CAREER GUIDANCE AT SCHOOL
form Strömbackascholam to Liceo A. Bertolucci
The Swedish Education Act states that all school pupils should receive guidance before making choices about their future and, as consequence, higher education institutions are legally obliged to offer them study and career support1.
Schools have a great freedom to plan their service which is always designed in collaboration with the Local Municipalities that, in fact, try to meet the needs of the school curricula and of the relative budgets.
The solid bridges built between the education system and the local world of work, as in the case of Strombackascholam, allows a close matching of skill supply to the needs of the territory thus enabling schools to adjust to changes and to prepare for the skill needs of the future.
In Swedish schools 2, career education and coaching is mainly provided through both everyday teaching and dedicated guidance counselling. The whole school staff is, in fact, responsible for supporting the students in their efforts to investigate, identify and express their interests and potential, but the presence of professional counsellors (most of times with a specific degree3) offers the opportunity to individually accompany and support the incoming students, from the first to the last day of school. Counsellors meet most pupils to talk about their plans and choices and occasionally have lessons or information sessions to help them make well-founded decisions about their future pathways.
In Piteo we had the opportunity to investigate the topic both with some counsellors and teachers. These consultations have been particularly inspiring for the empowerment of the career service provided by our school and also for the conception of a cluster of “lessons” (see an example attached) to be held during ordinary classes2.
We have therefore designed a new set of objectives for our school to:
– fully share coaching activities and objectives among the teacher staff
– offer more opportunity for individualized counselling
– further offer available “friendly” information and resources
– go on developing the link with the Territory and the world of work
LINK to : “I’ m so unique!”
These TLAs are the opening lessons to a set of classes dedicated to “personal branding” for future work eligibility. The students will be led to identify their skills and weaknesses so to work on and improve their personal potential.
They will be also provided, little by little, with the tools they need to develop a personal e-portfolio.
Being the activities in L2 they will contribute to enhance language skills and proficiency too.
1 See Swedish National Agency for General Guidelines for Career Education and Guidance http://euroguidance.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Career-Guidance-in-Sweden.pdf9
2 See http://euroguidance.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Career-Guidance-in-Sweden.pdf
3 A Master’s in Career Development and Career Counselling is offered by Stockholm University