Introduction

• Career education is a way of helping pupils relate work and education. From the beginning, it has insisted on the need for a "partnership" effort involving both the education system and the broader community. In addition, it includes experiential learning by pupils about the occupational society, use of private sector resource persons in classrooms, reduction of occupational bias and stereotyping, development of productive work habits, and promotion of positive work values. It has produced substantial evidence of its success in promoting change.1 It has also produced substantial evidence of validity.2 Unfortunately, it was not promoted as a major vehicle for educational reform by any major association or agency during the 1980s. The 1990s have seen a number of sizable new education reform efforts very similar to those first proposed by career education during the 1970s. These include the "from low skills to high wages" advocates3, the "work-based learning" advocates4, and the "school to work transition" advocates5.
• The career education movement remains strong and viable in hundreds of communities throughout the nation. The purpose of this article is to present an updated picture of career education and how it fits into the current "transition from schooling to employment" undertaking.

• There are three basic ways in which career education is distinguished from other work/education efforts. First, career education promotes people change, not program add-ons. Career education's primary concern is with how youth can best be helped to consider participation in various programs and on how they can enter such programs with maximal personal motivation.

• Second, career education's primary focus is on work rather than on jobs. This was made clear in the first book on career education which was published in 19726. In that book, career education was defined as:

• "the total effort of public education and the community aimed at helping all
• individuals become familiar with the values of a work-oriented society, to
• integrate these values into their personal value systems, and to implement
• these values into their lives in such a way that work becomes possible,
• meaningful, and satisfying to each individual" (p. 1)

• Career education's prime initial concern is concerned with trying to ensure that all individuals possess positive work values that lead them to want to work. Thus, the need for career education is independent of whether or not specific job openings exist at a particular point in time. Decisions regarding the particular kind of work the person chooses to do, while also important to career educators, come later.

• Third, career education's major focus is on providing persons with general employability skills rather than with specific job skills required for success in a given occupation. Thus, career education efforts have a major focus on providing all individuals with at least minimally acceptable basic academic skills, productive work habits, and positive work values required for success in almost every occupation. In public education settings, "career education" is charged with providing youth with "general employability skills" whereas "vocational education" is charged with also providing youth with "specific job skills". This means, of course, that all "vocational educators" are "career educators" but not nearly all "career educators" are "vocational educators".

• From the beginning, "career education" has been viewed as an educational reform effort involving two basic processes: (1) the career development process and (2) the teaching-learning process. Many aspects of both processes seem apparent but lack specific emphasis in the current "transition from schooling to employment" literature. Here, an attempt is made to correct this situation by illustrating how both processes are implemented through career education.

• This section is built on an assumption that the classroom is a "workplace" and both pupils and teachers are "workers". The changes that career education seeks to make are aimed at increasing educational productivity of both teachers and pupils. If this can be done, chances of producing high school graduates with the basic academic skills, productive work habits, and positive work values demanded by today's employers will be greatly increased. Without a strong career education effort, chances of meeting these employer requirements will be markedly lessened.

• (1) Help the worker (pupil/teacher) understand the importance of the work task to be performed; In career education, this is typically done, in part, by showing both pupils and teachers why workers in various occupations need to know what is now being taught. Career education also encourages a variety of other ways of motivating pupils to learn, and motivating teachers to teach.
• ( 2) Reward work efforts when they occur: Career education urges teachers to give pupils some recognizable credit when they really try to learn even though their initial level of learning is incomplete. The principle here is that, if we expect pupils to really work in the future, we must give them some credit for the work they do now. Similarly, the building principal is encouraged to give some recognized credit to those teachers who really try to implement career education - even when the teacher's efforts are far from the ideal.
• (3) Recognize and reward productive work habits whenever they occur. Such well known habits as (a) come to work (school) on time; (b) do your best in all your work tasks; (c) finish each work task you are assigned when it is due; (c) follow directions given by your supervisor (teacher); and (d) cooperate with fellow workers (pupils) are fully as applicable in the classroom as they are in any work setting where adult workers are found. If high school graduates are to have productive work habits when they enter the workforce, it is essential that they acquire such habits while in school. America has, for too long, tolerated poor work habits in school under an assumption that youth will suddenly change when they enter the workforce. It doesn't work that way.
• (4) Empower workers to control their own work activities to the extent they are willing and able to (a) accept responsibility and (b) be accountable for them. A wide variety of ways exists for accomplishing most tasks. If each of several pupils has different ideas of how best to complete a given assignment, it is usually worth letting each try the approach that he/she thinks is best. The approach that seems best to the teacher is only one of several that are permissible.
• (5) Introduce variety into the workplace (classroom) - don't do it the same way every day. This is part of the rationale behind taking pupils on field trips to business/industry settings and for asking resource persons from business/industry to meet with pupils in the classroom. The career education concept makes possible the use of a wide variety of approaches to learning. By using several approaches, chances of improving pupil productivity (learning) are increased.
• (6) Encourage teamwork and shared responsibility on the part of two or more workers. The concept of asking workers to pool their talents and expertise by working together to produce a better product than either could supply alone is becoming increasingly popular in private sector work settings. Certainly, high school graduates today are likely to find themselves in occupations calling for teamwork. There is much to be gained from adopting the teamwork concept in learning assignments for K-12 pupils.

• Taken together, these "rules" hold high potential for marked changes in both pupil and teacher behavior in the classroom. These "rules" can be adapted for use by the teacher in the classroom as a means of increasing student productivity. They can also be adapted for use by the school principal as a means of increasing teacher productivity. In combination, these "rules" represent the "career education treatment" we ask all K-12 teachers to use. When done correctly, acquisition of basic academic skills, positive work values, and productive work habits should be acquired by almost all students. For both teachers and school administrators, this is the "bottom line" and the prime way of gaining their support and involvement. Using criteria based solely on the career development process won't work.

• These "rules can be easily related to the current "transition from schooling to employment" literature. For example, the SCANS Report7 includes both (1) Figure A - "Characteristics of Tomorrow's Workplace"; and (2) Figure E - "Characteristics of Today's and Tomorrow's Schools". If the classroom is seen as a kind of "workplace", Figure A, as well as Figure E, should be useful in listing characteristics of "tomorrow's schools". Figure A includes 14 characteristics, nine of which appear to fit directly in a discussion of "tomorrow's schools". These include: (1) flexible production; (2) customized production; (3) decentralized control; (4) flexible automation; (5) on-line quality control; (6) work teams, multi-skilled workers; (7) authority delegated to worker; (8) advancement by certified skills; and (9) broader skills sought. These nine characteristics fit neatly with the list of "rules" for increasing productivity discussed above. They are certainly worthy of serious consideration on the part of all educators concerned about educational reform - and by non-educators concerned about changing the education system in ways that will meet the needs of tomorrow's workforce. Career education is, in this sense, a way of helping educators understand and support some of the basic changes in the education system currently being recommended by the "transition from schooling to employment" forces.

• The key word in conceptualizing career education and the teaching/learning process is "WORK". Career educators view the word "work" as representing a vehicle appropriate for use in meeting the need of all human beings to do - to achieve - to become someone through doing something. To career educators, "work" is one way of helping the individual discover both who she/he is and why he/she is needed by others. Persons who can find "work" in their occupations think more highly of both their occupations and of themselves.

• That is why, beginning in the early elementary school years, career educators try to help pupils see themselves as "workers". The importance of initiating career education efforts beginning in the early elementary school years should be obvious here - i.e., to delay doing so until the secondary school years is to invite pupils to acquire misinformation, negative attitudes toward work, and bad work habits that will take years to correct. A "schooling to employment" program that doesn't begin in the elementary school years is asking for trouble - and almost sure to find it.

• By making "work" the key word in conceptualizing career education and the teaching/learning process, we hope to produce school leavers with the kinds of positive work values that will motivate them to seek work as well as a job.

• The bedrock of America lies in freedom of choice for all of its citizens. An essential aspect of such freedom is freedom of occupational choice. Local and state K-12 career education and career guidance efforts throughout the nation have concentrated major attention on helping pupils in career development in ways that maximize freedom of career choice. Moreover, they have done so in ways that integrate their efforts within the total K-12 education system. All new major Federal efforts to prepare persons for participation in tomorrow's workforce should have a strong K-12 career education/career guidance component built on the best of current practice.

• Career development in the elementary school years emphasizes "career awareness". It is aimed at identifying the broad nature of today's occupational society in ways that highlight differences among occupations in positive ways and the unique kinds of societal contributions made by each occupation studied. Resource persons from business/industry who spend time in elementary school classrooms are asked to talk at least as much about their work as about their jobs - i.e. pupils should learn why the resource person likes his/her job, why this job is needed in our society, and the kinds of personal satisfaction the person received while performing this job. Efforts are made to help pupils understand the major categories of occupations with specific occupations discussed only as examples for a given category. Strong emphasis is placed, wherever appropriate, on the need for the basic academic skills taught at the elementary school level. Equally strong emphasis is placed on the need for various kinds of competencies needed to be successful on the job. While pupils are not typically asked to make any kinds of firm occupational choices at this level, they are encouraged to identify those categories of occupations in which they have some kind of interest as opposed to those in which they have little or no interest.

• At the middle/junior high school level, the career development process is usually implemented primarily around the concept of career exploration. Here, the pupil tries to learn what it might be like if he/she were actually employed in that occupation. As opposed to the elementary school level, much more emphasis is placed on identifying various kinds of career interests associated with success in a particular kind of work and contrasting them with measured pupil career interests. The pupil is encouraged to discover and then explore those occupations where she/he appears likely to have the interests required for success. Concentration is placed on maximizing the number and kinds of options available to the pupil, not on selecting one option and rejecting all others. Once the pupil has accumulated a series of possible career options, efforts are made to relate such options to the various kinds of academic programs available to the pupil at the senior high school level. Tentative career choices are encouraged but firm career choices are not.

• It is at the Grade 9 - 12 level where most pupils are first encouraged to seriously consider firm career choices. This is accomplished through a wide variety of activities including: (1) shadowing currently employed workers; (2) work experience in a job related to one's career choice; (3) intensive investigation of postsecondary school educational options appropriate for the kind of career the pupil has chosen; (4) internships; (5) field trips to observe workers on the job; (6) use of mentors currently employed in the occupational area chosen by the student; (7) library research aimed at getting the most accurate occupational information; and (8) vocational aptitude test batteries/interest inventories. While there remain many high school graduates who still have made no firm career choice, there is a definite trend toward encouraging more students to express a clearcut occupational choice prior to high school graduation.

• Most of those pupils who, by high school graduation, still have no firm career choices in mind are likely candidates for unemployment or, at the very least, for underemployment. The prime exceptions are those students who enter a four year college or university where there is no need to declare a "major" until the junior year in college. A second exception is in the increasing numbers of recent high school graduates who are recognizing the need for higher level vocational/technical skills and enrolling in some form of postsecondary vocational/technical education in order to obtain such skills. Those youth who seek to enter the labor market directly from high school with no career plans and no plans for any kind of further education typically find jobs but fail to make true occupational choices. They become members of the secondary labor force with low paying jobs that typically have no (a) job security; (b) pension plan; (c) health care program, or (d) opportunities for career advancement. They do not choose occupations; instead, they settle for whatever jobs they can find in the secondary labor market. When, several years later, they find employment in the primary labor force, many have acquired negative attitudes toward work and working that tends to lower their productivity as adult workers. Career education is for all youth - including these.

• The professional school counselor is a key person in this portion of career education. The role of the school counselor in career education is exactly the same as the role of the school counselor in what is known as "comprehensive career guidance". School counselors can - and often do - function in education systems where career education is not operating. However, a comprehensive career education program cannot function without professional school counselors as part of the career education "team".

• Recent major national initiatives growing out of the Office of Work-Based Learning in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) carry more potential for positive revival of the career education concept than any Federal effort in the last decade. If this is going to happen, career educators must convince DOL policymakers that they can make a positive contribution to DOL "transition from schooling to employment" goals. Some of the major arguments that can be voiced in support of such a move include:

1. Career education has, for the last 20+ years, been engaged in an educational reform effort aimed at some of the same basic goals as the current "transition from schooling to employment" effort. During these 20+ years, career education advocates have learned much that can now be shared with others having similar goals. This sharing should take place.
2. Career education is a concept well accepted by educators as one making positive contributions to education in general and to education/work relationships in particular. Hundreds of career education programs are still in operation. It would not be difficult nor take long to gear up American K-12 education up for a career education effort that would meet many of DOL's "transition from schooling to employment" objectives. It would be much more difficult for DOL to relate to the education system by itself.
3. There is evidence that career education, properly implemented, can improve basic academic achievement at the elementary school level8. By doing so, career education becomes a system useful in reaching basic goals of both American Education and DOL. No other system has been able to demonstrate this kind of capability.
4. A number of other reasons could be formulated with little difficulty. Even these few examples will, hopefully, make it clear that there is great and growing need for the U.S. Department of Labor's "transition from schooling to employment" efforts to join forces with career education efforts nationwide. It is time that this be done.

• 1Hoyt, K. (1982) Career Education: Where It Is and Where It Is Going. Salt Lake City: Olympus Publishing Company.
• 2Hoyt, K. and High, S. (1982) Career Education. (In) Mitzel, H. (Editor) Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Vol. 1. New York: Free Press, 231 - 241.
• 3Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce (1990) America's Choice: High Skills or Low Wages. Rochester, NY: The National Center on Education and the Economy.
• 4U.S. Department of Labor (1989) Work-Based Learning: Training America's Workers. Washington, D.C.: Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor.
• 5U.S. Department of Labor (1992) The School-to-Work Connection. Washington, D.C.: Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor .
• 6Hoyt, K., Evans, R., Mackin, E., and Mangum, G. (1972) Career Education: What It Is and How To Do It. Salt Lake City: Olympus Publishing Company.
• 7The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (1991) What work requires of schools. A SCANSReport for America 2000. Washington, D.C.:Ù.S. Department of Labor. 8Op cit.