In school and out-of-school placement means that pupils and those who assist them must understand their interests, abilities and plans. Placement services must have knowledge of opportunities that suit them and should relate them with students ‘perceptions of themselves and to their projected life goals.
In school placement means helping students select an appropriate curriculum, the subjects within the curriculum. co-curricular activities, special classes. In Pakistan, students of 9th class make transition from a single prescribed curriculum to the one with elective subjects. They choose from more than one subject. This is extremely important as these decisions shape their career plans to a large extent. In-school placement helps pupils to select the subject which is suited to their abilities and career plans. If not placed properly, students may select those subjects which are not appropriate for them but their over-ambitious parents wish and select for them.
Out-of-school placement includes helping youth to have part-time employment, full-time employment when their school education finishes. In the U.S.A. there is the United States Employment Service. Many communities also provide information about the labor market. Riccio and Quaranta (1968) have designed a guidance program for a school. According to the placement services are to:
- assist the student in making applications to institutions of higher learning or other programs for post-high school education or training.
- assist the student in securing employment that will be satisfactory to him.
- assist the student in securing summer or part-time employment when desired. ” Counsellor can develop positive, specific behavioral strategies for the desired end.
Here a relevant question arises as to what is the role of the counselor in placement?
His primary role as mentioned earlier is to help his client understand himself, identify his salable skills, define vocational goals, examine the relevance of specific jobs for their vocational goals.
Follow-up is an extension of placement service. Placement and follow-up are inseparably linked with carver guidance. Follow-up is the procedure that determines whether individuals are adjusting and developing in their jobs or not.
The student is assisted to understand what is required in the situation and to evaluate personal development within the situation with regard to short and long-range objectives. Problems of placement and follow-up services are founded in the complexity of their nature. Behavior in any situation is a function of the transactional relationship between individual and environment. The student is a blend of various systems such as systems of drives. an internalized system of rewards and punishment, and a system of adaptive mechanism (Shertzer and Stone, 1976) .
Problems may be in student development activities, job development activities. Maintenance-operational activities which fall under the umbrella of career planning, Placement services depend upon the availability of labour market information. Job description and opportunities, job preparation opportunities for schools, cooperation between school and industry and business, and follow-up activities. All these activities need financial and professional support and resources. The absence of all or any of these components becomes a problem for the placement services.
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