Career Guidance Process Improvement as a Tool for Development of Potential of Youth

Abstract

The development of any society is impossible without the development of the potential of young people who represent its future. Mastering all the necessary knowledge for life in modern society, the formation of spiritual and moral aspects of personality – all these are the cornerstones of the education system in the past, present and future. However, over the past two hundred years, unprecedented changes have taken place in society: the transition from a class (caste) system, which predetermined a person's future, his occupation and course of life, to industrial and post-industrial one has led to the fact that all young people in developing and developed countries are facing the issue: what to be? Family, society, origin do not predetermine the person's fate any more, and his free choice comes first. However, how to make it? That is why such a direction in educational practice as career guidance has been developing for more than hundred years, combining elements of training, enlightenment, psychological diagnostics and even entertainment. The world of professions is introduced to children from an early age, moving from light game forms to serious lectures, master classes, industrial excursions, internships, etc. Thus, a certain experience of professional orientation has already been accumulated both in the world and in Russia. The authors of this study aimed to study the essence of professional orientation, describe some world and Russian practices, and identify the effectiveness of career guidance using a sociological survey of students of Moscow universities. The conducted research has shown that the attention paid to the career guidance is still insufficient both at the state and at the level of individual educational organizations: schools and universities. The authors have developed a system of career guidance activities at school, based on the age of the target audience and the list of career guidance activities for universities too. The practical significance of these recommendations is to increase the effectiveness of career guidance at school and university, motivation growth and involvement of young people in the process of education and mastering of an interesting chosen profession.