"School careers advice is stuck in the past" - Financial Review

[Joseph41]

Hey everybody. I found this a really, really interesting article, and would love to get some perspectives on it!

Career advisers push students to get a good Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) because that was how they got from school to higher education decades ago...

"At the moment, students meet the careers adviser in year 9 and again in year 12. It's a one-off experience. You might be lucky and get a bit of work experience. But basically you are isolated from the idea of work."

"But the process hasn't changed in generations. Young people don't need to know 'I'm going to be a lawyer' or 'I'm going to be a waiter'. They need to know skills that they  can transfer."

Full article here:
https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/school-careers-advice-is-stuck-in-the-past-20190917-p52saq

Thoughts?

[Bri MT]

I agree that there is too much of a focus on knowing what career you want but at my school everyone did meet the career advisors multiple times in year 12 & a fair few times before that as well.

This might be because I was a high achiever anyway,  but I wasn't pushed to try and get a high ATAR by the careers advisor - they were more focused on the rest of my VTAC application and making sure I had back up plans,  didn't miss scholarships etc.

[DrDusk]

I agree that there is too much of a focus on knowing what career you want

It's year 12, if you still don't have an idea of what kind of career you want, how are you going to choose a degree? or choose a trade and what not.

I found it to be a good thing that they encourage you to work harder to get a high atar. I have a friend who dropped out to do a trade but now he can't get into uni because he didn't try for a high atar as he thought he would be happy with his job.

[PhoenixxFire]

It's year 12, if you still don't have an idea of what kind of career you want, how are you going to choose a degree? or choose a trade and what not.

I picked a degree and still don’t know what career I want. Especially with more generalist degrees, there’s a lot of flexibility. Even with degrees that aren’t super flexible, there’s always transferring or doing a masters. Most people will have a general idea by that point ie science/history/law but that’s not the same as knowing what career they want. Eg. I could go into environmental science research/resource management/conservation/science communication/medicine/molecular biology/etc.

[Aaron]

Definitely think careers ed could be significantly improved. What we have at my school at the moment is much better than what i've seen.

I know when I was in high school the advice I got (now I look back on it) was pretty crap - I'm glad I didn't listen and went with my gut.

They have a hard gig given the ask of year 12 students at a crucial time in their lives - with the stresses of VCE, the added pressure of being made to pick preferences for a course sucks.

I think  there definitely needs to be more emphasis earlier on in terms of elective choices as exploration of potential areas rather than just doing elective x y or z for the sake of it. Year 9 and 10 is a crucial time period for students for a number of reasons - electives mentioned along with work experience and careers counselling. More has to be put into these two year levels to at least get some interests flowing for each student - it might reduce the 'what the hell do I pick' thoughts.

I think university visits that groups of students from a school do as part of the careers program is crucial as well - apart from Open Days, there isn't much prior engagement with universities and what they have to offer. Sure, websites provide information but sometimes they're hard to navigate and sometimes face-to-face interaction, explanation and brochures give insights an online website can't provide.

Anyway, that's just from my experiences so far.

[DrDusk]

I think  there definitely needs to be more emphasis earlier on in terms of elective choices as exploration of potential areas rather than just doing elective x y or z for the sake of it. Year 9 and 10 is a crucial time period for students for a number of reasons - electives mentioned along with work experience and careers counselling. More has to be put into these two year levels to at least get some interests flowing for each student - it might reduce the 'what the hell do I pick' thoughts.

This is so so so true. They could start by removing the atrocity of having English as a compulsory subject.

[K888]

I personally had a very different experience with my careers counsellor in high school.
We were always told that your ATAR was just one of the keys to the front door but that there were many other keys and also many back doors (bit of a weird analogy tbh haha). And we had frequent talks from the careers counsellor during VCE, especially in year 12. I think we also had to meet with them once a term to discuss what we were thinking for post year 12 and I found them to be super helpful. You could send an email anytime or drop by the office and have any questions answered. There was also often info you couldn't find on course websites so our careers counsellor would get in contact with the unis/organisations and get an answer from them. The counsellor also organised for people to come from different professions and talk about their pathway into their job and what they do and stuff.

I think I was very lucky to have such a good careers counsellor who was so involved with students but I realise not everyone is so fortunate. I think careers counselling is a really important thing that should be focused on more in all schools.