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Increasing the career choice readiness of young adolescents: an evaluation study

  • Andreas Hirschi
  • Damian Läge
Article
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Abstract

A career workshop that applies models of the Cognitive Information Processing Approach (Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, & Lenz, 2004) and incorporates critical ingredients (Brown and Ryan Krane, 2000) to promote the career choice readiness of young adolescents was developed and evaluated with 334 Swiss students in seventh grade applying a Solomon four group design with a three-month follow-up. Participants significantly increased their performance in terms of career decidedness, career planning, career exploration, and vocational identity. Implications for evaluation research and counselling practice are presented.

Keywords

Career counselling Career choice readiness Outcome research 

Résumé

Améliorer l’état de préparation au choix de carrière chez de jeunes adolescents: une étude d’évaluation. Un atelier “carrières” qui applique des modèles se rattachant à l’Approche du Traitement Cognitif de l’Information (Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, & Lenz, 2004) et qui incorpore des éléments critiques (Brown and Ryan Krane, 2000), visant à favoriser la préparation au choix de carrière de jeunes adolescents, a été mis sur pied et évalué sur 334 étudiants suisses de septième année en appliquant un plan expérimental de type Solomon à quatre groupes avec un suivi à trois mois. Les participants ont amélioré de manière significative leurs performances en termes de décision, de planification et d’exploration de carrière, ainsi que d’identité professionnelle. On présente les implications de cette étude pour la recherche relative à l’évaluation et aux pratiques de conseil.

Zusammenfassung

Förderung der Berufswahlreife bei Jugendlichen: Eine Evaluationsuntersuchung. Ein Berufswahl-Workshop unter Anwendung von Modellen des Kognitiven Informationsverarbeitungsansatzes (Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, & Lenz, 2004) sowie unter Einbeziehung sog. “wesentlicher Elemente” (Brown and Ryan Krane, 2000) zur Förderung der Berufswahlreife bei Jugendlichen wurde entwickelt und mit 334 schweizerischen Schülern der 7.Klasse bei Anwendung eines 4-Gruppen-Untersuchungsdesigns nach Salomon mit einer Nachuntersuchung nach 3 Monaten evaluiert. Die Teilnehmer entwickelten in signifikanter Weise ihre Ergebnisse im Hinblick auf ihre Berufsentscheidung, Laufbahnplanung, Berufserkundung und berufliche Identifikation. Schlussfolgerungen für Evaluationsuntersuchungen und die Beratungspraxis werden vorgestellt.

Resumen

Mejora de la Disposición de los Jóvenes Adolescentes para la Elección de la Carrera. Se desarrolló y evaluó un taller de orientación para la carrera que aplica los modelos del Enfoque Cognitivo de Procesamiento de la Información (Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, & Lenz, 2004) e incorpora ingredientes críticos (Brown and Ryan Krane, 2000) para promover la disposición (preparación) de los jóvenes adolescentes respecto a la elección de carrera—evaluando a 334 estudiantes suizos de 1° de la ESO, aplicando un diseño experimental Solomon de cuatro grupos con un seguimiento de 3 meses. Los participantes aumentaron su rendimiento en términos de decisión sobre la carrera, planificación, exploración e identidad vocacional. Se presentan las implicaciones para la investigación evaluativa y para la práctica de la orientación.

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Notes

Acknowledgements

This project has been conducted while the first author worked at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.College of Education, Penn State UniversityUniversity ParkUSA
  2. 2.University of ZurichZurichSwitzerland

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