Career Edge 13 (February 2005)

Editorial: Boosting career education in schools

In this issue of Career Edge we take a closer look at an exciting new initiative, Designing Careers, which is due to be piloted in 75 schools throughout the country.

Designing Careers will help Year 10 students create a coherent and flexible programme of learning leading to higher achievement and successful transitions from school into education, training and work. Each student will prepare a personal Learning and Career Plan, which helps them keep track of their learning and career development. Parents, caregivers, careers advisors and form teachers will also be involved in this process.

The planning process will assist students to set goals and assess and review their progress through senior secondary school. Career Services is providing professional support and resources to the pilot schools.

The Designing Careers pilot is a substantial undertaking and will include a significant number of students – 20% of all Year 10 learners. This makes it one of the most important initiatives targeting individual schools in the last 20 years.

Designing Careers builds on recent work to raise the profile and effectiveness of career education, such as the introduction of The Real Game and CareerQuest, career days for junior and senior Māori and Pasifika students, the enhancement of KiwiCareers website and the promotion of career education through the National Administration Guidelines. It also links OECD research, which emphasises the importance of having good information and advice at key transition points in people's lives. Year 10 is the first of those major transition points as students shape up their subject choices for NCEA.

Designing Careers also has a long-term focus. It will provide young people with the skills to manage their learning and career development as they move through school and beyond. This recognises the increasing complexity of the upper school system and the tertiary sector. NCEA has brought expanded subject choices, and new learning pathways designed to give students a taste of working life, such as Gateway, are also available in school. The tertiary environment too is characterised by a proliferation of courses and providers. This is all good news for students, but it does mean they need career management skills now more than ever before.

The response from schools to date has been highly encouraging. More than 120 wanted to participate in the pilot and the 75 schools selected have been chosen to ensure an appropriate geographic and demographic spread. It is important to note that while the aims of the pilot are clear, it will be up to schools themselves to develop their own methodologies and processes for implementing Designing Careers, with the support of Career Services staff.

Our hope is that the diverse range of implementation models will throw up some really useful ideas about best practice. Like all pilots, Designing Careers will be a journey of discovery. Different approaches will be tested so that there are plenty of lessons to take forward if and when Designing Careers is fully "rolled out" at some point in the future.

Designing Careers has the potential to play a key role in helping secondary students make more informed subject and career choices. That is why it represents an enormous step forward for career education in this country.

Lester Oakes
Chief Executive
Career Services