Symonds' Pathways to Prosperity Explains the Failures of the Education System

The basic premise of the Pathways to Prosperity article is that the current educational system fails to prepare our youth for the current job market. William Symonds, the author of the article, indicates that our preparation strategy is narrowly focused on readying students to attend four-year colleges and universities. Consequently, students are basically being setup to fail for the real world.

Symonds point is that our educational approach to preparing out youth is to focus on the academics that are required to enter a four-year college. Symonds asserts that the success of this approach is marginal at best. He cites that approximately one million high student will drop out of high school each year. He furthers the notion that we are failing by indicating that only 40% of American will earn either an associates or bachelors degree by the age of 27. As well, the high unemployment is another indicator singling the problem. Symonds denotes that the rates of unemployed workers between the ages of 16-24 are as near as high as they were during the great depression.

Symonds poses that there are three areas that need to be addressed during the career development process to combat this problem. The first area is the simply the idea of providing support to students. The whole process of finding your niche in life can be very overwhelming. As a result, more and more students are entering the workforce without career preferences and goals. I really think this area goes back to the notion that career counseling needs to model regular counseling. A career is a major aspect of ones life that needs to be fully addressed and explored. As well, the psychological stressors that can accompany this process need to be considered. One big t...

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... a story, seek out community leaders for validation and support, and really create, as much as possible a preparatory academic plan that will set them up for success. Additionally, I would use the career clusters assessment to help the career seeking process. The career clusters assessment is such an easy and accurate assessment I would not be short sided not to add it to my counseling toolbox.

In summary, what I have taken away from learning more about the career counseling process, which is validated by this article, is that one-size career paths do not fit all. As well, as counselors, need to address all area that are pertinent to the client or student. We need to help the whole package. As well, a non-traditional career choice is totally ok and that we should encourage our students to peruse what will be in their best interest for career and life success.