CAREER_COUNSELLING_EN

• The educational approach places the subject at the centre of experience,
  guidance and development;


• People delve into personal motivations, live unifying experiences that are
  structured in self-perception, then self-concept, and ultimately self-identity;


• The educational and experiential approach engages pupils in an active
  process of personal development and project development, which will change
  their perspective on the social and economic environment.

The method education of choice lays stress on counselling young people in the process of
adaptation to the conditions of the contemporary society, getting control over their lives,
and identifying solutions to the problems they face; this way they are supported in
learning to guide themselves.

Education for choice is addressed to secondary school pupils and aims to (Pellerano,
1988, apud Guichard; Huteau, 2001):

• prepare pupils for career choice;


• develop the beneficiaries’ capacity to guide themselves throughout school,
  personal and professional life;


• develop motivation to learn and facilitate school success;


• involve parents as partners in education.

Each pupil has a notebook that includes: exercises, space to write down results of
personal investigations, and explanations of fundamental notions. The notebook is
presented to parents in a letter that sits on its front page. Teachers / counsellors have
handbooks for each year of study. They include: method presentation, objectives of each
session, and precise work indications. In addition, pupils and counsellors use an index of
professions, containing the description through activities and aptitudes of over 600
professions, jobs, and occupations.

Annual curricula are structured on the basis of the ADVP sequence, and include between
3-5 thematic modules, each with 2-4 sessions of 55 minutes each. We illustrate with the
modules for the 8th grade:

I. Influences, beliefs, and representations

II. Learning to get informed

III. Values and self- knowledge

IV. Decisions and strategies

Activities are carried out with the entire class and in small groups. Each session includes
the stages: remembering the preceding topic, doing an exercise (“experience”, in the
language of ADVP) and valorising it (“exploitation”), and then a synthesis of the meeting
(“assessment”). The counsellor teacher’s role is to support pupils in expressing and
analysing their personal opinions, and challenging them to confront their points of view