The purpose of this study is to investigate how study and career guidance counsellors view their profession in connection with a professional license with the main questions being: 1.     Should a professional licensing card for study and career guidance counsellors be introduced? 2.     How would a professional licensing affect the professionalization of the study and career guidance counsellors’ profession? This study is made from the perspective of professional study and career guidance counsellors and is intended for them, school leaders, employers, and politicians within school-working life, to hopefully develop the professional role, status and competence of study and career guidance counsellors. A quantitative method was used to gather information from working professionals through a survey that was published in different social media forums such as LinkedIn and Facebook. The survey was also sent out to people within the writer’s social network. The NICE handbook by Schiersmann, Ertelt, Katsarov, Mulvey, Reid och Weber (2012) has been used to analyse the results given by the respondents and has been the basis of this study. The main result shows that from a study and career guidance counsellor perspective, a professional licensing would be beneficial for the profession and is sought after. However, the results show that licensing is more sought after within the world of academics. This is due to the varying work and work titles that study and career guidance counsellors outside of the academic world have, thus a professional license might act more restricting rather than being a step towards professionalisation.

Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och förstå sjundeklassares upplevelser av sin skolgång. Mer specifikt vill vi veta mer om deras motivation att engagera sig i sina studier samt få en förståelse för de variationerna av studiemotivation som finns bland elever i årskurs 7. Vi har intervjuat elever som går i årskurs 7 på tre olika skolor i Mellansverige om hur de ser på sin skolgång och vad som motiverar dem samt vad som gör att de inte känner sig studiemotiverade. Utifrån tidigare forskning har vi använt oss av fem teman som grund för våra gruppintervjuer. Med hjälp av faktorer som Boström och Bostedt (2022) kommit fram till som viktiga för elevers studiemotivation och Ryans & Decis (2000) motivationsteorin self-determination theory har vi analyserat vår empiri. Studiens resultat bygger på en beskrivning av elevernas upplevelse av att börja högstadiet och det gemensamma är att alla elever tycker det är roligt, oavsett vilken motivationsnivå de befinner sig på. Den faktor som framträder som viktigast i studiens resultat är relationsskapande mellan elev och lärare. För de elever som är amotiverade och som drivs av yttre motivation, med regleringen yttre kontroll, har inte någon bra relation till sina lärare och de elever som var mer studiemotiverade upplever sina lärare som snälla och tycker att lärarna bryr sig om dem. Med stöd av denna studie får studie- och yrkesvägledare en förståelse för hur studiemotivation kan påverkas av olika faktorer och genom att kartlägga elevernas motivationsnivå kan studie- och yrkesvägledare anpassa sin vägledning utifrån elevens behov. / The purpose of this study is to describe and understand seventh graders' experiences of their schooling. More specifically, we want to know more about their motivation to get involved in their studies and gain an understanding of the variations in study motivation that exist among students in year 7. We have interviewed students who are in year 7 at three different schools in Central Sweden about how they look at their schooling and what motivates them and what makes them not feel motivated to study. Based on previous research, we have used five themes as a basis for our group interviews. With the help of factors that Boström and Bostedt (2022) found to be important for students' study motivation and Ryans & Deci's (2000) motivational theory self-determination theory, we have analysed our empirical evidence. The results of the study are based on a description of the students' experience of starting upper secondary school and the commonality is that all students find it fun, regardless of their level of motivation. The factor that emerges as most important in the study's results is relationship building between student and teacher. For the students who are amotivated and driven by external motivation, with the regulation external control, do not have a good relationship with their teachers and the students who are more motivated to study perceive their teachers as kind and think that the teachers care about them. With the support of this study, study and career guidancegain an understanding of how study motivation can be affected by various factors and by mapping the students' motivation level, study and career guidance can adapt their guidance based on the student's needs.

Denna kvalitativa studie syftar till att undersöka hur det praktiska arbetet med studie- och yrkesvägledning för grundskolans årskurs 1–6 ser ut och vilka förutsättningar studie- och yrkesvägledare anser sig få för att utföra detta arbete. Undersökningen har belyst frågan om studieoch yrkesvägledare arbetar med att undersöka normativa uppfattningar om studier och yrken hos elever i årskurs 1–6. Vi har under uppsatsarbetet använt oss av en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer, och vi har använt oss av ett målstyrt urval för att välja ut våra respondenter. För att hjälpa oss att besvara våra två första frågeställningar har vi använt oss av Herzbergs tvåfaktorteori och för den tredje och sista frågeställningen har vi använt oss av Gottfredsons teori om begränsningar och kompromisser. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att det finns en stor variation av hur det praktiska arbetet ser ut med studie- och yrkesvägledning för årskurs 1–6 hos respondenterna, och att det finns många olika förutsättningar som skapar möjligheten för detta arbete att ske, och dessa förutsättningar kommer att benämnas som motivations- och hygienfaktorer. Resultatet visar även att respondenterna arbetar aktivt med att belysa normativa uppfattningar om studier och yrken hos elever i årskurs 1–6. / This qualitative study aims to find out how the practical work with career guidance counseling for primary school students in year 1–6 looks like and which conditions career counselors consider themselves to have to do this work. The study will also aim to answer the question whether career counselors work with the perceptions of social norms that primary school students in year 1–6 have.During the writing of this paper we have used a qualitative method with semistructured interviews, and we have used a goal-oriented sampling technique to choose our respondents. To help us to answer the first two issues we will use Herzbergs two-factor theory and for the third and last issue we will use Gottfredsons theory of circumscription and compromise. The result of the study shows that there is a large variation in how the practical work is carried outwhen it comes to career guidance counseling in primary school’s year 1–6 for the respondents, and that there are many diffrent conditions wich create the possibility for the work to take place, and these conditions will be named motivational- and hygienefactors. The result also shows that the respondents activley work with bringing light on the normative views that students in year 1–6 have when it comes to studies and work.

Under utbildningsprogrammets gång uppmärksammade vi att kulturens betydelse, mer eller mindre blir oundviklig i vägledningssamtal med andraspråkstalare. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare (SYV) på Vägledningscentrum (VLC) definierar begreppen; mångkulturell vägledning, kulturell kompetens samt hur syv kommunicerar med andraspråkstalande och vilken betydelse kultur och bristande språkfärdighet har för den individuella vägledningen. Datainsamlingsmetoden är kvalitativ med sex respondenter på två kontor i Sverige. Dataanalysmetoden är en innehållsanalys med tillåtelse för eftersökning av mönster i vårt material. De använda teorierna i vår studie är positivistiska, konstruktivistiska och socio-logiska karriär- och vägledningsteorier. Som tillskottsmaterial används tidigare forskning inom mångkulturell vägledning och kulturell kompetens för att förstå syftet med denna studie. Resultaten indikerar att det råder skilda uppfattningar och definitioner på studiens frågeställningar. Majoriteten beskriver att kulturens betydelse inte har någon direkt inverkan för arbetet, men likväl att individens bakgrund är av intresse. Generellt säger våra respondenter inte se skillnad på mångkulturell och traditionell vägledning. Den gemen-samma nämnaren är individen som sitter framför dem. Å andra sidan uttrycker en minoritet av respondenterna att individens kultur har betydelse för arbetet och minoriteten ser ett allmänt behov bland vägledare av ökad kulturell kompetens för vägledning av andra-språkstalare, något som förankras i studiens litteratur och tidigare forskning. Det som dock ses som det största möjliga hindret för en framåtskridande vägledningsprocess är bristande kommunikationNyckelord: Andraspråkstalande, mångkulturell vägledning, kulturell kompetens, kommunikation, kulturDuring the educational program we experienced that the meaning of culture, more or less, becomes inevitable in guidance dialogue with individuals of a second language. The purpose with this study was to examine how active careers advisers in a Guidance Center define the concepts of multicultural guidance, cultural competence and also how careers advisers communicate with individuals of a second language and what relation these have with each other. The data collection method is qualitative with six respondents in two Guidance Centers in Sweden. The data analysis method is a content analysis because it enables us to seek out patterns in our material. The theories used in our study are positivistic, constructivist and socialistic theories of career and guidance choice. As additional material, recent research about multiculturalism and cultural competence is used to understand the purpose of this study. The results indicate there are differing views and definitions with the issues to the study. The majority describes that the importance of culture has no direct impact on their work, but nevertheless that the individuals background is of interest. Generally our respondents say that multicultural guidance does not differ from traditional guidance. The common denominator is the individual sitting in front of you. On the other hand, a minority of the respondents express that the individual culture has significance to their work and the minority see a common need for enhanced cultural competence among advisers for guidance of individuals of a second language, something that’s established in our studies literature and recent research. What is viewed as the greatest obstacle however, is lacking communication. Keywords: Individuals of a second language, multicultural guidance, cultural competence, communication, culture

This paper is concerned with the analysis of development and implementation period of career education in Japan. Special attention is paid to social and economic background, which are the main factors of its formation. The author discloses the features of this system, traces its structural changes and estimates its current state. / Работа посвящена анализу периода внедрения и развития карьерного образования в Японии. Особое внимание уделено социальному и экономическому фону, являющимися основными факторами её формирования. Автор раскрывает особенности данной системы, прослеживает изменения в её структуре и даёт оценку её современному состоянию.

Объектом исследования явилась деловая игра «Моя профессия». Предметом исследования стала эмпирическая (конвергентная) валидность деловой игры «Моя профессия» на основании психодиагностических методик. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, заключения, списка литературы (59 источников) и приложений, включающих в себя бланки применявшихся методик с интерпретацией, описание сценария игры «Моя профессия», таблиц содержательного соответствия игры и использовавшихся психодиагностических методик. Объем магистерской диссертации 124 страницы, на которых размещены 2 рисунка и 20 таблиц. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируется гипотеза, указываются методы и эмпирическая база, а также этапы проведения исследования, научная новизна, теоретическая и практическая значимость работы. Первая глава включает в себя обзор литературы по теме профориентации и профессионального самоопределения. Представлены разделы, посвященные исследованию валидизации психодиагностических методик и деловых и психологических игр. Вторая глава посвящена эмпирической части исследования. В ней представлено описание организации и методов проведенного исследования и результатов, полученных по всем использованным методикам: «Опроснику профессиональных выборов», «Опроснику профессиональных предпочтений» Дж. Холланда, «Карты интересов» А.Е. Голомштока, деловой игры «Моя профессия» М.Ю. Усачёвой. Также в главе представлен корреляционный анализ результатов исследования. Выводы по главе 2 включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по выдвинутой гипотезе, обоснована практическая значимость исследования и описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики. / The object of the research is the business game "My profession". The subject of the research is the empirical (convergent) validity of the business game «My Profession» based on psychodiagnostic techniques. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of references (59 sources) and annexes, including forms of the applied techniques with interpretation, a description of the scenario of the game «My profession», tables of meaningful correspondence of the game and the psychodiagnostic techniques used. The volume of the master's thesis is 124 pages, which contain 2 figures and 20 tables. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, sets the goal and objectives of the research, defines the object and subject of research, formulates a hypothesis, indicates methods and empirical base, as well as stages of research, scientific novelty, theoretical and practical significance of the work. The first chapter includes a literature review on career guidance and professional self-determination. The sections devoted to the study of the validation of psychodiagnostic techniques and business and psychological games are presented. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. It contains a description of the organization and methods of the study and the results obtained by all the methods used: «Questionnaire of professional choices», «Questionnaire of professional preferences» by J. Holland, «Maps of interests» by A.Ye. Golomshtok, business game «My profession» M.Yu. Usachyova. The chapter also presents a correlation analysis of the research results. Conclusions from Chapter 2 include the main findings of the empirical study. In the conclusion, in a generalized form, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work are presented, as well as conclusions on the hypothesis put forward, the practical significance of the study is substantiated and possible prospects for the further development of this problem are described.

Målet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka sambandet mellan grundskolans arbete med studie- och yrkesvägledning och elevernas genomströmningsgrad (examensgrad). Grundskolan har inte på enhetsnivå systematisk kännedom eller statistiska uppgifter om hur det går för eleverna när de lämnat skolan trots att de har ansvaret för studie- och yrkesvägledningen, elevernas valkompetens samt överlämnande och övergångar.  Datainsamlingen består av två delar som bygger på varandra. En del är ett nytt statistiskt deskriptivt underlag över ungdomars genomströmningsgrad i kommunal skola i Helsingborg som har tagits fram och bearbetats. Den andra delen är intervjuer som genomförts med skolledare och studie- och yrkesvägledare på fyra grundskoleenheter utifrån det statistiska materialet. Mixed methods har använts som metod och intervjuerna är analyserade tematiskt. z Det går i detta specifika sammanhang att konstatera att de grundskolor som har högre resultat i genomströmning också har ett arbete som ligger i linje med tidigare forskning kring framgångsfaktorer inom studie- och yrkesvägledning. Genomströmning följs inte upp på grundskolorna trots att examen kan vara avgörande för långsiktig etablering på arbetsmarknaden. Detta grundas i att ingen av respondenterna har kännedom om elevernas genomströmningsresultat. Grundskolorna har inte heller kopplat sitt studie- och yrkesvägledande arbete specifikt mot elever med låga meritpoäng trots att det är en avgörande parameter för att klara en gymnasieutbildning. Samtliga undersökta grundskolor arbetar dock kompensatoriskt på olika sätt. De kompensatoriska insatserna riktas främst mot elever med hög frånvaro, elever med låg studiemotivation eller till elever med utlandsfödda föräldrar. Studie- och yrkesvägledningen beskrivs delvis som personberoende och icke likvärdig. De grundskolor med höga genomströmningsresultat har en ansvarsfördelning, ett arbete och förhållningssätt som genomsyrar hela skolan. Grundskolorna har vidare samordnat och organiserat för studie- och yrkesvägledning med stabilitet i lärarkåren och skolledning och har ett relationsskapande förhållningssätt gentemot elever i behov av kompensatoriska insatser. / The aim of this thesis is to examine the relationship between primary school career guidance practices and student graduation rates. Primary schools lack systematic knowledge and statistical data at the unit level regarding students' outcomes after they leave school, despite being responsible for career guidance, students' decision-making competencies, and transitions. The data collection consists of two parts. The second part uses findins of the first part. The first part is a new descriptive statistical findings on the graduation rates of youths in municipal schools in Helsingborg, which has been developed and processed. The second part involves interviews conducted with school leaders and career counselors at four units based on the statistical material. Mixed methods were used as the methodology, and the interviews were analyzed thematically. In this specific context, it can be observed that those units with higher graduation rates also have practices aligned with previous research on success factors in career guidance.Graduation results are not tracked at the school units, even though graduation can be crucial for long-term labor market participation. This is based on the fact that none of the respondents have awareness of the students' graduation results. Furthermore, the schools have not specifically linked their career guidance efforts to students with low grade point averages, despite it being a crucial parameter for completing upper secondary education. However, all the investigated schools work compensatory education in various ways. These compensatory measures are primarily directed towards students with high absenteeism, low academic motivation, or students with foreign-born parents. Career guidance is described as partly dependent on individuals and thus unequal. Schools with high graduation rates have an effective division of responsibility, as well as practices and an approach that permeates the entire school. These schools have also coordinated and organized career guidance with stability among the teaching staff and school leadership, and they adopt a relationship-building approach towards students in need of compensatory measures.

This thesis explores the meaning of career as a phenomenon and its implication for career guidance. In 1996, career as a phenomenon was more or less considered to be an obsolete or even extinct phenomenon. Since then, career guidance has received increased attention along with the increased interest in lifelong learning strategies. This thesis is motivated by the paradoxical message of career as an extinct yet living phenomenon. Career is outlined as a bridging issue that involves several contexts and is characterized by a number of dominating discourses in tension with one another. Two educational fields linked by career are of particular interest: the field of education and training in working life and the educational field of career guidance counselling. This thesis explores the meaning of career among a triad of various interested parties in this time of transition in the world of working life, and it explores the sense in which such understanding(s) of career influence policies and practices of career guidance. The thesis is based upon four separate studies. The first study explores, in order to disclose underlying views on career, how the language of European policy documents on career guidance characterize career and career development. Qualitative content analysis is used as the basic method to approach the subject in the texts, with an inductive development of categories. The analysis then conducts a sender-oriented interpretation, based upon a textual model for analyzing documents. The results revealed that underlying perspective on career in the documents derive from economic perspective, learning perspective and political science perspective, and communicate career as subordinated to market forces. The second study pays attention to the receiving side of the ideational message, disclosed in the first study. The second study extends the analysis of the first study with an exploration of ethical declaration documents for the profession. The exploration focuses on significant key principles, the profession's role and mission, and significant changes between the initial and the revised ethical declaration. Similarities and differences were compared, combined with the first study’s results as an interpretive frame for analyzing what consequences and significance the core meaning of career at structural level will have for career guidance practice. The results revealed an implicit shift of emphasis in the career guidance mission, which creates uncertainty regarding on behalf of whom the guidance counsellor is working. The third study explores common-sense knowledge of career, among a group of people influenced by changing conditions in working life. This study explores what social representations people have about career. The study also explores how people's anchored thoughts reflect scientifically shaped thoughts, and how they relate to thoughts currently dominating on structural level. Results disclose how the group explored has stable social representations of career that are anchored in the past, in previous working life conditions, and that contrasts with perspectives dominating in the structural context. The group also has dynamic representations, which provide space for negotiation of the meaning of career. The fourth study explores guidance counsellors' social representations of their mission and of careertherein. Results generated four social representations expressed in argumentative pairs of opposites. The first pair is concerned with their professional mission and reveal their professional identity. The second is concerned with career. Their view on their mission and their professional identity is in sharp contrast with how they experience others' interpretation of their mission, as being a matching practice on behalf of the business sector. Guidance counsellors reject the general view of career among others' and they regard career in the context of guidance as something other than the common view. At the same time guidance counsellors reveal difficulties in really clarifying the meaning they ascribe to career. The empirical findings of each of the four studies are finally interpreted as a whole in the final section of this thesis. With support from social representations theory, the empirical findings illuminate the sources as bearers of social representations of career, which both meet and clash.

Career choice is one of the most daunting decisions one has to make, since it has implications that affect a variety of aspects in one’s life. For adolescents, career decision–making is even more challenging because it is done at a time when adolescents are going through a period of identity formation, and when their core personalities have not yet been fully formed. It is therefore essential to provide systematic career guidance programmes that will assist adolescents in their career development in order to empower them to make realistic career choices. The school, as a place where adolescents spend most of their time, can be used as a vehicle to promote meaningful career development amongst adolescent learners. However, the contribution by adolescents themselves in determining the appropriate content and career guidance services/activities that will best address their needs is vital. Senior secondary school learners, in particular, are in a position to articulate their career planning needs and to identify the deficits in existing career guidance programmes. The situation in Botswana where career guidance forms only a quarter of the public secondary school guidance and counselling programme, which, with all its four components, is allocated only one 40 minute–period per week deserves special attention. Hence, this study set out to determine: * the career planning needs of Senior Public Secondary School Learners in Gaborone, Botswana as articulated by the learners themselves; * the extent to which the current career guidance programme in Senior Public Secondary Schools meets the needs of the learners. A mixed methods design, consisting of the use of a questionnaire to collect the quantitative data and a qualitative method in the form of focus–group interviews, was used to collect the data for the study. The findings of the study highlight several challenges which hamper the provision of a systematic career guidance programme to the learners, which include limited time, lack of trained personnel and less than optimal career service delivery practices. The lack of key career exploration activities in schools, such as the use of internet resource materials and career video/audio tapes, job–shadowing, career field–trips/excursions and, in some cases, career talks, results in learners experiencing unmet career needs. This situation affects the extent to which the curriculum in place addresses the career planning needs of the learners. No significant differences were noted in the needs of the learners according to gender. The study reveals that the Career Guidance Programme provides the relevant theoretical frame–work for providing the necessary assistance to learners to make informed career decisions. However, the actual implementation of the programme in the different schools leaves a lot to be desired, with several learning outcomes for the career guidance programme in both Form 4 and Form 5 not being achieved. The effectiveness of the annual career fair as a major method of disseminating career information to learners also came into question since most learners expressed having gained minimal benefit from it. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Career choice is one of the most daunting decisions one has to make, since it has implications that affect a variety of aspects in one’s life. For adolescents, career decision–making is even more challenging because it is done at a time when adolescents are going through a period of identity formation, and when their core personalities have not yet been fully formed. It is therefore essential to provide systematic career guidance programmes that will assist adolescents in their career development in order to empower them to make realistic career choices. The school, as a place where adolescents spend most of their time, can be used as a vehicle to promote meaningful career development amongst adolescent learners. However, the contribution by adolescents themselves in determining the appropriate content and career guidance services/activities that will best address their needs is vital. Senior secondary school learners, in particular, are in a position to articulate their career planning needs and to identify the deficits in existing career guidance programmes. The situation in Botswana where career guidance forms only a quarter of the public secondary school guidance and counselling programme, which, with all its four components, is allocated only one 40 minute–period per week deserves special attention. Hence, this study set out to determine: * the career planning needs of Senior Public Secondary School Learners in Gaborone, Botswana as articulated by the learners themselves; * the extent to which the current career guidance programme in Senior Public Secondary Schools meets the needs of the learners. A mixed methods design, consisting of the use of a questionnaire to collect the quantitative data and a qualitative method in the form of focus–group interviews, was used to collect the data for the study. The findings of the study highlight several challenges which hamper the provision of a systematic career guidance programme to the learners, which include limited time, lack of trained personnel and less than optimal career service delivery practices. The lack of key career exploration activities in schools, such as the use of internet resource materials and career video/audio tapes, job–shadowing, career field–trips/excursions and, in some cases, career talks, results in learners experiencing unmet career needs. This situation affects the extent to which the curriculum in place addresses the career planning needs of the learners. No significant differences were noted in the needs of the learners according to gender. The study reveals that the Career Guidance Programme provides the relevant theoretical frame–work for providing the necessary assistance to learners to make informed career decisions. However, the actual implementation of the programme in the different schools leaves a lot to be desired, with several learning outcomes for the career guidance programme in both Form 4 and Form 5 not being achieved. The effectiveness of the annual career fair as a major method of disseminating career information to learners also came into question since most learners expressed having gained minimal benefit from it. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.