Guidance and career counselors can work to build their
clients’ knowledge about the educational, training, and skill
requirements of different occupations.Sociological research in the status attainment tradition identifies
aspirations for the future as centrally important for career outcomes.
Contemporary generations of teenagers have high aspirations for edu-
cational and occupational attainment but have greater difficulty
making clear plans for reaching their ambitions (Schneider &
Stevenson, 1999). The focus of guidance counseling for youth has
mostly been about getting into college, and although this is clearly a
worthy objective, given the economic and social benefits of higher
education, there is a downside. Adolescents are left largely on their
own to find out about work possibilities, and many are not sufficiently
motivated to do so (Schneider & Stevenson, 1999). Counselors can
assist young people in developing coherent plans, identifying the
steps that can be taken to achieve their goals, and connecting their
often-vague ideas about their future work life to actual educational
and career paths.
Guidance and career counselors can encourage young people
to take a constructive approach to their early employment
experiences by providing opportunities to discuss what they like
and dislike about their jobs, as well as what skills or experience
a job provides that might be useful to them in the future. When
possible, counselors can encourage youth to select jobs that
provide meaningful experiences in these ways.As we noted earlier, opportunities exist for schools to take
greater advantage of the fact that their students are working by inte-
grating employment and school experiences to the benefit of ado-
lescents’ vocational development. Guidance counselors can play a
key role in spearheading such efforts. Many youth do not see their
jobs as connected with their future work lives or as having any in-
68 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT