Dedicated careers advice for students welcome

26 July 2016

Dedicated careers advice for students welcome

Dedicated careers guidance for all secondary school students would have a big impact on New Zealand’s future, says PPTA president Angela Roberts.

The association welcomes plans by the Labour Party to ensure all high schools have access to professional careers advisory staff, Roberts said.

“PPTA has called for targeted staffing allowances for careers advisors in the past and it looks like that is what Labour is offering with this policy.”

It was important to have a careers advisor who was a trained teacher with the experience and skills to work with young adults, she said.

“What is important is that these people are able to have the tools to be able to tailor the right opportunity to the right student at the right time. It’s not a shortage of information – it’s about people who can recognise the needs of the students and link them up with the information they need,” she said.

Roberts appreciated that the advice would be available for all students rather than targeted only at those who were at risk.

“The changing world of work and the experiences students face once they have completed school is a challenge for everybody.”

The professional development for careers advisors in this package was something PPTA has been calling for a long while, she said.

“Access to personalised advice rather than just generic information is what’s really good about this. It’s not just a website where students go and look at what careers earn the most.

“It’s training people who are good at working with students to give them guidance that links to their needs,” she said.

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