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We talk about the importance of career guidance in school

It will become easier for Russian schoolchildren to decide on a future career, because starting from this academic year the country has introduced a career guidance minimum. In order to identify your strengths, learn about in-demand specialists, and even try on a profession, you no longer need to look for special courses or follow the “trial and error” method. Children will be told about all current trends and vacancies right at school!

Starting this September, all students in grades 6–11 began attending career guidance classes. The professional minimum is a single universal set of career guidance practices and tools for conducting career guidance activities.

According to open surveys of Russians conducted by MK, 78% of children and parents consider it extremely important that schools now offer additional vocational education, perhaps even with employment. Yes, yes, now there is such an option, because the school itself chooses which level of the Professional Minimum it should choose: basic, basic and advanced. The first includes lesson activities – this is when, during, for example, mathematics, children are told in what profession it will be useful, where they can then apply the knowledge gained in the lesson. For this purpose, lessons “Russia – my horizons” are held. And in schools that implement the basic or advanced level of the Professional Minimum, children can, with the help of a mentor, try to immerse themselves in a real profession. They will go on excursions to regional factories, universities and colleges, and take part in professional tests and profession fairs. They will also learn new things at master classes, in clubs and sections, and will be able to gain in-depth knowledge in the subject that they will need to build a career. And 86% of Russians believe that excursions to enterprises as part of educational work are extremely useful.

Classes “Russia – my horizons” are “class hours” on Thursdays, taught by a “teacher-navigator”. These include reviews, an introduction to the specialty, and testing on the “Ticket to the Future” platform, in which, very importantly, parents of schoolchildren also take part. The practical part, master classes and the “Laboratory of the Future” are not just excursions, stories and demonstrations at factories, studios, firms and factories. And, one might say, direct communication with the future employer. Schools enter into agreements with educational and production complexes (TPC) at enterprises, if they exist there, or with specialized educational organizations at the level of higher and secondary education, directly with companies.

“The children need to logically imagine their path, and at each point the child must understand what is happening to him now. It is necessary to rely on the formation of schoolchildren’s knowledge about the world of professions around them, about themselves, what they are interested in and where they would like to go, about skills. And the most important thing that can help children get their bearings is the opportunity to try different professions in practice, find out their content, look inside what specialists are faced with, in order to avoid a painful clash of “expectation-reality” in the future,” she answered the question: “ Will this help contribute to students’ early professional self-determination?” – Deputy Managing Director for Operations and Partnerships of the Fund for Humanitarian Projects Liliya Ziborova.

This academic year, about 22 thousand schools implement the basic level of the Professional Minimum, more than 13.5 thousand – basic and more than 2.5 thousand – advanced. The events covered about 7.6 million children. More than 2,700 enterprises have successfully connected to a unified career guidance model. These include both corporations and regional companies. Their base will host excursions, master classes, days without turnstiles, as well as professional tests. In 80 regions where the advanced level of the Professional Minimum is being implemented, about 163 thousand students will begin mastering vocational training programs in blue-collar professions and office positions.

Photo: Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation