Cognitive and Affective Benefits of a Career Development Course

The school counselor has usually assumed the responsibility for promoting career development within the school setting through individual and group guidance and counseling activities. Unfor-tunately, many counselors have had less time to perform these traditional role assignments because of the increased demands placed on them by administrators as well as their need to assist students confronted by a multitude of societal influences of rather recent origin (Peters and Hansen, 1977). For many young people, this has been translated into uninformed career decisions or no decisions at all. Conventional approaches to career develop-ment in many cases have either been inaccessible to students or have not provided the types of experiences that lead to career maturity. A problem of this magnitude emphasizes the need for identifying new solutions to an old problem. Many school districts throughout the country have used limited local resources to implement a variety of career education programs targeted for a range of individuals from kindergarten throughout adulthood. Only recently has Congress enacted Public Law 95-207, The Career Education Incentive Act, that provides seed money to state education agencies and local school districts to implement programs of career education. Sidney Marland’s (1971) early commentary on the possibilities that the concept of career education holds for promoting a broader range of experiences for life career planning has generated much interest nationwide. In efforts to define career education as a concept, five basic components have been identified by the U.S. Office of Education (Hoyt, Mackin and Mangum, 1972). Primary among these is the component of career development programs begin-ning as early as kindergarten and continuing throughout all of adult education. The growth and widespread interest in the concept of career education has contributed to a renewed focus on the career develop-at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 17, 2016jcd.sagepub.comDownloaded from 58 ment process of students. It has become increasingly clear that many young people leave school unprepared to select, prepare for and enter a meaningful and productive career of their choosin