Developing personal goals by exploring options, establishing prosocial skills, exploring interests and applying good self-regulation practices early on in life, can amount to major benefits for children’s prospective professions (Paszkowska-Rogacz & Kabzińska, 2012). Numerous scholars emphasise the significance of and the need for early career counselling, as discussed by Härtung, Porfeli and Vondracek (2005), as well as by Watson and McMahon (2005). These scholars concluded that progress made during different stages of early childhood career development affects the choices that children make about the world of work and it also ensures identity development and interpersonal growth. Appropriate career advice can also assist school-going children to enhance their academic progress and to remain occupied in and engaged with education. The purpose of this study was to explore how life-design-based counselling influences Grade 7 learners’ academic self-construction. A qualitative, group-based intervention methodology was used to address the research questions. The intervention was based on the Career Interest Profile (CIP, Version 6) (Maree, 2017) and the life design counselling methods as discussed in Savickas et al. (2009). Non-probability, convenience sampling was used to select twelve Grade 7 learners, aged 12 and 13, to participate in this study. Themes and sub-themes were established, and Thematic Analysis was utilised to identify and analyse the data. Career development is a life-long process and young individuals should be supported and guided as they strive towards their goals. By making learners aware of future career aspirations, they were inspired to construct themselves more appropriately and re-consider perceptions and behaviours regarding schooling. Ultimately, academic self-construction was enhanced through the collaborate processes of life-design-based counselling. The possibilities for future research should assess the value of life-design-based counselling during early childhood development and the integration thereof within schools and the curriculum, so as to benefit the career development of young learners. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Educational Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

This study reflects on how the experiences of differently abled persons can inform career development. This will assist in the identification of support needed by differently abled persons and will assist in informing career development programs and policies. This study is aimed at preparing differently abled persons to make appropriate career choices, and also providing motivation to pursue further education and enhancing employability for social justice. Four participants were selected with the objective of investigating the types of support needed for effective career development of differently abled persons. A qualitative case study was used for the purpose of obtaining in-depth insight and understanding whilst data was collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and an inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Participants indicated that family, teachers and lecturers assisted them on their career development journey. The findings highlighted that educational institutions can be a valuable resource for the career development of differently abled persons and that participants’ personal attributes also played a role. Results from the study shed light on society in general as differently abled participants indicated that people and institutions are often not very accommodating and are unaware of the unique challenges they face. It is hoped that the findings of this study will assist in informing career development programs and policies. This will mean that differently abled persons are more prepared to make appropriate career choices. This will also provide them with motivation to pursue further education and especially enhance the employability of differently abled persons for social justice. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

The career counselling services industry is currently being challenged by a unique set of conditions which has resulted in calls for a greater client orientation in the delivery of career services. The current study takes up this challenge by using marketing concepts to explore the relationship between the expectations (desired) people in career transition have of a career counselling service and the perceptions career counselling service providers have of client expectations. In the process, it also examines variables (career transition group membership, career decision-making self-efficacy, age, gender, and previous experience with a career counselling service) that may impact on the expectations people in career transition have of a career counselling service. The study used a three-phased mixed method approach to gather expectation and perception data. In Phase 1, focus group interviews were conducted with participants from three career transition groups - Year 12 students, final year university students, and adults in midcareer transition. A series of one-to-one interviews with three groups of career counsellors (those in schools, tertiary institutions, and private practice) was undertaken in Phase 2. Phase 3 consisted of a questionnaire, which was administered to broader populations of people in career transition and career counsellors. The people in career transition subject group completed a three-part questionnaire consisting of the Expectations About Career Counselling measure (developed by the researcher), the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy-Short Form (an existing measure), and demographic questions. Career counsellors completed a two-part questionnaire, which included the Expectations About Career Counselling (EACC) and demographic questions. The people in career transition subject group were asked to respond to the EACC according to what they wanted from a career counselling service. Career counsellors were asked to respond to the same measure as if they were one of their clients attending their first career counselling interview. In the development of the EACC, an existing measure (the Expectations About Counselling-Brief Form; Tinsley, 1982), was modified using career counselling expectation themes derived from the analysis of data collected in Phases 1 and 2. Factor analysis of the data obtained from the EACC identified four clear factors. These factors were named Career Counsellor Responsibility, Client Responsibility, Quality Outcome and Realism. The findings from Phase 3 indicated that people in career transition had high to very high expectations for the EACC subscales Career Counsellor Responsibility and Quality Outcome, moderate expectations for Realism, and moderate to high expectations for Client Responsibility. Significant differences were found based on transition group membership, gender, age, and previous experience with a career counselling service. In addition, it was found that people in career transition had moderate to high career decision-making self-efficacy and that respondents with higher self-efficacy scores also had higher expectations of a career counselling service. The findings also indicated that there was a significant difference or gap between the expectations of people in career transition and the perceptions of career counsellors concerning client expectations of career counselling. Career counsellors perceived that clients were less committed and more unrealistic about the career counselling process and the counsellor's role than was indicated by the results from the people in career transition subject group. Recommendations based on the findings of this research study were made for career counsellors, professional associations, education and training organisations, education institutions and systems and government policy makers. Specifically, the recommendations addressed the importance of acknowledging, clarifying, and managing client expectations, providing interventions to educate people in career transition about the career decision-making process and the role of the career counsellor, and the implementation of processes to promote ongoing professional development in the career counselling services industry.

Youth employability in South Africa has become an important focus for career counsellors. This study investigated the relationship between the employability (as measured by the Southern African Employability Inventory) and emotional intelligence (as measured by the Assessing Emotions Scale) of individuals within the school-to-work transition phase. A random sample of 590 Grade 9 and Grade 12 further education and post-school (recently exited) students from a total population of 1349 participated in the study. The research findings indicated that participants’ level of employability is significantly related to their emotional intelligence. Recommendations are postulated for the career counselling of individuals in the school-to-work career transition phase. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This is an empirical study that aims to contribute to knowledge about the opportunities the career counselling conversation offers young migrants in shaping their future. Conversations play a central role in career counselling activities in Swedish schools; furthermore, the question of how the Swedish society promotes the inclusion of its immigrants has become an increasingly urgent issue. The study draws on a dialogical framework on interaction and meaning making and seeks to gain insight into how meaning about the future is formed in career counselling conversations. The following questions were formulated: How is the interaction between migrant students and their counsellors formed in counselling conversations? How can the interaction be understood in relation to the participants and their contexts? What seems to enable or constrain students’ meaning making about the future in these conversations? The study was conducted in an introductory course for newly arrived immigrants at the upper secondary level. Researcher followed a series of two career counselling conversations between five students and five counsellors, respectively. The empirical material comprises three parts: audio-recordings of conversations, observations of these conversations and audio-recorded interviews with counsellors and students. The students, three men and two women, have a non-European background and had been in Sweden between one and three years. All except one can be considered a refugee. The material was transcribed, and the conversations were analysed with the concepts of communicative projects and strategies. The conversations are the primary empirical material. The results show that the counsellors’ and the students’ communicative projects primarily are complementary. Both the counsellor and the conversations appear as crucial for students learning about Swedish opportunity structures and meaning making about the future. The analysis also elucidated interactional patterns and interplay that seem to constrain the students’ possibilities to shape a future with their own conditions within the conversations. The conversations focused on Swedish career opportunities and lacked a transnational perspective. Furthermore, the students’ migrant background was not made relevant in the conversations; hence, the conversations risk contributing to students’ stigmatisation. The counsellors’ methods also seem at risk of individualising issues related to institutional preconditions and structural constraints. However, the analysis also displayed how the counsellor can counteract these constraining effects. The result implicates, in alignment with other studies, that the responsibility for the students’ career processes cannot be put on counselling conversations alone; more comprehensive and integrated activities for career learning in the schools are necessary to provide immigrant students with reasonable possibilities for shaping a future. Moreover, the conclusion is drawn that counsellor’s conversation skills are important for the students meaning making about the future but that counsellors also must have, among other things, the ability to comprehend migrants’ feelings and existential issues regarding the future and, not least, knowledge about the conditions of migrants and the ability to both comprehend and actively recognize injustices and different expressions of power. There are seldom others advocating for the rights of migrants. / Vägledning mellan erkännande, rättvisa och skillnadsskapande

The aim of the diploma thesis was to discover the main factors which influence students of the ninth grade regarding the choice of next education level. Analysis was made to decide how important the factors are for students when they choose studies, e.g. results of students at half year report and the distance between school and place of living, also whether students can assess their condition for profession of their choice, if students have thought about their future regarding life and profession. Also analysis of social surroundings was made to find out to what extent students are influenced by family, friends, teachers and pedagogical - psychological consultants. I am tried to clarify how the education level of parents, wishes of parents and friends influence students and whether this choice is influenced by teachers and educational consultants or by pedagogical - psychological consultants. The whole thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with description of basic concepts. The concepts are linked with problematic of employment of youth and school graduates. The second chapter is about education, appropriate choice of high school and choice of profession. Description of forms, levels of education and choice of high school is presented. It includes the topic human and the world of...

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore, the nature and the extent of parental involvement in the career development of young adolescents through the perceptions of disadvantaged young adolescents. The two-fold goals were to identify the role of parents and the awareness of other barriers in the career development of young adolescents. Therefore, qualitative research method of semi-structured interviews was applied to fourteen volunteers (eight boys and six girls) from a Secondary School at Mabopane Township in the North West Province. In accordance with previous trends, parental involvement was revealed by young adolescents to be an important factor and was further categorised as constructive and destructive parental involvement. Furthermore, the effects of parental involvement in the development of the young adolescents’ career self-concept and self-efficacy were revealed. Destructive parental involvement and low household incomes were identified as career barriers. Most young adolescents demonstrated a strong resilience in overcoming these barriers. The study also illustrated a dire need for attention to and funding of career programmes aimed at empowering disadvantaged parents and young adolescents. Keywords: Parents, parental involvement, career, career development, young adolescents, disadvantaged communities, career barriers, career counselling, career self-concept and self-efficacy.

Youth employability in South Africa has become an important focus for career counsellors. This study investigated the relationship between the employability (as measured by the Southern African Employability Inventory) and emotional intelligence (as measured by the Assessing Emotions Scale) of individuals within the school-to-work transition phase. A random sample of 590 Grade 9 and Grade 12 further education and post-school (recently exited) students from a total population of 1349 participated in the study. The research findings indicated that participants’ level of employability is significantly related to their emotional intelligence. Recommendations are postulated for the career counselling of individuals in the school-to-work career transition phase. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The number of children being abandoned in South Africa is rising steeply. With already existing challenges in the current South African labour market, one must consider the expectations of abandoned adolescents in terms of future careers. It is unreasonable to expect an abandoned adolescent to be guided towards making career decisions using modern career counselling methods, as these were developed for use with individuals from traditional, nuclear families. Most abandoned adolescents are taken in by extended family; grow up in children’s homes or on the streets. One can expect these circumstances to negatively impact the abandoned adolescent’s outlook and hope for the future. There is thus a need for an approach to career facilitation, which takes into account the abandoned adolescent’s subjective experience of his/her context. It was the primary goal of this study to investigate the possibility and limits of life design counselling with an abandoned adolescent. This was done against the background of both the systems theory and social constructionism in order to help the researcher to focus on the experience of the participant within his/her unique context. The study specifically focused on the experience of an abandoned adolescent. In order to better understand the subjective and diverse experiences of the participant, I aimed to investigate, through the lens of social constructionism, the way in which abandoned adolescents in general (and my participant in particular) create meaning through interaction with others as well as his/her environment. Within the qualitative paradigm this study was conducted by means of a case study during which a variety of postmodern techniques were implemented in order to facilitate co-constructive conversations with the participant. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Denna studie syftar till att belysa vägledning via e-post. Detta har gjorts genom att närmare studera e-post från en specifik vägledningstjänst på Internet. Studien har gjorts i två delar. Den första har omfattat en veckas inkommande e-post, vilka har studerats avseende frågekaraktär. I den andra delen har fokus legat på samtalsfärdigheter och förhållningssätt som närmare har studerats i åtta inkommande och åtta utgående e-post. Vi har arbetat utifrån abduktiv ansats, där materialet har tolkats och analyserats genom kvalitativ dataanalys. De slutsatser som dras är att övervägande andel e-post är av informationskaraktär och en mindre andel av vägledningskaraktär. De samtalsfärdigheter och förhållningssätt som används inom traditionell vägledning syns även i detta sammanhang, där majoriteten av dessa återfinns i e-post av vägledningskaraktär. / This research aims to examine career counselling by e-mail. E-mail from a specific case has been examined. The research contained two parts; the aim of the first one was to consider the character of the incoming e-mail. The main focus of this research has been on the second part, where eight incoming and eight outgoing e-mails have been interpreted with a focus on communication skills. Our research is abductive, using qualitative data analysis. Amongst our conclusions are that the examined e-mail are mainly of information character and a smaller part of counselling character. The communication skills used in traditional career counselling are used even in this context, where the main part is found in the e-mail of counselling character.