Career guidance in Singapore train...

Career guidance in Singapore trains went through 3 stages of progressive growth The focus in the 1st stage was onward information-giving. A curriculum approach was adopted in the 2nd stage when career education became part and parcel of the place of education curriculum. The 3rd stage saw the integration of career guidance with information technology and the shift of the part of the career teachers from "expert" to "facilitator." To encounter the challenges of the recent millennium, there is a ne to train professional career counselors, make known indigenous resource materials, and stir up a new concept of career progress to maturity among students.

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In Singapore, a city-state of 4 million family the development of career guidance in teachs went through three stages, spanning three decades. In the first stage, lasting almost sum of two units decades from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, the main focus of career guidance was forward information-giving. The late 1980s saw the introduction of the curriculum stage when career education became part and parcel of the regular denomination curriculum. The third stage, from 1996 to the current is characterized by the integration of technology into career guidance, the emerging see the verb of professional training for career counselors, and the unfolding of indigenous resource materials. This article existings an overview of the three stages of growth in career guidance and anticipates ahead to challenges in the novel millennium.

First Stage: Information-Giving (1965-1986)

In Singapore, the disclosure of career guidance has been exceedingly much influenced by the evolution of the education hypothesis which went through several reform manner of movings after the country gained independence in 1965 In the early years of nation building in the 1960 and 1970 the education regularity was "survival-driven" and the focus of education policy was upon educating the masses and raising the standard of literacy. Thus, earnestly effort was spent on fostering social cohesion, developing a national identity, and emphasizing technical education to support economic extension Because the ultimate goal was "survival," the cogent task was to create work at jobss to support the economy and train workers to fill these supports This explained why vocational training was given top priority while the main be of importance to in career guidance in exercises was information-giving to familiarize the pupils with the world of work. Although the Ministry of Education had a "Career Guidance Unit" staffed with career guidance officers, its primary function was to provide occupational information booklet as resource materials for the place of educations All the secondary schools were asked to appoint a career teacher whose main responsibility was to make regular visits to the Guidance Unit at the Ministry to accumulate these career information booklets. Back at the teachs these booklets were placed forward the library shelves for display as resource materials for the students

The information-giving approach was based in succession three assumptions: (a) that the observers were motivated to use the materials provided, (b) that they knew beforehand what kind of information to await for, and (c) that they knew for what reason to use the information one time they had located it. The fact was, without encouragement and suitable guidance from the teachers, many learners were not motivated to contemplate for occupational information, let alone use it for career planning. As reported by dint of the National Productivity Council Task Force upon Career Guidance in Schools, the Career Guidance Unit at the Ministry of Education was disbanded in 1979 sum of two units reasons were given for this decision. First, the plan in operation at that time was considered ineffective because the simple distribution of descriptive pamphlets forward occupational information without proper guidance from trained personnel was not no other than inadequate but could misguide the bookish mans Second, because the Ministry of Labour was already active in providing occupational information there was no need to duplicate that function (Sim, 1985)

The observation that pool information-giving was inadequate was also confirmed by way of two research studies that were directioned in the early 1980s to determine the ne for career guidance in academys In 1984, a survey of 970 final-year bookish mans from 30 randomly selected high educates across the island state revealed that as many as 95% of the pupils had not had any forms of career guidance before leaving seminary More than 60% of the scholars in the sample expressed a desire for a kind of career guidance (Khor, 1987) In a related application of mind interviews conducted with company personnel from leading industries disclosed that many young piece of work seekers were ignorant of occupational information, had little career direction, and lacked job-seeking skills (Sim, 1985) These findings helped to raise public awareness of the lack of as well as the ne for career guidance in schools

next to the first Stage: The Curriculum Approach (1987-1995)

The turning point came in December 1986 when then-Minister of Education Tony Tan made a public announcement after he answered from a study tour in the United States and the United Kingdom to share his observations and conclusions. It was his opinion that although Singapore drills had been quite successful in preparing observers for academic excellence, the affective aspect of education, so as student counseling and career guidance, was lacking in trains The published report of the close attention team, titled "Towards Excellence in Schools" (Ministry of Education, 1987) also pressureed the need for career guidance in academys Soon after the release of the report, the Pastoral Care and Career Guidance Branch was risk up at the Ministry of Education to dedicate its efforts to the planning and implementation of guidance programs in institutes From 1988 to 1993, career guidance initiatives were introduced to secondary academys as a complete personal and social education program, also known as the Pastoral Care and Career Gui dance program (PCCG) This program was implemented in six phases: 17 pilot teachs in 1988, 12 schools in 1989 19 place of educations in 1990,6 schools in 1991 and 20 place of educations in 1992. By 1993, all of the remaining 150 secondary denominations were phased in. Officially, career guidance had reached all the secondary seminarys in the country.