The Need for Comprehensive Guidance Programs

If students are truly to prosper in Tech Prep and School-to-Work programs, it is essential that they receive a comprehensive guidance experience before they begin. After all, they are being asked to make significant, sophisticated choices at an earlier age than ever before. This comes at a time when guidance counselors have less time to spend with individual students, and parents are often less accessible. Many of today's new programs may fail because of student immaturity or lack of exposure to the real world.

The best guidance curriculums are integrated into the classroom where they can achieve several important goals by helping students:

• Recognize the value of education. When students understand what staying in school means to their future happiness, they are much more likely to devote focused energy to their education. Comprehensive guidance is an important marketing strategy for Tech Prep and School-to-Work programs.

• Become identity-achieved and build self-esteem and character. Young people with high self-esteem are more likely to persevere in the rigorous academic and vocational settings required today. Therefore, a comprehensive guidance program will increase retention in School-to-Work programs.

• Learn a life and career planning process that can be used throughout their lifetime. In our complex, ever-changing world, this empowers students and helps them expand their goals as they move through school and into their careers.

• View academic subjects in a new light. When integrating guidance into the core curriculum, reading, writing, and computation assignments center around self-discovery themes and create motivated learners. A guidance curriculum can enhance rather than displace existing disciplines.