Occupational orientation education (O.O.E.) in high schools: Problems and solutions

To overcome the aforementioned problems, the author of this paper has proposed some solutions including improving the management of OOE in high schools, building up a good team of OOE teaching and managing staff, innovating the contents and approaches of teaching OOE, and improving the school facilities for OOE by making good use of the school facilities and resources available at localities.
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Occupational orientation education (O.O.E.) in high schools: Problems and solutions JOURNAL OF SCIENCE OF HNUE 2011, Vol. 56, N◦ . 1, pp. 93-100 OCCUPATIONAL ORIENTATION EDUCATION (O.O.E.) IN HIGH SCHOOLS: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS Ho Van Thong Dong Thap Province’s Education and Training Department E-mail: hvthong.dongthap@moed.edu.vn Abstract. Occupational orientation education (OOE) for high school stu- dents is a real concern of society. Education Law (2005) and several other studies have shown the important role and the position of OOE in high school curriculums. However, the execution of OOE in high schools still faces different problems, such as time allocated for OOE, training of OOE teachers, contents of the subjects and teaching methods, awareness of OOE by students and teachers, school facilities for OOE, etc. To overcome the aforementioned problems, the author of this paper has proposed some solutions including (1) improving the management of OOE in high schools, (2) building up a good team of OOE teaching and managing staff, (3) innovating the contents and approaches of teaching OOE, and (4) improving the school facilities for OOE by making good use of the school facilities and resources available at localities. Keywords: O.O.E, occupational orientation1. Introduction Document of the Vietnam Communist Partys 9th Congress (2001) underscoredthe important role of Occupational Orientation Education (OOE): implementing thepolicy: learning is accompanied by practice, education goes with labour and produc-tion, school education must be close to social issues. It is necessary to highly valueO.O.E. and the streaming of high school students, preparing the teenagers for suit-able professions based on the change of economic structures of the whole country aswell as in each locality [1]. As for the Education Law (2005), OOE is a part of the comprehensive highschool education curricula. Actually, in the current curriculum of high school edu-cation, OOE is introduced from grades 9-12 with various topics for the purposes ofhelping students develop a good idea of and the right attitude toward professionsand labour; get a general understanding of assignments of work in society, the struc-ture of National Economy, the countrys economic growth, familiar with major and 93 Ho Van Thongfundamental jobs and sections, traditional professions of their localities; form anddevelop interest and occupational ability. Some recent studies show that schools have the greatest influence on poten-tial aspects and occupational orientation of high school students. The properties,abilities or core capacities of occupational potentials depend very much on OOE.OOE will help individuals realize the true values of occupations and find happi-ness when they heartedly dedicate all their spirit and strength to such professions.Therefore, OOE really needs the synchronous involvement of several social sections,not excluding the role of high schools.2. Content2.1. Contents of research2.1.1. Urgency of the research of OOE In reality, the launching of OOE programs in Vietnam still has several prob-lems. Some of the major ones are as follows. - The Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET) includes O.O.E.in high schools with extra activities. Before the 2008-2009 school-year, there were 27OOE lessons/ school year/ class [2]. When Document No. 7475/BGDT-GDTrH wasissued on the 15 of August, 2008 it was implemented, the number of OOE lessonsfell down to 9 lessons/ school year/ class [3]. With such limited time, it has beenimpossible to convey all the contents of the OOE book written by MOET. Also, ithas been very hard for students to do a variety of activities such as survey, infor-mation processing, information exchanging, problem solving, visiting to designatedplaces, etc. The teachers do not have the chance to arouse the students interest orinstruct them to search for necessary information for themselves in terms of occupa-tion and training institutions. Hence, it is impossible to help students to be activein choosing a suitable future occupation for themselves. - As for high schools, not enough attention has been paid to OOE activities. Asurvey shows that 100% of high schools dont have officials and teachers specializingin OOE (or Careers Advice Officers). For these reasons, when assigned to provideOOE training to students, the teachers do not only have the necessary knowledge ofOOE but they are also confused about both organization and teaching methods. Theweaknesses in OOE at high schools can also indicate tha ...