Education &

Career Guidance
Conference 2009

23 - 24 February, Republic Polytechnic

Guidance Branch
Education Programmes Division
Ministry of Education

Contents
Events @ A Glance

About the Conference Speakers

Synopses

15

Good ECG Practices in

Singapore School

25

Keynote Address Slides

27

Pleanary Session 1 Slides

42

Pleanary Session 2 Slides

54

Acknowledgment

70

Education & Career Guidance (ECG) 2009 Conference

Conference date and time:
23 Feb 2009: 0830 hrs 1730 hrs
(conference registration & breakfast start from 0745 hrs,
delegates to be seated by 0815 hrs)
24 Feb 2009: 0830 hrs 1300 hrs
(conference registration & breakfast start from 0745 hrs,
delegates to be seated by 0815 hrs)
Conference Venue:
The Republic Cultural Centre @ Republic Polytechnic
9 Woodlands Ave 9, Singapore 738964
About the Conference:
The Education and Career Guidance (ECG) Conference 2009
is part of the Ministry of Educations effort to build the
capacity of school personnel involved in implementing ECG
in schools.
Theme
Raising Awareness, Exploring Possibilities, Planning the
Future.
Objectives
The objectives of the Conference are for participants to:

b. Gain knowledge of the latest developments and

emerging trends in ECG from renowned local and
overseas professionals in the field of ECG; and
c. Learn from identified schools on their good practices
in ECG.
Speakers and Schools Presenting
This inaugural conference consists of a special talk by
Dr. Beh Swan Gin from Singapore Economic Development
Board, a keynote address by Dr. Richard Lapan from
University of Massachusetts Amherst and plenary sessions
by Dr. Michael Goh from the University of Minnesota
and Dr. Scott Solberg from the University of Wisconsin,
Madison.
Besides the keynote address and plenary sessions, the
Conference also consist of breakout sessions. Participants
will attend various concurrent sessions lectured by
renowned local and overseas ECG experts including Dr.
Esther Tan and Dr. Elena Lui from National Institute of
Education (NIE), Dr. Josephine Kim from Harvard Graduate
School of Education and Dr. Laura Nota from University
of Padova. Schools are also invited to share good ECG
practices during the concurrent sessions. More information
about the speakers and the sessions can be found in the
detailed synopses.

a. Be aware of the ECG Developmental Model

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

03

Events @ A Glance

Time

Programme for Monday,

23 Feb 09

Session
Code

Speaker

Location

7:45

Conference Registration
& Breakfast

8:30

Opening Address and

Launch of ECG Portal
by G.O.H

Mrs Tan Ching Yee

(Permanent Secretary, MOE)

TRCC Theatre

8:50

Talk by Guest Speaker

Dr. Beh Swan Gin

(Managing Director, EDB)

TRCC Theatre

9:10

Keynote Address

Dr. Richard Lapan

TRCC Theatre

10:30

Morning Tea Break

11:00

Plenary Session 1

Dr. V. Scott Solberg

TRCC Theatre

12:30

Conference Lunch

14:00 - 15:30

Concurrent Session 1

15:30

Afternoon Tea Break

16:00 - 17:30

Concurrent Session 2

17:30

End of day 1

TRCC Foyer

TRCC Foyer
TRCC Foyer
CS1-A
CS1-B
CS1-C
CS1-D
CS1-E
CS1-F
CS1-G

Dr. Richard Lapan

TRCC Theatre
Dr. Michael Goh
TRCC Studio
Dr. Esther Tan
TRCC Lab
Dr. Lui Hah Wah Elena
Dance Studio 1
Good ECG Practices in Schools Agora Hall 1
Dr. Laura Nota
Dance Studio 2
Dr. Josephine Kim
Agora Hall 4
TRCC Foyer

CS2-A
CS2-B
CS2-C
CS2-D
CS2-E
CS2-F
CS2-G

Dr. V. Scott Solberg

TRCC Theatre
Dr. Michael Goh
TRCC Studio
Dr. Esther Tan
TRCC Lab
Dr. Lui Hah Wah Elena
Dance Studio 1
Good ECG Practices in Schools Agora Hall 1
Dr. Laura Nota
Dance Studio 2
Dr. Josephine Kim
Agora Hall 4

Information accurate at time of print Updated as @ 9 Feb 09

04

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Time

Programme for Monday,

23 Feb 09

Session
Code

Speaker

Location

7:45

Conference Registration
& Breakfast

8:30

Plenary Session 2

10:00 - 11:30

Concurrent Session 3

11:30

Morning Tea Break

12:00

Panel Discussion

Chaired by Mr. Puvan

Ariaratnam, DDNE, MOE

12:45

Closing Remarks

Ms Sum Chee Wah, Director, TRCC Theatre

Education Programmes, MOE

13:00

End of day 2

TRCC Foyer
Dr. Michael Goh
CS3-A
CS3-B
CS3-C
CS3-D
CS3-E
CS3-F
CS3-G

TRCC Theatre

Dr. Richard Lapan

TRCC Theatre
Dr. V. Scott Solberg
TRCC Studio
Dr. Esther Tan
TRCC Lab
Dr. Lui Hah Wah Elena
Dance Studio 1
Good ECG Practices in Schools Agora Hall 1
Dr. Laura Nota
Dance Studio 2
Dr. Josephine Kim
Agora Hall 4
TRCC Foyer
TRCC Theatre

Information accurate at time of print Updated as @ 9 Feb 09

AGORA HALL1
& HALL4

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

05

About the Conference Speakers

Dr Beh was appointed as Managing Director of the Singapore

Economic Development Board from 1 August 2008.
He joined EDB in November 1992 and has held various portfolios
within EDB, ranging from industry development to planning & policy,
and from corporate development to global operations. These included
leadership roles in the development of Singapores Biomedical Sciences
industry cluster from 2001 to 2006, as well as overseas assignments
in EDBs North American operations from 1995 to 2000.

Dr. Beh Swan Gin

Between October 2006 and January 2007, Dr Beh was concurrently
Executive Director of the Biomedical Research Council at the Agency
for Science, Technology & Research. In addition, he was concurrently
Director of the Ministry of Trade & Industrys Energy Planning Division
between June and December 2006.
Dr Beh is a medical doctor by training and graduated from the National
University of Singapore. He is also a Sloan Fellow with a Master of
Science in Management from Stanford Universitys Graduate School
of Business.
He is on the Board of Directors for Singapore Health Services,
International Enterprise Singapore, Bio*One Capital and EDB
Investments.

06

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Dr. Richard Lapan

Dr. Lapan is a professor and head of the Department of Student

Development and Pupil Personnel Services (SDPPS) at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst. He earned a Ph.D. with Distinction
from the University of Utah in 1987 and has been a licensed
psychologist since 1992. Dr. Lapan is one of the leading authorities
on comprehensive counselling and career guidance programs and
practices. He has extensively studied career development across the
K-16 (kindergarten to university) years and the transition to young
adulthood. His research interest focuses on helping young people
learn the strengths-based career development skills necessary for
success in young adulthood and on enhancing academic achievement
at every level of education.
Dr. Lapan has published numerous empirical studies on the impact
of comprehensive guidance and counselling programs on student
academic achievement, social/emotional development, and career
development. Dr. Lapan has served as Editor of the leading journal
on school counselling in the United States Professional School
Counseling. In addition, he has considerable experience as a practising
counsellor and psychologist and has worked in a variety of settings
(e.g., public and private schools, juvenile justice programs and
psychiatric hospitals), with diverse student groups, and has carried
out a wide range of school-based and clinical treatment interventions
(e.g., individual, group, family counselling and guidance classroom
curriculum). The department he heads focuses on the development
of the individual student within the context of a variety of formal
educational settings and operates the Center for School Counseling
Outcome Research.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

07

About the Conference Speakers

Dr. Lapan received a Distinguished Service Award in 2000 from

the Guidance Division of the Association for Career and Technical
Education and the Counselor Educator of the Year Award in 2006 from
the American School Counselor Association. Dr. Lapans book, More
than a job: Helping your teenagers find success and satisfaction in
their future careers helps parents work with their teenagers to create
meaningful and satisfying educational and career futures. Dr. Lapan is
also the author of Career development across the K-16 (kindergarten
to university) years: Bridging the present to satisfying and successful
futures. Dr. Lapans new book Strengths-based career development
through comprehensive guidance and counselling programs will be
published in January 2009.

08

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

V. Scott Solberg is currently the Director of Wisconsin Careers, a unit

within the Center for Education and Work in the University of Wisconsin
Madison School of Education. Dr. Solberg is an active member in the
Society for Vocational Psychology, a Section in Division 17 (Society for
Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. He
is also a member of the International Association of Applied Psychology,
International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance and
National Career Development Association.

Dr. V. Scott Solberg

He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Career Development

Quarterly, Journal for At-risk Youth, and Giornale Italiano de Ricrca
e Applicazioni, and an ad-hoc reviewer for the Journal of Vocational
Behavior. Dr. Solberg has published more than 40 professional articles,
chapters, monographs and technical reports that focus on vocational
guidance, career and workforce development, preventing school
dropouts, and developing resilience skills among at-risk youth.
Dr. Solberg recently served as the Chair for the American Psychological
Associations Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. He
has served in leadership roles with the Milwaukee Partnership Academy
and Milwaukee Public Schools Small Schools reform movement and is
author of Success Highways, a proven drop-out prevention curriculum
for at-risk middle and high school students.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

09

About the Conference Speakers

Dr. Michael Goh

10

Dr. Michael Goh is an associate professor in the Counselling and

Student Personnel Psychology Program, Department of Educational
Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is currently the program
coordinator and director of doctoral clinical training. Prior to joining the
University of Minnesota, Dr. Goh was a faculty member in the Division
of Psychological Studies at the National Institute of Education (NIE),
Singapore. Dr. Gohs teaching, research and service are focused on
improving access to mental health services for ethnically diverse, new
immigrant and international populations. His current research program
includes cultural competence in mental health practice, multicultural
master therapists, the use of interpreters in mental health counseling,
career development, and help-seeking behavior and attitudes across
cultures and countries. He has published in the Journal of Multicultural
Counseling and Development, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority
Psychology, Journal of Mental Health Counseling, Journal of Career
Development, Journal of Muslim Mental Health, International Journal
for the Advancement of Counseling, and the Asia Pacific Education
Review. Dr. Gohs multicultural research program has won him two
Presidents Faculty Multicultural Research Awards and two Grantsin-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship at the University of
Minnesota. His passion for teaching led to a Teacher of the Year
award in 1998 and a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006. For his
multicultural education efforts, Dr Goh was appointed a University
of Minnesota Multicultural Teaching and Learning Fellow in 2003. In
2006, he was recognized by the Minnesota Psychological Association
for his Distinguished Leadership in Psychology and Mental Health. In
2008, Dr. Goh was appointed a University of Minnesota Presidents
Distinguished Faculty Mentor.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Dr. Laura Nota

Laura Nota, PhD., is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology,

University of Padova, Italy. She is the Director of LaRIOS (Laboratory
of Research and Intervention in Vocational Guidance, Department of
Developmental and Socialization Psychology). Dr. Nota is a member
of SIO (Italian Society for Vocational Guidance). She is also a member
of the Society for Vocational Psychology, a Section in Division 17
(Society for Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological
Association and of the International Association for Educational and
Vocational Guidance. She serves on the editorial boards of Italian
Journal of Vocational Psychology, and is an ad-hoc reviewer for
the Journal of Career Development and International Journal for
Educational and Vocational Guidance. Dr. Nota has published more
than 40 professional articles, chapters, monographs that focus on
vocational guidance, career development, and developing decision
making and social skills among youth. Her research efforts are
directed toward the analysis of relationships between perceived
support, efficacy beliefs and levels of school-career indecision; the
setting up and efficacy verification of interventions aimed at favouring
decisional competencies in middle and high-school students; and the
analysis of the concept of work and time perspective in persons with
and without disability. Dr. Notas professional expertise includes the
training of teachers, career service providers, and psychologists on
issues of career guidance and career counselling.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

11

About the Conference Speakers

Dr. Josephine Kim

12

Josephine Kim is a Lecturer on Education in the Risk and Prevention program

at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She earned a Ph.D. in counselor
education from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and
is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of Massachusetts. She also
is a National Certified Counselor whose clinical skills and experiences span
many contexts including residential facilities, community agencies, and public
and private schools. She has worked with multicultural populations through
individual, group, and family counseling and has taught students of all ages
in varied educational contexts, including private and public language schools
and private and public colleges and universities. She has provided professional
consultation and expertise on multicultural, mental health, career development,
and educational issues to various media sources in Korea and in the U.S. She
is USA Todays collegiate case study expert on school violence and has been
featured in EBS (Education Broadcast System) programs in Korea related to self
esteem and other developmental issues of youths. She is the keynote speaker
at 80-100 parent, teacher, and youth conferences yearly in Asia and in the
U.S. She has been called upon during national crises, being deployed by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the federal
government to work with Katrina victims during the summer of 2006 and
the provosts office of Virginia Tech in the spring of 2007, directly following
the campus massacre. She serves on the board of directors of several Asian
American non-profit organizations and is the founding executive director of
Mustard Seed Generation, Inc., a non-profit organization that aims to educate
Asian Americans on issues of spiritual, cultural and racial identity, mental health
and career development issues. She is the faculty advisor to Asian Coalition
for Education, the Asian graduate student organization at Harvard Graduate
School of Education. Her publications include Ethnic Minority Counsellors
as Cultural Brokers: Using the Self as an Instrument to Bridge the Gap in
American Counseling Associations VISTAS 2006: Compelling Perspectives on
Counselling (2006); Culture-specific Psychoeducational Induction Talk as an
Intervention to Increase Service Utilization amongst Minority Populations:
The Case of Korean Americans in VISTAS 2005: Compelling Perspectives on
Counselling(2005) and Structural Family Therapy and Its Implications for
Working with the Asian-American Family in The Family Journal: Counselling
and Therapy for Couples and Families (2003).

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Dr. Esther Tan

An academic and a registered psychologist trained in Toronto, Canada,

Dr Tan has more than 30 years of working experience in the fields of
education and counselling. She holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature
from the University of Hong Kong (1964), a Masters degree in Social
Work (1968) and a doctorate in Counselling Psychology (1988) from
the University of Toronto. Her working experiences include high school
teaching in Hong Kong, school counselling in Canada, teacher training
and counsellor education in Singapore. Prior to joining UniSIM, Dr Tan
has served more than 30 years as a teacher educator at the National
Institute of Education where she was Head of Psychological Studies from
1990 to 2003. She was a pioneer in spearheading counselling training
for school teachers and postgraduate training for practising counsellors
and psychologists in Singapore. Her research interests are in the areas
of stress management, career counselling, juvenile delinquency, and
parenting and family issues. To date, she has published more than 60
journal papers and three books: Counselling Pupils (1983), Winning
Ways with Teens: A Practical Guide for Parents (1997) and Counselling
in Schools: Theories, Processes and Techniques (2004). Currently in her
capacity as Adjunct Associate Professor and Programme Consultant
at the School of Humanities and Social Studies at UniSIM, Dr Tan is
actively involved in developing a Bachelor degree programme in
counselling, the first of its kind in this part of the world. She is also
a much sought-after public speaker on issues pertaining to parenting,
family life education, social and emotional education, values education,
school counselling and juvenile delinquency. Her community services
include serving as advisor to the juvenile court, voluntary mediator
at the Family Court, Board member of Students Care Service, Visiting
Justice to Changi Womens Prison and resource person to MCYS, MOE
and Teen Challenge. She is the recipient of two National Day awards
(PB in 1986 and PBM in 1993) and has been appointed Justice of the
Peace since 1998.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

13

About the Conference Speakers

Dr. Lui Hah Wah Elena

14

Dr. Lui Hah Wah Elena is an Associate Professor with the Psychological
Studies Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (NIE),
Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She has three
postgraduate degrees from Michigan State University (PhD, Edal
Specialist & MA) and a B.Soc Sc (Social Work) degree from Chinese
University of Hong Kong. She plays significant roles (designing,
coordinating and teaching) in the Diploma in School Counselling and
MEd Guidance & Counselling. She conducts lectures and supervises
teachers and counsellors in postgraduate and in-service training
programmes. She is a Registered Social Worker (RSW), a Registered
Counsellor (RC), and the Principal Investigator (PI) of OSCAR (a webbased career guidance system) in NIE. Her research interests are mainly
in adolescents self-esteem and well being, career guidance, service
learning and lifelong learning. She is a member of the Ministry of
Education (MOE) Committee in the Review of Education and Career
Guidance. Dr Lui is the co-editor of two local publications:Reflections
on Counseling Developing practice in schools and Youth Guidance
Issues, interventions & reflections. Her most recent publication is
.05 Significantly Yours a guide to reflection on lifelong learning.
In her more than 30 years service-learning, she has contributed to the
management and development of some 15 voluntary organizations.
She was conferred the NIE / NTU 30 years long service award, in
2006, Singapore Public Service Award (PBM) in 1998, and the Hon.
Chairman of Singapore Professional Centre in 1996. She is one of the
founders of Singapore Action Group of Elders (SAGE) and the Fulbright
Association (Singapore). She is a past president of University Women
Association of Singapore and a life member of Singapore Association
for Continuing Education. Currently she serves in the Board of United
Nations Association of Singapore, Executive Committee of Singapore
Association of Social Workers. She was the Hon Auditor of Singapore
Association for Counselling in 2006 - 2007.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Synopses

How career
development can
play an essential
role in improving
the academic
achievement,
social/emotional
development,
and workforce
readiness for all
youth.

Keynote Address: Dr. Richard Lapan

About the presentation:
Strengths-based Career Development Through Comprehensive
Guidance and Counselling Programs.
Synopsis:
This presentation will focus on how career development can play
an essential role in improving the academic achievement, social/
emotional development, and workforce readiness for all youth.
Leading research studies will be summarized and reviewed for
participants. An evidence-based framework for strengths-based
career development will be presented. Promising school-based
practices will be highlighted. Evaluation and accountability strategies
to ensure that students benefit from career development activities will
be suggested.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Facilitate awareness of how career development can play a
central role in enhancing academic achievement, social/emotional
development, and workforce readiness for all students.
2. Facilitate awareness of the supporting research and the best
school-based career development practices that will assist schools
and educational professionals to facilitate the development of
youth who are proactive, resilient, adaptive and responsible future
citizens.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

15

Synopses

How SEL
and Career
development can
be used eectively
to help at-risk
students become
more motivated
to be successful in
school.

Plenary Session 1: Dr. V. Scott Solberg

About the presentation:
How Education and Career Guidance can be used as a powerful tool
to motivate students at risk to aspire for their future.
Synopsis:
This presentation will focus on how career guidance activities can
be designed to effectively engage and inspire students to achieve
academic and life success. The focus will be on describing how the
career educator can establish an optimal learning environment
that helps students perceive the relevance of their academic work,
establish career goals and aspirations and optimise their school
opportunities to achieve those goals.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Facilitate awareness of how SEL and Career development can be
used effectively to help at-risk students become more motivated to
be successful in school.
2. Facilitate awareness of how ECG activities can transform
disengaged youth into proactive, resilient and adaptable citizens.

16

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Scholars and
practitioners in
Singapore have
eectively adopted
and adapted
career guidance
practices to work
in Singapores
context

Plenary Session 2: Dr. Michael Goh

About the presentation:
The Social and Cultural Context of Educational and Career Guidance
in Singapore.
Synopsis:
At the geographical crossroads of Southeast Asia, Singapore is
likewise a nexus of Eastern and Western ideas for applied career
development. Consequently, educational and career guidance
(ECG) in Singapore is inevitably influenced by extant career
development theories and models, many of which originate outside
of Asia. Nevertheless, scholars and practitioners in Singapore have
effectively adopted and adapted career guidance practices to work
in Singapores context while at the same time growing a career
development research program for Singapore. This plenary session is
an invitation to critically and cross-culturally imagine the past, present
and future of ECG in Singapore.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Facilitate awareness and knowledge of social and cultural factors
that influence educational and career decisions in Singapore.
2. Facilitate an appreciation for how career development is
conceptualized in Singapore and by her multicultural constituents.
3. Facilitate a critical review of what works, why and how it works,
and encourage future thinking about ECG in Singapore.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

17

Synopses

Looking at career
development
through an
existential lens.

Concurrent Session: Dr. Josephine Kim

About the presentation:
Reframing What do I want to be when I grow up to Who am I?
Looking at career development through an existential lens.
Synopsis:
The issue of career development is not simply about answering
the question What do I want to be when I grow up? Rather, it is
an existential issue that has profound connections to the question
of Who am I? Hence, looking at career development education
through an existential lens alters the role of counsellors and teachers
from one that focuses solely on exposing children and adolescents
to career options to one that is more concerned with increasing their
self-awareness and self-exploration. Traditional career counselling is
implemented during late adolescence; however, career development
education seeks to promote introspection and reflection from an
early age, thereby, viewing career development as a life-long process
instead of an isolated stage.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Present a comprehensive framework of holistic career
development education that fosters and promotes selfawareness and self-exploration;
2. Present practical methods of implementing career
development education via large and small group
sessions; and
3. Facilitate discourse about how career development
education can be infused into the K-12 (kindergarten post secondary) curriculum

18

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Assessment
procedures
and preventive
activities that can
be considered
to help career
development
and personal
adjustment of the
students.

Concurrent Session: Dr. Laura Nota

About the presentation:
Improving problem solving, decision-making and assertiveness skills
of undecided adolescents.
Synopsis:
Research studies have highlighted that a large number of adolescents
are undecided about their future career. This is often associated with
to other difficulties that may hinder these adolescents professional
development and personal and social adjustment. To prevent that,
interventions to be realized in schools have been devised with the
aim of helping to strengthen adolescents decision-making abilities
and the ability to manage difficult situations, among which is career
choice. The presentation will provide a description of our interventions
and an evaluation of their effectiveness.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Facilitate awareness of problem solving and decision making
difficulties that adolescents can manifest.
2. Present some assessment procedures and preventive activities that
can be considered to help career development and personal
adjustment of the students.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

19

Synopses

Integrative Life
Plannings six
critical tasks and
circle of life.

Concurrent Session: Dr. Michael Goh

About the presentation:
Integrative Life Planning: A Social and Cultural Framework for Thinking
about Career Development in Singapore.
Synopsis:
Integrative Life Planning (ILP; Hansen 1997) is a holistic approach to
career development that encourages individuals to consider how they
weave their lives into a meaningful whole through career decisions.
ILPs six critical tasks appear to reflect a lot of the values inherent
in Singapores social fabric such as pluralism, connecting family and
work, and an emphasis on civic responsibility. Participants will be
introduced to the roots and rationale for ILP and consider how ILP
may be applied in ECG.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Facilitate understanding of ILP principles.
2. Facilitate understanding of ILPs six critical tasks and circle of life.
3. Facilitate discussion about how ILP may be
incorporated into ECG in Singapore.

20

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

The important
role of school
counsellors in
facilitating the
career development
and career planning
of students in
schools.

Concurrent Session: Dr. Esther Tan

About the presentation:
The Role of School Counsellors in Career Counselling.
Synopsis:
The scope of school counselling covers the educational development,
career development and personal development of students in schools.
This workshop will focus on what school counsellors can do to
facilitate the career development of students and how to guide them
to engage in meaningful career exploration and make informed career
decisions. Beginning with a presentation of main career development
theories, Dr Tan will link theory with practice by reviewing the
applicability of these theories in the Singapore context based on
local research. As the focus of the workshop is skill-based learning,
she will introduce participants to both quantitative and qualitative
approaches to career assessment through hands-on activities. She will
also present a variety of career guidance techniques to cater to the
various age groups in schools
Objectives of presentation:
1. Highlight the important role of school counsellors in facilitating
the career development and career planning of students in schools.
2. Present quantitative and qualitative approaches to career
assessment.
3. Explore career guidance techniques and intervention strategies
for different student groups.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

21

Synopses

21st Century skills

that are needed for
optimal workforce
readiness.

Concurrent Session: Dr. V. Scott Solberg

About the presentation:
Preparing students with 21st Century workforce readiness skills
Synopsis:
This presentation will describe a set of 21st Century skills that are
needed for optimal workforce readiness. The presentation will also
describe how ePortfolios can be used to help students demonstrate
that they possess these skills. 21st Century skills incorporate
social emotional learning, career awareness and academic skills.
The presentation will discuss these skills in relation to the ECG
Developmental Model outcomes associated with pro-activity,
resilience and adaptability.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Facilitate awareness of the academic, social/emotional and career
readiness development skills needed to be ready to enter the world
of work.
2. Demonstrate how ePortfolios can be used to help students
effectively communicate the range of workforce readiness skills
they have achieved.

22

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Milestones and
key players in
the changing
landscape of
education and
career guidance in
Singapore Schools
and Communities.

Concurrent Session: Dr. Lui Hah Wah Elena

About the presentation:
The changing landscape of education and career guidance in the past
two decades.
Synopsis:
Singapore as a young independent state has invested lots of
resources in educating the young, to prepare them for the workforce
as well as nation building. In the past 20 years, there were several
milestones in guidance services achieved by the interplay of
multiple factors. Participants will have some activities checking out
occupations /careers information and resources in both OSCAR and
the new e-portal.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Feature the milestones and key players in the changing landscape
of education and career guidance in Singapore schools and
communities.
2. Highlight the research and development of computer-aided career
guidance and the links between the NIE OSCAR and the new
e-portal of MOE.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

23

Synopses

Strengthsbased career
development skills
all students need
for success in the
21st Century.

Concurrent Session: Dr. Richard Lapan

About the presentation:
Preparing students with strengths-based career development
skills needed for success in the 21st Century economy: Cases, best
practices, and evaluation.
Synopsis:
This presentation will elaborate on strengths-based career
development skills all students need for success in the 21st Century,
global economy. Examples of high school students attempting to
learn these skills will be presented. Best practice school-based
career development interventions will be detailed. A framework to
guide the development of evidence-based career interventions will
be suggested. Participants will learn a useful program evaluation
strategy they can implement in their schools, i.e., IDEAS! facilitate
awareness of how schools and educational professionals can
implement career development interventions to enhance the
academic, social/emotional, and workforce readiness skills students
need to be ready to successfully enter the world of work.
Objectives of presentation:
1. Demonstrate through examples of high school students how
educational professionals can implement effective school-based
practices.
2. Introduce participants to a useful evaluation strategy: IDEAS!.

24

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Good ECG Practices

in Singapore Schools

Schedule of Sharing
Sessions:
Concurrent Sessions 1E:
a. Gan Eng Seng Primary
School
b. Bedok Town Secondary
School
c. Millennia Institute
Concurrent Sessions 2E:
a. Gan Eng Seng Primary
School
b. Bedok Town Secondary
School
c. St. Hildas Secondary
School
Concurrent Sessions 3E:
a. Gan Eng Seng Primary
School
b. St. Hildas Secondary
School
c. Millennia Institute

Bedok Town Secondary School

At the secondary school level, the awareness of occupations/ careers
progresses to the stage of exploration, where students begin to
explore the various careers and how it fit their interests, values and
abilities. At Bedok Town Secondary School, students are first made to
assess on their career interests using career assessments. With their
career profile, the 3NA students get to explore their preferred career
choices through student attachments programmes at ITE & Temasek
Polytechnic. The 3NT students were involved in F & B Internship
Programmes. The rest of the school population visited education
institutions to find out more in-depth the education options required
for them to arrive at their preferred careers.
Presenters : Mdm Yusnita Binte Zaini &
Mdm Wong Piang Thye Rachel

Gan Eng Seng Primary School

Gan Eng Seng Primary made waves when it began offering its
students an annual career seminar. It has been an opportunity for
students to learn more about different vocations and professions
from an early age, and for staff to help guide their students career
decisions. The annual seminar, themed in line with the school
motto Believe, comprises talks by invited speakers, and,
hands-on stations where students have been able to glean
insights into a particular career path. To date, theyve enjoyed
talks by the likes of a national footballer, a marine biologist,
a RSAF pilot, a gourmet chef and a nutritionist. On top of
providing information on the different careers open to them,

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Good ECG Practices

in Singapore Schools

confidence and resilience are strong core values reiterated amongst

the students.
Presenters: Mrs Veronica Png & Ms Surya Tambunan Bt Rosman

Millennia Institute
Moving on towards the upper Secondary and Pre-U levels, the
emphasis will shift to that of helping students make plans about
their preferred careers and the corresponding subject choices. Over
at Millennia Institute, the ECG programme spans the three years
that a student is with the institution. In year 1, students are guided
into establishing a personal roadmap that encourages self-discovery
which allows students to identify their personal work values, interests
and preferences. There is also the sharing of various industries
and practitioners, and a job attachment with various firms and
organisation. Students are made to update their portfolio, which at
a later stage of career exploration, will help them to crystalise their
education plans to arrive at their preferred career options.
Presenters: Mdm Siti Zubaidah Bte Abdullah, Anna Low Li Leen &
Siveraman Pillai

St Hildas Secondary School

Different students, different strokes. For some students, to deal
with the presenting issues, examining past events and behaviour
has limited impact. Instead of over-examining past issues, one way
forward is to get them to see what they can do with their potential. In
the past, counselees may be asked to go through some survey tools.
These tools may provide them with a range of career choices but give
little clue as to why these choices would suit them. The ECG portal
goes a little further when the counsellor can explain to the counselees
why the career choices may fit them.
Presenters: Mdm Lee Pei Choo Joanne &
Mr. Lim Kim Seng

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Keynote Address Slides

Dr. Richard T.
Lapan, PhD
Keynote Address

Strengths-Based Career Development

Through Comprehensive Guidance and
Counseling Programs
Goals of Presentation
1. Demonstrate how career development can play an important role in
enhancing the Academic Achievement, Social/Emotional
Development, and Workforce Readiness for all students.
2. Present a holistic, strengths-based model of career development
3. Discuss how comprehensive guidance and counseling program can
help all students to learn and use these strengths
4. Overview research connecting career development to student
success
5. Highlight 5 promising school-based career development practices
that help students become proactive, resilient, adaptive and
responsible future citizens

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Keynote Address Slides

Three Parts
1. Strengths-based career development and comprehensive guidance
and counseling programs
2. Research supporting connection of career development to student
academic achievement, social/emotional development, and
workforce readiness
3. Five promising school-based practices and research supporting
connection to student success

Part 1: Strengths-Based Career

Development and Comprehensive
Guidance and Counseling Programs

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

American School Counselor Association National

Standards
Academic Development
A. Students will acquire the attitudes, knowledge and skills
contributing to effective learning in school and across the lifespan.
B. Students will complete school with the academic preparation
essential to choose from a wide range of substantial postsecondary options, including college.
C. Students will understand the relationship of academics to the world
of work and to life at home and in the community.
Career Development
A. Students will acquire the skills to investigate the world of work in
relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions.
B. Students will employ strategies to achieve future career goals with
success and satisfaction.
C. Students will understand the relationship between training and the
world of work.
Personal/Social Development
A. Students will acquire the knowledge, attitude and interpersonal
skills to help them understand and respect self and others.
B. Students will make decisions, set goals and take necessary action to
achieve goals.
C. Students will understand safety and survival skills (American School
Counselor Association, 2003).

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Keynote Address Slides

Identify the traits

and trends of
development
observed in
adolescence
(p. 18) that lead
young people to
more stabilized
vocational patterns
in adulthood.
Super (1954)

Given the world our young people will enter, we

need to rethink Supers question
By the time adolescents graduate from high school, what strengths
do they need to have integrated into their everyday style of
managing present tasks and settings (e.g., school) and how should
they be approaching their futures (e.g., postsecondary options)?
How will you help all students to both learn and use these strengths?

A proactive, resilient and adaptive orientation

to the present and the future characterized by
growth in:
Purpose and direction
opportunity and choice
agency and empowerment
commitment and maturity
motivation and hopefulness
perseverence and an ability to overcome obstacles
creativity and curiosity
entrepreneurship and a caring for others and the environment

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Integrative/Contextual Model of Career

Development(Lapan, 2004)

Motivating Students to Take Charge of their

Educational and Career Planning: Creating a
Possible Career-Self
1. Possible Selves - emerging self-understanding of the kind of
future I might want for myself, the kind of person I might want to
become (Markus & Nurius, 1986)
2. A bridge from the present to the future - helps adolescents frame
their behavior to plan for and guide future actions
3. Possible career selves - a powerful self-regulating strategy
through which young people can express and pursue their
aspirations, goals, and values

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Keynote Address Slides

4. Kerpleman, Shoffner, & Ross-Griffin (2002) - possible career

selves a good way to understand the different beliefs and strategies
African American mothers and their daughters used to empower
daughters to reach their career goals
5. Closely related ideas
Super - goal is to consistently strive to create an optimal fit between
purpose and possibilities where we express a personally meaningful
self-concept in a career pattern
Aristotle - we are beings in the process of becoming
(the teleological view)
Tolman - learning is purposive, it is much more than stimulusresponse mechanisms
6. Making an educational and career plan - putting a strategy in
place to help students achieve a personally valued, possible career-self

Developing a Career Plan: A 3 Phase Process

Phase 1: Exploring
Gathering information about oneself and the world of work
Phase 2: Creating Meaning
Contextualizing and making sense out of this information
Phase 3: Making a Plan!
Generating and committing to a possible career-self

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Six Building Blocks of Evidence-Based Career

Interventions (Krane & Brown; Lee)
1. Build relationships with students
2. Build emotional and instrumental support for students in their
immediate environments
3. Build relationships between students and role models
4. Build student understanding with accurate and up to date
information about postsecondary options and the world of work
5. Build commitment of students to follow through on their decisions
and plans
6. Build culturally and contextually competent activities, interventions,
and programs

Part 2: Research Findings

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Keynote Address Slides

Missouri School Counselors Benet

All Students: How Implementing
Comprehensive Guidance Programs
Improves Academic Achievement for All
Missouri StudentsBy Rich Lapan, Norm
Gysbers, and Marc Kayson
www.missouricareereducation.org
Question: Do more fully implemented
programs promote higher 10th grade MAP
test scores (Mathematics)?Answer: Yes!

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Question: Do more fully implemented

programs help to reduce discipline problems
in middle/junior high school? Answer: Yes!

Individual Planning
Individual Planning - aligning student schedules with their career
goals, helping students create meaningful educational and career
goals, assisting students to organize their course of study around a
personally-valued career goal
Items - The individual planning process aligned students schedules
with their career goals
The individual planning process helped students create
meaningful educational and career plans
The individual planning process helped students organize
their course of study around a career goals that was important
and interesting to them

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Keynote Address Slides

Paving the Road to College: How School

Counselors Help Students Succeed
Findings
1. CPS high school counselors play an important role promoting
student academic achievement
2. CPS counselors impact how students plan, prepare, search, apply,
and enroll in college
3. CPS counselors play a vital role in helping 8th grade students
successfully transition into high school
4. An implementation gap exists across CPS high schools in the
organization and delivery of a comprehensive program, thus
advantaging some students and disadvantaging others

Recommendations
Close the implementation gap in the organization and delivery of
a comprehensive guidance and counseling program across CPS
high schools
Get principals to support implementation
Establish working alliance with each 8th Grader
Reduce Non-Guidance tasks
Enhance Individual Planning skills of school counselors and
educational professionals for a global, 21st century economy
Increase parent involvement in career planning and college
counseling process

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Setting the stage: Career development and the

student engagement process by Kenny, Blustein,
Haase, Jackson, & Perry (2006)
Study: Examined the relationship between career development
(planfulness and expectations) and student engagement (belonging
and valuing of school)
Sample: A multiethnic sample of urban 9th grade students
Findings: Higher levels of career planfulness and expectations were
associated with increasing student engagement over the course of the
school year
Implications: Establishing the value of career development activities
and curriculum as a useful and necessary component in educational
reform efforts

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Keynote Address Slides

The ambitious generation: Americas teenagers,

motivated but directionless
By Schneider & Stevenson (1999)
Alfred P. Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development
Problem: High schools that dont encourage and emphasize student
planning for the future were more likely to have students with
misaligned ambitions (i.e., a mismatch between the amount of
education an adolescent expects to attain and the education required
for the occupation the student wants to enter)
Solution: High schools that emphasize educational and career
planning help students to develop personal agency and encourage
them to take responsibility for their education and the decisions they
are making about their futures
Support for career planning from child development experts
outside the field of career development

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Part 3: Five Promising

School-Based Practices

Individual Planning
Guidance Curriculum
Community Career Partnerships
Transition support into high school and postsecondary education
Parent Involvement

Summary and Recommendations

1. Strengths-based career development helps schools and students to
be successful
2. A comprehensive guidance and counseling program is a good
multifaceted strategy to empower educational professionals to
promote student development
3. We must be very intentional to make sure we meet the needs of all
students
4. School leaders and all educational professionals need a common,
organized, and unified approach to meet student needs
5. Enhance the Individual Planning skills of educational leaders and
professionals to help students prepare for and successfully
transition into the global, 21st century economy
6. To optimize student talents, ambitions, and aspirations, working
alliances between counselors/educators and students need to be
developed and maintained

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Keynote Address Slides

7. Develop a Results-Based evaluation and accountability strategy

to consistently strive to improve services to students (Find out
what works best for which students under what contexts and
circumstances)
8. Paradigm/conceptual shift - career development is not something
nice to do or a luxury or an add on. It is an essential
component of what every successful school provides to all students.
It is something every school should take pride in.

Modest Proposal: Strengthen high school

diplomas by requiring a half year credit in
guidance and counseling program of study
Course: Career Planning and College Readiness Counseling
Integrated into academic curriculum (e.g., language arts, math,
science, and technology)
Implemented through 4 program components of a comprehensive
program (Guidance Curriculum, Individual Planning, Responsive
Services, and Systems Support)
Involves teachers, administrators, counselors, parents, and related
school professionals
Delivered through strategies that we have good evidence can be
effective (e.g., small group advisories and career classes)
Tailored to the culture, context, and needs of each individual school
building and community
Addresses the needs of all students - e.g., 4-year college going,
career and technical education students, special needs students,
and adjudicated/incarcerated youth (All Means All!)

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

If students are not engaged in eective goal

setting and information oriented explorations,
then less likely to make good high school and
postsecondary choices
A) Part of our strengths-based curriculum and it really matters!
B) Moves school counseling from an ancillary support service to an
instructional program central to the success of each student in
every effective school
C) Helps students to discover a direction and a passion that leads to
the realization of their hopes, dreams, and the full utilization of
their talents

Richard T. Lapan, Ph.D.Center for School Counseling Outcome

ResearchSchool of EducationUniversity of Massachusetts
[email protected]
www.cscor.org

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

41

Plenary Session 1 Slides

Dr. V. Scott
Solberg, PhD

The Promise of Educational and Career

Guidance
Motivating At Risk Students to Aspire for their
Future
Main Points
ECG Developmental Model links SEL, Career and Workforce
Development
Courage is needed to address at-risk populations
Use scientifically validated capacity building strategies

Vision
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish
and you feed him for a lifetime.
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it
has a song.
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

Preparing Youth for Modern World of Work

High technology and speed of information
Rapid change in world of work
Rapid social change
Time and space altered through technology global interactions
Allows disembedding of identity from traditional expectations

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Core SEL
Skills

Relationship to Career
Development

Self Awareness

Self-perception; recognising strengths,

needs, values; self-efficacy

Social Awareness

Perspective taking; appreciating diversity; respect for others

Self Management

Impulse control and stress management; self-motivation and discipline;

goal setting and organizational skills

Relationship
Management

Communication; social engagement,

and building relationships; helping,
seeking, providing

Responsible
Decision Making

Problem identification and situation

analysis; problem solving; evaluation
and reflection; personal, moral, and
ethical responsibility

Optimal ECG Developmental Outcomes in

Relation to the SEL Framework

Engaging in planning and decision-making

Establishing a sense of purpose
Achieving agency or personal power
Identifying and allocating resources
Finding and using information
Effective use of technology and media
Understanding systems & complex relations

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 1 Slides

21st Century Worker

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Cluster Knowledge and Skills

Academic Foundations
Communications
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
Information Technology
Systems
Safety , Health and Environment
Leadership and Teamwork
Ethics and Legal Responsibilities
Employability and Career Development
Technical Skills

21st Century Skills

Academic skills
Civic literacy
Creativity
Communicate effectively
Collaborate well with others Flexibility and adaptability
Self-direction and productivity
Leadership and responsibility
Information, media and technology skills.
Financial literacy
Health literacy
Critical thinking and problem-solving

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 1 Slides

Resilience
Building Confidence
Establishing Stronger Relational Connections
Managing Academic Stress
Promoting Well-Being
Increasing Motivation

46

Four Rs

Definition

Relevance

Perceived relevance promotes school engagement

(Kenny et al., 2006)

Relationships

Students who feel connected to their teachers

and peers experience school as enjoyable and
meaningful

Rigor

Students who successfully master challenging

activities become confident learners, and confident learners learn more, work harder, and stay
in school

Resilience

(See next page)

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Resilience

School

Work

Parenthood

Self-Efficacy

Academic

Work

Parent

Motivation

Meaningful

Meaningful

Meaningful

Relational Bonds

Teachers
Peers

Bosses
Coworkers

Doctors
New Parents

Stress and Health

Academic

Work

Parenthood

Goal-Setting

School

Career

Life Goals

Family

Family

Family

Family

Connecting SEL, Career and Workforce

Development
Learning
Experiences

Career
Development

SEL Dev.
Experiences

Career
Search Efficacy

ECG Portal
Experiences

Workforce
Readiness
Adaptability

Proactivity

Other Career Dev.

Experiences

Decision-Making
Readiness

Resiliency

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 1 Slides

Creating Developmental Opportunities

Optimal Learning Experiences
Optimal Classroom Environment
Key Curriculum Ingredients
Example: Success Highways

Strategies for Improving Quality of Services and

Curriculum
Nine empirically support curriculum ingredients drawn from:
Social cognitive career theory
Self-determination theory
Meta-Analyses on Career Interventions

Key Curriculum Ingredients

Written exercises,
Individualized interpretations,
Information about the world of work,
Modeling exercises
Building effective support systems
Mastery Experiences
Encouraging, mentoring adults
Relational connections with peers
(Brown & Ryan Krane, 2000; Bandura, 1992; Deci & Ryan, 1985)

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Its Your Life. Login!

g

Who Am I?

Occupations

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 1 Slides

Work Readiness Skills

Guideposts for Success

Framework for designing comprehensive services that are
developmental and age appropriate
Target services for specific populations
Expand range of services

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

School Based Preparatory Experiences

Academic programs based on state standards;
Career and technical education based on
> professional and industry standards
> universal design
> work and community-based learning experiences;
Learning environments that are small, safe and provide extra
supports such as tutoring;
Support provided by highly qualified staff;
Access to an assessment system that includes multiple measures; and
Graduation standards that include options.

Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning

Career assessments to help identify students school and
post-school preferences and interests;
Structured exposure to postsecondary education and other life-long
learning opportunities;
Exposure to career opportunities that
> lead to living wages,
> includes information about educational requirements,
> includes information about entry requirements,
> describes income and benefits potential, and asset accumulation; and
Training designed to improve 21st Century job-seeking skills and
work-place basic skills

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 1 Slides

Youth Development/Leadership
Mentoring activities designed to establish strong relationships with
adults through formal and informal settings;
Peer-to-peer mentoring opportunities;
Exposure to role models in a variety of contexts;
Training in skills such as self-advocacy and conflict resolution;
Exposure to personal leadership and youth development activities,
including community service; and
Opportunities that allow youth to exercise leadership and build
self-esteem.

Connecting Activities
Mental and physical health services;
Transportation;
Tutoring;
Financial planning and management;
Structured arrangements in postsecondary institutions and adult
service agencies; and
Connection to other services and opportunities (e.g., recreation,
sports, faith-based oganizations).

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Family Involvement & Supports

High expectations that build upon the young persons:
strengths, interests, and needs and fosters their ability to achieve
independence and self-sufficiency;
Involvement in their lives and assisting them toward adulthood;
Access to information about employment, further education and
community resources;
Taken an active role in transition planning with schools and
community partners; and
Access to medical, professional, and peer support networks.

V. Scott Solberg, Ph. D., is Associate Director of Research and

Director of Wisconsin Careers, a unit within the Center on
Education and Work. He is also author of Success Highways, a
research based dropout prevention curriculum for at-risk youth.

www.cew.wisc.edu
[email protected]

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

Michael Goh,
Ph.D.
Associate Professor and
Director of Training

The Social and Cultural Context of

Education and Career Guidance in
Singapore

Counseling and Student

Personnel Psychology
Program Department of
Educational Psychology
College of Education and
Human Development
University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis
[email protected]

Objectives
Facilitate awareness and knowledge of social and cultural factors
that influence educational and career decisions in Singapore.
Facilitate an appreciation for how career development is

conceptualized in Singapore and by her multicultural constituents.
Facilitate a critical review of how ECG is delivered in Singapore
schools.

Influences on worldview

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

If vocational counseling was born from the changing

demographics and economic needs of this [20th] century,
then clearly career counseling will need to change in
response to the changing needs of the coming century.
Bingham & Ward, 1994, pp. 168

Outline
Cultural Context
Career Guidance
Considerations for the Future

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

Social-Cultural Theory of Occupational

Development
Peterson, N., & Cortz Gonzlez, R. (2005). The role of work in
peoples lives: Applied career counseling and vocational psychology
(2nd ed). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Brooks

Consequences of Culturally-Biased Assumptions in Career Counseling

Lisa Flores University of Missouri

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Core (Monocultural) Assumptions of Career

Counseling
Universal definitions of core constructs
Emphasis on individualism, autonomy, and independence
> Career is an expression of self
Affluence of clients
> People exercise volition when making career choices
> Threat of classism (Richardson, 1993; Blustein, 2001)
Structure of opportunity open to all
Centrality of work in life
Linear, progressive, and rational process of career development
Pedersen, 1987; Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnston, 1998

New Assumptions ofCareer Counseling

(Flores, 2006)
Career development (and career counseling practice) takes place
within a cultural context
Meanings of constructs will vary based on an individuals
worldview & life experiences

Motivations to work will differ across individuals

Variables to consider in career development may differ across
cultural groups (and within cultural groups)
Some students may encounter social barriers that may prevent
them from realizing their educational and career goals
Traditional theoretical models may not adequately explain the
career behavior of everyone

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

Multicultural Career Counseling Competencies

(Hargrove et al., 2003)
Career counselor awareness of own worldview toward
educational and career-related behaviors, as well as career
counseling interventions
> Your attitudes about work
> Meaning of work/career in your life
> Your definitions about success and failure

Career counselor awareness of students worldview toward

education, work- or career-related behaviors, and career
counseling interventions
> Past and current experiences with institutional systems
Public schools
Higher Education
Workplace
> Family members experiences in these settings
> Exposure to the world of work
> Attitudes about work, education
> Recognize within group differences

Culturally appropriate career counseling intervention strategies

> Conceptualize presenting issues within students cultural
context.
> Educating students about social barriers.
> Inviting extended family members to be involved in the process.

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Meta-Analysis Study Race/Ethnicity and Career

Variables(Fouad & Byars-Winston, 2005)
Included 16 studies (1991-2004) that examined racial/ethnic
group differences in career variables related to making an initial
career choice

> No differences in
career aspirations/choice
decision-making/exploration
> Differences in
perceptions of career opportunities
perceptions of career-related barriers

Factors Related to Educational Success

Structure and culture of educational system
> Access to opportunities
> Academic preparation
> Institutional climate
Individual/family variables
> Parents education
> Parents support
> Ethnic/racial identity; acculturation

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

Multicultural Career Counseling

Three Key Components
> Cultural context
> Students set culturally appropriate goals
> Counselors use culturally appropriate career counseling
techniques

Ecological systems map

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Appreciating Career Contexts

Bronfenbrenners (1979) Ecological Model

Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling

Techniques
Culturally sensitive career counseling models
> Culturally appropriate career counseling model (Fouad &
Bingham, 1995)

> Model of career assessment for women of color (Ward &

Bingham, 1993; Bingham & Ward, 1994)

> Integrative-Sequential Model (Leong & Hartung, 1997)

> Model of Career Intervention (Leung, 1995)
Common Factors: Counselor self-awareness; understanding
students culture and worldview; creating culturally appropriate
process and outcome goals

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

Flores, Spanierman & Obasi, 2002

Culturally Sensitive Career Development

Theories/Models (Flores, 2006)
Race/Gender Ecological approach to career development
(Cook, Heppner, & OBrien, 2002)
Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994)
Social Constructionist Approaches
> Lapan (2009)
> Solberg (2009)

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Turner, S. L., & Lapan, R. T. (2004). Promoting

career development and aspirations in schoolaged youth. In R. Lent, & S. Brown (Eds.)
Career development and counseling: Putting
theory and research to work. New York, NY:
Wiley and Sons.
Career Development Tasks
> Developing positive career related self-efficacy expectations and
attributional styles.
> Forming a vocational identity.
> Learning effective social, prosocial, and work readiness skills.
> Constructing a better understanding of ones self, the world or
work, and ones fit in the work world
> Crystallizing personally valued vocational interests.
> Empowering all students to achieve academically and becoming
self-regulated learners.

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

Culturally Sensitive Tools

Family Career Genogram
> Focus on educational patterns, career patterns
> Patterns for men/women across generations
Multicultural Career Counseling Checklist (Ward & Bingham, 1993)
> Counselor Preparation
> Exploration and Assessment
> Negotiation and Working Consensus

Career-in-Culture Interview
(Ponterotto, Rivera & Adachi Sueyoshi, 2000)

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Career-in-Culture Interview
Is there anything you would like to know about me and my role as
a career counselor?
What type of occupations were you aware of growing up?
Tell me a little about your work experiences (past and present).
Do you believe you can accomplish whatever goals you set for
yourself? Why or why not?
How has your family, both immediate and extended, influenced
your career goals.
How do your career goals match or conflict with your familys
expectations?
How would you describe your role/obligations in your
immediate and extended family?
Who are some of the people in your community and/or larger
society who have influenced your career goals and why?
What do you see as your greatest challenge to pursuing your
career goals?

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

SUMMARY: Career Counseling within Social

Cultural Contexts (Flores, 2006)
Be aware of your own, as well as students, culture, beliefs, and
expectations about education, work, and career counseling
Be aware of cultural influences but focus on students special
talents
Establish a strong working alliance
> Attend to issues that may arise in the counseling relationship
related to cultural differences between counselor and student
Identify students strengths and work from there
Be aware of social and political influences and their impact on
the career development and choices available to members of
diverse populations
Be aware of the perceived and real barriers that students may
experience to develop an understanding of how these issues may
relate to their career development.
> Work to eliminate structural barriers
> Help students to effectively deal with barriers

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Summary, Continued
Be aware that culturally effective career counseling may require
non-traditional interventions
Examine traditional practice interventions for their cultural
appropriateness and contextual awareness
> Adapt interventions to meet needs of students
> Be flexible and willing to try different approaches
Consult with experienced colleagues and others who might provide
insight
> Receive on-going feedback and assessment on personal cultural
competence
Encourage the students to return for additional assistance if they
experience obstacles after counseling has terminated
Review current literature
> Affirm the importance of empirical research to culturally
competent career counseling practice

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Plenary Session 2 Slides

Singapore-focused Counselling Publications

Khor, P. (1994). The occupational aspirations of Singaporean
students: Circumscription and compromise.
Lui, H. W. E. & Wong, S. S. (2006).Reflections on counseling :
Developing practice in schools. Singapore: Pearson/Prentice Hall
Tan, E. (2004). Counselling in Schools: Theories, Processes and
Techniques. Singapore: McGraw Hill.

Hermans, H.J.M., & Kempen, H.J.G. (1998).

Moving cultures: The perilous problems of
cultural dichotomies in a globalizing society.
American Psychologist, 53(10), 1111-1120.
Three developments:
cultural connections leading to hybridization,
the emergence of a heterogeneous global system, and
the increasing cultural complexity.

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Leong, F. T. L., (2002). Challenges for career

counseling in Asia: Variations in cultural
accommodation. Career Development Quarterly,
50, 277-284.
When transferring Western models to Asian countries. Leong
suggests:
> (a) identifying the cultural biases, cultural gaps, or cultural blind
spots in an existing theory that restricts the cultural validity of
the theory;
> (b) selecting current culturally specific concepts and models
from the target culture to fill in the cultural gaps and

accommodate the theory to racial and ethnic minorities; and
> (c) testing the culturally accommodated theory to determine
if it has incremental validity above and beyond the culturally
unaccommodated theory (p. 283).

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Acknowledgment

Organising Committee
Guidance Branch
Education Programmes Division
Ministry of Education, Singapore

Advisors
Ms Sum Chee Wah

Director Education Programmes

Ms Tan Hwee Pin

Deputy Director, Guidance

Mr Lau Khee Pheng

Assistant Director, Guidance

Mr Dennis Kom

Senior Guidance Specialist

ECG Committee
Mr Albert Tan Kay Lai

Guidance Specialist

Ms Esther Tan Chuan Loo

Guidance Specialist

Mr Lim Cheng Yong

Guidance Specialist

Ms Chesed Wong Ching Yi

Guidance Officer

Mr Kwek Si Yong Stanley

Guidance Officer

Ms Cho Miu Leng Beatrice

Guidance Officer

and all members of Guidance Branch

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The Organising Committee of the

Education and Career Conference
2009 wishes to express our heartfelt
appreciation to:
Our Guest-of-Honour
Mrs Tan Ching Yee
Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Education

Our Guest Speaker

Dr Beh Swan Gin
Managing Director,
Economic Development Board

The Committee also wishes to thank:

Anderson Junior College

Bedok Town Secondary School
Compassvale Secondary School
Gan Eng Seng Primary School
Hwa Chong Institute
Millenia Institute
St. Hildas Secondary School

Chairpersons, Emcees, Facilitators, Panelists, Presenters, Speakers

and all who have contributed in one way or another to make the
Education and Career Conference 2009 a success.

Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

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Notes & Reflections

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Notes & Reflections

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Education & Career Guidance Conference 2009

Guidance Branch
Education Programmes Division
Ministry of Education