NEWS AND BLOGS

What is career guidance?

Career guidance is the process through which individuals (primarily students) receive support to map out their abilities, areas of interest, and the opportunities available in the labour market and education system. The goal is to facilitate a conscious and realistic choice of career paths.

Career guidance and counselling play a significant role in the lives of young people as it helps them choose a career that matches their abilities, interests, and the needs of the labour market. This process not only lays the foundation for an individual's successful career but also contributes to the economic development of society and the efficient functioning of the labour market. Conscious career choice enables students to engage in activities that bring them joy and in which they can develop.

Why is choosing a career difficult?

Successful career choice is in everyone's interest, yet it is often an incredibly difficult task. But what are the reasons for this? There are several possible explanations, some of which we will discuss.

The first is a lack of self-knowledge. Many young people do not yet fully know their own abilities, areas of interest, or strengths. This is especially true for the 12-18 age group, who are still in the process of developing self-awareness. It is also conceivable that if someone is uncertain about themselves, they may delay making a career choice.

Another reason is the overabundance and related lack of information. On the modern labour market, there is a vast array of professions, courses, and career opportunities to choose from. This abundance can often be paralysing rather than inspiring, particularly for those who have not yet discovered what truly interests them. Additionally, young people often lack sufficient information about different professions, the paths to them, and related trainings. This is especially true for careers that are less well-known or have only recently become significant.

Furthermore, individual factors can also complicate career choice. For instance, if someone is uncertain about their abilities, they might fear that they will not meet the expectations of a particular career. Moreover, the thought that a single poor decision could ruin their career can induce fear in many. This pressure often leads to indecisiveness or procrastination.

What solution does PractiWork® offer?

Choosing a career can be fraught with difficulties, and to handle this appropriately, it is very important to be aware of students' current situations, their abilities, interests, and expectations. To this end, between 2019 and 2024, PractiWork® conducted a large-scale research series in Hungary, involving 8,675 participants.

The PractiWork® system uniquely enables participants in vocational training to be oriented towards the most ideal profession for them, through tests that examine cognitive abilities, work interests, and personality traits.

The main objective of the research series was to uncover the characteristics with which students embark on the challenges of the labour market, how it can be achieved that they find a suitable career path, and do not abandon their studies.

The most important findings of the research were as follows:

1. The role of work interest: It is more difficult for students with low levels of interest to choose the right profession, however, a higher level of interest significantly increases the chances of successful integration. Moreover, we observed that many students have very low levels of interest, meaning there is no developed vision for the future.
2. The role of cognitive abilities: Among cognitive abilities, memory played a prominent role in one study, capable of making very sharp distinctions between well-performing and poorly-performing students.
3. Age and gender differences: Boys tend to be interested in entrepreneurial and object-oriented activities, while girls show a greater inclination towards creation and providing assistance. The most important age-related trend is that while object-oriented interest is in the middle range at age 12, a decline is observed by age 13, and by age 14 it falls to the last place and does not change in higher ages.
4. Openness to experience: Openness to new experiences plays an important role in the development of interest, which is why it is very important that students are exposed to as many interesting and useful experiences as possible.

Personalised Assistance

The general experiences from the research results provide substantial help in formulating the following suggestions:

1. Early mapping of students' abilities, interests, and personality traits is essential for creating personalised, successful learning paths. This lays the foundation for students' motivation and career choices.
2. A combined examination of abilities, personality traits, and work interest gives a much more precise and effective direction for development.
3. The introduction of individual development plans, mentoring programmes, and group sessions is critically important, as they increase commitment and assist students in achieving their goals.

Besides the general experiences, the system also provides specific assistance to every user. It has a professional profile for every sector and profession, based on the O*NET database. This includes the individual characteristics necessary to fit the job role.

Through special measurements, PractiWork® creates an individual profile, which, when compared with the professional profile, reveals which profession within the sector is most suitable for the student, as well as what they may need to succeed in that profession.

Based on these, career paths can be formulated that offer students the opportunity to experience success. The feedback following the measurements has prompted many students towards awareness and conscious choice, and a further benefit was that the students experienced that there is available support in this important task.