Page 309 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 309
the role of career guidance in esl
How can CMS overcome selected ESL factors? The lack
of relevance of schooling and career aspirations as ESL risk
factors
Various factors at the individual, school and system level have been identi-
fied as being related to ESL. Research shows that students’ well-developed
career competencies (appropriately supported at all levels) are an impor-
tant protective factor for ESL (Meijers, Kuijpers, & Gundy, 2013). It is recog-
nised that career education mainly addresses two important and interrelat-
ed (individual) risk factors for ESL: the lack of relevance of schooling and
the lack of career aspirations. Different studies (e.g. Hamilton & Hamilton,
1994; Lamb & Rice, 2008; Schargel & Smink, 2001; Solberg et al., 2002) also
pointed to various other positive effects of career education4 in this regard:
overcoming the sense of disconnection, improving one’s learning motiva-
tion, increasing personal and social competencies and self-esteem, acquir-
ing a range of knowledge and skills related to employment and work, rais-
ing academic achievement and consequently enhancing school completion
and reducing drop outs.
Lack of relevance of schooling
One main reason that young people leave school early is identified as fail-
ing to perceive the relevance of their school education (perceived lack of
suitability of curricula) for their everyday life, interests and career pros-
pects (Byrne & Smyth, 2010). ACTE (2007) reports that many students lose
their interest and motivation in education because the curriculum does not
seem to have real-world applications. Academic knowledge is often present-
ed in isolation instead of in a way that shines a spotlight on how the sub-
ject is useful in the real world. ACTE explains these findings with the re-
sults of focus groups made up of dropouts aged 16–24, with 47% saying they
dropped out of high school because the classes were not interesting (bor-
ing) and 69% saying they did not feel motivated. When referring to these
two findings, the report states that the res pondents consistently noted how
4 In the literature, the relationship between career guidance, orientation and educa-
tion has been obfuscated by semantic confusions (for a review, see Watts (2013). In
this paper, we follow his definitions and distinctions which explain that career guid-
ance (as defined in the previous chapter) includes three main elements: career infor-
mation, career counselling and career education, whereas career education is un-
derstood as part of the educational curriculum, in which attention is paid to helping
groups of individuals develop the competencies they need to manage their career
development.
309
How can CMS overcome selected ESL factors? The lack
of relevance of schooling and career aspirations as ESL risk
factors
Various factors at the individual, school and system level have been identi-
fied as being related to ESL. Research shows that students’ well-developed
career competencies (appropriately supported at all levels) are an impor-
tant protective factor for ESL (Meijers, Kuijpers, & Gundy, 2013). It is recog-
nised that career education mainly addresses two important and interrelat-
ed (individual) risk factors for ESL: the lack of relevance of schooling and
the lack of career aspirations. Different studies (e.g. Hamilton & Hamilton,
1994; Lamb & Rice, 2008; Schargel & Smink, 2001; Solberg et al., 2002) also
pointed to various other positive effects of career education4 in this regard:
overcoming the sense of disconnection, improving one’s learning motiva-
tion, increasing personal and social competencies and self-esteem, acquir-
ing a range of knowledge and skills related to employment and work, rais-
ing academic achievement and consequently enhancing school completion
and reducing drop outs.
Lack of relevance of schooling
One main reason that young people leave school early is identified as fail-
ing to perceive the relevance of their school education (perceived lack of
suitability of curricula) for their everyday life, interests and career pros-
pects (Byrne & Smyth, 2010). ACTE (2007) reports that many students lose
their interest and motivation in education because the curriculum does not
seem to have real-world applications. Academic knowledge is often present-
ed in isolation instead of in a way that shines a spotlight on how the sub-
ject is useful in the real world. ACTE explains these findings with the re-
sults of focus groups made up of dropouts aged 16–24, with 47% saying they
dropped out of high school because the classes were not interesting (bor-
ing) and 69% saying they did not feel motivated. When referring to these
two findings, the report states that the res pondents consistently noted how
4 In the literature, the relationship between career guidance, orientation and educa-
tion has been obfuscated by semantic confusions (for a review, see Watts (2013). In
this paper, we follow his definitions and distinctions which explain that career guid-
ance (as defined in the previous chapter) includes three main elements: career infor-
mation, career counselling and career education, whereas career education is un-
derstood as part of the educational curriculum, in which attention is paid to helping
groups of individuals develop the competencies they need to manage their career
development.
309
