Vocational Guidance and School Guidance Counsellors: The Pressing Challenges

Abstract

Vocational guidance is an important factor in career decision making. Its primary goal is to provide students with vocational information and make them to have adequate knowledge and understanding about their abilities, limitations, aptitude and personality traits that can be directed towards a particular career so as to enjoy job satisfaction. However, the school can only provide adequate vocational guidance to students when there is resident professional Guidance Counsellor with well – Equipped functioning Guidance and Counselling unit. Unfortunately most secondary and primary schools in Nigeria are without resident Guidance Counsellors, there is no provision for well-equipped Guidance and Counselling office. Academic staff with Guidance and Counselling qualification most times are used as Class- Room Teachers, instead of allowing them to practice their counselling profession. It is indeed a pathetic situation. Thus in view of this context, this paper x-ray the concept of vocational guidance, importance of vocational guidance in the school system and the pressing challenges. Among others, the paper recommended that, The Federal and State Government should ensure that, all primary and secondary schools have a resident professional Guidance Counsellors, Guidance Counsellors in schools should not be used as class-room teachers rather they should allow them to practice their Counselling Profession.

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