Guidance counselling has a mixed history
Guidance and counselling never sat easily with the rest of the curriculum. It has had a mixed history. The late Jimmy Saville, disc jockey extraordinaire, in response to a question about career guidance, stated that for him it was a discussion about which of two sausage factories to apply for. On the other hand, there have been some more recent outstanding examples of significant support given to students in marking out their future.
In decisions about guidance and counselling in schools, it is important to distinguish between the function that this provision is intended to serve and how roles and responsibilities in relation to it are defined. There can be no question about the importance of direction and support for students when they are about to carve out their future. Whether or not it should be provided solely by professional counsellors is a matter for debate. Some confusion is created by treating career guidance and student counselling as if they were a logical twosome. My own family of five availed of the specialist career information and guidance augmented by contributions from parents from different professions. When it came to personal advice on the vicissitudes of living they tended to go to a teacher whom they felt they knew.
The most reliable predictor of success at university in all subjects is competence in English on arrival. Nothing serves students better than the capacity to express their ideas fluently and confidently. It is here that the energies of schools should be more sharply focused. Perhaps we should think more in terms of careers education rather than on a narrowly conceived notion of career guidance. This ought to include preparation for the experience of unemployment. Sadly, Ida O’Neill has to face the debilitating fact that political decisions tend to be more pragmatic than principled.
Philip O’Neill
Oxford
England
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