CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
In the past, ability tests were used in admitting students into University and professional schools, for instance the scholastic aptitude test, which measure, both aptitude and achievement, (the aptitude test measures accomplished skills & indicate what a person can do at present, while the achievements test predicts what a person can accomplished with training).But the essential requirements for any test include reliability, validity and uniform testing procedure. The test which measure general intelligence ability are often called “Career Test”.
Intelligence test are usually designed and implemented for a group of people to access the nature and course of mental development, intellectual and non-intellectual personality differences associated with age, sex & facial membership, differences that might be attributed to hereditary or to environmental factors, differences among persons at different occupational levels and among their children, intellectual and others traits of a typical group such as the mentally gifted, the mentally retorted, the neurotic and the psychotic.The topic Career Guidance information system is geared towards selecting careers for candidates who wish to further their education to Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
A critical look at the operations of the west African Examination council, the organization of (SSCE) show that a part of their examination comes as an objectives questions and the answers are expected to be shaded on a computer answer sheets and marked by the computer, where as the theory section of the examination, which of course carries the greatest mark, is to be marked by WAEC examiners, leaving much to be desired especially in the Nigerian context of it.Move so, in admitting students into higher schools differences attributed to hereditary or to environmental factors, differences among persons at different occupation levels and among their children; and facial membership may lead to bias, instead of admitting qualified students, unqualified students may also be admitted. The delay in the release of the SSCE and UME result causes anxiety on the student that participated in the examination.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The prime objectives of this topic “Career Guidance Information system is to enhance the and guide prospective JAMB students to choose their career in Universities, polytechnics and colleges of Education.
This system enables an individual to access the pre-requisites required to enroll into a particular course.
The project aims at an improved situation where the UME and SSCE examination will be matched to ascertain the who goes for what course.The use of the computer system to achieve this is our area of concentration.
1.4 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This work is designed for solely assisting candidates to select their career in high institutions visa vis their SSCE results.
1.5 THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this work is to outline the practical uses of the computer system in the area of Career Guidance.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Due to time constraint we were unable to extend our research to cover other subject.
1.7 DEFINITION OF FORMS
INTELLIGENCE: The power of learning, understanding seeing and knowing.
CHRONOLOGICAL AGE (CA): The actual age of a parent.
MENTAL AGE (MA): Is the person level of understanding measured is terms of the average age of children having the same standard.
FLOPPY DISKETTE: Is a this plastic located with an aperture that allows a rend /write head to access the diskette
VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT: Is the screen in form of (TV) Television component. Both input and output are displayed there.
INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT: Express the measure of mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA).
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Vocational Development and Career Counselling
Career development theories propose vocational models that include changes throughout the lifespan. Super’s model proposes a lifelong five-stage career development process. The stages are growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and disengagement. Throughout life, people have many roles that may differ in terms of importance and meaning. Gottfredson proposed a cognitive career decision-making process that develops through the lifespan. The initial stage of career development is hypothesized to be the development of self-image in childhood, as the range of possible roles narrows using criteria such as sex-type, social class, and prestige. During and after adolescence, people take abstract concepts into consideration, such as interests.Career counselling may include provision of occupational information, modelling skills, written exercises, and exploration of career goals and plans, Rahardja (2008).
Career counselling can also involve the use of personality or career interest assessments, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which is based on Carl Jung’s theory of psychological type, or the Strong Interest Inventory, which makes use of Holland’s theory. Assessments of skills, abilities, and values are also commonly assessed in career counselling.
2.2 Training and supervision
Counselling psychology includes the study and practice of counsellor training and supervision. As researchers, counselling psychologists may investigate what makes training and supervision effective. As practitioners, counselling psychologists may supervise and train a variety of clinicians. Counsellor training tends to occur in formal classes and training programs. Part of counsellor training may involve counselling clients under the supervision of a licensed clinician. Supervision can also occur between licensed clinicians, as a way to improve clinicians’ quality of work and competence with various types of counselling clients.
As the field of counselling psychology formed in the mid-20th century, initial training models included Human Relations Training by Carkuff, Interpersonal Process Recall by Kagan, and Micro counselling Skills by Ivey. Modern training models include Egan’s Skilled Helper model, and Hill’s three stage (exploration, insight, and action) model. A recent analysis of studies on counsellor training found that modelling, instruction, and feedback are common to most training models, and seem to have medium to large effects on trainees, Hill (2006).
Problems can arise in supervision and training. First, supervisors are liable for malpractice of their supervisee. Also, questions have arisen as far as a supervisor’s need for formal training to be a competent supervisor, Westefeld (2009). Recent research suggests that conflicting, multiple relationships can occur between supervisors and supervisees, such as that of evaluator, instructor, and clinical supervisor, Westefeld (2009). The occurrence of racial micro-aggressions against Black supervisees suggests potential problems with racial bias in supervision, Constantine (2007). In general, conflicts between a counsellor and his or her supervisor can arise when supervisors demonstrate disrespect, lack of support, and blaming (Ladany & Inman, 2008).
2.3 Counseling psychology
Counselling psychology is a psychological specialty that encompasses research and applied work in several broad domains: counselling process and outcome; supervision and training; career development and counselling; and prevention and health. Some unifying themes among counselling psychologists include a focus on assets and strengths, person–environment interactions, educational and career development, brief interactions, and a focus on intact personalities, Gelso (2001).
In the U.S., counselling psychology programs are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), while counselling programs are accredited through the Counsel for Accreditation of Counselling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). In all 50 states, counsellors can be licensed at the master‟s degree level, once meeting the state and national criteria. To become licensed as a counselling psychologist, one must meet the criteria for licensure as a psychologist (4-7 year doctoral degree post-bachelors, 1 year full-time internship, including 3,000 hours of supervised experience and exams). Both doctoral level counselling psychologists and doctoral level counsellors can perform applied work, as well as research and teaching.
Counselling psychology, like many modern psychology specialities, started as a result of World War II. During the war, the U.S. military had a strong need for vocational placement and training. In the 1940s and 1950s the Veterans Administration created a specialty called “counselling psychology,” and Division 17 (now known as the Society for Counselling Psychology) of the APA was formed, Heppner (2008). This fostered interest in counsellor training, and the creation of the first few counselling psychology PhD programs. The first counselling psychology PhD programs were at the University of Minnesota; Ohio State University, University of Maryland, College Park; University of Missouri; Teachers College, Columbia University; and University of Texas at Austin.
The relationship between a counsellor and client is the feelings and attitudes that a client and therapist have towards one another, and the manner in which those feelings and attitudes are expressed, Greenson (1967). The relationship may be thought of in three parts: transference/counter transference, working alliance, and the real- or personal-relationship, Greenson (1967).
2.4 Career Counseling
Counselling and career coaching are similar in nature to traditional counselling. However, the focus is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues. Typically when people come for career counselling they know exactly what they want to get out of the process, but are unsure about how it may work. In the UK, career counselling would usually be referred to as careers advice or guidance.
Career counselling is the process of helping the candidates to select a course of study that may help them to get into job or make them employable. A career counsellor helps candidates to get into a career that is suited to their aptitude, personality, interest and skills. So it is the process of making an effective correlation between the internal psychology of a candidate with the external factors of employability and courses.
Career counsellors work with people from various walks of life, such as adolescents seeking to explore career options, or experienced professionals contemplating a career change. Career counsellors typically have a background in vocational psychology or industrial/organizational psychology. The approach of career counselling varies, but will generally include the completion of one or more assessments.
One of the major challenges associated with career counselling is encouraging participants to engage with it. For example in the UK 70% of people under 14 say they have had no careers advice while 45% of people over 14 have had no or very poor/limited advice, Parcover (1998).
In a related issue some client groups tend to reject the interventions made by professional career counsellors preferring to rely on the advice of peers or superiors within their own profession. Jackson et al. found that 44% of doctors in training felt that senior members of their own profession were best placed to give careers advice, Galassi (1992). Furthermore it is recognised that the giving of career advice is something that is widely spread through a range of formal and informal roles. In addition to career counsellors it is also common for teachers, managers, trainers and Human Resources (HR) specialists to give formal support in career choices. Similarly it is also common for people to seek informal support from friends and family around their career choices and to bypass career professionals altogether. Today people rely on career web portals to seek advice on resume writing and handling interviews; as also to research on various professions and companies. It has even become possible to take vocational assessments online .Frank Parson’s Choosing a Vocation (1909) was perhaps the first major work which is concerned with careers guidance.
There are lots of career guidance and counselling centres all over the world. They give services of guidance and counselling on higher studies, possibilities, chances and nature of courses and institutes.
An objective form of career counselling is through an aptitude test, or a career test. Career testing is now usually done online and provides insightful and objective information about which jobs may be suitable for the test taker based on combination of their interests, values and skills. Career tests usually provide a list of recommended jobs that match the test takers attributes with those of people with similar personalities who enjoy/are successful at their jobs.
2.5 Factors affecting admission
Whether to admit an applicant to a course is entirely the decision of each individual university. They will base their decision on a variety of factors, but primarily the grades predicted or already received in school leaver examinations. As more and more applicants are attaining higher and higher grades in the A level examinations, most universities also use secondary admissions criteria. These may include results at GCSE or Standard grade examinations (or equivalent), the references provided on the application and the information provided on the personal statement. The personal statement can often be the deciding factor between two similar candidates so a small industry has sprung up offering false personal statements for a fee. UCAS uses “similarity detection” software to detect personal statements that have been written by third parties or and universities can reject applications for this reason.
The personal statements generally describe why the applicant wants to study the subject they have applied for, what makes them suitable to study that subject, what makes them suitable to study at degree level generally, any relevant work experience they have gained, their extracurricular activities and any other relevant factors. This is the only way admissions tutors can normally get an impression of what a candidate is really like and assess the applicant’s commitment to the subject.
In addition to the information provided on the UCAS form, some universities ask candidates to attend an interview. Oxford and Cambridge almost always interview applicants, unless, based on the UCAS form and/or admissions tests, they do not believe the applicant has any chance of admission. Other universities may choose to interview, though only in some subjects and on a much smaller scale, having already filtered out the majority of candidates. The interview gives the admissions tutors another chance to assess the candidate’s suitability for the course.
Universities are increasingly being put under pressure from central Government to admit people from a wider range of social backgrounds. Social background can only be assessed by the type of school attended, as no information about income or background is otherwise required on the UCAS form.
Another important determinant of whether an offer is to be made is the amount of competition for admission to that course. The more competitive the course, the less likely an offer will be made and, therefore, the stronger the application must be. Applicants for medicine are often expected to have undertaken extensive work experience in a relevant field in order to show their commitment to the course. For the most competitive courses, less than 10% of applications may result in admission, whereas at the less competitive universities, practically all applicants may receive an offer of admission.
2.6 Data and Information
