Legislative Principles

5. Career-oriented information, development, and counseling services ought to be improved, expanded, and integrated into the curriculum.

The efforts to reform vocational education begun by the 1990 Amendments have clarified the inadequacies of existing information and counseling services. At both the secondary and postsecondary levels, most instructors neglect to provide students with any clear understanding of the career options and pathways in various sectors of the economy, and few can help them make useful plans for career preparation and advancement. The initial development of career academies, clusters, and magnet schools has highlighted the need for guidance and counseling so that students can make informed decisions about their high school programs. The effort to include all students, from the developmentally disabled to the academically gifted, also places increased demands on counselors and instructors to help develop plans for individual students. These new demands are appearing at the same time that resources for career-oriented information have been dwindling.

At the postsecondary level, the growth in enrollment of adults with complex educational requirements has expanded the need for various support services that include counseling. There is very little information available to help individuals choose among the work-related education and training options available locally. And once these initial enrollment decisions are made, most postsecondary institutions have only limited resources and expertise to provide career planning and counseling to adults. Because the offices of the Job Service and Vocational Rehabilitation are seldom closely linked with counseling offices at community and technical colleges, many special population adults do not receive critical services and information.

As a first step, therefore, Federal legislation should support the development of better information for prospective students about alternative careers, including the benefits of different occupational programs. States could use Federal funds to strengthen their career development systems to ensure that youth and adults have access to current, high-quality labor market, career, and educational information to help them plan their careers. Where appropriate, these efforts should expand the Career Information Delivery Systems developed by State Occupational Information Coordinating Committees, but move beyond these systems to assure that integrated career development programs are an essential part of school-to-work systems. Funding for expanded career development systems should include coordination with Federal initiatives to consolidate various job training programs and develop one-stop career counseling centers.

However, in many cases, there simply is not enough information available to help young people make appropriate decisions about their occupational futures. When, for example, students are unaware of the information available to them, when they cannot plan or make decisions on their own, or when they have little knowledge of employment and employment prerequisites, then these different forms of information are inadequate. Career development, therefore, should be defined as a process during which individuals develop career identity, work maturity, and the ability to plan (Herr and Cramer, 1988). This conception is much broader than the duties of traditional school counselors or the provision of information. Ideally, career development should be a systematic process that is integrated into educational programs from the elementary grades through students' transition into employment. New Federal legislation should encourage activities consistent with this conception of career development, supporting programs that are

activity- or experience-based, rather than based on information transfer only;
integrated within programs of study, rather than provided by individuals (e.g., counselors) who are independent of the program;
programmatic, extending over a period of time, rather than providing one-shot bursts of information; and
developmental, allowing for differences among students and encouraging the capacities (e.g., the ability to plan, a future orientation, and the capacity to make decisions) that enable students to make use of career-related information.