How do we address this problem

Career Education

As educators/ schools, how do we address the problem. "Colleges and universities need to provide students with practice, in the context of the workplace.” Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, told Paul Fain of Inside Higher Ed.

Patton (2001) indicates that career development can be seen as a "broker" between individuals and the requirements of the society of works.

Baker & Tayler (1998) suggests career education intervention have positive impact on facilitating individual's career decision-making, self-awareness and easier school-to-work transition.

Both videos suggest that students need more opportunities to explore their options and passions. The responsibility of schools/administrators is to help students/ employees explore their strengths, interests, and values and help align those to the world of work (Ed Hidalog, 2015).

What have we tried as a school ?

Career Fair
Short-time Intern Practice
Model Interview
University Fair
Career Assessment (Kuder)

Pros and Cons

Career Fair
- Pros

1. 1. Introduce some new industries to the students
  2. quality of the presentation differs from speaker to speaker

- Cons

1. 1. hard to keep track of their distance with the students outside of school
  2. Difficult to find speakers

Model Interview with Parents
- Pros

1. 1. Students need to research what skills do they need and how well are they matched with the requirements
  2. Practice interview skills
  3. Students get to know job descriptions, monthly salary range and qualifications

- Cons

1. 1. limited companies and positions
  2. parents going easy on the students

Short-time intern practice
- Pros
- To some extend help some students to eliminate/determine and narrow the scope
- help students build up the connection between school-to-work
- Cons
- The opportunities are rare
- The experience they have are not authentic most of the time, because they are not allowed to do the real job, most of the time their roles are just errand boys/girls because the companies can't afford the failure if things haven't been done right
- No guidance from the teachers or the parents in a timely manner

Career Assessment (Kuder)
- Pro
- Help students to narrow the scope of what might be suitable for them, especially helpful for those who are entirely clueless.
- Con
- After the test, suggestions are given. However, students would still have no idea what those jobs actually mean and which one to choose.

University Fair
- Pros
  - Students get to know more schools other than the Top 10
  - Students get to talk to the recruiters face-to-face and get a better understanding of what they need to achieve before they can apply (GPA, IELTS requirements, Co-op information etc.,)
  - A direct contact person when applying
  - Students get to know what kind of jobs are aligned with a certain university/college programs
- Cons
  - Students still don't know what they would do in a real job, lack of hands-on experience
  - Information about school facilities and programs has a minimal impact on facilitating the students to know about their interests and values.

What are the Results

However, with all the efforts put in by teachers and parents, the results weren't as ideal as we expected.

Benefits:

To some extend, help the students narrow down/ eliminate the obvious NO/YES options.

Problems that remained:

opportunities to actually try and do the job properly
to fully explore the options out there
physical distance
proper guidance along the way

Expectation: To create more opportunities that break the barriers of physical/geographical distance and the limitation of options while maintaining a low risk and supervised environment.

image from: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/7-things-to-keep-in-mind-while-planning-your-career/1-skills-for-comfort/slideshow/69923046.cms

A possible solution

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