Identifying best practice in career education and development in Australian secondary schools

Abstract

This review aimed to identify the tenets of best practice in career education and development within Australian schools. Analysis of 13 articles revealed that career education and development is increasingly recognised as the critical transitional mechanism for young people. An embedded, whole-school approach with services tailored to the individual, school, community and culture was a central theme. Furthermore, one-on-one counselling by appropriately resourced and qualified professionals, provision of experiential learning opportunities, and the inclusion of activities aimed at inspiring students and equipping them with the skills of forethought, reflection, flexibility and decision-making were also critical. Designing a perfect model of delivery or theoretical framework is untenable, but identifying attributes of exemplary practice provides a basis for improvement and adaptation to students and contexts with differing needs. Opportunities for future research are also discussed briefly.

Co-designing a curriculum model for career education: perspectives from regional communities in Australia

“…The empirical contribution of this paper is the three main themes identified in the perspectives of regional communities to inform curriculum design and practices. The first theme, the need for simple, easy to teach career activities links to ongoing research that discussed how to balance what some scholars have described as a crowded curriculum (Keele et al, 2020 ). Wyn ( 2007 ), speaking on health and wellbeing, however, argues that non-core curriculum topics are marginalised not because of available time, but because of they are not valued within policy frameworks.…”

“…Additionally, teachers have been identified as best placed to deliver careers activities (Welde et al, 2015 ), supporting the long-standing view of embedding careers education in the curriculum. Given the marked socioeconomic divide in the type and quality of career information available to students (Dockery et al, 2021 ) researchers have advocated for a whole school approach to “embed career education and development in curriculum/co-curriculum, beginning with exploratory activities in primary school and linking these to further exploration, reflection and adaptive goal setting in later years” (Keele et al, 2020 , p. 57) and developing a “curriculum that explicitly teaches students the ‘hidden’ discourses to navigate the world of work” (Austin et al, 2021 , p. 6).…”

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

“…To transition from one phase to another, young athletes have to meet challenging demands that may be stressful and require commitment. This implies that wide and open approaches toward career development for student athletes are required to systematically prepare and design their future careers [20].…”

“…Career education cannot be a panacea that prepares adolescents for future careers, but it plays a significant role in the effective design of their school life [32]. Career education could promote "the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes through planned programs of learning experiences in education to assist informed work and study decision-making" [20], p. 55. Patton [21] suggested that career education should include the following three major elements: self-awareness, opportunity awareness, and decision and transition learning.…”

“…Despite sufficient evidence about career development and education for adolescents, few studies have considered the content standards and elaborated on what adolescents should know and be able to do within the contents of sports career education. Content standards help educators and/or counselors in planning the content structure, including the scope and sequence of contents and in ensuring consistency and manageability of complete career education [19][20][21].…”