TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHER

ASSISTANCE FOR CAREER

DEVELOPMENT AND
EMPLOYABILITY
• ILO as an International Labour Organization under the auspices of the United
Nations gives a definition about employability skill as a skill, knowledge, and
competencies that can improve the ability of employees to survive on their
work, develop their career and overcome obstacles they face, and can easily
get another job in the workplace if they are willing to.

• Teacher support: definitions and classifications Scholars have defined teacher

support in different ways, according to their discipline or perspective. For
example, Farmer et al. (1985) indicated that effective teacher support requires
teachers to be genuinely interested in their students’ personal development
(including their planning of a future career path), as well as their academic
performance.

• Providing appropriate levels of support allows teachers to respond quickly and

with sensitivity when students need help and guidance.
• Effective support from teachers should indicate care about their students, be
easily accessible and positive in communicating high expectations for students’
educational and career-planning success.

• There are different ways of conceptualizing and defining teacher support, it is

not surprising that different instruments have been developed to assess this
form of support.

• Teacher support was associated positively with career decision self-efficacy

and career outcome expectations. According to the career construction theory
(CCT) (Savickas, 2005, 2012), an individual’s sense of “self” (including one’s
career self- image) is built from the “outside in,” and is shaped by the positive
and negative experiences encountered. In other words, individuals craft and
elaborate their distinctive characteristics and career personality types in
conjunction with their schools and families, and from social interactions
• Specific features of teacher support that exert a significant influence. These

may include, for example, the social and educational interactions between

teacher and student; the relationship between teacher support, parental support

and peer support; and how teacher support may differ across educational levels

and gender.

• Employability skills is a non-technical skill required by individuals who want

to enter the world of work. Employability skills can support the various

activities and career development of a person in the world of work, and giving

more advantages for the person and for the work environment
• Elements of employability skills

According to the ILO are:

a) basic skills: communication

b) thinking skills: problem solving and innovative thinking, and

c) affective skills: responsibility, positive attitude towards work, efficiency,

interpersonal skills, teamwork, self-confidence, positive self-image,
Adaptability, flexibility, enthusiasm, motivation, discipline, self-management,
tidy, honesty, integrity, and the ability to work unattended.

• The current job market requires skilled people who not only rely on technical
skills, but also on cognitive skills and non-cognitive abilities notably called as
life skills
• Employability skills are one among the entire life skills that are mainly

required. These skills are non-technical skills which are equipped for

individuals who need to enter on job entry in order to survive in the world of

work, to develop a career in the workplace in which they are involved in, and

to develop themselves in the type of other works

• Unfortunately, higher education institutions and secondary schools have not

been able to equip the graduates optimally in accordance with expectations.

One of the constraints in providing employability skills provision to students is

the teachers’ low level of understanding about it and the absence of a clear

curriculum that set out the employability skills.

• National Centre for Vocational Education Research listed various terms of

employability skills in some countries. For example in 1) United Kingdom: the

core Skills, key skills, general skills, 2) New Zealand: essential skills, 3)

Australia: key skills, skills for work, generic skills, 4) Canada: Skills for work,

5) United States: basic skills, important skills, knowledge of how to work,

generic skills, 6) Singapore: critical thinking skills, 7) France: skills that can be

transferred, 8) Germany: 9 key Qualifications) Switzerland: interdisciplinary

Goals, as well as 10) Denmark: independent qualification Process

• The elements of Employability skills

• Robinson divided the employability skills into three elements, as follows; (a)

the Basic Academic Skills of these skills such as reading, writing, science,

math, oral communication, and listening. (b) Higher-Order Thinking Skills,

these skills include learning, reasoning, creative thinking, decision making

ability, and problem solving. (c) Personal Qualities, these skills include the

attitude of responsibility, self-control, self-confidence, social skills, honesty,

ability to adapt, have integrity, punctuality, ability of working in a team, good

working attitude, have a purpose in life, eye-catching, cooperative, having self-

motivation and self-management

• Generally there are seven types of employability skills that become the

emphasis for students who will be graduating, such as: a) Communication

Skills, b) Team working, c) Problem Solving, d) Adaptability e) Lifelong

Learning, f) Self-Esteem, g) Ethics & Integrity.

• According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers

(NACEWeb) there are 10 primary skills in which they are the most important

and mainly needed in the workplace. These skills are: a) communication skills,

b) honesty, c) teamwork skills, d) work with ethical, e) analytical skills, f)

adaptive skills, g) social skills one to another, h) motivation/initiative; I)

computational technology skills, and j) detail oriented

• International Labour Organization under the auspices of the United Nations
(UN) released various types of employability skills gained after obtaining 63
types of studies on employability skills, and concluded the kinds of
employability skills into 3 fundamental basics, which were as follows:
• • Basic skills: communication.
• • Thinking skills: problem solving and innovative thinking.
• • Affective Skills: responsibility, positive attitude toward work, efficiency,
interpersonal skills, work as a team, confident, positive self-image,
adaptability, flexibility, enthusiasm, motivation, discipline, self-management,
neat, honesty, integrity, and ability to work without supervision.
• Some examples conducted in schools in order to improve the ability of
students’ skills are by teaching skills through scientific approaches, for instance
chemistry learning based on media ICT, applied mathematics learning by
Problem Based Learning approach or also by inviting keynote speakers to give
an introduction on the workplace to the students. In this respect, the
improvement of employability skills related to linguistic competence can be
done through the use of film.
• Concepts of Career Guidance

• Career guidance as follows: “career guidance is a relief process, service,

approach to the individual to be able to recognize and understand themselves,

get to know the workplace, plan for the future that corresponds to a satisfactory

life term, are able to determine accurately, and take decisions and responsible

for the taken decisions so that they enable to manifest themselves

meaningfully.

• The implementation of guidance and counseling in school aims to help students

to achieve the goals set out in three aspects of one's life that includes personal

aspects-social, academic, and career.

• These 3 carried out areas should have been a concern for teachers of guidance
and counseling at every level of education.

• there were seven purposes of the program guidance implementation on the

career aspect expected to be owned by students, they were as follows: a) able to
understand the condition of the State of the environment positively and able to
conform in accordance with embraced norms individually, b) have a
commitment to seriously implement the values of divinity in their career, c)
have an attitude of tolerance toward others, d) able to show respect to career
success and the kinds of career of other employees, and do not underestimate
them, e) have an understanding and a positive attitude, objective, and
constructive to the career challenges faced, f) able to make a decision
appropriately in their career life, and g) able to kindly interact in social in form
of friendship and brotherhood of fellow workers.
• Concrete career problems felt by students include:
• a) The students have an understanding of the right way to choose program
study that matches with mastered skills and interests
• b) Students do not have enough information about the workplace
• c) Students are confused in choosing jobs
• d) Students are less able to choose jobs that suit into their abilities and interests
• e) Students feel anxious to get a job after completing education
• f) Students do not have clear choice in their target universities if wish to
continue education to College, as well as
• g) Students have not got an overview of the characteristics, future prospects,
and the different requirements needed to this type of work that they will
involve in
The implementation Principles of Career Guidance

• Career Guidance is a continuity process in the entire life of a person, not a

disaggregated event to one another. Thus, career guidance is a series of
someone’s life associated with all aspects of growth and development which
they are dealing with.

• Career Guidance aims for all individuals without exception. However, in

practice, the priorities of service can be provided especially for those who is in
need of service. The priority scale given by considering the levels of problem
and whether the problem is crucial to be solved. And thus, career guidance
services provided for all students, then the granting of career guidance services
should more emphasis with preventive developmental method.
• Career Guidance is the assistance provided to individuals who are in the
developing process. Thus the characteristics of the development of specific
phases should be the basic consideration in any career guidance activities. •
Career Guidance is based on the individual ability to determine their choices.
Every individual has the right to make choices and decisions, but it should be
conducted responsibly for any consequences of those choices/decisions. This
means that career guidance not only pays attention to the right of the
individuals to determine and decide their own choices, but also helps
individuals to develop ways of fulfillment choices or that decision responsibly.
• The selection and adjustment career begins with the knowledge of our own self.
This means that individuals need to understand in advance the capabilities that
exist in themselves, such as talents, interests, values, needs, work/study
achievements and personality.
• Career Guidance helps individuals to understand the workplace and the number
of jobs that existed in the community as well as the various sides of their life.
• Approaches to Counselling

• There are a number of different approaches used by professional counsellors.

Perhaps the three main approaches are psychodynamic, humanistic and
behavioral. Each of these has a different theory and ideas underpinning it, and
the therapists and counsellors using each will approach problems and issues in
different ways.

• These three main approaches each support a number of individual therapies.

Some therapies may also use ideas from more than one approach. Some
professional counsellors use only one approach, but others are more flexible
and might use techniques from more than one method.
• Psychodynamic Approach to Counselling
• Psychodynamic counselling evolved from the work of Sigmund Freud (1856-
1939). During his career as a medical doctor, Freud came across many patients
who suffered from medical conditions which appeared to have no ‘physical
cause’.
• These areas are:
• The Conscious – things that we are aware of, including feelings or emotions,
such as anger, sadness, grief, delight, surprise, and happiness.
• The Subconscious – these are things that are below our conscious awareness
but fairly easily accessible. They may include, for example, events that we have
forgotten, but will easily remember when asked an appropriate question.
• The Unconscious – this is the area of the mind where memories have been
suppressed and is usually very difficult to access. Such memories may include
extremely traumatic events that have been blocked off and require a highly
skilled practitioner to help recover.
• Freud's main interest and aim was to bring things from the unconscious into the
conscious. This practice is known as psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is used to
encourage the client to examine childhood or early memory trauma to gain a
deeper understanding of events. This in turn may help the client to release
negativities associated with these earlier events. Psychoanalysis is based upon
the assumption that we can only progress psychologically by becoming aware
of earlier dilemmas that have been repressed into our unconscious because of
painful associations.
• Freud maintained that the personality consists of three related elements:
• The Id is the part of our personality concerned with satisfying instinctual basic
needs of food, comfort and pleasure. It is therefore present from (or possibly
before) birth.
• The Ego is defined as “the realistic awareness of self”. It is the logical and
common sense side to our personality. Freud believed that the Ego develops as
the infant becomes aware that it is a separate being from its parents.
• The Superego develops later in a child’s life, from about the age of three. The
Superego curbs and controls the basic instincts of the Id, which may be socially
unacceptable. It therefore acts as our conscience.
• Freud believed that everybody experiences tension and conflict between the
three elements of their personalities. For example, desire for pleasure (from the
Id) is restrained by the moral sense of right and wrong (from the Superego).
The Ego balances the tension between the Id wanting to be satisfied and the
Superego being over strict.
• The main goal of psychodynamic counselling, therefore, is to help people to
balance the three elements of their personality so that neither the Id nor the
Superego is dominant.
• It is rooted in exploring and understanding past experience to identify repressed
issues that are affecting current behaviour. Psychodynamic counselling is
therefore a long and ongoing process, and is mainly used when people are
experiencing severe problems that are not resolved using other methods.
• Humanistic Approach to Counselling
• Humanistic counselling recognizes the uniqueness of every individual.
• It assumes that everyone has an innate capacity to grow emotionally and
psychologically towards the goals of self-actualization and personal fulfilment.
• Humanistic counsellors work with the belief that problems are not caused by
life events themselves, but how we experience them. Our experience, in turn,
will affect and be affected by how we feel about ourselves, influencing self-
esteem and confidence. The humanistic approach to counselling therefore
encourages the client to learn to understand how negative responses to life
events can lead to psychological discomfort. The approach aims for self-
acceptance of both negative and positive aspects of our characters and
personalities.
• Humanistic counsellors therefore aim to help clients to explore their own
thoughts and feelings and to work out their own solutions to their problems.
• This is very similar to the approach used in coaching, except that coaches are
more focused on the present, and less on the past. In essence, coaching aims to
address the issue of ‘how’, and counselling looks at ‘why’.
• Client-Centered Counselling
• The central theme of client-centered counselling is the belief that we all have
inherent resources that enable us to deal with whatever life brings.
• Client-centered therapy focuses on the belief that the client—and not the
counsellor—is the expert on their own thoughts, feelings, experiences and
problems. The client is therefore the person most capable of finding appropriate
solutions. The counsellor does not suggest any course of action, make
recommendations, ask probing questions or try to interpret anything the client
says. The responsibility for working out problems rests wholly with the client.
When the counsellor does respond, their aim is to reflect and clarify what the
client has been saying.
• A trained client-centered counsellor aims to show empathy, warmth and
genuineness, which they believe will enable the client's self-understanding and
psychological growth.
• Empathy involves being able to understand the client’s issues from their own
frame of reference. The counsellor should be able to accurately reflect this
understanding back to the client.
• Warmth is to show the client that they are valued, regardless of anything that
happens during the counselling session. The counsellor must be non-
judgmental, accepting whatever the client says or does, without imposing
evaluations.
• Behavioral Approach to Counselling
• The behavioral approach to counselling focuses on the assumption that the
environment determines an individual’s behavior.
• How an individual responds to a given situation is the result of past learning,
and usually behavior that has been reinforced in the past. For example, suppose
that a child picked up a spider and took it to their mother. If she was frightened
of spiders, she might scream. The child would then learn that spiders are
frightening. Next time, instead of picking up the spider, the child will probably
scream and run to their mother, who may say ‘ooh, I hate spiders, they’re so
creepy’, reinforcing the child’s behavior. As a result, the child may develop a
fear of spiders and run away screaming (response) at the sight of a spider
(stimulus).
• Behavioral therapies evolved from psychological research and theories of
learning concerned with observable behavior, i.e. behavior that can be
objectively viewed and measured.
• Behaviorists believe that that behavior is ‘learned’ and can therefore be
unlearned.
• Behavior therapy focuses on individual behavior and aims to help people
to modify unwanted behaviors. Unwanted behavior is defined as an
undesired response to something or someone in the environment. Using
this approach, a counsellor would identify the unwanted behavior with a
client and together they would work to change or adapt the behavior.
• Problems which respond well to this type of therapy include phobias,
anxiety attacks and eating disorders.
• Clients might be taught skills to help them manage their lives more
effectively. For example, they may be taught how to relax in situations
that produce an anxiety response. Another method involves learning
desirable behavior by watching and copying others. In general, the
behavioral approach is concerned with the outcome rather than the process
of change.
• Using Different Counselling Approaches
• These three broad approaches to counselling each underpin a number
of individual therapeutic approaches.
• For example, humanistic therapies include gestalt therapy, 
transactional analysis and transpersonal therapy, as well as client-
centered therapy.
• However, some counsellors and therapies may draw on more than
one of these three approaches. For example, 
neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a combination of cognitive
behavioral and humanistic thinking. It combines the idea that your
behavior is affected by your past experiences with the belief that you
can change your behavior by changing your emotional response to
events, through the use of reason. This is clearly rooted in the concept
that each of us has the capacity to solve our own problems.
• Therapies like art therapy, family therapy and creative therapy may all
draw on ideas from any or all of these approaches, depending on the
counsellor and client’s preferences.
• There is, in other words, no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to
counselling