INTRODUCTION
Course Overview
Transcript
Development Focus: Adolescence
Traditionally, adolescence has been regarded as one stage with one crisis to resolve. Erikson identified the psychosocial crisis within this stage of development as identity versus identity confusion (1963, as cited in Newman & Newman, 2015). Based on their research, Newman and Newman (2015) propose two stages within adolescence. These two stages include early adolescence (12–18 years) and later adolescence (18–24 years). They also identify two separate crises—one for each period. Early adolescence is identified with the psychosocial crisis—group identity versus alienation. In later adolescence, the psychosocial crisis is individual identity versus identity confusion.
TOGGLE DRAWERREAD FULL INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVES
To successfully complete this learning unit, you will be expected to:
- Apply theories related to early and late adolescent development.
- Identify ways in which culture influences development.
- Describe approaches to career planning, appropriate for working adolescents.
Addressing Career Concerns in Adolescence
Resources
Reflecting on your readings, other articles you locate in the professional literature, your online research for career resources, and your exploration of the Capella Career Center, consider the types of career-planning information and resources you might draw from when exploring career-related issues with clients and students.
For this discussion, imagine that you are working with a 17-year-old adolescent and his family. They have come to see you because the teen is not attending school regularly and states that he intends to drop out because school is boring and he wants to start working and be treated like an adult. His parents state that they are willing to treat him like an adult if he prepares for his future appropriately and can demonstrate that he will be able to find a job he enjoys and earn enough income to support himself. He is not sure what kind of career path he would like to follow and would consider vocational training.
As the counselor, what knowledge about career and educational planning do you need to begin your work with this teen? How would you go about locating resources that would be helpful for the teen and his family? Include in your post at least two resources from the Capella Career Center and at least two online career resources that the teen could access to support his career and educational planning process.
Also, discuss in your post how you would move forward with the teen and his family to address any concerns that may arise about the teen’s success in finding an appropriate job or vocational training placement, as well as what type of follow-up and evaluation you would include about this issue in future counseling sessions.
DUE ON 6/15/16@5PM Eastern Standard Time
Readings
Adolescence
Use your Development Through Life text to read the following:
- Pages 347–379 of Chapter 9, “Early Adolescence (12 to 18 Years).” Note: This is the portion of the chapter most relevant to your work in this unit. The early part of the chapter (pages 327–346) are also interesting, but optional for this course.
- Chapter 10, “Later Adolescence (18 to 24 Years),” pages 381–424.
Career Counseling
Use the Capella library to read the following:
- Mekinda’s 2012 article, “Support for Career Development in Youth: Program Models and Evaluations,” from New Directions for Youth Development, issue 134, pages 45–54.
- Taylor’s 1997 article, “Workshop to Orient Students to Career Planning Services,” from The Career Development Quarterly, volume 45, issue 3, pages 293–296.
These articles focus on career program planning, organization, implementation, and evaluation. You will use these articles to complete the discussion in this unit, and as resources for your assignment in Unit 8.
Optional – Readings
You may choose to read the following:
- Davidson’s 2001 article, “The Computerization of Career Services: Critical Issues to Consider,” from Journal of Career Development, volume 27, issue 3, pages 217–228.
- Hirschi’s 2011 article, “Career-Choice Readiness in Adolescence: Developmental Trajectories and Individual Differences,” from Journal of Vocational Behavior, volume 79, issue 2, pages 340–348.
- McKinnon’s 2002 article, “Community Career Services—23 Years Outside the Box,” from Journal of Career Development, volume 28, issue 3, pages 159–168.
- Nevo and Wiseman’s 2002 article, “Incorporating Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Principles into Career Counseling: A Theoretical and Practical Approach,” from the Journal of Career Development, volume 28, issue 4, pages 227–245.
- Niles’s 2011 article, “Career Flow: A Hope-Centered Model of Career Development,” from Journal of Employment Counseling, volume 48, issue 4, pages 173–175.
- Pope’s 2011 article, “The Career Counseling With Underserved Populations Model,” from Journal of Employment Counseling, volume 48, issue 4, pages 153–155.
- Thomas and Gibbons’s 2009 article, “Narrative Theory: A Career Counseling Approach for Adolescents of Divorce,” from Professional School Counseling, volume 12, issue 3, pages 223–229.
Welcome to the Career Center to learn more about the resources and tools available for your career development. You will use this information in the discussion in this unit.
Although it is not required for this course, you may also find it useful to complete the Career Planning Self-Assessment and explore the Practica, Internships and Field Experiences section.
ARTICLE FOR DISCUSSION
This overview of four program models demonstrates the diversity within career programming and highlights important considerations for the continuing development and implementation of initiatives for youth. 4 Support for career development in youth: Program models and evaluations Megan A. Mekinda career programming takes many forms. It can include any combination of career exploration, skill development, and counseling. It can take place in schools, workplaces, or community centers. It can be intensive and the explicit focus of an initiative or casual and a single component of a more comprehensive program. And it can target individuals of any age, ability, or aspiration. In this article, I present four examples of career programming for youth. The programs—Citizen Schools, After School Matters, career academies, and Job Corps—were selected to demonstrate the diversity among approaches. However, all are exemplary in that they employ a number of theory-driven and evidence-based practices, many of which inform broader education reform initiatives. These include opportunities for project-based or experiential learning; the integration of academic, social, and technical skills; the creation of networks of supportive adults and peers; and partnerships among new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd 46 CAREER PROGRAMMING institutions, easing the burden on schools to prepare youth for an increasingly competitive and ever-changing job market. Importantly, the programs predominantly serve low-income and minority youth, mainly from urban areas, who often have quite limited access to supports for career development. The effectiveness of these programs has implications for the continued development and implementation of career programming initiatives for youth. Therefore, I draw from evaluation research to examine the programs’ impact on outcomes related to career development. Each program has been the subject of a largescale external evaluation. Three (After School Matters, Career Academies, and Job Corps) have undergone an experimental trial in which researchers randomly assigned interested youth to the program (treatment) or business as usual (control) and assessed differences in their outcomes. This design is the gold standard in evaluation research because it effectively eliminates the possibility that the observed effects refl ect preexisting differences between program participants and nonparticipants rather than the impact of the program itself. Despite their benefi ts, experimental trials are notoriously diffi cult to implement and consequently quite rare. Therefore, the programs presented in this chapter are unusual in terms of the rigor of their evaluations. I conclude the chapter with three key lessons derived from these models that have implications for career development initiatives more generally. Citizen Schools Citizen Schools is an expanded learning time initiative for lowincome youth in grades 6 through 8. Founded in Boston in 1995, the program has since expanded to eighteen cities across seven states and serves approximately forty-fi ve hundred youth every year. Participants meet ten weeks a semester, four days a week, three hours a day. With its focus on middle schoolers, Citizen Schools is clearly not designed to prepare youth for immediate entry to the SUPPORT FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN YOUTH 47 new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd workforce. Rather, the program is weighted heavily toward support for academic achievement, with the goal of enrolling students into top-tier high schools along the pathway to college and eventually careers. Accordingly, each session includes structured homework and study time supervised by program staff. Explicit attention to career development comes in the form of apprenticeships offered one day a week. Apprenticeship instructors are volunteers from the community—professionals, businesspeople, and others— who lead students in hands-on activities related to their area of expertise, from fi ne arts and architecture to fi nance, science, and technology. Youth are exposed to possible career fi elds and adult mentors while practicing problem solving, collaboration, and other key skills. Apprenticeships culminate in a public performance or demonstration in which students showcase their work. A series of college-to-career connection activities (for example, campus visits) are designed to help youth grasp the relationship of their academic performance, college, and careers so they can make informed choices at all points along the pathway. Policy Studies Associates recently completed a longitudinal evaluation of Citizen Schools in Boston, tracking alumni of the 8th Grade Academy, the capstone program to support students’ transition to high school.1 The study was quasi-experimental: instead of randomly assigning youth to treatment, the researchers compared Citizen Schools participants to nonparticipants matched according to selected characteristics such as gender and academic ability. Thus, findings should be regarded cautiously since they might refl ect unobserved differences between participants and nonparticipants (for example, regarding motivation). However, the consistency and strength of the results are promising in terms of the program’s support for school engagement, academic performance, and progress toward graduation. Citizen Schools alumni were significantly more likely to enroll and persist in top-tier high schools, they had higher high school attendance rates, and they demonstrated gains in math and English language arts performance. Alumni were also signifi cantly more likely than program nonparticipants to graduate from high school on time. Although new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd 48 CAREER PROGRAMMING the evaluation did not include any measures specific to career development, such as career plans or nonacademic skills, fi ndings suggest that the Citizen Schools model helps students attain key educational milestones along the pathway to college and careers. After School Matters After School Matters (ASM) in Chicago is widely considered the fl agship program for high school youth and is perhaps the largest single-city after-school program for this age group in the country. Founded in 2000, ASM serves the city’s public school students, the vast majority of whom are low income and minority. It currently offers more than fi fty-fi ve hundred apprenticeship opportunities each semester in forty-fi ve high schools. Like Citizen Schools, ASM engages youth in apprenticeships led by professionals from the community with expertise in a broad range of occupations and career fi elds. Unlike Citizen Schools, programming hours are dedicated entirely to apprenticeship activities, with virtually no explicit focus on academic achievement. The program prioritizes the development of marketable job skills, both hard skills specifi c to a trade as well as soft skills (like teamwork) that generalize across work environments. The ASM model is meant to simulate characteristics of the professional workplace, for example, through the creation of a product or performance to be consumed by others, the imposition of deadlines, and the award of a stipend for participation. However, most programs are based in schools, which means students have limited access to actual work environments. Furthermore, many apprenticeships focus on the fi ne and performing arts, occupations not well aligned with industry demands, as is more the case with career academies and Job Corps. However, the intensity and duration of ASM (three hours a day, three days a week, ten weeks a semester) create opportunities for youth to form meaningful, and ideally, mentor-like relationships with adults who can provide advice and guidance for careers and life. Students’ prolonged engagement in project-based SUPPORT FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN YOUTH 49 new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd and experiential learning also creates opportunities for skill development. To date, the most rigorous assessment of After School Matters is the experimental evaluation by Hirsch and colleagues.2 Using a sample of thirteen of the program’s strongest apprenticeships, the study examined differences between treatment and control youth on measures of marketable job skills and positive youth development, ASM’s priority outcomes, as well as indicators of academic achievement and problem behavior. (See Alexander and Hirsch, this issue, for details of the mock job interview, the evaluation’s measure of marketable job skills, and related fi ndings.) Findings revealed signifi cant and favorable program effects for only two outcomes: self-regulation, a component of positive youth development that refl ects one’s ability to manage attention and emotion, and problem behavior, particularly gang activity and selling drugs. The authors interpret the fi ndings as modest but promising, particularly since nearly all control youth were involved in alternative after-school activities, raising the bar for ASM. Furthermore, the program is fairly young and committed to the continued improvement of its model. The null fi ndings with regard to marketable job skills and academic achievement suggest that more progress is necessary to support these key components of career development. Career academies Whereas Citizen Schools and ASM capitalize on out-of-school time, career academies represent an in-school initiative to prepare youth for college and careers. Participants enroll from two to four years during high school, earning credit toward graduation. The fi rst academy opened in Philadelphia in 1969, and today more than twenty-fi ve hundred exist nationwide. Although there is some variation among individual academies, the recognized model has three features: (1) a school-within-a-school organization, or small learning community; (2) the integration of occupational and academic curricula, usually college preparatory; and (3) partnerships with new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd 50 CAREER PROGRAMMING local employers who provide a range of support, including curriculum advising, sponsorship of work-based learning opportunities such as job shadowing and internships, and student mentoring. Today’s career academies should be distinguished from more traditional approaches to vocational education. Academies target students from a broad range of academic abilities, not just those at risk of dropping out of high school, and engage them in both vocational and academic training. Fields include technology, fi nance, and health care, which have a high demand for skilled workers and often require some form of postsecondary education. Indeed, many students have college aspirations, and academies can help to facilitate this by providing opportunities to earn scholarship money or developing articulated curricula with local colleges. The largest and most rigorous evaluation of career academies was completed by Kemple and colleagues from MDRC.3 They employed an experimental design to study the effects of nine academies across the nation, tracking outcomes for eight years after the youth’s scheduled high school graduation. Findings indicate positive effects of career academies on participants’ experiences during high school, including greater interpersonal support and participation in career awareness and work-based learning activities. Although impacts on academic achievement were weak for the sample as a whole, youth at high risk of school failure experienced signifi cant gains: they had lower high school dropout rates and higher attendance and were more likely to be on track to graduate. Academies did not have a signifi cant impact on students’ standardized test scores, high school graduation rates, enrollment in postsecondary education, or employment immediately after high school. However, there were long-term impacts: academy participants experienced signifi cant earnings gains eight years after their scheduled high school graduation. Benefits were particularly strong for young men, who reported higher wages, more hours worked, and greater employment stability, resulting in an earnings gain of 17 percent. The researchers conclude that career academies, when fully implemented, contribute positively to labor force preparation and school-to-work transitions. SUPPORT FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN YOUTH 51 new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd Job Corps Founded in 1964, Job Corps is a program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to promote economic selfsufficiency, employability, and responsibility among youth. To qualify, participants must be low income, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, and a legal U.S. resident. Job Corps serves sixty thousand new participants each year across forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, making it the largest education and vocational training program for disadvantaged youth in the country. Of the programs considered in this article, Job Corps is also the most intensive and comprehensive. It offers classroom-based academic training for credit toward a high school diploma or General Educational Development (GED) credential; hands-on and workbased vocational training for credit toward vocational certifi cations; and a range of additional services, including meals, basic health care, counseling, and recreation. Services are concentrated in Job Corps centers (there are 125 nationwide) in areas where the majority of participants also live. The program is individualized and self-paced, so participants can take advantage of services according to their need. The duration of enrollment varies by individual and averages eight months. In addition to enrolling young adults, Job Corps is the only program of the four examined here that caters specifi cally to youth who are disengaged from school, the majority of whom are high school dropouts. Consequently, it is more focused on preparing participants for immediate entry to the workforce. The program provides job placement services for up to six months after youth exit the program. In the mid-1990s, the DOL sponsored a nationally representative, experimental evaluation of Job Corps carried out by Mathematica Policy Research.4 The study compared the educational attainment, employment and earnings, and nonlabor market outcomes, such as crime and receiving welfare benefits, of youth assigned to Job Corps to control youth outcomes. Job Corps new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd 52 CAREER PROGRAMMING participants completed signifi cantly more hours of education and training and were more likely to attain a GED or vocational certifi cate than were control youth. Job Corps youth also experienced a signifi cant earnings boost within four years of being assigned to the program, refl ecting higher wages and employment rates. These fi ndings indicate valuable educational and employment benefi ts of Job Corps, which held across subpopulations of youth.5 However, a nine-year follow-up report reveals that the employment and earnings gains lasted beyond the fourth year only for the oldest participants. Lessons from program models and evaluations Citizen Schools, After School Matters, career academies, and Job Corps are four unique approaches to career programming that illustrate a range of possibilities for support for youth. In this fi nal section, I highlight three key lessons derived from these models that have implications for career development initiatives more generally. First, career programming can and should be designed for youth across a broad age range. Career development is an ongoing process that begins in childhood and lasts through adolescence and well into adulthood. These models demonstrate how programs might engage youth and address their needs at various stages along the pathway from school to careers. Programs for younger participants, like Citizen Schools, can introduce youth to a broad range of skills and careers, encouraging them to experiment and explore and start their planning early enough to make strategic choices regarding major milestones, including, in some districts, their choice of high school. As youth transition into high school, opportunities for exploration and skill building can be continued through programs like ASM and intensifi ed through formal curricula and work-based learning opportunities in the career academies. Programs at this stage serve youth well by making explicit the relationship between developing career SUPPORT FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN YOUTH 53 new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd ambitions and the respective educational and training requirements. Assistance with the search and application processes for college and jobs is also critical for older youth, although this was not a noted component of either ASM or the career academies included in the evaluations. Later interventions are also valuable. Programs such as Job Corps can reengage at-risk youth in academic and occupational training and help them get back on the career path. Given its emphasis on older youth, Job Corps appropriately stresses industry-specifi c hard skills in addition to generalizable soft skills, and it also focuses on placement in an appropriate job or postsecondary education program. The second important lesson is that career programming does not have to come at the expense of academic training or preparation for college. Indeed, Citizen Schools, career academies, and Job Corps demonstrate the feasibility of providing both academic and occupational instruction. Career academies are perhaps the strongest example. The model dictates that students’ vocational course work be integrated with a rigorous academic curriculum, usually college preparatory. As the work of Kemple and colleagues demonstrates, the academies yielded signifi cant long-term employment gains without compromising participation in postsecondary education.6 Academy youth enrolled in and completed postsecondary education programs at rates similar to nonacademy youth in the study and at rates higher than youth nationwide with similar demographic characteristics. These findings have special value within the current policy climate, where the dominant “collegefor-all” mentality overshadows efforts to promote key nonacademic skills and competencies. Finally, although each program had positive effects on participants, fi ndings from the evaluation literature are a reminder of the importance of program quality in producing specifi c results. Weak or null outcomes could often be explained by evaluators’ observations of weaknesses in the design or implementation of the programs. For example, the failure of ASM to contribute to marketable job skills, one of the program’s main priorities, can be new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd 54 CAREER PROGRAMMING linked to instructors’ lack of explicit attention to such skills in their interactions with youth.7 As a second example, Schochet and colleagues attributed the short-lived labor market impacts of Job Corps in part to inadequate job placement services after youth completed their training.8 As these and similar programs expand and develop, program providers must devote continued efforts to identifying and supporting the components related most directly to desired outcomes. In this way, more youth will have access to high-quality, effective programs to facilitate their career readiness. Notes 1. Arcaira, E., Vile, J. D., & Reisner, E. R. (2010). Citizen Schools: Achieving high school graduation: Citizen Schools’ youth outcomes in Boston. Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates. 2. Hirsch, B. J., Hedges, L. V., Stawicki, J., & Mekinda, M. A. (2011). Afterschool programs for high school students: A random assignment evaluation of After
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