Merging Academic and Career Advising to Offer Holistic Student Support: A University Perspective

Higher education in South Africa has focused extensively on widening access to further inclusivity and to economic development. However, as students need to persist and succeed in their studies, access alone is not enough. Furthermore, the responsibility of higher education to help students succeed does not end with graduation; institutions need to produce graduates who are ready to enter the labour market. Therefore, it is important to integrate career information and concepts into these practices when conceptualising holistic academic advising. Since academic advising is still developing as a professional practice in the South African context, no clear, practical framework has been used uniformly at universities. Career advice is also not necessarily integrated into academic advising in a conscious manner. This may result in students who are struggling to integrate all the academic and career information provided to make informed decisions regarding their studies and career paths. This paper argues that the 3-I Process is an appropriate framework for the integration of career and academic advising in the South African context. In this case study, we draw from the experiences of nine advisors from the central advising office, faculties, and the career office at the University of the Free State to understand the extent to which they have been incorporating the elements of the 3-I Process into their existing academic advising practices and how they view the possibilities of following a more integrated approach. We also map how the framework can be adapted to the broader South African context to inform and develop more holistic and professionalised advising practices, as well as to contribute towards students’ success beyond university.

Significance of Proficient Communication on Career Choice Among First Years in Rural South Africa

Career choice involves the selection of one occupation over another. It is very important as it gives people focus on what career to follow. However, a lack of adequate information on career choice is capable of negatively influencing career choices. Hence, this study examines the significance of the adequate information on career choice among first year students using a selected rural South African university. A quantitative research method was employed for data collection. Purposive and random sampling was used to select the institution and sample respectively. Questionnaires were administered to 375 randomly selected first year students studying in the selected rural South African university. The findings of the study show that career choice is important and can contribute to the success of students. Attempts are made to communicate about career pathways with students while in high schools through the provision in the curriculum. Various factors ranging from parental influence, teachers, presence or absence of career counsellors, amongst others affect the career choice of students. The study recommends that education stakeholders, inclusive of parents, should be informed on the need to guide students in making informed career choices. Career information centres should be made available to students in various locations in the country.

Managing career transitions into post-secondary Learning Designer Jobs: An Australasian perspective

This semi-structured qualitative study maps out the diversity of career paths of Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) learning designers (LDs) and summarises their career advice for those aspiring to be LDs. It identifies that, among the 92 participants, there were many different pathways into the profession both from an academic and from professional backgrounds. It identified that the most common entry points into the postsecondary LD profession come through previously working: as a primary and secondary teacher; in higher education student services, as an English as a Second Language (ESL) professional, a sessional academic seeking job stability; in private industry, such as in film and television and in the area of training and development. Most career transitions into LD were serendipitous, or a natural progression rather than a deliberate and planned process. The study further identified a paucity of LD and associated professions career information in ANZ public domain, which held some back from entering a Learning Design career earlier. This paper concludes with some recommended strategies to address this, to the extent that it is hoped that this paper will aid aspiring LDs in planning their career transitions more effectively.

THE EFFECTS SOCIAL CAPITAL ATTRIBUTES ON THE EMPLOYABILITY READINESS AMONG ENGINEERING GRADUATES IN THE HIGH EDUCATION INSTITUTE’S IN OMAN

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Social Capital attributes on the employability readiness of the engineering graduates of the High Education Institutes in Oman. The study adopted a self-directed structured questionnaire was distributed to a sample of engineering students and graduates from a number of colleges and universities. The study used structural equation modelling (SEM) for analysed the collected data. The findings of the statistical analysis of the study showed the significant contribution of social activities in the attainment of teamwork, communication, proficiency of the English language, and problem-solving skills. As a result, the involvement of the graduates in social activities strongly influences the awareness of career information which in return affects positively graduates’ Readiness for Employability. Specifically, study findings showed Social capital attributes factor could have a high influence on the Readiness for Employability of the graduates in Oman when it is utilised effectively. Finally, the study’s implementations and recommendations could be transferred to the Gulf and Arab or other countries’ contexts having similar settings of HE systems and similar issues of skills gap and employability concern of their graduates.

Career Life Skills for 10th Grade Boys in Delhi, India: Mapping Information Literacies for Sustainable Development

The pressure is high on career educators to develop information literacies as a life skill for themselves as well as for youth, particularly those from disadvantaged communities, and to document and process career information in a rapidly changing world of work that is relevant to their sociocultural and environmental contexts. We employ a critical or transformative approach to information literacies to explore young people’s socially situated practices of collecting, validating, and processing career information as well as how they might “democratically transform structures of authority over information exchanges, and then maintain scrutiny over this authority” (Whitworth A, Radical information literacy: reclaiming the political heart of the IL movement. Elsevier, 2014, p. 2). We draw from qualitative interviews with ten boys studying in 10th grade at a government school in Delhi, India, and videos produced by them to map their career information landscapes. Using an education for sustainable development lens, “bumps” were made visible in their information landscapes, that is, the tensions that emerge between multiple informational actors for reimagining sustainable futures. We suggest that these tensions can serve as cultural resources that students can democratically engage with in developing crucial career and life skills for their futures.

Importance of “the Social”: The Divergent Informal Careers of Chinese Internal Migrants

When investigating unregulated, unprotected work situations, the precarious work literature focuses on the degradation of work quality, whereas the informal sector literature emphasizes entrepreneurship and mobility. Neither of them, however, pays enough attention to how particular jobs are matched and how career paths evolve. Studying Chinese rural migrants’ informal careers, this research finds three strikingly different career paths. The “precariats” rely on peers to survive career disruptions, but the responsibility to support others leads to a new crisis. The “entrepreneurs” rely on their relatively resourceful families to start small businesses in a highly competitive and precarious market. The “guild” relies on hometown networks to share career information and reduce competition. This research hence draws a more optimistic picture than the precarious work literature as upward career opportunities do exist. Nonetheless, the picture is not as optimistic as the informal sector literature suggests because these opportunities are socially yet unevenly distributed.

Impact of information on secondary school students’ knowledge, perception and attitude towards agricultural career in Ogun State, Nigeria

Youths’ interest in Agriculture is daily declining due to lack of awareness and information about the prospects in agriculture, leaving the nation’s agricultural sector in the hands of the ageing population. This study examined the impact of agricultural career information on the knowledge, perception and attitudes of secondary school students towards taking agriculture, as a career choice. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 136 school science students in senior secondary schools and structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on their knowledge, perception and attitudes with respect to career in agriculture. Data was collected for pre-test (baseline) and post-test (end-line) after the respondents had participated in an intervention tagged “Agricultural Career Information Program” and analyzed using descriptive and inferential (using t-test at p ≤ 0.05) statistics. Result showed that the students had a significant change in attitude towards choosing agriculture as a career choice after being exposed to the intervention program, but no significant change in the students’ knowledge and perception after being exposed to the program. Agricultural career counselling should be intentional in the education of the youths, in order to influence their attitude and eventual choice of a career in agriculture. The study recommends that career guidance be included in the curriculum of primary and secondary school students, with a focus on agricultural sector. Information sessions on the agricultural sector can also be organized to improve students’ knowledge, attitude and perception in order to direct their choice towards agriculture.

Design and Development of Alumni Career Information System using PHP MySQL

Alumni data collection at the Electrical Engineering Vocational Education Universitas Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa was still performed manually and there were no career information media about soft skills training and development, tracer studies, and job vacancies information. Therefore, media is needed to accommodate career information and alumni data collection quickly and effectively. The web-based information system using PHP MySQL was developed and tested for feasibility as an information medium for soft skills training and development, tracer studies, job vacancies information, as well as career counseling and consulting. This study used a Modify R&D as a development method and the waterfall method as a development model consisted of analysis, design, coding (implementation), and testing. The testing was carried out by 37 people consisted of software experts, admins, alumni, and students of Electrical Engineering Vocational Education. The test was based on the ISO9126 standard with functionality, usability, reliability, and efficiency aspects. Based on the results, the functionality aspect had a score of 77 (very feasible), the usability aspect had a score of 87.8 (very feasible), the reliability aspect had a score of 100% (very feasible) and the average page load time was 3.48 seconds (feasible).