Post on 22-Dec-2015
Career Development Interventions in Higher
Education
Chapter 12
Career Needs of Students in Higher Education
• Today’s students are diverse in background, characteristics, developmental levels, and career development needs.
• Approximately 6 million adults (over the age of 25) attend college each year.
• Approximately 500,000 international students were enrolled in higher education in 2001.
Career Needs of Students in Higher Education, continued
• More than 130,000 students with learning disabilities are currently attending college.
• Women now constitute the majority (57.5%) of students enrolled in higher education.
• Ethnic minorities made up 22.5% of students in higher education in 1999.
Career Needs of Students in Higher Education, continued
• Career development needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students have long been ignored in higher education.
• This increased heterogeneity suggests that career development interventions in higher education must be comprehensive and systematic.
The Evolution of Career Development Interventions
• Professor/advocate
• Job placement
• Employment agencies
• Placement offices
• Diverse services (no single type of counseling center or placement center)
Five Major Approaches for Delivering Career Services
• Macrocenter
• Counseling orientation
• General-level service
• Career planning and placement
• Minimal service
Why College Students Seek Career Assistance
• Learn more about themselves
• Identify career goals
• Become more certain of their career plans
• Explore career options
• Do educational planning
• Learn job search skills
Career Development Competencies in Adulthood
• Self-Knowledge– Skills to maintain a positive self-concept– Skills to maintain effective behaviors– Ability to understand developmental changes
and transitions
Career Development Competencies in Adulthood
• Educational and Occupational Exploration– Skills to enter and participate in education and training
– Skills to participate in work and lifelong learning
– Skills to locate, evaluate, and interpret career information
– Skills to seek, obtain, maintain, and change jobs
– Ability to understand how the needs and functions of society influence the nature and structure of work
Career Development Competencies in Adulthood
• Career Planning– Skills to make decisions– Ability to understand the impact of work on
individual and family life– Ability to understand the continuing changes in
male-female roles– Skills required to make career transitions
Goals of Career Interventions in Higher Education
• Help students learn to identify and transfer career interests to a plan of action
• Help students relate interests and goals to opportunities
• Help students relate their career plans to life goals and opportunities
• Help students learn how to evaluate their progress toward career goals through academic preparation
Career Interventions in Higher Education (Crites’ Model)
• Explore a variety of options.
• Crystallize a narrow range of specific options.
• Make a commitment to a choice and specify college major.
• Implement the choice of major.
Powell and Kirts Model
• Proposes a systems approach to career services in higher education
• Starts by providing an overview of services to new students
• Continues by providing self-assessment• Then focuses on exposure as students engage
actively in career exploration• Finally provides training in job search skills
The Florida State Model
• A curricular career information service (CCIS) model with five modules, as follows:– Introduction to the service– Orientation to the decision-making process– Self-assessment– Career information– Matching of majors and jobs
Career Services
• Courses, workshops, and seminars -- structured group experiences on topics such as career decision making, career planning, and job search skills
• Group counseling activities for students dealing with career indecision, career indecisiveness, and job search anxiety
• Individual career counseling• Placement programs
Components of Comprehensive Career Services (Hale)
• Structured, university-wide program of career education
• One-stop center that offers career counseling, career planning, and placement
• Specially trained and selected academic advisers representing many academic areas
• Central full-time administrator
• Commission on academic advising and career services
Goals of Career Interventions in Higher Education (Herr & Kramer)
• Provide assistance in the selection of a major• Provide self-assessment and self-analysis• Assist students to understand the world of work• Assist students to learn decision-making skills• Provide assistance with unique needs of sub-
populations• Provide assistance with access to jobs
Career Development Goals in Higher Education (Griff)
• Increase career and self-awareness
• Develop decision-making skills
• Acquire knowledge of current and emerging occupational options
• Develop job search skills
• Crystallize career goals
• Participate in academic planning
Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) Guidelines
• Essential components of career services– Leadership– Organization and management– Human resources– Financial resources– Facilities, technology, and equipment– Acceptance of legal responsibilities
CAS Standards, continued
• Equal opportunity, access, and affirmative action
• Campus and community relations
• Diversity
• Ethics
• Assessment and evaluation
Advantages of Centralized Services
• More likely to have a critical mass of professional staff
• Efficiencies and economies of scale in use of facilities and support staff
• Vibrant, challenging environment because of heterogeneity of student population
Disadvantages of Centralized Services
• May be viewed by students as less personal due to size
• May be located farther away from places where students spend most of their time
Ten Imperatives for Career Services (Rayman, 1999)
• 1: Acknowledge lifelong nature of career development and challenge students to take responsibility for their own career destiny
• 2: Accept and embrace technology as an ally in service delivery
• 3: Continue to refine and strengthen professional identity
• 4: Acknowledge and accept that individual career counseling is at the core of our work
Ten Imperatives for Career Services (Rayman, 1999)
• 5: Forge relationships with other professionals and parents to achieve a “multiplier effect”
• 6: Redouble efforts to meet needs of an increasingly diverse student body
• 7: Maintain focus on quality career services while also filling relationship role with corporate America
Ten Imperatives for Career Services (Rayman, 1999)
• 8: Acknowledge that on-campus recruiting is a thing of the past and develop new approaches
• 9: Resolve the nature of the university’s role with alumni, eliciting support rather than providing services to them
• 10: Advocate effectively for resources to maintain and increase services and use existing resources efficiently