Early experiences of career advice

In the past, career practitioners at secondary school may well have been (a) untrained, and (b) a teacher who had capacity for extra hours, so were given the 'careers' role hours to take them up to full time. This was a 'fit' approach with a capacity bent: who had time and a bit of inclination to do this work (Inkson et al., 2015). 

My first experience of career development was seeing a careers advisor once (a "one-stop" shop, Osborn & Zunker, 2016, p. 159) who had capacity for additional hours, so was indeed 'given' careers without adequate training. They were in a tiny cupboard of an office; was returning to work from childcare; was the partner of one of the HODs; and who only knew three options for young women: "Do you want to go teaching, nursing, or to secretarial school?". I didn't even know that - or if - 'secretarial school' still existed (and it may not, come to think of it!). 

From talking to others, this 'bookings agent' approach to careers seems likely to have been the least of it. This is what some of my students had to say about poor advice:

Helen: "I remember at secondary school in the UK in the early 1990s, completing a written personality type questionnaire and having a short review with the 'Careers' teacher, who was usually our Sports teacher. Along with all the girls in my class, I was told that I would be best suited to a career as a teacher or librarian. For the boys the teacher emphasised sports / physical roles as that was his [the teacher's] interest!"

Anne: "Something very similar for me; a state of the art multiple choice computer survey printed out by dot matrix. It suggested the 'caring' professions without a medical bent so teacher, social worker, librarian, prison officer. Shockingly, I remember even less about the careers service at university in 1995. Just one lecturer telling us that we would either become accountants or teachers. Not hugely inspiring given that we had very varied and broad-ranging study area (Geography). Glad to report that all the careers departments I've seen since starting teaching are a lot better equipped both in knowledge, resources and tech!"

Lauren: "My sixth form form-teacher had an interest in careers and insisted on having career conversations with all of us. I was confident that I wanted to study linguistics, however she put me off it as I didn't have a second language (she was also the French teacher). I picked up some LING papers when I was studying towards another major, and found this not to be the case. Years later, I went back to uni and completed a graduate diploma in linguistics and have the goal of completing a masters in it one day too. Interesting how some bad advice can put you back."

Pauline: "I had a rocky career chat in my Seventh form year in September. I was all set to go to Uni and then had a bad week and he got me an interview at the local bank. Got the job and left. Had some good years there and got to Assistant manager but never got to do any further study till now and have some rather big regrets." 

Abbe: "I went to a Catholic school that had a big focus on going to Uni. Our 7th Form Dean had a careers chat with me and absolutely nothing came out of it. I ended up doing a course at NZIS because I liked sport and had no idea what I wanted to do. Now I run Gateway, STAR and Work experience at a school and would have loved to have been offered these options when I was at school."

To no advice at all: 

Karen: "From a small town in the 1980s, I had no career support at secondary school, apart from the occasional teacher telling me to study a certain subject in senior school or not to study it. There was information in school notices about applying to university halls of residence and dates to apply for courses but no support. We went to pick up the forms from the school office admin and mailed them off."

Jenny: "I wish career practitioners were around more when I was at school, I wonder how different some of my career choices would have been."

Lori: "When I look back to my schooling years, I don't remember a Careers Practitioner being available, certainly within my school anyway. We had little advice about career or vocational pathways and relied heavily on our parents to coach us through this transition period. In stark contrast, at the school where I am employed now, our students (seniors in particular) are exposed to a variety of pathways, with regular presentations from universities, vocational pathway, NZ Defence Forces, Police and local employers. I feel, compared to when I was growing up, things have moved on dramatically now and we serve our senior students well. Of course, there is always room for improvement, and it is crucial to remain current with LMI etc."

It is positive to think that career development in schools has improved so much in the past generation or two. A nice place to close.

Sam

References:

Inkson, K., Dries, N. & Arnold, J. (2015). Chapter 6, Careers as Fit. In Understanding Careers (2nd ed., pp. 136-162). Sage Publications Ltd.

Osborn, D. S., & Zunker, V. G. (2016). Using Assessment Results for Career Development (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.

* Karen Bennett, Lauren Chambers, Helen Gauden-Ing, Pauline Kisling, Abbe Milne, Anne Roach, Jenny Yardley, and Lori Yau kindly contributed their experiences for this post