CHALLENGING SOCIAL INEQUALITY THROUGH CAREER GUIDANCE: OECD 2024
This is one of the best OECD publications on career guidance for a long time. It addresses how education systems can assist the education to work transitions of young people who experience barriers to successful transitions because of socioeconomic circumstances or gender (including sexual orientation and identity) or migrant status (including ethnic identity). Specifically, it addresses how career guidance in schools can be better organised to empower such young people and allow them to explore and expand the realms of the possible. Its propositions are based on career guidance data collected from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Skills (PIAAC).
It provides a rich compendium of good examples of both school (secondary, primary) and non-school based career development activities (parents, families, community) to improve transitions and to reduce drop out rates. While the examples are mainly from developed economies, they provide pointers of universal value.
The publication concludes by presenting a New Brunswick (Canada) career development framework established in collaboration with OECD that addresses the PISA and PIAAC findings on the effects of social inequalities on young people’s career aspirations. This empirically based framework is admirable. However, history has shown (Chapter 3) that such frameworks are more likely to be successful if integrated into the general school curriculum and definitely require national and school leadership, training, and resources for implementation.
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