Building a solid career guidance structure

Despite offering a number of useful career guidance services, the educational system still lacks the appropriate structure for these services, a report entitled Career Guidance Policy For Schools has concluded.

The report, prepared by the Career Guidance Working Group (Manwel Debono as chairman, and Stephen Camilleri, Joseph Galea and Dorianne Gravina), was tabled in Parliament last month.

The report defines career guidance as "services and activities 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".

Several recommendations are listed in the report with this definition in mind. The aim is to underline the importance of career guidance within the compulsory education system.

The report suggests recommendations under three different headings - improvements to the organisational structure, career education, and in quality standards.

The first set of proposals focuses on an organisational structure with two main areas, one functioning within the educational system and the other complementing it. The reasoning behind this proposal is that "ever increasing educational opportunities, and a fast-changing labour market, demand more professional career services for students".

The report also states that currently career services are "inconsistent and not cohesive". It indicated that a functioning standards and quality assurance system should be in place, and that "within the educational system, a new structure for career professionals should be developed."

The report also highlights the main levels of education and how career guidance structures should be managed and by whom. The system should be administered by the head of the career guidance services at the highest level, by college career coordinators at college level, and by career advisors at school level. Furthermore, the report proposes the setting up of a a National Career Guidance Centre (NCGC) with the main aim of "sustaining career guidance services in Malta". This should include a research unit, a career information unit, and a quality audit unit.

The second policy proposal covers career education and emphasises the importance that career education should be introduced at an early age and continue throughout life. "Career education should be delivered in all primary and secondary schools, starting in Year 4. It should be a subsumed programme included in Personal and Social Development (PSD), which should be transformed into Personal, Social and Career Development (PSCD)."

The report suggests that PSCD lessons in the final three years of secondary school should be given more importance by increasing the number of lessons per week. A number of factors back this proposal, including the one that "career education ensures that students work towards attaining the knowledge, skills, attitudes and qualifications in order to embark on the career of their choice." Career education gives students incentives about their careers and their future and assures privileges to "guidance and facilitates the dynamic interaction between the personal and the social decision making process... and reinforces the distinctive contributions of PSD."

The proposals on quality standards focus on the need "to ensure that clients get the best possible service" by measuring the quality of career services to justify the service, and by providing trends and benchmarks which help organisational development. The optimum service should be ensured through high quality standards and the benefits of career services will be felt on a long-term basis and in broader social terms.

The proposal outlines the need for qualified and experienced staff who has the adequate professional competencies. The report also suggests that career service providers "should develop and maintain a Quality Assessment System (QAS)" and that NCGC should monitor career-related services at national level.

The authors underline that the report can have any significance if it is "complemented and sustained by other related policies and strategies" and that a lifelong learning policy regarding education and training is essential.