Guidance and Counselling in Vocational Education

1. Guidance and Counselling in Vocational Education Dr. Kiran Mathur Reader

2. Meaning of Guidance Guidance in general terms means helping the individual at various stages in life to solve various types of problems. Guidance is needed in every aspect of one's life. Mathewson (1962) has defined guidance as "the systematic, professional process of helping the individual through educative and interpretive procedures to gain a better understanding of his/her own characteristics and potentialities and to relate himself/herself more satisfactorily to social requirements and opportunities, in accord with social and moral values".

3. Meaning of Guidance Hallak and others (1993) view guidance as a sort of 'Investing in the Future' which is in the form of human resource development (HRD). According to Bengalee (1984), guidance is the process of assisting an individual to help himself/herself to develop his/her potentialities to the fullest extent by utilising the maximum opportunities provided to him/her by the environment.

4. Guidance can be summarised as Assistance made available by competent persons to an individual of any age to help him/her direct his/her own life, develop his/her own point of view, make his/her own decisions and carry his/her own burdens. Assisting an individual to have a useful place in society and gain satisfaction in life. The process of helping an individual himself/herself, to know his/her needs, assess his/her potentialities, develop life purposes, formulate the plan of action and proceed to realise these under favourable conditions provided by the environment.

5. Guidance is developmental in nature The present thinking is that guidance is developmental in nature. It permeates through all stages of human life. The terms of vocational choices or vocational preferences are used in the context of vocational development which is defined in terms of process rather than an event taking place at a point of time. The present position of vocational guidance is highlighted in UNESCO's document titled "Policies for Educational and Vocational Guidance". Conger (1994) has made the following observations:

6. Guidance is developmental in nature "At one time, the educational and vocational guidance was perceived as the process of giving information about themselves and the educational and labour markets so that they make the most appropriate decisions concerning educational and occupational choices. It is now accepted that information giving is not sufficient and that guidance must address the personal, social, educational and vocational development of the student. Another change is that it is perceived as a developmental process which requires curricular approach (e.g. career education programmes introduced in the U.K.) and not simply interviews at decision making times".

7. Guidance is developmental in nature The guidance process involves creating awareness of strengths and potentials of an individual for overcoming his/her problems and resolving difficulties. Guidance aims at making the individual: • Self-understanding - of one's strengths, limitations, and other resources. • Self-accepting - acceptance of things one cannot change. • Self-directing - ability to solve problems, make choices and decisions on one's own.

8. Objectives of Guidance in vocational education • help students in selecting appropriate vocational career. • get maximum results and also to utilise money and efforts invested in vocational programmes. • make the children realise their potential by providing education according to their educational expectations. • utilise maximum intellectual resources means fruitful and effective utilisation of talents. • generate awareness among children, parents, and other community agencies about VE. • help vocational pass-outs in future career planning. • assist in proper implementation of the programme of Vocationalisation of Education.

9. Types of Guidance Educational guidance Vocational guidance Personal guidance

10. Major Guidance Functions Appraisal and self-understanding Orientation Adjustment Development

11. Major Guidance Services • Orientation service • Individual inventory service • Career information service • Counselling service • Placement service • Follow-up service • Referral services

12. Guidance in Vocationalisation of Education The NCERT document "Higher Secondary Education and its Vocationalisation" (1976) All higher secondary institutions will have to provide guidance and counselling for careers and courses to the students both at the point of entry and at the end of semesters.

13. Guidance in Vocationalisation of Education The NCERT document "Higher Secondary Education and its Vocationalisation" (1976) This does not imply that one particular teacher will have to be entrusted with this work; instead, practically all teachers should be familiar with arriving at a profile of a student's personality, interests and capabilities on the basis of a school record of internal assessment and semester course grades. They should also be familiar with employment and work opportunities associated particularly with the vocations for which there is provision in the school.

14. Guidance in Vocationalisation of Education The Revised Scheme of Vocationalisation of SecondaryEducation (1993) According to the revised scheme of Vocationalisation of Secondary Education (1993), the vocational guidance activities of the school will have two broad objectives: i) providing necessary guidance to students, parents and teachers regarding suitable educational and vocational choices; ii) helping in actual administration and smooth functioning of the scheme;

15. Guidance in Vocationalisation of Education The Revised Scheme of Vocationalisation of SecondaryEducation (1993) Specifically, the guidance programme will be directed to achieve the following outcomes: - The Vocational Guidance Teachers (VGT) will gather and make available the information regarding job opportunities, mobility etc. as most .of the vocational courses being employment oriented in nature. - The VGT will help the school pass-outs in finding on-the-job training and/ or placement by working in collaboration with employers and the employment exchanges.

16. Guidance in Vocationalisation of Education - He / she will maintain liaison between pupils, schools and the employment agencies at local, district and state levels and help the educational management/ administrators in identifying the available infrastructure for vocational training in the neighbourhood.

17. Guidance in Vocationalisation of Education The Revised Scheme of Vocationalisation of SecondaryEducation (1993) To carry out these functions, one trained graduate teacher in each vocational school should be trained in vocational guidance. It is also envisaged that at least half of his/her working time at the school should be devoted to run the vocational guidance programme. The scheme further stipulates that one trained counsellor should also be appointed at the district level to organise and run the career advice centre and assist the vocational guidance teacher at the school level.