What is Vocational Guidance?

Vocational Guidance is a professional service carried out by a registered psychologist, which assists the student in making educational and career choices, and in improving educational competence and prospects for career success.

This exercise normally takes 3 to 6 hours depending on the test battery used. The assessee completes questionnaires, exercises, and assessments of personality characteristics, aptitudes, occupational interests, reading and writing speeds, and study habits and attitudes.

The information obtained is interpreted by the psychologist and compiled in a report of written and graphical information often consisting of five sections (personality characteristics, occupational interests, study habits and attitudes, reading and writing skills, and analysis and recommendations).

The report is discussed with the student and parents. At this stage questions can be answered, options explored and educational and career-choice logistics considered, and parents and/or student are welcome to consult the psychologist at any time following the exercise.

REPORTS

The psychologist scores the tests and exercises and interprets the results by comparison with norms established from samples of the appropriate reference populations of students. Results are then so expressed as to be clear and meaningful to parents and students.

Most psychologists stress that results are not fixed blueprints for future development but "snapshots" of the various stages of growth of cognitive, motivational, emotional and academic and social skills of the student. The report is discussed by the psychologist with parents and students, at which point any unavoidable jargon can be re-expressed and explained in as much detail as necessary for the understanding of clients.

Vocational guidance reports include advice on occupational possibilities. Despite the expectations of many parents that the psychologist should focus the student on a specific career area, it is often seen as in the student's interests that a range of options should be proposed for investigation by the student (perhaps over many months) through reading, "shadowing", vacational employment, speaking to people in various occupations.

Consideration of the logistics of future education (educational fees, costs of travel, availability of part-time work, possibility of scholarships, intended country of domicile after qualification etc. are further factors which may require a range of options, and time for investigating them)

Internationally the nature of work is changing rapidly and vocational advice should guide the student to be as adaptable as possible in educational and career preparation. Accordingly, this is an important criterion for the Psychologist in preparation of educational and careers advice.

A further important contribution of the Vocational Psychologist may be the identification of an inappropriate, but intended, career direction, and associated wastage of effort and resources.

For example, such professions as accountancy, teaching, law, medicine, social work, architecture and engineering are characterized by high levels of drop-out of students academically qualified but vocationally unsuited to the intended career-path. 
 

THE ROLES OF THE CAREER TEACHER AND OTHER TEACHERS

It is most important that the Vocational Psychologist and the teacher(s) should work closely together. Whereas the psychologist can produce the "snapshot" the teacher has, as it were, a "movie" of the student's developmental record and is aware of many factors which might have influenced development about which the psychologist has no knowledge.

However objective the teacher might try to be he/she is influenced by the individual relationship with the student, and by the social context of the student in school.

On the other hand, the psychologist, in the absence of such knowledge, can assess the student individually, and independently of such influences. But both types of information are necessary for maximization of the chances of successful educational and career guidance. 
 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What Is The Best Age For Vocational Guidance?

Should the parent, student or school have any concerns about educational progress, then vocational guidance should take place when the student is in Form 3. However, if all appears to be going well, assessment at the beginning of Form 4 would allow a little longer for maturation and development of interests, and would be in time for advice to be given about any difficulties in motivation, study skills, examination techniques etc. in preparation for 'O' Level.

After Form 4 vocational guidance becomes of even greater potential urgency for the student because of the intensity of academic competition and consequent need for good emotional and motivational adjustment, efficient study methods, and tertiary educational and/or career orientation.

In the case of Form 3 students, the emphasis will usually be on educational advice, i.e. helping the student to develop educational competitiveness by making constructive adjustments in the light of assessed personality characteristics, interests, aptitudes and, in particular, study habits and attitudes, which is used to provide the student with diagnostic educational advice.

By helping the student to identity counter-productive attitudes (e.g. to teachers or education in general) or habits (e.g. inefficient study methods), the psychologist enables improvements to take place in advance of 'O' Level examinations.

The Form 3 student is orientated towards subject choice for 'A' Level, and offered a fairly flexible, broad range of career possibilities, plus the advice to maintain an 'open mind' about career choices. After 'O' Level, study adjustments for 'A' Level are important and career possibilities often become more focused.

Tertiary educational choices must be considered, not only in the light of test information but also in relation to the costs/duration of various courses, family obligations, intended country of domicile, etc.

Do The Personality Characteristics, Aptitudes And Interests Of Students Change, Say, Over A Period Of Two Years?

Yes, and as a rough guide, the younger the student, the more likely it is that change will take place. Specifically:

• Vocational Interests: 
  Changes in vocational interests are influence by opportunities and experiences, and by the extent to which the student is 'open' or 'closed' in his/her attitude towards career choice.
• Aptitudes: 
  Aptitudes should, in theory, be 'innate' but are increased through practice.
• General Intelligence : 
  One's intelligence is also theoretically 'fixed' or innate, but it is very much influenced by learning experiences. Perhaps it would be helpful for you to think of the human brain as being similar to a (hypothetical) self-programming computer, which has the option to seek and accept software (i.e. learn through education and/or experience) or reject it. 
  
  Obviously, if such a computer were to begin to reject software, it would not achieve a high 'general ability rating'.
• Personality Characteristics: 
  Our personalities are relatively enduring, but can change in reaction to life circumstances.
• Study Habits and Attitudes:
  In this area, there is much scope for change.
• Study Habits: 
  can be improved through reading, and selectively following the recommendations of one or more of the many available books on study methods and examination techniques.
• Study Attitudes:
  are more difficult to change but may do so autonomously as study skills improve.
• Reading Speed:
  is a limiting factor for most students and can be significantly increased. The average speed for a Form 4 student in Zimbabwe is approximately 169 words per minute. This is very slow by comparison with 500 words per minute or more (without loss of comprehension), which can be achieved by most students after a few hours of practice.
• Writing Speed:
  Most academic examinations, and many types of career development training course assessments, do not assess what one knows , but what one is able to get down onto paper . Writing is a skill, which has to be learned. Writing speed can be improved by stylistic and postural adjustments, and by practice.

WHAT CAN A PSYCHOLOGIST OFFER, FROM A FEW HOURS OF TESTING, THAT IS NOT ALREADY AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS WHO HAVE HAD YEARS OF EDUCATIONAL CONTACT WITH THE STUDENTS?

There are multiple answers to this one.

Psychological tests can be used to identify personality characteristics, which may be difficult to assess accurately in the educational setting. For example, apparent 'laziness' might be the outcome of any combination of the following factors.

• A low level of ambition
• Low tolerance of routine work, perhaps due to high extraversion.(sic-we spell it with an 'a' after Eysenck rather than Jung)
• A high fear of failure
• Low levels of self-confidence or self-efficacy
• A negative relationship with one or more teachers
• Use of parent attitudes (usually in favour of delinquent study) as an 'anti-model'

The above, although not an exhaustive list, does illustrate the complexity that possibly underlies only one type of accurate behavioural observation, i.e., of "laziness." There are of course many different ways of treating each of the above problems, both for the psychologist and for the teacher. The behaviour is superficially obvious, but the causes may be concealed and, if so, the treatment is often difficult to assign.
 

OCCUPATIONAL INTERESTS

Occupational interests may not have been accurately identified in the school setting. Although teachers should , and usually do encourage an open mind about occupational possibilities, the social environment at home, and possibility amongst peers at school, tends to put pressure on the student to make a choice.

For example, adults frequently ask about career intentions early in their conversations with students, often creating the expectation that a career area should already have been selected. The student then tends to conform to these expectations, and may decide upon a career path without considering available options. Other pressures arise from parents pushing the student into their own occupational fields, or into careers of high status and/or potential earnings.

The occasional teacher has been known to recommend careers based on ability, without taking account of the personality and interests of the individual. School teaching is itself a good example of a vocation for which students tend to be recommended on the basis of favourable academic performances, without taking into account the occupational interests and personality characteristics appropriate for teaching. There are few unhappier professionals than the vocationally misplaced teacher!

The psychologist, using forced-choice interest questionnaires, is able to identify occupational interests, in a relatively objective manner, in circumstances which help to release the student from such pressures.

GENERAL INTELLECTUAL ABILITY, AND APTITUDES

Recent research on cognitive development has shown that the measurement of IQ and aptitudes are 'snapshots' of a particular stage of a student's development. Sir Cyril Burt's "innate general cognitive ability" cannot be directly measured. The tested scores of a student undergoing stimulating, informative, challenging, and motivating education, will increase over time, whereas the abilities of the disadvantaged student will tend to remain static, or even deteriorate.

In addition to the standard tests of aptitude (numerical, verbal, spatial etc.) we have available in Southern Africa a practical, fault-finding test of mechanical aptitude, in the form of a machine with 7 faults which must be detected and put right by the assessee in order to put it into working order. (This was developed from a version used by the CSIR, which, itself, was copied from a prototype produced in Germany. It has been normed and validated in Zimbabwean industry 
 

EDUCATIONAL ADVICE

• Reading Speed and Comprehension

A major channel of educational input is through reading. The mean reading speed for Zimbabwean students is approximately 175 words per minute, with between 60 and 70% comprehension at that rate. Very few students ever receive training in speed reading. They read, even as adults, as they learned to do in kindergarten/junior school - focusing gaze from word to word (without grouping or "chunking"), sub-vocalizing (which reduces reading speed to that of speech) and so on.

Both reading speeds, and comprehension, respond to training. The average student's speed can be raised through training to over 400 words per minute with no loss of comprehension. As a general principle, the higher the ability of the individual the greater the potential for increasing reading speed and comprehension levels.

• Writing Speed and Clarity

We assess handwriting speed because " it is not what you know, but what you get onto paper that earns the marks. " Clarity is also important.

Unclear handwriting is, in some exams, officially marked down and, in any case, it irritates the examiner. (I had a psychology student at the University of Zimbabwe who was an outstanding academic - and has continued to prove so since - but who had appallingly undecipherable handwriting. The External Examiner showed his frustration and wanted to award him only an upper second class degree. I argued, and so was requested to read all of the papers to the External Examiner. He was awarded a First!)

As a teacher you have invigilated examinations. Compare the results of students continuously writing in a quick and relaxed style with those of students frequently pausing, stretching, shaking their hands, looking around and generally wasting their opportunities to score!

3. Study Habits and Attitudes

We administer the "Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes", which is an internationally developed diagnostic questionnaire, normed for local use through our research in Southern Africa, in order to provide an assessment of the student's strengths and weaknesses in study motivation and techniques, and in educational attitudes. A blank results form is appended for your information.

Many teachers have disliked this fairly comprehensive method of analysing a student's approach to study, in most cases, because they tend to feel threatened by the possibility of negative findings. In reality, the parents seldom blame the teacher, but the psychologist often finds it necessary to "protect" the student who obtains a low profile, or even any low score, from the ire of parents, who often themselves benefit from counselling!

This Survey is frequently an excellent source of explanation for the case of the student who scores high on aptitude tests, but low, both in academic performance, and in the opinions of teachers. Such an investment is indispensable for the psychologist offering vocational guidance. 
 

Educational and Careers Advise

The Rotary Careers and Self-Development Handbook.

A leading Headmaster has said of it "The school is delighted to be the recipient of this extraordinarily comprehensive, practical and directional document which will be used no doubt, most effectively in our careers and guidance division... this outstanding document... and we are most grateful to Rotary for always being so interested in the development of our young people."