Education and Career Guidance
Overview and Purpose
Education and Career Guidance (ECG) is developmental in nature, and seeks to meet the needs of pupils at every stage of their education. Through ECG, pupils develop social emotional competencies and qualities of proactivity, adaptability and resilience that will prepare them for the 21st century.
ECG lessons and experiences, complemented by MySkillsFuture portal, enable pupils to make informed education and career choices, and empower them for lifelong learning.
The goals of ECG are to:
- Nurture pupils’ self-awareness, self-directedness and life skills for continuous learning.
- Provide pupils with accurate and comprehensive information and enable them to explore well-thought through education and career options.
- Instil in pupils an appreciation for the value of all occupations and how they contribute to the society.
- Equip pupils with skills to positively engage their parents and other career influencers such as teachers, trusted adults and industry experts.
Approach and Learning Experience
Our approach to ECG is guided by a developmental model by the Ministry of Education:
The ECG Developmental Model highlights education and career development as a process that takes place over one’s life span, with three progressive emphases of Awareness, Exploration and Planning. Awareness, Exploration and Planning are necessary for all levels of pupils. However, there are different emphases at the different levels to meet varying developmental needs.
For Primary School, the emphasis is on awareness:
- Awareness of interests, abilities and career aspirations
- Relation of self to others and work
- Initial preferences in occupational roles assumed in play
At Catholic High School (CHS), ECG lessons have been incorporated into Form-Teacher Guidance Period (FTGP) and Programme for Active Learning (PAL) lessons since Primary 1, where pupils are guided to learn more about self-awareness, self-directedness and life skills for continuous learning. These lessons are designed to raise pupils’ self-awareness of their strengths and interests, which are helpful for pupils to plan their educational pathways, open up their horizon to different occupations and nurture their aspirations for the future.
From Primary 5 onwards, the pupils will be guided to make use of the MySkillsFuture portal to explore various education and career pathways. Through this exploration, pupils will have accurate and comprehensive information and appreciate the value of the education and occupation choices and how they can contribute to the society.
ECG is also purposely incorporated into school-based programme, i.e. Teach me to Fish (TM2F), to provide our pupils with a more enriching and meaningful ECG learning experience.
| Level | Theme | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| Primary 5 | Preparing for Work | Alumni, parent volunteers from Parents Support Group and external speakers from various industries, e.g. Special Forces, Law and Human Resource Management (Netflix), are invited to share more about their careers and experiences. |
| Primary 6 | Speaking Confidently and Getting Ready for Interview | Pupils learn about the interview decorum and invited speakers share their interview experience with pupils. |
Teach Me to Fish Programme at CHS
ECG resources
The MySkillsFuture portal is a one-stop portal with information and tools to explore various education and career pathways for all pupils from Primary 5 to junior colleges and Millennia Institute.
Other than exploring MySkillsFuture portal with children, parents could also refer to the following resources to learn how to support their children in their education and career journey.
Teach Me to Fish Programme at CHS
- Journeying with Our Children, Supporting Their Aspirations – Tips and advice on ECG and considerations at key education stages.
- What’s Next – An interactive resource to support pupils’ decision-making process at their key education stages.
- For PSLE pupils
- The Next Step Forward – See how 54 individuals go through diverse education and career pathways. The inspirational narratives highlight the many options that cater to the pupils’ needs and can help them discover their selected paths.
Above information is taken from Overview | Ministry of Education (moe.gov.sg).