Equity in Career Development of High School Students in South Korea: The Role of School Career Education

Abstract

Along with the rising concerns of career education in school, the government in South Korea has increased investments for closing the opportunity gap in career education. However, limited studies explored the equity in students’ outcomes of career education. Focusing on career development competencies, we examined if school career education could reduce the socio-economic disparities in the career development of high school students. We used the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression applying school-fixed effects with the representative data from the Korean Education and Employment Panel II. Findings showed that parental education level was positively linked to career development competencies of high school students, though household income was not shown as statistically significant. We also found that for students who engaged in career and vocational classes in school, the parental education level was less likely to be related to their career development competencies. Also, students who were more satisfied with school career education showed a weaker relationship between career development competencies and parental education level. Based on these findings, we discussed the role of school-based career education to narrow the gap in students’ career development from socio-economic backgrounds.

Access to Career Education and Work-related Learning: a complex literature review on equity and inclusion

“…Il team di ricerca sudcoreano ha indagato quanto il background socioeconomico di provenienza si ripercuota sul livello di sviluppo di competenze di career development degli studenti evidenziando come il livello di soddisfazione rispetto alle opportunità beneficiate sia positivamente correlato allo sviluppo delle competenze stesse e mitighi la relazione con il livello di istruzione della famiglia di provenienza. I ricercatori evidenziano dunque come per offrire una soddisfacente CE, che contribuisca ad interrompere meccanismi di riproduzione sociale, le scuole debbano personalizzarne le modalità di erogazione, i metodi e i contenuti in risposta ai bisogni degli studenti e considerando il loro stadio di career development (Lee et al, 2021).…”

“…Emerge poi chiaramente, una debolezza a livello di valutazione dei progetti. Su 22 contributi solo due (Lee et al, 2021;Valencia-Forrester et al, 2019) pongono la questione. Entrambi evidenziano come solo valutazioni continue e strutturate possano contribuire ad un ampliamento e ad un miglioramento delle azioni in essere.…”

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“…Career education is concerned with the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes through a planned program of learning experiences in educational and training settings that will help students make informed decisions about their life, study, and/or work options and enable effective participation in the workforce (Lee et. al., 2021).…”

Best Content Standards in Sports Career Education for Adolescents: A Delphi Survey of Korean Professional Views

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