1. Career and life planning Education – The Way forward 幫助青少年規劃生涯 - 新的路程
梁湘明
中文大學教育學院
Presented at the Hong Kong Subsidized Schools Council
November

2. What is Happening in Hong Kong?
Education reform: New Secondary Curriculum and increasing need to guide students on DSE subject selection, choice of education pathways, and choice of careers (HK future manpower needs)
The EDB Career and Life Planning Grant – Support for a paradigm shift from information dissemination to a more coordinated, comprehensive career guidance/education service
The increasing awareness that our younger generation needs to be empowered with a sense that there is a future, including a future career

3. CLP Grant
“The prime aim of providing the additional cash grant is to empower and enhance the capacity of the teaching team involved in providing support in career guidance service and life planning education for students. Specifically, the teaching team needs to be empowered to embrace a paradigm shift from career information dissemination to embodying the essence of life planning education in a more co-ordinated and systematic manner.”
Education Bureau Circular on CLP Grant (6/2014)

4. Themes Covered in This Talk
Why do we need to help students plan their life/career
Paradigm Shift – Elements of the “New” paradigm
The Way Forward …..

5. Part I: A common Question: Why is there a need to help students plan their career/life?
Can students do it on their own (生涯規劃會自然地發生)？

6. The Contributions of Career Guidance to Educational Outcomes:
Contributes to higher education access and completion rates
Improve the match between market supply of education and demand (from students)
Help students to make choice in an increasingly complex world
Human resource development – a good fit between person-career maximize human resource actualization and utilization of human capital

7. Improve employability, prepare future workforce
Develop talents and strengths, regardless of background, contribute to equity goals

8. Indeed, Today’s Young People are Facing Many Complex Choices …..

9. On the 2015 JUPAS programme list, there are 229 “Bachelor's Degree Programmes”

10. A total of 26 institutions offering a large variety of associate degree courses (or high diploma programmes) [學友社 Hok Yau Club Website}

11. Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes
The Dictionary lists Holland Codes for 12,860 Occupations.

12. The O*NET occupational taxonomy system (USA Department of Labor) currently includes 974 occupations based on data collected from job incumbents or occupation experts. The taxonomy is periodically revised (last revision was in 2010).

13. We do not know how many occupations there are in Hong Kong, but the Qualification Framework gives us a glimpse into the complexities

14. Young People Need:
Skills to make decisions
Self-reflective skills to understand who they are
Skills to assess knowledge and information
A set of positive attitudes, a persistent mindset to implement their actions
Not just for the immediate decision and transition, but for many future decisions required and transitions to come

15. Career Guidance Was Found to be Effective:
OECD “Career Guidance and Public Policy: Bridging the Gap” (2004):
The findings were overwhelmingly positive: of the 40 studies …… positive results were reported for each main type of guidance intervention: classes and courses, workshops and groups, individual guidance, test interpretation and feedback, experience-based interventions, and multi-method interventions….. (p.34)

16. …. In the United States, career education programmes have shown some modest but positive effects on various measures of academic attainment. (p.35)

17. In Singapore:
ECG plays a critical role in preparing students for the world of work by equipping them with the skills to remain relevant in the global economy and lead purposeful lives. Research has shown that ECG programmes can positively impact academic performance leading to optimal education and career decisions.
From

18. Paradigm Shift – Five Elements of the New Paradigm
Part II
Paradigm Shift – Five Elements of the New Paradigm

19. Element #1 Overall Objective: Developing Career Planning and Career Management Competence
Development/Cultivation of career planning skills and competence, not to just cope with immediate decision and transition

20. OECD – Policy Challenge
The policy challenges for career guidance set out above imply that, at the least, career guidance services need to broaden from largely providing assistance with at limited and selected points in people’s lives to an approach which also encompasses the development of career management. In addition, countries need to greatly expand access to career guidance so that it is available to people throughout their lives, and so that it can be available not just to selected groups such as school students or the unemployed, but to all.
(OECD, CAREER GUIDANCE AND PUBLIC POLICY: BRIDGING THE GAP, 2004, p.25)

21. From career transition to [another] career transition
Skills to make decisions
Self-reflective skills to understand who they are
Skills to assess knowledge and information
A set of positive attitudes, a persistent mindset to implement their actions
Competence and persistence to manage and advance their career (e.g., work habits, positive attitudes, life-long learning, adaptability)

22. Element #2 Approaches and Strategies – Multiple interventions embedded in the curriculum and experiences of secondary education, including but not limited to:
Infused into subject curriculum, whenever appropriate
Career and life planning classes/lessons
Career assessment
Learning from experience (or experiential learning)
Job/work experience (e.g., internship, short-term job taster)
Individual and small group planning sessions
Individual and group counselling
Mentoring and peer advising .

23. CLP components to be stepped up in HK (based on Survey results by HKACMGM)
1. Provide individual guidance on career decisions
2. Conduct career interest assessments with follow-ups
3. Initiate whole-school approach of career guidance
4. Organize career-related experiences for career exploration
5. Develop values, knowledge, skills and attitude about work
6. Liaise with external support on workplace programs
7. Provide support to students after leaving schools

24. In Taiwan, career and life planning is a part of the senior high school curriculum

25. In Singapore
ECG lessons for the Primary 3 to 6 levels have been incorporated into the Form-Teacher Guidance Period (FTGP) package since 2012.
For the secondary levels, ECG lessons are conducted as a module under the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum. These lessons are developmental and progressive in nature.

26. Element #3: Staff and school have to be involved:
Requires a whole-of-school approach, different teaching staff would play a role (may not be the same)
Teacher training and development (vital to success)
School planning (strategic plan for 3-5 years)
Evidence-based practice

27. Element #4: Career guidance also has an important role in addressing the needs of students at risk and early school leavers
The importance of integrated service, integrating psychological, educational, and career interventions
Can benefit much from work-place experience
Service from inter-disciplinary team and partners, working collaboratively

28. Element #5 Productive Partnerships
Community resource persons can add valuable resources to facilitate career and life planning education in schools:
First hand knowledge on careers
Serve as mentors, advisors
Provide practice and career-related experience for students

29. A Recent Documentary/Movie

30. 香港的教育體系， 按學生的成績劃分他們到不同組別的學校， 以致在低組別學校唸書的學生，因成績稍遜而飽受輕視，被標籤和邊緣化。但巧得很，紀錄片《爭氣》的拍攝對象，就是這樣一群來自低組別中學的學生，再加上幾位來自盲人學校的失明孩子，最終便有了這部電影《爭氣》，希望它能對社會起到一點警醒作用。……. (導演楊紫燁 Ruby Yang)

31. (Some) Observations on school-business and school-parent partnerships
Observation #1 Working together in collaboration (not an out-sourced compartmentalized experience)

32. Observation #2: Opportunities to participate in relevant, challenging tasks, under the “wings” of a caring community who work together in partnerships:
who “believes” in students (their potentials, human worth, and their ability to change)
who loves students and will not give up
who holds students with high expectations and insist on choosing to do things “right”
who respects, listens to, and encourages students to pursue career and educational goals

33. Obseration #3: An Experience that could transform the lives of all involved (in different degree, and in the course of time)

34. ….. 事實證明，電影不僅能記錄，也在介入，而學生們反過來給我許多思考和感觸。拍攝《爭氣》期間，我天天接觸這八十多個孩子，自己好像變成了一個輔導員，用電影療法介入了他們的生命，有幸聽到他們鮮有機會表達、也鮮有機會被傾聽的感受和聲音，這是一般的紀錄片不會觸及的環節。 (導演楊紫燁 Ruby Yang)

35. 子諾在演出完結後對媽媽說出心底話：
「媽媽不敢在人前公開孩子是盲了 ….. 」
「爸爸，媽媽，我一早已經接受了失明的事實，希望你們也能接受 ……」
「我只是無了隻眼，又不是無了條命 ……」
媽媽哭了，說: 孩子教番我地轉頭。

36. 以 _____ 蛻變人生 (a goal that could be achieved through partnership)
School-Business, School-parents Partnerships – Already Taking Places in Many Schools
《爭氣》： 用態度改變世界 以音樂蛻變人生
以 _____ 蛻變人生 (a goal that could be achieved through partnership)

37. Some Thoughts on Way Forward
Part III
Some Thoughts on Way Forward

38. Development of E-platforms
A one-stop career exploration platform for young people and individuals in transitions with:
Career information
Self-assessment and exploration tools
Advice on career and life planning, career management
On-line help

39. Career information Up-to-date, accurate, relevant
Organized, easily understood
Scientifically assembled
Linked to relevant personal traits

40. Our Aspiring ALL-in-ONE portal

45. Self-exploration tools
Multiple tools (e.g., interest, values, competence)
Simple, easily understood items
Self-administered, machine-scored, immediate feedback and assisted self-interpretation of findings
Linked to occupational choices and alternatives
Linked to educational choice and alternatives
Scientifically developed and user guide available for downloading
Can be used as counselor-free tools but can also be used with the help of a counselor

46. Other e-resources and tools
My-Career-Space – A personal space in the e-platform where students can
accumulate their career and life planning exercises and information, reflections, etc
to construct and re-construct their career and learning plans over time (in written forms, or in musical, pictorial, or other creative forms of expression)
to consult with peer advisors, peers, mentors, or even parents (they can serve to co-construct the career plans of the students)

47. O*Net

48. Other e-resources and tools
A media website with short videos of talks on careers, current issues, and videos produced by students on career and life planning
Career exercises and games in e-interactive formats
Real-time career advising via e-career platform

49. E-career guidance training platform
Short videos or e-learning materials to be put on a training site
Use a blended and/or flipped teaching mode
Sequenced, tailor-made for different groups of trainees (e.g., career teachers, class teachers)
Use a train-the-trainer model so that experienced teachers could serve as trainer to equip teachers with the necessary knowledge and competence

50. E-platform is not meant to replace career guidance teachers
Research has shown that counselor-free career intervention is least effective among different intervention strategies
Computer/e-intervention in conjunction with the help of teachers/counselors resulted in substantially higher effect than counselor free e-intervention

51. Thank You!