Educational and Vocational Guidance

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ASSIGNMENT ON

EDUCATIONAL AND VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

Submitted to Prof.Dr Meher Bano Submitted By Kashaf Butt Phd Scholar(3rd Semester,2011) Department of Psychology

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Definition & Explanation ........................................................................... Purpose of Guidance ................................................................................... Scope of Guidance ....................................................................................... Types of Guidance ...................................................................................... Brief History of Guidance........................................................................... Vocational Educational Guidance.............................................................. Aims of Guidance ........................................................................................ References ....................................................................................................

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Definition of Guidance & Counseling:The term “Guidance and Counselling” will be used in the context of life long learning and refers according to the definition of the Council of the European Union: That "information, guidance and counselling services" refers to services 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. Guidance facilitates people throughout their lives to manage their own educational, training, occupational, personal, social and life choices so that they reach their full potential and contribute to the development of a better society” (National Guidance Forum 2007) The purpose of guidance is to provide ‘learning experiences to enable clients to acquire knowledge, skills and competencies related to making personal, educational and career decisions’ (Clark, 1999, p. 10) Biswalo (1996) says” Guidance is a term used to denote the process of helping an individual to gain self-understanding and self direction (self decision making) so that he can adjust maximally to home, schools or community environment.” Characteristics of Guidance:It is a continuous process such that it is a regular service, which is required at every stage for every person, not only for awkward situations and abnormal people. It is a positive program geared to meet the needs of all people .It is needed right from early childhood, adolescence through adulthood and old age. It is both generalized and a specialized service. It is a generalized service because everyone-teachers, lecturers, advisors, deans, parents and elders-play apart in guidance. It is a generic term as it includes information giving and research activities. It is a specialized service because specially qualified personnel as counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists join hands to help individuals to adjust to the environment. It includes counseling because counseling skills can be applied in guidance. Education has an essential effect of the imparting type of culture from generation to generation as well as the education of individual human beings continues through out the life and at birth. In general term the word education derives from the Latin, educate which is the meaning to raise or to nourish. Even the family members may have a profound type of educational effect and profound the more than they realize, though the function of the family teaching is informally. Education is basically central to the development and a key to attaining the

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number of development goals and it is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing the poverty and it lays a foundation for the sustained type of economic growth. The main goal of education is basically to develop the knowledge, character of students or skill. Especially, the software's are also used for the business success. However the educational process has been the subject of comment by the writers and academics. The education is an easy step for criticism because its aims are stated like so nobly ambitious that are very little chance of being realized. Generally, the education is defined as the process of obtaining some kind of knowledge and learning at school in the form of formal way of education. Well the process of education does not start, when the child attend the school first time. Education part also begins at home. Even the child does not receive the knowledge only from teacher, but they also acquire the knowledge from parents as well as the family members also. But the main point is that the learning subject is not enough for especially in the schools. Even the two types of knowledge are very essential for the successful in life that is one can learn the history, science and math's related subjects in schools and be book-smart. In addition they can also learned how to live the life as well as by knowing what to say and when to say, acting a various way and various situations and be street-smart. Education is the most important part in our life and no one should be deprived of it. For example, you can have all type of book knowledge in all the world related to a various profession but if you don't know how to behave with your co-workers or your superiors, then you won't get too far succeed in the life because it is not compulsory for having the book knowledge only. The importance of education is divided into two reasons. The first one is that the training of human mind is never complete without the education and the second one is that the man is enabled to receive the information from external world and they receive the all type of information regarding the present. Without the education, the man is totally like a closed room. Even the human being is not in the proper sense till he is educated. Education is the most important part of knowledge of putting one's potential to a maximize use and each kind of job path has shown its own step to success. Guidance covers the whole process of education which starts from the birth of the child. As the individual need help throughout their lives, it is not wrong to say that guidance is needed from cradle to grave. If we consider the literal meaning, to guide means to indicate, to point out, to show the way. It means more than to assist. If an individual slips on the road we assist him/her to get ufl hut we do not guide him unless we help him/her to go in a certain direction. The term guidance is related to all types of education-formal, non-formal, vocational, etc. wherein the aim is to help the individual to adjust to his/her environment in an affective way. It can also he said that guidance is given to individuals in making appropriate choices and adjustments. Guidance has been defined from different points of views. According to Good, "Guidance is a process of dynamic interpersonal relationship

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designed to influence the attitude and subsequent behavior of the person". In this definition, emphasis is given on interpersonal relationships, which play a great role in determining the degree of success the individual will achieve in the society. And through guideline, the individual can be helped to develop desirable attitudes and behavior patterns. According to National Vocational Guidance Association, "Guidance is the process of helping a person to develop and accept an integrated and adequate picture of him/herself and his/her role in the world of work, to test this concept against reality and to convert it into reality with satisfactorily to him/herself and benefit to society". McDonald opines that the purpose of guidance is to help the students and teachers in acquiring desirable abilities and skills rather than to achieve the ends of educational programs. In his words, "Guidance is a facilitative service, it does not undertake to carry out the objectives of educational programs; rather it attends to provide aids to pupils and staff to help pupils determine the courses most appropriate to their needs and abilities, find instructors who will he more sympathetic to their individual requirements and seek out activities, which will help them realize their potentialities”. Mathewson (1962) defined guidance as “the systematic professional process of helping the individual through educative and interpretive procedures to gain a better understanding of his/her own characteristics and potentialities and to relate him/herself more satisfactorily to social requirements and opportunities, in accord with social and moral values. According to this definition guidance is an assistance given to individuals through various procedures so that he is able to understand the social requirements and opportunities and to know the ways and means to adjust him/her to these. When all these definitions are reviewed it clears that guidance is a service which aims to help the individual attain his/her full maturity and he of service to society and it is also regarded as an instrument yvhich helps in the realization of general objectives of education.Many have emphasized the dynamic nature of guidance. This will be more clearly understandable when we consider counseling in the context of guidance. Purpose of Guidance Guidance is to help one to adjust to abilities, interests and needs of the society. In other words it is helping a person to develop in the desired direction and to orient him/herself according to the needs and demands of changing times and society. The purpose of guidance at elementary school level is focused on assisting pupils to integrate such primary groups forces as the home, the school, religion and peer relationships. These are the forces which form the base for the students' adolescence, then blend those forces into a harmonious whole. At secondary school level it is centrally focused upon differentiating aspects all these forces as they effect the pupils knowledge, acceptance, and direction of him/herself. Secondary guidance services have as their focus the assistance given to the students to develop themselves according to their potentialities and opportunities in the areas of educational planning, career choice, interpersonal relationships and

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interpersonal,acceptance. Thus the purpose of guidance is to improve the capability of the individual to understand and deal with self-situational relations for greater personal satisfaction and social usefulness which includes students, teacher, parents, etc. 1. Contribution to students: a) To help them understand themselves by knowing ignore about their abilities. Aptitudes, interests and limitations. b) To get along better with other people and understand the world in which they live. c) To get the most out of school by gaining information regarding career, subjects etc. d) To explore their own interests, abilities, learn about various aspects of the world of work and learn to make most of their liability. e) In recognizing gifted and slow learners and students having special needs and helping them to develop proper attitude and make maximum use of their potential ability. 2. Aid to the teacher a) Guidance offers opportunities increase teachers' understanding of their Students through the service education programs carried on by the guidance person. The school counselor assists in administering in testing programs and in familiarizing teachers with the interpretation of the tests. These test results give information which assists teachers to belter understand their students' classroom behavior and Performance. b) Data on students' special interests, capabilities and past experiences are provided on the cumulative record by the guidance faculty. Knowledge about students' physical condition, medical history, family background, scholastic record, scores on standardized tests, personal characteristics, etc. help the teacher to provide better instruction to the student. 3. Beneficial to the parents: a) To give clearer perception of the child's intelligence, abilities, interests and Potentialities, the programme helps the parent know, understand and accept the child as he/she is. b) To assist the total community population towards better mental health. 4. Understanding Guidance a) Help the entire school in many ways. e.g. by aiding students in their choice of courses by counseling on the basis of their interest and aptitudes. Give administration information

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on those aspects of the school program which relate to the educational, career and personality development of the students. Scope of Guidance The scope of guidance covers the following areas: I. Individual and curriculum: a) Academic achievement and progress. b) Personal development through curricular and co-curricular activities. 2. Personal-social relations of the individual in school: a) Understanding of self and the relations of personal characteristics to each other and to behavior. b) Understanding of others and relations with them. 3. Educational, vocational requirement and opportunities vis-à-vis the individual: a) Preparing to meet future education and occupational requirements. b) Utilization of appropriate opportunities - educational and vocational areas. We may now take up each one of the above mentioned areas of guidance to understand the scope of educational and vocational guidance. 1. a) Academic achievement and progress: Sometimes it so happen that a student's scholastic achievement is low hut shows high I.Q. In such a case guidance worker can find out with the help of certain psychological tests as to where the weakness lies and thus help the student to come up to the desired levels, or sometimes the student has certain problems relating to studies that he/she is not able to cope up with in his/her academics, guidance worker can be effective in such situations. b) Personal development: Guidance program are so designed that personal development of students is nurtured optimally. 2. Personal-social relations: Getting along well with others is an indicator that a person is well adjusted in the society. Guidance helps in understanding one's self to deal effectively with others. 3. Relation of the individual to educational and vocational requirements: Guidance helps the individual to make effective decisions at different stages of life such as choice

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of subjects, career selection, by providing necessary information related different careers and their allied fields. Aims of Guidance and Counseling Programs The aims of the guidance and counseling service are similar to the purposes of education in general—to assist the student in fulfilling her basic physiological needs, understanding herself and acceptance of others, developing associations with peers, balancing between permissiveness and controls in the educational setting, realizing successful achievement, and providing opportunities to gain independence (Heyden, 2011). The purposes of guidance and counseling provide emphasis and strength to the educational program. Some specific aims of the school guidance and counseling program include the following (Gibson, 2009): a)To Provide for the Realization of Student Potentialities To all students, the school offers a wide choice of courses and co-curricular activities. A significant function of education is to help students identify and develop their potentialities. The counselor's role is to assist students to distribute their energies into the many learning opportunities available to them. Every student needs help in planning his major course of study and pattern of co-curricular activities. b) To Help Children with Developing Problems Even those students who have chosen an appropriate educational program for themselves may have problems that require help. A teacher may need to spend from one-fifth to onethird of his time with a few pupils who require a great deal of help, which deprives the rest of the class from the teacher's full attention to their needs. The counselor, by helping these youngsters to resolve their difficulties, frees the classroom teacher to use his time more efficiently. c) To Contribute to the Development of the School's Curriculum Counselors, in working with individual students, know their personal problems and aspirations, their talents and abilities, as well as the social pressures confronting them. Counselors, therefore, can provide data that serve as a basis for curriculum development, and they can help curriculum developers shape courses of study that more accurately reflect the needs of students. Too often, counselors are not included in curriculum development efforts. d) To Provide Teachers with Technical Assistance Pre-service teacher training institutions typically provide very limited experience with the more technical aspects of guidance work. Thus, a need exists in most schools for assistance with guidance and counseling functions essential to the educational program. Specifically, the guidance counselor is qualified to assist teachers with selecting,

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administering, and interpreting tests; selecting and using cumulative, anecdotal, and other types of records; providing help and suggestions relative to counseling techniques, which teachers can use in counseling their students; and providing leadership in developing and conducting professional development of teachers in guidance functions. e) To Contribute to the Mutual Adjustment of Students and the School Guidance has a responsibility for developing and maintaining a cooperative relationship between students and the school. Teachers and counselors must be cognizant of students' needs. Students also must make adjustments to the school. They have a responsibility to contribute something to the school. A major contribution of students is that of making appropriate use of the school's resources and working toward accomplishments. Such mutual adjustment of students and school is facilitated by providing suggestions for program improvements, conducting research for educational improvements, contributing to students' adjustment through counseling, and fostering wholesome school-home attitudes. Major Guidance and Counseling Services The primary mission of a school's guidance and counseling program is to provide a broad spectrum of personnel services to the students. These services include student assessment, the information service, placement and follow-up, and counseling assistance. These four areas should constitute the core of any guidance program and should be organized to facilitate the growth and development of all students from kindergarten through post high school experiences (Erford, 2010; Erford, 2011; Neukrug, 2011). a) Assessment The assessment service is designed to collect, analyze, and use a variety of objective and subjective personal, psychological, and social data about each pupil. Its purpose is to help the individual to better understand herself. Conferences with pupils and parents, standardized test scores, academic records, anecdotal records, personal data forms, case studies, and portfolios are included. The school counselor interprets this information to pupils, parents, teachers, administrators, and other professionals. Pupils with special needs and abilities are thus identified. b) Information The information service is designed to provide accurate and current information in order that the students may make an intelligent choice of an educational program, an occupation, or a social activity. Essentially, the aim is that with such information students will make better choices and will engage in better planning in and out of the school setting. Students must not only be exposed to such information but must also have an opportunity to react to it in a meaningful way with others. c) Placement and Follow-up

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The school assists the student in selecting and utilizing opportunities within the school and in the outside labor market. Counselors assist students in making appropriate choices of courses of study and in making transitions from one school level to another, one school to another, and from school to employment. Placement thereby involves pupil assessment, informational services, and counseling assistance appropriate to the pupil's choices of school subjects, co-curricular activities, and employment. Follow-up is concerned with the development of a systematic plan for maintaining contact with former students. The data obtained from the follow-up studies aid the school in evaluating the school's curricular and guidance programs. d) Counseling The counseling service is designed to facilitate self-understanding and development through dyadic or small-group relationships. The aim of such relationships tends to be on personal development and decision making that is based on self-understanding and knowledge of the environment. The counselor assists the student to understand and accept himself thereby clarifying his ideas, perceptions, attitudes, and goals; furnishes personal and environmental information to the pupil, as required, regarding his plans, choices, or problems; and seeks to develop in the student the ability to cope with/and solve problems and increased competence in making decisions and plans for the future. Counseling is generally accepted as the heart of the guidance service. Evaluation of Guidance and Counseling Programs Evaluation consists of making systematic judgments of the relative effectiveness with which goals are attained in relation to specified standards. In evaluating a function like guidance and counseling services, we attempt to determine to what extent the objectives of the service have been attained. The major objectives of guidance are to assist individuals to develop the ability to understand themselves, to solve their own problems, and to make appropriate adjustments to their environment as the situation dictates (Gibson, 2008). Evaluation is the means by which school personnel can better judge the extent to which these objectives are being met (Popham, 2010). The ten characteristics cited following provide criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of a school's guidance and counseling services (Cobia, 2007; Dimmitt, Carey, & Hatch, 2007; Gysbers, 2006).

i) Pupil Needs Effective guidance programs are based on pupil needs. Some needs are typical among pupils of a given age; others are specific to certain individuals in particular regions or schools. In effective guidance programs, teachers, counselors, and administrators listen carefully to what pupils say, because they know they are expressing either personal or situational inadequacies. ii) Cooperation

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The staff of effective guidance programs works cooperatively. Cooperation is exhibited in the degree of active interest, mutual help, and collaboration among teachers, counselors, and administrators. iii) Process and Product Effective guidance programs are concerned with both process and product. The questions "How well is the program operating?" and "What are the outcomes?" guide the focus in effective guidance programs. The most important outcome of a guidance program is desirable change in the behavior of students, such as improved school attendance, better study habits, better scholastic achievement, fewer scholastic failures, lower dropout rate, better educational planning, and better home-school relations. iv) Balance Effective guidance programs balance corrective, preventive, and developmental functions. Personnel in such programs know when to extricate pupils from potentially harmful situations, when to anticipate pupil difficulties, and when to provide assistance necessary to a pupil's maximum development. v) Stability The ability to adjust to loss of personnel without loss of effectiveness is associated with program quality. Stability requires that the system is able to fill vacant positions quickly and satisfactorily. vi) Flexibility Effective guidance programs manifest flexibility. Flexibility enables the program to expand or contract as the situation demands without significant loss of effectiveness. vii) Qualified Counselors Counselors hold a graduate degree in counseling and are fully certified by the state in which they practice. viii) Adequate Counselor-Student Ratio Most accrediting agencies (Southern Association, North Central Association, for example) require a counselor-student ratio of one full-time counselor for 250 to 300 students. A caseload of this magnitude is satisfactory if counselors are to have adequate time to counsel students individually and in small groups, as well as consult with faculty, administrators, and parents. ix) Physical Facilities

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Are the facilities for guidance work sufficient for an effective program? Physical facilities that are well planned and provide for adequate space, privacy, accessibility, and the like are characteristic of quality guidance programs. x) Records Appropriate records are maintained on each student including achievement test scores, information supplied by teachers, administrators, parents, employers, and other professional personnel. Although many of the before mentioned ten characteristics are useful, they should not be accepted unquestioningly. To some extent each guidance program is unique to its particular setting and consequently would either add other characteristics to the list or stress those cited previously in varying degrees.

Scope of Guidance The scope of guidance covers the following areas: I. individual and curriculum: • • Academic achievement and progress. Personal development through curricular and co-curricular activities.

2. Personal-social relations of the individual in school: • • Understanding of self and the relations of personal characteristics to each other and to behavior. Understanding of others and relations with them.

3. Educational, vocational requirement and opportunities vis-à-vis the individual: • • Preparing to meet future education and occupational requirements. Utilization of appropriate opportunities - educational and vocational areas.

TYPES OF GUIDANCE Guidance is a continuous process and it deals with all aspects of life. Hence guidance is needed in aspects of life. According to W. M. Proctor there are the following types of guidance: 1. Educational Guidance

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2. Vocational Guidance 3. Guidance in social and civic activities 4. Guidance in health and physical activities 5. Guidance in the worthy use of leisure time 6. Guidance in character building activities

As per John M. Bremer guidance are of ten types. They are: 1. Educational 2. Vocational 3. Religious 4. Guidance "for hoine relationships" 5. Guidance "for citizenship" 6. Guidance "for leisure and recreation" 7. Guidance " in personal well being" 8. Guidance "in right doing" 9. Guidance "in thoughtfulness and co-operation" 10. Guidance "in wholesome and cultural action"

A Brief History of School Guidance and Counseling in the United States The history of school counseling formally started at the turn of the twentieth century, although a case can be made for tracing the foundations of counseling and guidance principles to ancient Greece and Rome with the philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle. There is also evidence to argue that some of the techniques and skills of modern-day guidance counselors were practiced by Catholic priests in the Middle Ages, as can be seen by the dedication to the concept of confidentiality within the confessional. Near the end of the sixteenth century, one of the first texts about career options appeared: The Universal Plaza of All the Professions of the World, (1626) written by

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Tomaso Garzoni. Nevertheless, formal guidance programs using specialized textbooks did not start until the turn of the twentieth century. The factors leading to the development of guidance and counseling in the United States began in the 1890s with the social reform movement. The difficulties of people living in urban slums and the widespread use of child labor outraged many. One of the consequences was the compulsory education movement and shortly thereafter the vocational guidance movement, which, in its early days, was concerned with guiding people into the workforce to become productive members of society. The social and political reformer Frank Parsons is often credited with being the father of the vocational guidance movement. His work with the Civic Service House led to the development of the Boston Vocation Bureau. In 1909 the Boston Vocation Bureau helped outline a system of vocational guidance in the Boston public schools. The work of the bureau influenced the need for and the use of vocational guidance both in the United States and other countries. By 1918 there were documented accounts of the bureau's influence as far away as Uruguay and China. Guidance and counseling in these early years were considered to be mostly vocational in nature, but as the profession advanced other personal concerns became part of the school counselor's agenda. The United States' entry into World War I brought the need for assessment of large groups of draftees, in large part to select appropriate people for leadership positions. These early psychological assessments performed on large groups of people were quickly identified as being valuable tools to be used in the educational system, thus beginning the standardized testing movement that in the early twenty-first century is still a strong aspect of U.S. public education. At the same time, vocational guidance was spreading throughout the country, so that by 1918 more than 900 high schools had some type of vocational guidance system. In 1913 the National Vocational Guidance Association was formed and helped legitimize and increase the number of guidance counselors. Early vocational guidance counselors were often teachers appointed to assume the extra duties of the position in addition to their regular teaching responsibilities. The 1920s and 1930s saw an expansion of counseling roles beyond working only with vocational concerns. Social, personal, and educational aspects of a student's life also needed attention. The Great Depression of the 1930s led to the restriction of funds for counseling programs. Not until 1938, after a recommendation from a presidential committee and the passage of the George Dean Act, which provided funds directly for the purposes of vocational guidance counseling, did guidance counselors start to see an increase in support for their work. After World War II a strong trend away from testing appeared. One of the main persons indirectly responsible for this shift was the American psychologist Carl Rogers. Many in the counseling field adopted his emphasis on "nondirective" (later called "clientcentered") counseling. Rogers publishedCounseling and Psychotherapy in 1942 and Client-Centered Therapy in 1951. These two works defined a new counseling theory in complete contrast to previous theories in psychology and counseling. This new theory

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minimized counselor advice-giving and stressed the creation of conditions that left the client more in control of the counseling content. In 1958 the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was enacted, providing aid to education in the United States at all levels, public and private. Instituted primarily to stimulate the advancement of education in science, mathematics, and modern foreign languages, NDEA also provided aid in other areas, including technical education, area studies, geography, English as a second language, counseling and guidance, school libraries, and educational media centers. Further support for school counseling was spurred by the Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik and fears that other countries were outperforming the United States in the fields of mathematics and science. Hence, by providing appropriate funding for education, including guidance and counseling, it was thought that more students would find their way into the sciences. Additionally, in the 1950s the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) was formed, furthering the professional identity of the school counselor. The work of C. Gilbert Wrenn, including his 1962 book The Counselor in a Changing World, brought to light the need for more cultural sensitivity on the part of school counselors. The 1960s also brought many more counseling theories to the field, including Frederick Perl's gestalt therapy, William Glasser's reality therapy, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May's existential approach, and John Krumboltz's behavioral counseling approach. It was during this time that legislative support and an amendment to the NDEA provided funds for training and hiring school counselors with an elementary emphasis. In the 1970s the school counselor was beginning to be defined as part of a larger program, as opposed to being the entire program. There was an emphasis on accountability of services provided by school counselors and the benefits that could be obtained with structured evaluations. This decade also gave rise to the special education movement. The educational and counseling needs of students with disabilities were addressed with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975. The 1980s saw the development of training standards and criteria for school counseling. This was also a time of more intense evaluation of education as a whole and counseling programs in particular. In order for schools to provide adequate educational opportunities for individuals with disabilities, school counselors were trained to adapt the educational environment to student needs. The duties and roles of many counselors began to change considerably. Counselors started finding themselves as gatekeepers to Individualized Education Programs (IEP) and Student Study Teams (SST) as well as consultants to special education teachers, especially after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. The development of national educational standards and the school reform movement of the 1990s ignored school counseling as an integral part of a student's educational development. The ASCA compensated partially with the development of national standards for school counseling programs. These standards clearly defined the roles and

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responsibilities of school counseling programs and showed the necessity of school counseling for the overall educational development of every student.

Vocational education or vocational education and training (VET) prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation. It is sometimes referred to as technical education as the trainee directly develops expertise in a particular group of techniques or technology. Vocational education may be classified as teaching procedural knowledge. This can be contrasted with declarative knowledge, as used in education in a usually broader scientific field, which might concentrate on theory and abstractconceptual knowledge, characteristic of tertiary education. Vocational education can be at the secondary or post-secondary level and can interact with the apprenticeship system. Increasingly, vocational education can be recognised in terms of recognition of prior learning and partial academic credit towards tertiary education (e.g., at a university) as credit; however, it is rarely considered in its own form to fall under the traditional definition of higher education. Choosing the right career can be a very daunting task especially in a world which offers an array of paths, all of which seem to be leading to a golden goal. Careers can actually make or break one’s life, so it is important to make the right choice. Career guidance can help you in pursuing the right courses, in the right colleges or institutes and can guide you in choosing a suitable career. Choosing a career can be very satisfying if you have made the right choice. Like the famous adage goes, if you choose the job you love, you don’t have to work a single day in your life. On the other hand, a wrong decision can leave you wishing that you had trodden a different path.While doing a career search it is imperative to have the correct career information. An informed choice is always a better bet than an uninformed one. The right career advice can help you to choose a career to suit your personality as well as your aspirations.

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Education, of course, plays an important role in getting you the right job in your chosen field. The stepping stones or pre-requisites for choosing your dream career are of course, the qualifications required to achieve it. With the right qualifications, the top careers are open to you and the power of choice would be with you. Career counseling can guide you in selecting the courses suitable for you. It could be an undergraduate course or an Associate Bachelor’s, the choice depends on various factors including convenience and requirements. For some careers, a Bachelor’s degree will do, but others may require a Master’s or even a PhD.The choice of the university is vital as well, as each one differs in its outlook and approach. The choice offered by various universities is also vast; with some of them offering Associate Degrees and online degrees, which make pursuing the requisite qualifications that much easier. This is especially so, if you are already in a job, and looking for a career change. The same is also helpful, if you are planning to pursue multiple courses at the same time. With proper career coaching, a job search would be easier and you would be able to bridge the gap between job-availability and your qualifications. Whether one is looking for a new career or a career change, career guidance can help in smoothening out this important path of transition. Career counseling is the process of helping the candidates to select a course of study that may help them to get into job or make them employable. A career counselor help the candidates to get into the career that suited to their aptitude, personality, interest and skills. So it is the process of making a effective correlation between the internal psychology of a candidate with the external factors of employability and courses. Career counselors work with people from various walks of life, such as adolescents seeking to explore career options, or experienced professionals contemplating a career change. Career counselors typically have a background in vocational psychology or industrial/organizational psychology. The approach of career counseling varies, but will generally include the completion of one or more assessments. These assessments typically include cognitive ability tests, and personality assessments. The two most commonly used assessments are the Strong Interest Inventory and the MBTI. Guidance provision in schools involves a range of guidance and counselling activities and services [see the Department of Education and Science’s Guidelines for Second Level Schools on the implications of Section 9 (c) of the Education Act (1998), relating to students’ access to appropriate guidance (Section 1) for an overview on the importance of guidance]. The terms ‘guidance counselling’ and ‘guidance and counselling’ are covered by this definition and are synonymous with the range of activities set out below. In this publication, the term ‘guidance’ is used for simplicity and encompasses that broad range of activities . Assessment - helping students to obtain a better self-understanding through the use of psychometric tests and other inventories.

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• Information - providing students with objective and factual data on education and training opportunities, occupations, labour market information, entitlements etc. • Advice - making suggestions based on the advisor’s own knowledge and experience. • Educational Development Program - facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills relating to studying, examination performance, choices of subjects and levels. • Personal and Social Development • Programmes - facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills relating to a student’s personal and social development, selfawareness, decision-making and planning.

• Referral - this includes two types of activity: i) ii) referral of an individual student by the guidance counsellor to other Professionals outside of the school, e.g. The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS ) Referral of an individual student to the guidance counsellor by teachers, Board of Management, school management, and parents. The voluntary participation in counselling of the referred student must be respected by all concerned.

GUIDANCE ACTIVITIES THAT ASSIST STUDENTS TO MAKE CHOICES INCLUDE: • Counselling - helping students to explore their thoughts and feelings, and the choices open to them; giving care and support to students learning to cope with the many aspects of growing up. Careers education/career transition programmes - enabling students to make transitions to further and higher education, training and employment. • Placement - work experience, work shadowing, and preparing students for employment. • Follow-up - following up former students regarding progression routes and destinations.

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OTHERGUIDANCE ACTIVITIES THAT SUPPORT THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE AIMS OF THE SCHOOL GUIDANCE PROGRAMME INCLUDE: • Consultation with parents, school staff and students. • Feedback - giving feedback to the Board of Management, school management and staff on the needs of individual students, groups and the school as an organization, and how the school guidance programme has supported students’ choices and transitions. • Networking - establishing links with employers, relevant agencies and institutions to enhance guidance work with students. • Promoting change - assisting curriculum development in the school. • Managing, organising and co-ordinating:- guidance activities into a coherent programme. KEY ELEMENTS OF THE SCHOOL GUIDANCE PLAN The school guidance plan should address the following questions: (i) What does the school aim to provide through its guidance programme? (AIMS) (ii) Who/which persons are the priorities for benefiting from the provision?(TARGET GROUPS) (iii) Which guidance outcomes are intended for the target groups? (OBJECTIVES) (iv) How are these guidance outcomes to be achieved? (ACTIVITIES) (v) What resources are available to support these outcomes? (RESOURCES) (vi) How does a school find out if the objectives have been achieved? (MONITORING AND REVIEW).

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AIMS The aims can be derived from a variety of sources, contexts and players for example: (i) The definition of guidance (ii) The Education Act (1998) (iii) The Department of Education and Science’s Guidelines for Second Level Schools on the implications of the Education Act (1998), relating to students’ access to appropriate guidance. (iv) The school’s mission statement, vision and fundamental aims as per the school plan. (v) The specific social and economic environment in which the school operates. (vi) The views of school partners (students, parents, staff, management, local community) on how existing resource provision can best be utilized. (vii) The identified needs of target groups. (viii) The demands of the local/regional, national, social and economic environments. (ix) The school’s current guidance programme. TARGET GROUPS One of the principal benefits of the school guidance plan is that available resources are utilised to meet identified needs and priorities. The school guidance programme should take into account the needs of all students at all levels within the school. The programme should provide a balance in the personal and social, educational and career guidance offered. Within the resources available for guidance, schools may need to prioritise certain groups of students during the school year. Prioritizing is a value judgement made by the school in terms of its overall mission, the needs identified, the resources available, and the local, national, social and economic environment in which the school operates. These decisions should be based in particular on the aims of the school guidance plan. In setting priorities schools should carefully consider the needs of the community in which the school is based and also national priorities. For example, both the National Development Plan

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(NDP) and the New Deal on Educational Disadvantage have identified assisting young people at risk as a priority for school guidance services.

OBJECTIVES (GUIDANCE OUTCOMES) Once the aims and target groups are clear, the next issue is to decide on specific guidance outcomes for particular target groups. Objectives (guidance outcomes) should be set corresponding to each aim and should take into account available resources. Objectives should be clear, realistic, specific and measurable and have a timeframe. In general, objectives should be framed in active language and should list competencies such as to identify, acquire, demonstrate, know, develop, compare and contrast, etc. GUIDANCE ACTIVITIES A very broad range of guidance activities can be called into play as the means by which the objectives are to be realised. Please refer to: • • • Guidance activities that assist students to make choices. Guidance activities that assist students to make transitions Other guidance activities that support the achievement of the aims of the school guidance programme.

RESOURCES Resources describe the personnel, time allocation, equipment, materials, physical locations and finance required for the performance of the guidance activities and the management of the school guidance programme. School and Community Resources • Board of Management and Principal. • Guidance counsellor(s). • Subject teachers and the learning support teacher(s). • Staff with formal roles (year head, class tutor, etc). • In-school programme support teams. 21

• Parents. • Students. • School budget – part of the school budget should be dedicated for the purchase of materials for guidance e.g. psychometric tests, career materials. • The guidance suite (office, careers library etc). • Classrooms. • Computer facilities - access by students for guidance purposes should be standard in both the school guidance plan and in the school’s ICT plan. • Community (workplace, referral, etc). National Resources • The Department of Education and Science, agencies such as the National Centre for Guidance in Education (NCGE), the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), the National Centre for Technology in Education • Professional bodies and associations such as the Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC), teacher unions and management bodies • The School Development Planning Initiative and other national initiatives’ support teams. • ICT, video and printed national resources. • Test materials. Included in the appendices of this publication is a questionnaire to examine the resources available for the provision of guidance in the school (Appendix II, Form B). This questionnaire can be adapted to suit the needs of the school.

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References Cobia, D. C. (2007). Developing an effective and accountable school counseling program. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Coleman, H. L. (2009). Handbook of school counseling. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Cooley, L. (2010). The power of groups: Solution-focused group counseling in schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Coy, D. R. (2004). Developmental guidance and counseling in today’s schools. Alexandria, VA: National Association of Secondary Schools. Dimmitt, C., Carey, J. C., & Hatch, T. (2007). Evidence-based school counseling: Making a difference with data-driven practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Erford, B. T. (2010). Group work in schools. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Erford, B. T. (2011). Transforming the school counseling profession. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Fall, K. A. (2011). Theoretical models of counseling and psychotherapy. Florence, KY: Taylor & Francis. Gibson, R. L. (2008). Introduction to guidance and counseling. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gysbers, N. C. (2006). Developing and managing your school guidance program. Washington, DC: American Counseling Association. Heyden, S. M. (2011). Counseling children and adolescents. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Neukrug, R. C. (2011). Counseling theory and practice. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Kauchak. D. P. (2011). Introduction to teaching: Becoming a professional. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Parsons, R. D. (2009a). Thinking and acting like a cognitive school counselor. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Parsons, R. D. (2009b). Thinking and acting like a solution-focused counselor. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Parsons, R. D. (2009c). Thinking and acting like an eclectic school counselor. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Popham, W. J. (2010). Educational assessment: What school leaders need to know. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Rogers, C. R. (1942). Counseling and psychotherapy. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. http://www.egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/24765/1/Unit1.pdf http://www.education-world.net/ http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2023/Guidance-CounselingSchool.html#ixzz1OLBDVHGZ

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