«The responsibility lies with the parents, not the school»
Mrs Sprecher, what is the role of schools in career choice?
Teachers accompany the young people in their maturation process towards a follow-up solution after upper secondary school. The school teaches the skills required to enter vocational training or secondary school.
Is the school or an individual teacher responsible for ensuring that pupils find an apprenticeship or are accepted into a secondary school?
The responsibility clearly lies with the parents. Cooperation between parents, teachers and career counsellors is crucial. A lack of knowledge of the Swiss education system and misconceptions about career opportunities are often the biggest problem, especially for parents with a migration background.
Teachers are often judged by how many pupils they provide with a good education. What do you think of this?
I see time and again that teachers in certain communities are judged by this parameter. Officially, the school bears no responsibility for this, and I think it's wrong to hold a teacher responsible for the career success of their pupils.
We often realise that someone is not yet ready for a career choice.
If a career choice doesn't work out right away, this is rarely due to a lack of professional guidance from the teacher. We often find that someone is not yet ready to choose a career and cannot make up their mind. Or the parents have too high expectations.
Find your own path in seven steps
- Step 1: Get to know your own interests and strengths
How everyday habits and dreams can serve as a guide to self-assessment for young people. A questionnaire for career selectors. - Step 2: Get to know professions and training programmes
An overview of the most important educational programmes, professions of the future, where the shortage of apprentices and skilled workers is greatest and which career paths lead via a university. - Step 3: Compare your own strengths with the requirements of professions and training programmes
Comparing your own skills with the requirements of professions, how people with disabilities can find their way into the desired working environment and what role performance tests play. - Step 4: Get to know interesting professions in a taster apprenticeship
The career choice internship is the reality check: what forms of taster apprenticeships there are and what young people need to know about taster apprenticeships. - Step 5: Review possible professions and training programmes and make a decision
To what extent starting a career is an important step in personal development, why the training company must be as good a fit as the profession - and how young professionals compete for titles. - Step 6: Look for an apprenticeship or register with a school
What is important when looking for an apprenticeship, how to make a good impression at an interview and ten tips for a convincing application portfolio. - Step 7: Prepare for the apprenticeship or school or clarify bridging programmes
Once you have decided what you want to do after compulsory schooling, it is important to find out more and prepare for it - otherwise there are a number of useful bridging programmes.
How would you describe the optimal distribution of roles between parents, school and careers counselling?
Parents inform, support and encourage their child. The careers counsellor is present in the school and exchanges information with the teacher. Individual careers counselling is required if in-depth clarification is needed or specialist knowledge about the requirements of a particular training programme. Teachers accompany and motivate young people when it is appropriate to make use of individual career counselling. Good interaction between these three players is of great importance.
What parental involvement makes sense from the school's point of view?
Choosing a career is a joint decision between the parents and their child. Parents should provide support, but not put pressure on them. Support does not mean that they should relieve their children of tasks such as looking for a taster apprenticeship. It is important that parents, teachers and careers counsellors have the same level of information, otherwise they can be played off against each other. Parents, teachers and careers counsellors must therefore be in close contact with each other and communicate openly and transparently.
