Slovenian experience in guidance supporting parents in career counseling to their children

„FAMILY CAREER COMPASS - Efficient Career Guidance Approaches Supporting Parents in Guiding their Children’s Vocational Career”

• Maruša Goršak• Špela Reš

About Kadis d.o.o. Founded in 1992 Wide range of HRM services

Career guidance for various target groups Psychological assessment Trainings Recruitment service Legal counselling International and national projects

Wide experience and know-how in HR management and training Cooperation with various professional and counselling institutions

and companies Long-standing customer relations

Career guidance at KADIS PAST PROGRAMMES OF ASSISTANCE IN CAREER

DEVELOPMENT AND JOB SEEKING Job clubs Back to employment New beginning Job interview training Motivational Workshops Information Office Presentations/visitations of professions (schools)

CAREER GUIDANCE SERVICES TODAY Guidance workshops for youngsters (in schools – primary and

secondary) Guidance workshops for parents (in schools – mainly primary) Guidance workshops for school and career counsellors Individual career guidance and counselling services Workshops for job seekers (For Active Pokolpje!, The best choice for

employment …) Introductory workshops for new entrepreneurs

Individual career path once… and … now

Why is career guidance necessary? Dropouts

(app. 14% 18 to 24 year-old leave school with a lower secondary education or less)

The „lost“ individuals

Dissatisfaction with vocational choice/job position

(only 40% individuals between 21. in 30. years old aresatisfied.; psychosomatic problems)

Unemployment (we don‘t have the insight in the labour market situation)

Self exploration trough often job changing

(USA: 64% individuals change job 5x -14x in their lifetime)

The influence of various factors in career decision making

The biggest impact has a reputation of vocation/profession

Their own interests

Parents (information, their vocational aspirations...)

Other “important others” - often neglected influence

How parents influence their children vocation and educational choices?

Parents/family …

Should encourage interests development (11-12 years old) – create a safe environment

Should allow children to take responsibility for duties/tasks for which they show interest

Have the greatest informal influence – should support, connect and guide your children

Can influence children ambitions, acceptations, work attitude Playing of different social roles Influence the development of positive self image Influence the development of networking and decision making skills

WHERE CAN PARENTS LEARN HOW TO DO THAT!!!

Form practice… Every primary school conducts at least one lecture for parents in the last two grades.

The number of lectures for parents executed by external contractors have decreased, usually due to financial reasons.

Parents are not familiarized with different sources of support available.

There are different lectures, workshops for parents but usually the content is not related to career guidance.

Parents biggest concerns are usually related with: Child‘s indecisiveness and poor interest for any career option / educational program Employability possibilities Vocational – technical schools versus general academical secondary schools Their knowledge and ability to help their children Lack of ITK skills Activities and parents enrolment should be encourage in early stage – not only just before

making decisions

Legal framework for implementing career guidance in schools

Organization and Financing of Education Act states that school counsellors can only become specialists who have graduated from university studies: psychology, pedagogy and andragogy, social work, social pedagogy and defectology (children and youth with special needs)

National Guidelines for Schools Counselling Service define so called Minimal Standards for Guidance counsellors in Schools. The national programme is largely implemented by school counsellors with the assistance of the Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS), providing guidance services through Centres for Information and Vocational Counselling (VICC).

Guidance activities taking place on ISCED 2 level – primary schools

According to Minimal Standards every primary school should:ensure all pupils have access to the information execute 2 hours long lecture/workshop per year for pupils in last two grades in primary schools provide access to at least one individual counseling session for each pupil before they finished primary school collect data on pupils for the purpose of career guidanceorganize at least one lecture for parents of children in last two grades of primary school regarding their role and influence on children’s’ educational and vocational choices and provide access to individual counseling for parents where they can discuss child’s career choices. All schools provide group session to help pupils filling in the application forms for secondary schools. Beside that schools organize a visit to local Vocational Information and Counseling Centre, which can students later on visit also with their parents. Parents usually accompany their children on so called Information days organized by secondary school.

Guidance activities taking place on ISCED 3 level – secondary schools

According to Minimal Standards every secondary school should provide:

various information activities lessons on career-related issues (such as career development, further

education and employment possibilities) work with self-help guidance tools psychological testing individual career counselling visits to employers

Group lectures for parents and individual counselling sessions are determined but the content is not related with career guidance.

Training for school counsellorsThere are no formal and little informal training programs available in the field of career guidance.

School counselors can choose between different short training programs (8 to 16 hours) that are also related to career guidance (eg. counselling approaches).

From 2004 to 2009 there was only one workshop offered by THE NATIONAL EDUCATION INSTITUTE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA but was canceled due to low number of applications.

Institute for Vocational Education and training has designed a training program in 2010 called „New trends in information giving and counselling for youth making their first career choice“ – the program was successful, but didn‘t address parents involvement specifically (source: Polak Wiliams, 2011)

Private providers offer lectures for parents, counsellors and students (KADIS, IZIDA, VIZOR …) – problem is

Researches state … Time spent for career guidance activities in primary schools (Goršak, 2011):

64% 10%-30% 21,4% 10% or less

Participation in training regarding career guidance in last 5 years 1x-3x 42,3%, 4x-6x 29,6%, 1 0x and more 12,7%

Familiarization with new trends in the field of career guidance for school counselors: reading literature 65,70 %, experience exchange and peer learning 57,10%)

Individual counselling to parents – there are no information about the content (Krek, Vogrinc: 2012) primary school: 31,7% several times per week, 24,4% once a week Secondary schools: 29% several times per week, 19,4% once a week,

19,4% almost every day

Vocational information and counselling center VICC

VICCInd. Information

giving Ind. Counselling Group activities SUMA SUMA

  Pupils Students Pupils Students Pupils Students Pupils Students

2010 576 2348 499 578 3885 1854 4921 4780 9701

2012 538 845 389 413 3.213 712 4.140 1.970 8.679

Lectures for parents - content

Definition of key concepts What, when, why Ginzberg‘s career development stages The complexness of career choices The influence of various factors in Vocational/Career decisions The parents‘ influence – what is my role, what can I do? Career planning with DOTS model Labor market today – which are perspective professions How to get familiarized with different professions Which school to choose How to communicate with a teenager regarding his career planning Where to find useful information – who, what can help us

Example of good practiceweb page: www.mojaizbira.si

It started as a project founded by EU commission and Slovenian Ministry of Education in 2008.

Target group: pupils, students, school counselors, parents, participants in adult education.

In the first year it had about 44.000 visitors –and already 127.330 in the last year (2012).

10.000 visitors per month and 2600 likes on FB Information is gathered form different institutions like Ministry of

Education, Slovenian Institute for adult education, Chamber of crafts, Employment service and others.

To popularize the website a series of printed information materials was provided for whole generation (approximately 18,000 pupils per year).

RESULTS: enrollment in vocational schools in 2011/2012 has increased the first time since the school year 2004/2005 despite the decline in generations.

web page: www.mojaizbira.si - CONTENT CAREER SIGNPOST

Information and presentation of educational programs on secondary level (more than 300 formal and non-formal programs) and schools

Presentation of more than 428 occupations (some- 343 even with video)  

PRESENTATION OF SLOVENIAN SYSTEM OF APL (accreditation of prior gained knowledge) National Vocational Qualifications which give individuals an opportunity to

assess and validate knowledge and skills obtained through non-formal learning.

COUNSELING Where to go? Who to ask? Professional materials for counselors, teachers, researchers Legislative and useful links Dictionary of professional terminology in career guidance and counseling Presentation of different projects in the area of career guidance and VET

(Euroskills, MUNUS 2, Talentiran.si, e-svetovanje, Mi znamo...)

www.mojaizbira.si

Parents are important so let‘s not forget about them!

Conclusion

Questions, suggestions, ideas, comments …

Thank you for your cooperation.

More info: marusa.gorsak@kadis.si spela.res@kadis.si