Lifelong Learning Programme

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The module focuses on the psychological aspects to be addressed and taken into account to understand the pupils’ personal aptitudes and characteristics, to identify those aspects that must be considered to personalize their education path, motivation to study and the risk factors that can lead to the decision of abandoning school.

Understanding pupils

Table of Content

Chapter 3 - School opportunities
The choice of a school, a course, a training path.
A young person, often very insecure about the future, and often dependent upon the others’ decisions and wishes to go through the school years by making major or minor decisions. During high school years all the pupils have to find the answers to the questions: which school to attend; what subjects at what level to study; how long to study at school - 9/10 or 11/12 years; what exams to take; what skills to develop during non-formal education programs and extracurricular activities; which educational and career path to choose after school, what skills to develop during non-formal education programs and extracurricular activities.

Pupils need help in setting priorities according schools location, friends, status, teaching quality, form, and other criteria. They need support in identification of their potentials and clarification of their future visions and goals. Pupils need a wide range of information about educational institutions, enrolment requirements, about the necessary skills and job profiles needed by the labour market in order to make decisions about their further education and career pathways.

These decisions are of high importance for pupils, therefore they need qualified counselling. A counsellor’s task is to track the decision making process and be ready to provide assistance at any point when a doubt or uncertainty arises. Teachers and counsellors help the pupils to collect and analyse information related to the education institutions and labour market. Entrepreneurial initiatives , extra curricula activities, meetings with the representatives of the world of work, visits to business companies and other activities help to strengthen pupils’ motivation to learn and continue their studies.

Psychological and assessment questionnaires, skills and aptitude tests, interactive wizard tests should be used by school counsellors and teachers to identify and highlight the interests, aptitudes, inclinations and potentials of the pupils in order to motivate them to stay at school and proceed their educational pathway towards the career and life style that might suit them best in the future.

Using these tools a counsellor will be able to assess the pupils’ existing skills, including those acquired in informal learning environments, and to identify the main areas of necessary improvement as to meet the needs and expectations of the labour, market.

Counselling should be based on trust, caring, support, mutuality, cooperation and attachment at any age or class level. Counselling process has to move on agreements that are reached on the clarification of learning and near future goals and the strategies that will enable successfully achieve these goals. Effective and open communication helps to motivate pupils to become an active collaborator with the teacher as the teacher works together in a series of school opportunities exploration, planning, and decision-making activities. Entrepreneurship education.
Online Resources

Table of Content

Comments on this section

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Date: 2016.09.13

Posted by Aneta - Lithuania

It provides a lot of useful information that is essential towards pupils’ understanding.

Date: 2016.09.13

Posted by Beata Višniak-Bakšienė - Lithuania

This section contains specific information that makes it possible to define the classes’ structure, provides future activities and direction.

Date: 2016.08.03

Posted by L. Barrada - Spain

For the e-learning package, I am sure I will use some of the chapters in the near future. I keep them to use them with my own resources.

Date: 2016.07.10

Posted by Palumbo Luana - Italy

This section is very important because it gives all the tools to understand the pupils’ needs, the level of their skills, their dreams about a future job. For teachers it is also useful because it offers a series of tests to know and exalt the pupils’ potentialities. Teachers can also inform pupils about the concrete possibilities of working and living abroad.
The contents of the package are undoubtedly very useful, because they permit the deep knowledge of all the possibilities offered by the labour market.
In particular the “Job profiles section offers an exhaustive explanation of how the labour market requests new profiles or is modifying the existing ones., Finally it will be important to improve the section of test so students can start to think about their skills and aptitudes

Date: 2016.07.07

Posted by I. Jacquard - France

The contents are really interesting and there are a lot of online resources.

Date: 2016.07.06

Posted by Emanuela Gheorghiu - Romania

The first module Understanding pupils highlights important theoretical psychological aspects which should be considered in order to understand and identify students’ personal aptitudes and characteristics; these aspects are useful when personalizing students’ education pathway towards the most suitable career and life style for them.
The last chapter strikes a balance between theory and practice by providing teachers and counsellors with best practices, experiences and success stories related to career planning, guidance and counselling.

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.