From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

Guidance and Decision-Making in Sixth Year 133
5.2 Career Guidance in the School
International evidence suggests that guidance counselling provision, such
as individual guidance interviews, group-work sessions, access to careerrelated
information and a wide range of work-related activities, can have
a positive impact on the development of students’ career-related skills
(Morris et al., 1999). However, international literature has also highlighted
how certain groups lack information about the opportunities that
are available (Thomas, 2001). Irish research shows, for example, that
information about the higher education entry process, the range of
choices available, and being able to assess interests in, and aptitude for,
certain subject areas are central to successful college entry (McCoy and
Byrne, 2011).
This section examines the forms of guidance provision in the casestudy
schools, highlighting variation in student opinion across the
schools. Figure 5.1 highlights how guidance classes are the most common
type of guidance provision across the case-study schools, with 60
per cent of students participating in four or more classes during their
sixth year. Individual or one-to-one guidance counselling sessions are
less common, with just 9 per cent of students attending four or more oneto-one
sessions in their final year. The most common pattern was to have
just one individual session with the guidance counsellor, which was the
case for 46 per cent of students.
Figure 5.1: Access to guidance
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
4+
2 to 3
1
0
30%
20%
10%
0%
Classes
Individual sessions