A Group-based Career Guidance Intervention for South African High School Learners from Low-income Communities

Abstract

This chapter describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a group-based career guidance and counselling intervention with learners attending resource-constrained high schools in South Africa. In the South African education system, the Grade 9 level represents a crucial milestone in that learners are required to make decisions about their choice of school subjects for the final phase of their schooling (Grades 10 to 12). Indications are that in the prevailing absence of career guidance services in many public schools and with the challenges faced in their home and community contexts, many learners are making uninformed, trial-and-error, and haphazard decisions about their school subject choices that may compromise their future career options. Drawing from literature that argues for a contextual understanding of structural conditions and social justice concerns that may limit or compromise career exploration and decision-making, we describe an integrated career guidance intervention to combine quantitative and qualitative methodologies with a group-based approach to assist learners to engage with proactive career planning. The career guidance intervention incorporates the following components:-Individual career interest assessment using the SouthAfrican Career Interest Inventory-Career guidance workshops aiding learners to explore their personal career attributes using quantitative and qualitative data-Integration of emerging information into a career life design matrix to inform subject choice-Identification and mitigation of barriers and challenges that may impede or limit career aspirations-Development of an action plan to motivate learners to pursue their career goals. The intervention seeks to harness both quantitative and qualitative career assessment processes to help learners initiate a life design approach to their career development, to align their school subject choice (for Grades 10 to 12) with their career aspirations.