A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Emergence of Tech-Prep at the State and Local Levels - 1995

Career Development And Guidance

Career development and counseling are likely to be critical to the success of Tech-Prep programs.8 Many students who are considered to be in a Tech-Prep program must make important choices--enrolling in Tech-Prep, selecting a career cluster, identifying a vocational major, entering postsecondary education for a specialized degree or certificate, and seeking and obtaining employment. Therefore, Tech-Prep students must be able to identify their interests and abilities, and to choose occupational goals on the basis of information about and exposure to the variety of career options available. Career counseling and related career development activities may be provided specifically as a component of a Tech-Prep program, may be requirements that all students in a school must engage in according to a prescribed sequence, or may be available to any student who wishes to make use of them.

As part of the national survey, we explored the types of career development activities that consortium members had implemented. To determine the extent to which these activities had been implemented across the consortia, we asked coordinators to indicate whether the activities were available at any, some, or all schools in the consortium; these questions were asked separately for middle school, high school, and postsecondary years. It is important to note that the questions did not ask about activities conducted solely for Tech-Prep students.

Individual career counseling is widespread but not universally available

Many schools involve students in individual counseling sessions as a way of promoting career awareness, and those in Tech-Prep consortia are no exception. About 90 percent of the 702 consortia conduct individual career-counseling sessions in some or all of their member high schools of all consortia. However, only 56 percent of all consortia conducted this activity in all of their participating high schools (Table VII.4).

TABLE VII.4
Consortia Providing Career Development At All Member Schools
Grade 8 or Earlier Grades 9 to 12 Postsecondary Level Total
Activity Type Number of Consortia Percentage Number of Consortia Percentage Number of Consortia Percentage Number of Consortia Percentage
Special Career Development Classes 140 20 164 23 223 32 343 49
Career Development Integrated in Academic or Vocational Classes 145 21 264 38 265 38 394 56
Individual Counseling 203 29 343 49 390 56 500 71
Special Tech-Prep Counseling Materials 119 17 193 28 126 18 243 35
Development of Secondary\Postsecondary Student Plans 119 17 233 33 219 31 319 45
Career Exploration Software 143 20 266 38 346 49 442 63
Trips to Work Sites 63 9 151 22 225 32 259 37
Job Placement by Course Instructors NA 126 18 273 39 313 45
Job Placement by Guidance Instructors NA 117 17 222 32 259 37
Job Placement by Special Placement Staff NA 76 11 296 42 327 47
Other 9 1 5 1 5 1 9 1
SOURCE: Inventory of Local Tech-Prep Planning and Implementation, Fall 1993.

NOTE: NA means not applicable.

The definition and delivery of career development remains largely a matter for individual districts and schools

Neither consortium structure nor Tech-Prep may greatly affect career-development activities. Career-development activities were implemented consortium-wide in fewer than half of the consortia. Although many consortia reported including career-development classes or sessions in their core programs, they do not conduct these activities in all member secondary schools. For example, only 35 percent of the consortia that reported implementing career-development classes as part of the core Tech-Prep experience had implemented these in all member schools. Instead, the availability of career-development activities is more likely left to schools and districts to determine.

As a result, consortium staff may have difficulty obtaining concrete information about the extent and types of these activities in each school. About 50 consortia coordinators were unable to answer any questions in the fall 1993 survey about career-development activities in grades 8 or earlier, 18 were unable to answer any questions about activities in grades 9-12, and 38 consortia could not answer any questions about activities at the postsecondary level. In addition, many coordinators lacked information about the conduct of activities in specific categories. Coordinators were most frequently unable to answer questions about special career-development classes, school counselors' use of special counseling materials developed specifically for Tech-Prep students, students' access to career-exploration software, and job-placement efforts.

Placing students in jobs is not currently a major strategy for career development at the secondary level

Few consortia provide job-placement assistance (Table VII.4). Less than 30 percent of the consortia provide some type of secondary job-placement assistance consortium-wide.9 In responding to survey questions about job-placement assistance, consortium coordinators may have included both informal placement help provided by vocational counselors and more structured assistance provided by special staff given assigned responsibility for this task. The responses also included districts that offer temporary jobs as part of the secondary school cooperative education program.

8 Although Title IIIE of the Perkins Act does not explicitly call for career development and counseling, it does call for preparatory services, which are generally viewed as including these functions.

9 This figure represents the percentage of consortia that reported havin job placement performed by any type of staff--course instructors, guidance counselors, or special placement staff. Some consortia reported that job placement is performed by more than one type of staff, so figures in Table VII.4 cannot simply be summed to arive at this overall figure.
-###-

[Articulation Of Secondary And Postsecondary Programs] [Table of Contents] [Workplace Opportunities For Tech-Prep Students]