Step by Step: High School as the Training Ground for Better Career Decisions

Increasingly we are finding young people who have been out of school for a year or two, facing real dilemmas about the career / study choices that they have made. These young people are often anxious or demotivated, and lack the ‘up and at ‘em ’ energy with which they first embarked on higher education or the world of work.

While there is a plethora of reasons for young people’s losing heart and losing their way in the career maelstrom, one of the main reasons lies in an initially uninformed choice.

All too often we wait until Grade 11 to start considering career options when the learner is confronted with more career-focused career LO lessons, career evenings, career exhibitions and the need to organize job shadow experience in a field that holds potential career interest. It is also in Grade 11 that learners are most ready to engage in formal individual career assessment. The process of self-understanding, personal and social skills development, some openness to ‘what’s out there’ and the making of wise interim choices, needs to start the moment they enter high school.

Explore the articles Grade 8 and 9 (preparing for the FET Phase) and Grade 10, 11 and 12 (the FET Phase).