School vocational guidance counsellors' role pertaining to a career in commerce
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Date
1997
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Abstract
South Africa faces massive unemployment. The two major employers are the government and commercial enterprises of the private sector. Owing to restrictive fiscal policies, government has little leeway to create major employment opportunities. Greater emphasis is being placed on the commercial sector to fulfil this need. Vocational guidance counsellors ought to help a child acquire work-related knowledge in the classroom, thus saving them time, and sometimes the pain, of learning the hard way. By directing this research specifically at vocational guidance, much could be done by the guidance counsellor to help children towards embarking on a career in commerce.
The aims of this study are:
* To pursue a study of relevant literature on school guidance counselling.
* To undertake an empirical investigation into the school guidance counsellor's role pertaining to a career in commerce.
* To provide certain guidelines and recommendations regarding the school guidance counsellor's role with regards to a career in commerce.
Research with regard to this study was conducted as follows:
* A literature study of available, relevant literature.
* An empirical study comprising structured questionnaires completed by guidance teachers of secondary schools. A Likert type scale questionnaire with three response categories; viz. Agree, Disagree and Uncertain, was constructed. The three response categories ensured that the respondents' selections fell into one of the categories enabling
the measurement of the direction and intensity of their perceptions of the school vocational guidance counsellor's role pertaining to a career in commerce.
Fifty -one respondents, representing guidance teachers and guidance counsellors were randomly selected from 14 secondary schools in Southern KwaZulu-Natal. With the aim of administering questionnaires in schools, it was necessary to first obtain permission from the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal. Only after such permission was granted, was the researcher able to conduct this study.
The primary data was in the form of a response to one of the three response categories (Agree, Disagree, Uncertain). Scores of the responses to each of the three categories were calculated. The descriptive technique was employed for the quantitative analysis of the data.
This investigation has the following value:
* It will provide an image of school vocational guidance counsellors' perceptions of their role pertaining to a career in commerce.
* Certain guidelines can be formulated to encourage the support of the school vocational guidance counsellor's task.
Anticipated dissemination of the research findings:
* The research findings will culminate in articles (of accredited journals) and will be submitted to the relevant Education Department for possible implementation.
* Findings from the research can be useful in planning of suitable methods (workshops, videos, etc.) to assist school vocational guidance
counsellors and teachers of school guidance to meet the future vocational needs of their pupils.
The topic lends itself to further research by interested stakeholders.
Description
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the
Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Zululand, 1997.
Keywords
Vocational guidance., Vocational guidance--Study and teaching.