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VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF STUDENTS
AS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR OF EDUCATION CONTINUITY
H.H. Rashidov
The Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Education» and the National Workforce Training Program have introduced a new level into the system of lifelong education in Uzbekistan — secondary special vocational education. The responsibility for maintaining continuity and succession between general secondary and secondary special vocational educations is assigned to vocational guidance and psychological and pedagogical diagnostics centers which are established in 200 towns and districts of the Republic. Presently, there are about 9,700 9-year general secondary schools which graduate about 600,000 students a year. The Law «On Education» requires that all graduates from secondary schools must take the next level of compulsory education. Therefore vocational guidance of final year students is wide-scale. The main aim of vocational guidance is to facilitate an informed and independent choice of further training in academic lyceums or vocational colleges.
Vocational guidance of schoolchildren in the context of the compulsory transition to 3-year training in an academic lyceum or vocational college has three functions to perform, namely: (1) social and economic protection of a person (a person who has selected an occupation in line with his or her needs, interests, aptitudes and abilities is more successful in mastering it and faster in reaching notable results both in professional and socioeconomic terms, such as acquiring a socio-professional status in society, an opportunity to fend for himself or herself and his and her family, etc.); (2) strengthening of the economic power of the state (achieved by more streamlined and scientifically validated selection of learners for their further professional careers, more streamlined distribution and utilization of young specialists within the national workforce structure); (3) catering for the needs of the education services market and the labor market.
The issue of improving the system of vocational guidance and psychological and pedagogical diagnostics of students of general schools has arisen in educational practice of schools in connection with the new socioeconomic conditions of social development, development of the labor market and the educational services market, reforms in education and creation of new types of educational institutions — academic lyceums and vocational colleges. Raising this issue in theory and practice of contemporary psychology and pedagogy is driven by the implementation of the National Workforce Training Model in the Republic of Uzbekistan and needs of entities of the education system, namely: (a) learners - in selecting their pro-
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fession, further training in selected profession (occupation) in a college or in upgrading knowledge and special professional skills in enhanced learning of sciences in an academic lyceum; (b) teachers and psychologists - in supporting graduates at choosing a profession, developing a professionally oriented personality with stable professional interests and motivation for mastering their profession, or a personality oriented toward intellectual professional development in the course of studies in academic lyceums and higher education institutions; (c) employers - in professionally oriented and competitive staff graduating from vocational colleges.
The Law «On Education» of the Republic of Uzbekistan provides for solving this problem based on the close accord between training and upbringing in the course of learning elements of sciences, labor training, diverse extracurricular activities, socially useful work of learners subject to their age-specific and individual characteristics and health status, and in line with demands of science and technology progress. Vocational guidance work aims at reaching profound occupational awareness and systematic psychological and pedagogical diagnostics of learners. A model of vocational guidance work has been developed to serve this purpose. It is comprised of a set of step-by-step teaching activities to be undertaken in the 9th grade of general education in school. The challenge of vocational guidance of schoolchildren is associated with the introduction of compulsory secondary special vocational education and provision of the freedom of choice of one's occupation. It is generally agreed that this problem belongs to the domain of pedagogical ethics. In vocational guidance, ethical issues can be regarded in two interconnected dimensions: (a) as preparedness of an individual for selecting and implementing a certain moral position; and (b) as preparedness of a vocational guidance counsel to provide real assistance to an individual in professional self-determination without violating the basic ethical standards of interaction.
Pedagogical views on the issues of vocational guidance are summarized in the regulations of the Ministry of People's Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The reason behind the regulatory nature of applied research results lies in the critical need for radical improvement in vocational guidance activities in the context of the second stage of the National Workforce Training Program.
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