What is Vocational Guidance?

Vocational or career guidance is that aspect of guidance that is geared towards helping an individual to prepare for a successful career or vocation. It is the process of assisting an individual to make a wise and informed choice concerning an occupation, prepare for it, enter into and progress in it. 

It can further be defined as a systematic process of exposing individuals to the existence of various careers, directing and helping such individuals in making informed and functional choices of the careers or vocations for which they are best suited considering identified potentials, personal abilities, talents, dispositions, aptitudes as well as available opportunities.

Vocational guidance prepares a person for participation in a meaningful and rewarding occupation in order to meet his/her personal and family needs as well as contribute his/her quota towards the economic, technological and social development of the society.

The recipient of Vocational Guidance can also be called a “client”. Even in the era of Traditional Vocational Education, some form of Vocational Guidance was still being practiced, even though non-professionals such as parents, guardians, elders provided such services, master craftsmen/women and even traditional native doctors or the “babalawos”.

The Features of Career Guidance

• Career guidance should be gender-friendly and must be done within the context of age and geographical location. 
•  It should also extend to various but relevant the types of training as well as monitoring to ensure the acquisition of requisite skills and competencies that would enhance the individual’s functionality and relevance in his/her chosen career. 
•  It should involve fundamentals of entrepreneurship within the chosen vocation. 
• Individuals should be helped to realize and appreciate the fact that careers and jobs do not exist in watertight pidgin-holes but rather in clusters of related occupations. 
• It should also embrace the strategies/techniques of copying with, adjusting to and excelling in already chosen careers and jobs. 

 Aims/Objectives of Vocational Guidance

The aims and objectives of vocational guidance include the following:

• To enable one to examine, discover and realize one’s strengths and weaknesses. 
• To increase one’s understanding of one’s abilities, interests,values and other personality traits as distinct from those of others. iii. To enable one to use the said understanding to identify those occupational areas for which one is best suited. 
• To help an individual develop an acceptable self-image and realistic attitude towards academic achievements as a necessary prelude to vocations/careers. 
• To enable individuals understand the prevailing circumstances in the world of work and that legitimate occupations are worthwhile. 
• To motivate individuals oriented towards appropriate career and orientation as well as creation of awareness of opportunities. 
• This involves helping people identify different occupational areas that are available both in the immediate and distant future; as well as the nature, purpose and direction to which each may lead to. vii. Surveying of employment and training prospects for special groups like girls, women, the physically challenged, school drop- outs and even the educationally disadvantaged groups. To enable the government and other relevant agencies to determine the population of people in training, at work or out of work. 
•  To inculcate in individuals the dignity of labour. 

The basic principles of career guidance, therefore, is that an individual should be better equipped to make realistic and beneficial occupational plans or decisions after doing the following:

• determining his/her own personal characteristics, talents, knowledge, skills, aptitudes, etc; 
• examining information about the various existing careers/jobs in terms of requirements, prospects and opportunities; and 
• matching or relating the two sets of facts above with the help of a skilled guide. 

 CONCLUSION

When it comes to very important decisions or choices such as the choice of a career/profession job, square pegs must be fitted into square holes to enhance functionality, progress, as well as maximum productivity. Individuals, families, the society, organizations and the nation are better off when this is achieved. This can be done through effective career guidance.

SUMMARY

In this unit, we have tried to examine the meaning of vocational or career guidance. In doing this, we first discussed the meaning, the principles and types of guidance, before answering the question. “What is Vocational Guidance? We also discussed the aims and objectives of vocational career guidance.

It will be helpful for you to go through this unit once more, before moving on to unit 2, where we shall be looking at the importance of vocational guidance.