The article describes and examines ...

The article describes and examines the modern development of career development and counseling in Hong Kong in 3 major settings: educate university, and community. Convergence and divergence in career counseling between Hong Kong and the United States are discussed, in concern to a number of areas, including the freedom to make choice of and compromise, collectivism and individualism, school-to-work transition, use of trials and types of career intervention. Areas of collaboration between the 2 regions are identified and discussed.

**********

In the latter part of the twentieth centenary counseling as an academic and applied discipline has take pleasure ined a period of growth and unravelling in many countries in Asia (eg Leung 1999b; Leung Guo & Lam, 2000) Hong Kong is a case in point. Hong Kong had been a British colony for chiefly of the twentieth century until it was reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 The growth of social services and education in Hong Kong had been relatively heavy until after the social riots in 1967 (Leung 1999c) These social riots were triggered at the Cultural Revolution in China during the 1960 and the colonial restraint realized that maintaining social stability and cohesion was vital to the progressive growth of Hong Kong. Since then, more efforts and resources were directed toward upgrading social services and education, including career guidance and counseling.

In this article, I describe and analyze the progress to maturity of career counseling in Hong Kong in three settings: denomination university, and community. A inferior objective of this article is to discuss similarities and differences in the practice of career counseling in the United States and Hong Kong Finally, I also give some suggestions on how researchers and practitioners in one as well as the other regions could collaborate to advance the evolution of career counseling. To accomplish these objectives, I review relevant career progression in a continuously ascending gradation and counseling literature in Hong Kong which at this point is still limited one as well as the other in terms of quality and quantity.

Career Counseling in Hong Kong: A Descriptive Overview

Educational order and Career Interventions

Understanding the status of career counseling in Hong Kong requires near background knowledge about the educational order In Hong Kong, elementary sect high school, and colleges are called primary gymnasium secondary school, and university, respectively. To be consistent, I use times used in Hong Kong as I pertain to different levels of the schooling system

The Hong Kong educational combination of parts to form a whole was modeled after the British theory Students in Hong Kong have to take many denomination and public examinations before they can insured a place at a university. The layers of schooling bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance to that of a pyramid arrangement of parts After 9 years of compulsory education (6 years of primary academy and 3 years of junior secondary school) about 80% of pupils continue into senior secondary indoctrinates (2 years). At the conclusion of 2 years, students have to sit for a public examination. The inferences from this public examination are used to selected students for the 2-year preuniversity course, and merely about 20% of senior secondary place of education students f urther their education in a preuniversity course (Zhang, 1998) alone half of the preuniversity learners successfully gain university admission (Zhang, 1998) with the remaining scholars either choosing to attempt the entrance examination again, going abroad to contemplation or seeking entrance into vocational oriented diploma programs.

The Hong Kong educational scheme practices tracking and streaming (Leung 1999d) Many primary exercises group students into classes based upon abilities (i.e., test scores). Primary indoctrinate students are assigned to junior secondary exercises through a centralized allocation connected view based mostly on test scores. Secondary educates are divided into five categories based in succession student abilities. Schools with a high concentration of pupils with low learning abilities frequently have to deal with an array of question s including students' lack of motivation to learn, bookish man discipline problems, and the tenors of labeling (Leung, 1999d).

At the extreme point of junior secondary school, scholars have to choose between a science and an arts track as they make a transition into senior secondary gymnasium Whereas all students have to take basic Chinese and English courses, close examiners in a science track take chiefly subjects related to sciences and mathematics, like as physics, biology, chemistry, and advanced mathematics. close examiners in an arts track take for the greatest part subjects in humanities and social science, like as Chinese history, world history, economics, geography, Chinese literature, and English literature. chiefly secondary schools only allow learners to enter a science track if they have adequate mathematics and science criterion scores. At the same time, many pupils are attracted to a science track because of the belief that it will lead to a brighter career coming than studying in an arts track. This mechanism terminates in a scenario in which scholars with stronger academic abilities are more likely to be channeled into a science track (Leung 1999d)