School Counselors, Career Advising, and Career and Technical Education

• In Event: Alternative Pathways: Career and Technical Education Training and Predictors of Workforce Success

Abstract

It has been argued that school counselors/career guidance counselors (“school counselors”) play a significant role in advising students about their future options—along with students themselves and families. This is particularly true for career advising when it relates to options different than traditional education—namely, career and technical education. However, that role is not exempt from concern and criticism, especially when institutional issues like budget allocation and socially held beliefs about the value of college education come into discussion.
There is however another topic that is increasingly receiving more attention both in the literature and in the field: the knowledge and perceptions school counselors have about career options outside the traditional education trajectories, specifically Career and Technical Education and career pathways, and their knowledge about additional benefits those alternative career options carry, during and after school.
From the administrative and policy perspective, the approach we take for this study, school counselors perceptions and knowledge about Career and Technical Education (CTE) and career pathways (CP) will have a significant and profound impact not only in the student life, but also institutionally. They will also be a significant player about how students, teachers, school administrators and families see and value CTE and CP. This in turn will may have a significant result in the way CTE and CP are defined through the programs schools and states are to adopt to respond to school work education needs.
I will present the results of a study with school counselors in a northeastern state. The study includes a survey with school counselors about their knowledge and perceptions about CTE and CP. It also includes items related to CTE that address issues like special populations, college credit taking during school, and knowledge of CTE paths to postsecondary education options, including college degrees and non-college education.
There is a particular interest in this topic because is a confounding factor in the context of the institutional arrangements in this state. One such arrangement is the way CTE is delivered—through CTE regional technical centers that service high school students in their area. Counselors are usually located in different campuses than the regional technical center (except in some cases where the sending high school is located next to the regional technical center) and therefore there is no daily relationship with CTE programs and staff. More importantly, in some case the existence of regional technical centers as separate entities has led to competing practices between sending schools and those centers for students who may be interested in non-traditional education. In this case, the counselors’ knowledge and perceptions may play an additional role that adds to that competition, thus making the students choices more difficult.
This is particularly true in the case of students living in underserved or rural areas. What school counselors know may be decisive for students who have in CTE the only and probably best option.

Author

• Oscar A. Aliaga, University of South Florida