Career guidance is a subject that needs to be part of the secondary school curriculum...
Natalia Staina
Global Head of Operations & CTO | Executive Coaching & Business Mentoring
I am a true believer that career guidance should start at school. Preferably it should become a compulsory subject of the secondary school curriculum.
According to the UK national curriculum, sex and relationship education (SRE) is compulsory from age 11 onwards. SRE education is aiming to prepare students for the responsibilities and experiences of adult life. No doubt that SRE is essential.
But how about this "all over the internet" statistics that the average person will spend approx. 90,000 hours at work, which is approx. 1/3 of the lifetime?
An interesting article called "17 seriously disturbing facts about your job" outlines this thought even further: "The average person spends more than 90,000 hours in their lifetime at work, and it affects their personal lives".
90,000 hours = 3,750 days, and to compare apples and oranges a little bit :) another article "Your lifetime by the numbers" gives the following statistics on sex: "...Taking the average life expectancy to be 25, 915 days (71 years), an average human would spend: 0.45% (or 117 days) having sex..."
To emphasize: 3,750 days (work) v 117 days (sex). Interesting comparison, isn't it?
Let's add the following:
"Drop-out rates among university students who give up their studies within 12 months have gone up for the third year in a row, according to official statistics."
And the following:
"Nearly one-third of undergraduates who have declared a major changed that major at least once within three years of initial enrollment, according to a recent National Center for Education Statistics study of 25,000 students.
Nearly 33 % of students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs switched, compared with 28 % in associate degree programs. 10 % have changed majors more than once."
And one more:
"Only half of all UK graduates are working in a field that relates to their degree after leaving university, according to new research published today.
Also, 96 per cent say they had switched careers by the time they reached the age of 24."
Some US stats, the same situation of change in majors are there as well:
"Beautiful" statistics, isn't it? It is essential of course to understand sex and relationship, and the government considers kids of 11 years old to be adult enough to deal with such serious subjects. So why not to consider them adult enough to start to think about their future work life where they are going to spend approx. 1/3 of their life before the day when they will apply to a Uni just "for the sake of it, or because their parents wanted to, or because of a couple of psychometric tests in a high school"?
One might say that students have their parents for it. It is true, but unfortunately, very often, parents who actually can provide an excellent career advice to their kid/kids are busy with work themselves, flying around the world so they can provide for life and kids education, and in the little free time they have, a career guidance is not on the Top 10 priorities list.
Another downside sometimes to talk to your successful parent is lack of objectivity due to:
1) Closeness to the kid and disability to see him/her more objectively;
2) Too much involvement into kids life ( "all generations went to Harvard, have been lawyers, etc.");
3) Very often if you are successful in your career and you have developed excellent expertise within one domain, you naturally tend to skip on the information that is perceived unnecessary by you but might be very important to your kid/kids future...
Due to personal commitments and interests, I spoke to quite a few youngsters who either had a fuzzy idea of what they would like to do or had an excellent idea but with no foundation to it. First one was not sure what they would like to do, the second one needed "reflective guidance" so they can sharpen their idea, assess it against reality.
With some of them we had long, detailed conversations that resulted in them seeing more clearly what University degree they would like to do so they won't need:
1) To waste their time by studying something they won't like once realise their true passion and/or
2) To change their majors and/or
3) To get another degree because the first one is not a good fit once the "dream career" is identified in the older age and/or
4) etc.
But whatever the issue was, in all cases, I have caught myself thinking why the career guidance is not a compulsory subject? It would not solve all the problems in the world, but it would make it better for younger generations...
They are our future...
kind regards,
Natalia
#education #career #guidance #government #school #young-generations #coaching
P.S: LINKEDIN PROFILE IS FOR PERSONAL PURPOSES ONLY. ALL STATEMENTS AND OPINIONS ARE POSTED ON THIS ACCOUNT ARE PERSONAL.
Guidance Counselor at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
6 年I am myself a UK uni graduate from some years ago with a degree in public relations - and funnily enough have changed my career from communication to guidance and counselling. I do not see education as an end result, especially in generalistic degrees like communication, business etc., but rather as a beginning of career(s) may be in the original field but also in something totally different. And there’s nothing wrong with this, in my humble opinion. Personally, I do make a use of my first degree on everyday basis, even though I am not working in PR. As someone said, no one knows what kinds of jobs, let alone careers the future holds, so every child and adult should consider education as a way to widen your skills and horizon to be ready for the unknown and have an open mind and readiness for lifelong learning.
Ethicist, Educational Scientist and Serious Game Designer at Leuphana University
6 年Dear Natalia, totally agree: We need career education to be established as a compulsory school subject nowaday. Like some of the other commentators, I would suggest that the main focus should be on the development of career management competences, though, including appropriate attitudes, e.g., resilience. What should be included, e.g., is the ability of students to identify their own strengths and speak about them, e.g., what skills they have learned through activities in their leisure time (not only at school). You have pointed out that it is important to widen their horizon of possible vocational routes, and I agree. However, I would add, that stereotypes also need to be addressed. For example, many girls simply don't think they are suitable for some vocations, just because they are girls. What is needed, is indeed a relatively wide curriculum. Courses shouldn't be offered to late in the school career, either, because it is a meaningful vision for one's future that often inspires motivation to learn and to select the right kinds of courses and extra-curricular activities (where options are available). Finally, career education at schools would need to address a wide array of relevant values, instead of indoctrinating children with a limited ideology (e.g., 'faith in the market'). As Ronald G. Sultana has pointed out, structural problems of the labor market and of the educational system must be seen as such: It is ethically questionable (to say the least!) to make people believe that they are 100% responsible for their career paths. An adequate career education would sensitize citizens to the possibility of market failure and failed policy in facilitating the provision of decent work to all citizens.
E-learning English Teacher—Contract Labor
6 年You are so professional at what you do Elizabeth.
Business Owner - iPro Group; Sales & Marketing Consultancy, and Executive Search
6 年Absolutely! My own experience was almost non existent and I don’t think it’s much better now - it’s about getting kids into HE and profiting from it- that’s not guidance that’s abuse!
Bid and proposal geek. Passionate about brand consistency, value propositions, and efficiency. Hates tomatoes.
6 年I absolutely agree with this but would add that better guidance is needed on alternative routes to the traditional university route too. I went to uni because everyone else did. I got a job straight out of uni; 3yrs later when I got a new job my Dad was horrified as in his world jobs are for life! My youngest brother is now battling A levels because he wants to go to uni. The degree he wants to do could have been accessed via an apprenticeship but none of us knew about it and school didn't mention it. He is not academic so it would have been a much better route for him! The world is changing and it is vital that we prepare our children.