How can we help 560 kids into jobs at once? Overwhelmed careers advisers with no time to advise
Juggling an average 560 students at a time, one in three of whom don’t know what job they want to do, careers advisers say their huge workloads are costing kids jobs.
NSW
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The more than one in three high school students who don’t know what job they should pursue aren’t getting the help they need because careers advisers are juggling an average 560 students at a time.
A new national study from Career Tools has exposed the huge workloads imposed on careers advisers in Aussie schools, warning that students are the ones losing out.
Careers advisers say the current workloads mean students are only getting seen when it may be too late.
The report found, with AI changing many industries and rapid developments in technology, teenagers need to be prepared.
But careers adviser and Career Tools career development specialist Anna Langley said careers practitioners are often only seeing kids when they are in crisis mode.
“It can often mean that an interaction between the student and the career practitioner doesn‘t occur until there’s a need or demand identified, rather than it being a developmental process,” she said.
Ms Langley said often careers advisers are not full-time, or are loaded up with other administrative tasks and spend little face-to-face time with the students.
“Career practitioners are just seeped into administrative tasks and, if they don‘t have that administrative support, then they’re caught up having to tick those boxes which detracts from the time they can spend on actually working on where the value lies,” Ms Langley said.
The study found 59 per cent of career practitioners said the lack of classroom time dedicated to teaching students about their career options was the biggest problem.
“In an era where the labour market is rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly specialised, our school systems must keep pace,” Laura Peisley, Career Development Manager at Career Tools said.
“The student needs to learn how to navigate those changes and that cycle and, if they‘re not getting that in school, what we see are adults who don’t have the capacity to find fulfilling work and our labour market shortages and skill shortages have not been met.”
Career Tools and hundreds of careers advisers who took part in the study are calling on a comprehensive review of the curriculum in a bid to get students thinking about future careers and learning about their options earlier.
Ms Peisley, who has worked as a career adviser on the mid north coast, said high student to adviser ratios, the burden of admin and little in-class support has led to poor outcomes for students.
“This curtailment of classroom time for career education has far-reaching implications. It can stifle students‘ ability to explore potential career paths and understand the labour market, ultimately, increasing stress for the individual and driving skill shortages for the economy.“
The report also recorded the attitudes of students, with two-thirds saying having a dedicated career adviser alleviated post-school stress.
And 90 per cent of the more than 1000 students surveyed said they wanted more advisers in schools.
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