Vocational Guidance

Introduction:

Vocational Guidance: is the process of helping a person to develop and accept an integrated and adequate picture of himself and of his role in the world of work. It has a specific goal; it assists individuals to find satisfying, interesting and realistic roles in the environment. Vocational guidance is the process of helping individuals know themselves; their interests value; and abilities and the world of work and its needs to be able to reach a mature career decision.

Vocational guidance refers to the services that assist individuals of any age and at any point throughout their lives, to make educational, training and occupational choices and to manage their careers. It includes services provided to those who have not entered the labor forces services to job seekers and services to those who are employed. It includes a wide range of activities like:

Activities within schools to help students clarify, career goals, understand the world of work and develop career management skills.
Individual and group guidance to assist with decisions about initial courses of vocational training, further education and training, initial job choices, job change or work force re-entry.
The organized and systematic use of community members such as employers to provide occupational and educational advice and information.
Print-based, computer-based or on-line services to produce and disseminate information about jobs,careers and vocational training to help individuals make career decision well organized vocational guidance services are important both to education systems and to the labor market, as well as to their interface. Within education systems, career education has an important role to play within compulsory education in laying the foundation for lifelong career development. These include knowledge competences regarding self awareness, the world of work and making decisions and transitions. Within the labor market well organized vocational guidance services can:

Improve the accuracy and accessibility of the information available to individuals about short and long term job opportunities. In turn this can improve individual decision making about jobs and about job training opportunities and improve the allocation of human talents within the labor market in particular vocational guidance can help to achieve a better match between interests, skills and qualifications on the one hand and available job opportunities on the other hand.
Help to improve the allocation of labor across regions, industries and occupations in the face of labor supply and demand fluctuations resulting from technological and structural change.
Make a deference between the successful and unsuccessful implementation of active labor market programs and active welfare to work programs.

Vocational Guidance Why?

The world of work is in a state of continuous change
The disappearance of some careers and the emergence of new or alternative careers.
Employers need to recruit individuals who are capable of showing their skills and abilities.
To match the changing values of individuals with new set of career possibilities.
To assess the needs of the labor market and match them with the needs of the individuals.
To avoid unemployment

Process of Vocational Guidance

Vocational Guidance helps individuals to acquire knowledge in the following areas:

Self awareness.
Exploration of the world of work.
Mature decision making

Self awareness: is the process of gathering information about the interests, abilities and values. It helps one to answer such questions as:

What kind of person I am?
What type of work do I enjoy doing?
What are my interests and abilities?
What kinds of skills do I possess?
How can I take a decision regarding my future career?
How can you know yourself?
Take self-interest inventories that help you to know better your interests, values and skills
Have a look at your academic background and other achievements what school subjects were you good at and what subjects were difficult for you?
Have a look at how you spend your leisure time.
Identify your skills that you are highly motivated to use.
Write are sum about yourself and identify the theme that points out to who you are
Write your personal objectives and identify who you want to be and what you want to achieve in your life.

World of work exploration: this involves gathering information about the different careers that might fit your interests, values and abilities. It helps you find answers to the following questions:

What kind of education or training is required in each?
What are the pros and cons of each job you think of?
What are the working conditions in the different types of careers?
How does a certain career look like?
What are the job requirements?
What is the financial output?

Know more about these careers.
Meet people who work in these careers and ask them questions like the followings

What are your responsibilities in a typical working day?
Did you work in other jobs?
What is the required background (education, training, experience)
What do you like and dislike in your work?
What are the skills and the abilities required in you job?
What are the future trends that you see for this type of job?
What is the organizational structure within your institution?
How does your department fit within this structure?
What are your advices to someone who is looking for a training in this field?

Mature decision making: is the process of exploring the different alternatives, narrowing down the possibilities and then choosing the right alternative to ensure a mature career decision do the followings:

look at the different possibilities and ask your self whether here could be other ways that could help you in solving this problem?
Think of your decision, can you take it in another way.
Listen to others.
Weigh the advantages and disadvantages for the different alternatives when you narrow down your choices.