition).
  • Make use of the advantages of diversity in CMS teaching and use it as a source of enrichment and better understanding.
  • Adopt a cross-sector approach, including the collaboration of different stakeholders that supports the continuity of learning of CMS across sectors.

 

Further reading:

  •  Sultana, R. (2018) Enhancing the quality of career guidance in secondary schools - A handbook. My Future project. 

  • Hooley, T. (2014). The Evidence Base on Lifelong Guidance. A Guide to Key Findings for Effective Policy and Practice. ELGPN Tools No.3. Saarijärvi, Finland

  • ELGPN [European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network]. (2015b). The Guidelines for Policies and Systems Development for Lifelong Guidance: A Reference Framework for the EU and for the Commission. ELGPN Tools No. 6. Saarijärvi, Finland.

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