TEACHING CAREER COUNSELLING

Moto: If you think education is expensive, wait to see how much ignoring it will cost
you

1. Teaching career counselling

1.1. Types of teaching career counselling and guidance
1.2. Types of activities for teaching career counselling
1.3. Counselling methods
2. Counselling teachers
2.1. Teachers looking for a new perspective
2.2. Teacher-student relationship
2.3. School-family relationship
3. Counselling computer-assisted teaching
3.1. Categories of teaching career counselling services compatible
with ICT
3.2. Advantages of using ITC in career counselling
3.3. Disadvantages of using ITC in career counselling
3.4. Requirements of ICT usage in teaching career counselling

Objectives: after studying this chapter, students will be able to:

1. to define the concept of didactic counselling;
2. to analyze an advisory;
3. to establish the levels of communication;
4. to show the forms of communication;
5. to reveal the barriers of communication;
6. to use effective communication techniques;
7. to emphasize the role of communication.

Recommended bibliography:
1. Drobot L., Anghel, C.V. .a. 2010 A nva mpreun, capitolul Eficiena
utilizrii competenelor TIC n educaie, vol.1, Didactica Internaional, Ediia a
XIX-a, Ed. Mirton Timioara
2. Drobot, L.E., Anghel C.V. .a. 2009 Managementul organizaiei
comunicante, capitolul Tehnologii informatice i de comunicare n
managementul organizaiei Ed. CCD Deva i RISOPRINT Cluj-Napoca.
3. Jigu, M. (coord.). 2003 Tehnologiile informatice i de comunicare n
consilierea carierei. Editura Afir, Bucureti
4.Odin A.N., Vian M., Anghel C.V. .a. 2009 Metode moderne de cercetare
n tiinele socio-umane i analitic-descriptive, capitolul Metode de cercetare
utiliznd tehnologii informatice i de comunicaie, Ed. Eftimie Murgu Reia.

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 OVERVIEW

Counselling means the maximum compatibility between the resources, the

requirements, the aspirations, the values and the interests of an individual and the real offer
of education, of training and of socio-professional integration.
Career counselling is a social service that initiates a comprehensive approach to the
individual, in all the material aspects of life and the roles in school, profession, social or
community life, family, leisure, etc. and it is reflected by all categories of information
services, advice and guidance offered to applicants by advisers. They will give specialist
support to counselled people in developing their own individuality, a positive self-image, it
contributes to social skills, problem solving and decision making, information management
and career planning.

1. TEACHING CAREER COUNSELLING

Career counselling activity has an important role in human society, and the
economically developed countries, with a high living standard have offered it the deserved
importance, developing a legislation to help its progress and its development. Counselling is
the heart of an orientation and development program of the career.

1.1. TYPES OF TEACHING CAREER COUNSELLING AND

GUIDANCE

The first model is the autonomous one which considers educational and vocational
counselling and guidance as a process by itself and exterior to the educational system that is
developed in schools and it is accomplished by institutions with social functions from outside
the educational system.
The second model is the dynamic one that includes counselling, educational and
vocational guidance in the training program in the school as an educational activity likely
associated to other curricular areas.
In our country the history of counselling and educational and vocational guidance has
come both possible models of the relationship of these processes of education and training
system.

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 1.2. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING CAREER
COUNSELLING

In the Pedagogical Assistance Centres are engaged teachers, specialist advisors in the
field of psychology, pedagogy and social assistance who have several types of activities such
as:
advising students, parents and teachers on issues of knowledge / self-knowledge
of students; students adapting to school requirements; students' career
orientation;
psychological examination of teachers at the request of the school;
psycho-pedagogical initiation of the teachers for a better understanding of
students and improving their educational behaviour;
collecting data on the dynamics of the professions and their use in guidance and
counselling.

1.3. COUNSELLING METHODS

Methods of information (individual/ group):

presentation and promotion of the services offered (brochures, posters, web site etc.).
analysis of educational offerings
analysis of occupational profiles
consulting the databases about education and training
using media resources (written press, TV, radio)
exhibiting at conferences
personal reading
watching videos

Working methods (individual/ group):

methods of knowledge / self-awareness
methods of prevention and development
methods of motivation for change

Methods based on information and communication technologies (ICT):

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 information search on the Internet
Web page development
Email Service
use of electronic discussion forums
building a Power Point presentation
creating a spread sheet
electronic text publishing

Research methods:
experiment
statistical method
questionnaire and interview - as scientific research techniques
scaling techniques
social documents study
communication content analysis techniques

Personal marketing methods:

personal marketing tools: letter of intent, European CV, portfolio
job interview
using assertive communication

2. COUNSELLING TEACHERS

Teachers have always meant to mediate, to advise and to guide professionally their
students in the schools where they work.

2.1. TEACHERS LOOKING FOR A NEW PERSPECTIVE

The school of the future will no longer focus on acquiring knowledge transmitted to
students by teachers or learning to learn, but learning to become. Teachers will have to learn
to become professionals.

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 The level at which the contemporary demand arises from competence, professionalism
and dedication of teachers, requires an enormous responsibility. Current teachers must be
able to respond to the following conditions:

to know specifically what is expected of them in the plan of action and moral
behaviour;

be able to meet the requirements;

to wish the manifestation of that type of behaviour compatible with the requirements
of the profession.
The status of the ethics of education can be shaped problematizing previous
requirements as follows:
 What society expects from teachers? What are the legal and moral rights and
responsibilities?
 What are the relevant values and principles to these requirements?
 From what people do we choose good teachers? What do professional ethics include?

2.2. TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP

The relationship teacher-student is the main way of teaching mediation, the hypostasis
of it in a human variant subjective. Beyond the specific content being transmitted, in teaching
it will be very important the type of interaction that will settle between the classroom and the
teacher, as well as his/her attitude to relate to a group and to each student.
The relationship of the teacher with the students is a mutual, dynamic construction,
which is always mustered in the circumstances and educational purposes. It is the result of
common work to be finalized in time shared by both parties involved. The relationship
with the students should not be restricted to the formal, administrative aspect, governed by
codes of ethics or normative institutional; it will suit and personalize consstantly, it will size
and relativize to the specific of school group or its members.

2.3. SCHOOL-FAMILY RELATIONSHIP

Parents often transfer to children their professional grievances, the stereotypes about
the work (heavy, lucrative, secure, prestigious, etc.) or their unrealized aspirations, the fact
having an adverse effect on their choice and achievement of the career. The share of children

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that take account of parents desire about future school pathway and future profession
declines as they are included in higher levels of education (high school, college). All those
barely graduated from high school have asked themselves at a certain moment what
profession would be most appropriate for them. In general, the criteria that parents have in
regard to choice in influencing children's educational and professional concerns:
- the safety and the future of the profession on the labour market
- the duration of the studies to achieve such a goal (period in which the young man is
financially depend on the family)
- the financial costs (taxes of education)
- the unexpected financial advantages
- the social position offered by profession
- the potential risks of work

Disciplines and profession

There is a close link between the school discipline and the profession that a young
man follows. For example, if a student has good results in:
- Romanian / foreign languages, he could become: a teacher of Romanian or foreign
languages, linguistics researcher, librarian, publicity worker, teacher, educator, guide,
translator, actor, diplomat, journalist, art critic, corrective editor, etc.
- Maths: Maths teacher, economist-accountant, computer programmer, an engineer in
various areas, bank clerk, engineering technician, salesperson, architect, pilot, structural
engineer, astronomer.
- Physics, Chemistry, Biology: teacher or researcher in one of these areas, a physicist,
chemist, biologist, biochemist, biophysicist, land surveyor, engineer, pharmacist, doctor,
dentist, agronomist, geologist, horticulturist, beautician.
- History: teacher or researcher in this area, touristic guide, curator, archaeologist,
diplomat, writer.
- IT: teacher, accountant, computer programmer, an astronomer, structural engineer,
cartographer, economist, engineer, employed in finance and banking, telecommunications
specialist, architect, air traffic controller.
- Physical education: sports teacher, coach, physiotherapist, army officer, policeman,
fireman, sports commentator, athlete, football player etc.
This way of formal relationship with the subsequent professional development of
school materials is possible when the young man chooses to continue in his chosen field. Of

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course, the good results in these areas cannot prevent a student to choose another professional
field.

3. COUNSELLING COMPUTER ASSISTED TEACHING

Using information and communication technology in career counselling is dependent

on the technological development in computer science (computers with large memory
resources and, therefore, able to store large databases and industry development information
on CD-ROM storage, multimedia systems, networking work of computers via the internet).
In accordance with a classification of types of software used in career counseling,
made by Offer (1998), there can be identified:
- games and simulation programs (designed to be used as commercial games, of training in
vocational schools, with educational themes and related careers);
- programs of formal correspondence, of search and choice from a list of jobs the
appropriate one for a client depending on its characteristics;
- personal profiles obtained by self-assessment: programs that make" a psychological profile
based on questionnaires;
- searching for information programs: programs of (re)finding data stored according to
certain criteria, in databases, of size and of complexity variables, programs to provide
information to opportunities awareness;
- information programs on the network of schools and institutions of education and
professional training;
- decision-making support programs: programs that help individuals to analyze factors that
influence or that have to be taken into account in making a decision, proposing variants and
ways to follow;
- support programs to develop a Curriculum Vitae (CV), writing a cover letter or filling out
printed forms;
- skills development programs to search for a job;
- cross-curricular applications;
- psychometric tests to measure certain skills, personality tests etc.;
- multimedia systems: complex programs that leverage multiple data types (audio, video,
text).

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 3.1. CATEGORIES OF TEACHING CAREER COUNSELLING
SERVICES COMPATIBLE WITH ICT

Career counselling refers not only to those seeking for a job, but to all categories of
people (including those who already have a job and want another one, who want to be more
efficient and on higher positions or those who are retiring, if they had a paid job), regardless
of skill level, occupation, sex, age, etc.
For this, all the above categories of people need information, advice, guidance. To
satisfy these needs of an audience so large it is required recourse to information technology
and counselling. In this process, some may have cognitive (learning), emotional or technical
difficulties. Lets imagine the difficulty for most people to find useful information among the
8 million existing web sites.
The customers of career counselling services are different in their ability to learn,
make decisions, recognize and select relevant information to use them (adapting them to the
needs of knowing and to personality characteristics).
It is important to draw the attention to potential customers, by drawing an unrealistic
self-images when they use ICT resources to assess individual psychological instruments that
obtain an interpretation made technologically. Inevitably, in these cases results
interpretation and advice orientation can only be schematic and rigid.

3.2. ADVANTAGES OF USING ITC IN CAREER COUNSELLING

The utilization of new information technologies in educational and vocational guidance

and counselling has the following advantages:

improving the number of clients per advisor;

decreasing the social costs of counselling and guidance;

growth of storage, retrieval, manipulation and combination of different sets of
variables (personal characteristics, occupations, institutions, etc.) and that can provide
immediate answers to a wide range of customers;

increasing the autonomy of the beneficiaries from counsellors;

direct contact with sources of information that can be considered convenient times by
each (personalization of time access to information);

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providing a repeatable experience that facilitates learning and retention of
information;

increasing the level of realism of the work situations used as examples and sources of
information (through electronic simulation);

providing information in a broad way;

increasing flexibility in the presentation of data, allowing immediate selection and
organization of information according to several criteria (e.g. occupations may be
classified, analyzed or associated by various characteristics or requirements, of
course, with as many specifications as they were introduced in each system).

3.3. DISADVANTAGES OF USING ITC IN CAREER

COUNSELLING

The main vulnerabilities of computerized career counselling programs, which for now
are considered as disadvantages to the use of ICT in career counselling, are those relating to:
 high perish of the information entered in the program; there is always need for
counsellors to feed the system and IT consultants to assist the operation of their
servers, networks at distance, and improve counselling programs;
 programs are not always in line with typical or dynamic customer demands;
 still low or no flexibility of computer programs to changing priorities, needs and
categories of customer information; these act strictly in line with the original input
program and information;
 programs inability to learn, to adapt, to have empathy or other psychological qualities
of the adviser;
 passive reception, of information by non-participating customers;
 decreased ability to obtain new or different information, to ask questions or practice
certain hypothetical situations;
 relatively low sensitivity of guidance and counselling programs to customer's
individual differences.

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 3.4. REQUIREMENTS OF ICT USAGE IN TEACHING CAREER
COUNSELLING

Concerns for the gradual integration of ICT in the current act of counselling are still
unsystematic due to lack of training and expertise in the ICT domain, of technical means,
Internet connections, programs tailored to ICT requests.
The ICT use process in counselling must be synchronized with the activity of public /
beneficiaries / clients / youth from schools initiation in using these information resources.
Using the potential of ICT in guidance requires that all counsellors have been trained /
are capable of or demonstrate that:
have the skills to use a computer;
know how to creatively use the Internet facilities;
can design a web site;
participate in forums and discussion groups;
have the ability to find useful information to customers, in line with their level, their
requirements and their area of interests;
have the ability and power to process and adapt the information to be directly used
by the beneficiaries from different socio-cultural and economic environments;
have the ability to respond flexibly and operatively to the dynamic or situational
needs of customer, users of ICT resources endorsed by advisers;
have the ability to guide groups of users for the use of ICT in career counselling;
have the ability to co-opt or to consider other factors / actors with significant or
decisive weight in career counselling (parents, teachers, authorities, peers, media),
people working in other fields and who can advocate for counselling as a non-
professional career.
Regarding the use of ICT in adult career counselling (for job placements, mediation
client - employer), the process is a proof of great complexity. In different contexts or stages
of life, with the same goals or new ones, the client can recover the dynamics of the cyclical
pattern of information, advice and guidance, giving each time a different course, internal
processuality or purpose. The same thing happens (or should happen) in the case of
meeting a client with a specialized web site in career counselling.

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 COURSE SUMMARY

Counselling computer assisted teaching is successful for several years in our country.
The current trend is to build complex programs to go through all stages of the self, from self-
evaluation, information about existing training courses, employment, decision-making, to
identify job vacancies and employment. The major advantage of using ICT in career
counselling is to facilitate the conduct of statistical calculations, correlations, probabilities or
storing information about customers, educational institutions or organizations.

KEY CONCEPTS

1. definitions
2. methods
3. relations
4. advantages/disadvantages

REFERENCES
1. Jigu, M. Consilierea carierei. Bucuresti, Editura Sigma, 2001.
2. Sampson, J, P. Quality and Ethics in Internet-Based Guidance. In: International Journal
for Educational and Vocational Guidance. 2002, p. 157-171.
3. Savard, R; Gingras, M; Turcotte, M. Delivery of Career Development Information in
the Context of Information Computer Technology. In: International Journal for
Educational and Vocational Guidance. 2002, p. 173-191.
4. Watts, A. G. The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in Integrated
Career Information and Guidance System: a Policy Perspective. In: International Journal
for Educational and Vocational Guidance. 2002, p. 137-155.

OTHER USEFUL REFERENCES

1. Discussions forum: www.cie.roedu.ro/
2. Pedagogical assistance centres www.edu.botosani.ro/cjap, www.cjap.braila.net,
www.geocities.com/cjappcluj, www.cmap.home.ro, http://cjapp.satmat.ro)
3. Information and Guidance Centres acting in higher education (http://cipo-
gate.uaic.ro la Iai and www.ciocp.ro la Bucureti).

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