The professional success of graduates is the best advertisement for an educational institution. However, it can be difficult for young people to identify their own strengths, draw up a mind map, and accept critical feedback at their first job. In order to prepare students for their carrier life, Chortkiv Higher Vocational School established a Career Centre almost 4 years ago.
Career counselling has been most effective since the EdUP training. Moreover, the VET school has included this priority in its business plan, which is already being implemented.
Svitlana Vizniuk, Deputy Director for Education at Chortkiv Vocational School, tells us about career counselling and how strategic objectives are implemented.
About the Career Centre
The school established the Career Centre back in 2019. At that time, there was no variety of methodological materials or training on how such a centre should work. Therefore, the content of career counselling often depended on how a particular teacher saw the process. After the training “Preparing Young People for Successful Careers” organised by the EdUP project last year, the school changed its attitude to career counselling.
“We used to go to schools and tell high school students about professions that can only be obtained at our school. After the EdUP training, we realised that we had a slightly different approach to career guidance. Now, when we work with teenagers, we talk about their own talents, strengths and weaknesses, and choosing a career that will bring not only money but also pleasure. We don't focus on the fact that they have to go to our school. If a teenager is interested in the professions we teach, then we provide more detailed information about admission,” says Svitlana.
Approaches to career counselling for students have also changed. Previously, they work started only in their third year. After the training, we realised that we should start with the first-year students, showing them the connection between their current actions and future success. For example, the students were given the task of calculating the cost of their work after mastering a certain skill or outlining step-by-step the actions required to obtain the desired income or result.
At the same time, we started collecting feedback from parents through Google forms and in writing. It turned out that in this way, parents are more willing to share their suggestions, and the institution responds to them immediately. For example, even a single mirror in the locker room can go a long way in building relationships.
On working with first-year students
“The first training session we run for newcomers is called 'My Successful Future'. We talk about how the guys and girls see themselves in 3, 5, 10 years. Most of them think in material terms: they want a car, an apartment or a house. And this is normal for a young person. Our task is to show the connection between a good income and professional accomplishment. This motivates them to study, to learn the profession with more interest,” explains the deputy.
Next, teachers work with the personal traits of each student. They teach them to praise themselves and believe in their own strength. In addition, much attention is paid to the establishment of good habits. Students are given homework such as analysing their own habits, thinking about what bad habits they are willing to give up and why.
Where do you get inspiration from?
“We invite graduates and analyse the success stories of well-known professionals. I cannot say that the positive result depends only on the Career Centre. Masters and teachers, administration, parents, employers... everyone has their own sphere of influence. It will soon be a year since we changed our approach to career counselling. I plan to conduct an assessment and see the difference with previous surveys. Then it will become clear whether we are moving in the right direction,” says Svitlana Vizniuk.
About designing a business plan
In the course of the business planning training, the staff of Chortkiv VET School set the following strategic goal: to create an educational environment focused on training a qualified, competitive graduate who is able to successfully master new professional competencies and respond flexibly to labour market needs.
“During my studies, colleagues from other schools criticised our goal, saying that high-quality training of students was our default task. However, our idea is not just to provide theoretical knowledge and measure it by the fact that a student can reproduce certain skills. We are talking about mobility, adaptability, openness to new things, and a willingness to continuously learn,” Svitlana emphasised.
Business planning has made it possible to identify the direction the school should take.
“Every year, we make a snapshot of the needs of employers in the Ternopil region and study the data from the Employment Centre. When we were working on the business plan, we realised that only our VET school and yet another school in Ternopil train plumbers for the whole region, although the profession is in high demand. We started thinking about courses for adults. After analysing who trains whom, we realised that we wanted to get a licence to train car mechanics and car electrical equipment diagnosticians. No other educational institution in the region trains these workers,” said Svitlana Viznyuk.
The trainers provided a lot of information on business planning tools, prioritisation, and action plans. The participating institutions conducted SWOT analyses and talked about their strengths and weaknesses.
“We were proud to note that our school was included in the list of educational institutions that are planning to create a centre of professional excellence. It was even more interesting to work with our weaknesses and recognise where we have gaps,” Svitlana comments.
The school has already started implementing their business plan. The first step was to develop an internal quality assurance system: they developed documentation and published it. The next step is self-diagnosis. We also started to introduce elements of STEM education. They plan to start working on the business plan more actively in 2024.
What are the prospects?
The Chortkiv School really appreciates the trainings and masterclasses that EdUP organises for masters and teachers. Such events allow them to track plumbing trends, communicate directly with manufacturers, and tell students about modern technologies.
At the same time, they look forward to further training for school managers.
“In our work, there is a very high risk of getting stuck in current tasks. It is sometimes difficult to find time for things like effective management and strategy. Learning from the project allows us to structure everything, to carry out the same research that we would not otherwise have had the time to do. Thanks to the strategic sessions, we see new opportunities for development,” deputy director explained.
Among her wishes for the project, Svitlana mentions more attention to students studying to become installers of sanitary systems and equipment.
“It would be great if the trainings that are held for the masters were also held for the students. This is an opportunity to communicate with real employers, learn about new products on the market, and see what you can achieve if you become a real pro. For teenagers, such impressions are very important and sometimes life-changing,” said Svitlana.
The Public-Private Partnership to Improved Plumbing Education (EdUP) is a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, in partnership with Geberit Trading LLC, implemented by Swisscontact Foundation for Technical Cooperation and supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.