The specificity of

Career Guidance in Arab states: some considerations

Amman, 15-16 December 2009

Ronald G. Sultana

55 country reviews since 2000

OECD: 14 countries

ETF: 11 EU candidate countries

ETF: 7 West Balkan countries

ETF: 10 MEDA countries

CEDEFOP: 27 EU + 2 EEA states

World Bank: 7 countries

DG Employment: 25 EU + 3 EEA states

Notions underpinning career guidance

individualism

you can do anything!

humanistic discourse: private good

Notions underpinning career guidance

individualism

you can do anything!

humanistic discourse: private good

human capital discourse: public good

matching skills

supply and

demand

Challenge: finding a balance

private good

choice

support

dreams

no limits

public good

direct

orient

realism

compromise

Often stressed in Career Guidance

in education settings

Often stressed in Career Guidance

in LabourMarket settings

p l a c e p l a c e

Career information

Career Education

Career

counseling

Employment counseling

Job placement

Valid, reliable, up-dated, transparent, timely: Labour market information; occupational profiles; education and training pathways…

Supports self-understanding; career assessment tools; individual or group counseling…

Immediate employment goals; job-getting; interview skills; APEL; personal action planning (PAP)…

In or/and across the curriculum; extra-curricular activities; school-to-work curriculum; work experience; entrepreneurship…

Registration of vacancies; networks with employers; role of universities and colleges; job tasting…

A culture-specific practice?

Choice:enabling or hostileenvironments?

Specificity of context

1.Economic and Labour Market issues

rural poverty public-sector employment informal sector moonlighting small and medium enterprises public employment services demographic trends migrant labour political restrictions

Specificity of context

2. Socio-cultural issues

family influences gender patronage directiveness fatalism

Specificity of context

3. Educational issues

selective, segmented systems massification of higher education low status of VET

What implications

for CG in Jordan?