Career Guidance Fact Sheet

Informed and considered career decisions result in improved matches between people and their work.
This results in

• improved utilization of education and training resources
• By 2006, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that there will be 44.4 million students in grades 1-12. With over $6,000 spent per student in public education, K-12 education is a $259 trillion-dollar industry.
• higher levels of worker satisfaction
• preferred patterns of employment stability and mobility
• increased income and benefits

Seventy percent (70%) of employed Americans today say they would seek more and better information before entering a career. 1

• In the National Career Development Association’s (Hoyt and Lester, 1995) survey of adult workers, more than five times as people indicated they entered the workforce by chance than by choice.

Seventy-eight percent (78%) of all students plan their career with either one or both parents’ input. 2

When asked who in high school had been most helpful in advising on career options, 51 percent (51%) said ‘no one’; 24.8 percent (24.8%) said a teacher, and 21.1 percent (21.1%) said a counselor. 2

Increasing the amount of time students spend talking with counselors and teachers about students’ plans increases their achievement in math, science, and reading. 3

Students who have an awareness of career relatedness of education are more likely to engage and achieve in school. 4

• The Indiana Career and Postsecondary Advancement Center (2002) found that having a career plan by the beginning of the high school junior year is associated with better grades, participation in more academically rigorous curricula, and a greater likelihood of expecting to complete four or more years of postsecondary education.
• Latino students who have completed a career plan are twice as likely to expect to complete four or more years of college as Latino students without a career plan.

 

---

1 Hoyt, K. and Lester, J (1995) Learning to Work: The NCDA Gallup survey,. Alexandria, VA. National Career Development Association
2 Kister Consulting study, source: Ferris State University
3 Kaufman, P., Bradley, D., and Teitelbaum, P. (2000) High Schools That Work and Whole School Reforms: Raising Academic Achievement of Vocational Completers Through the Reform of School Practice. Berkeley, CA: University of California at Berkeley, National Center for Research in Vocation Education
4 Blustein, D (2002) The Relationship Between Career Development and Educational Development: A Selected Review of the Literature. Boston College