The Career Exposure Experience & Reflective Logbooks

The Career Exposure Experience (CEE) is a career guidance initiative whereby Year 10 students (aged 14/15) spend 5 days at a place of work shadowing the job/career they aspire for. This experience aims to facilitate students’ transition from compulsory schooling towards post-secondary education and/or work. This initiative is intended to help students learn about employability skills, acquire labour market information and learn about post-secondary educational and vocational pathways.

Over the past years, EG MT developed reflective logbooks in order to assist students in their reflection during career guidance-related experiences within schools. One of these booklets was the Career Exposure Student’s Reflective Logbook.

This reflective logbook consists of a number of questions which the student reflects upon, and answers, during his participation in the CEE. It is widely used by mainstream students and career guidance practitioners who conduct two supervision visits during the career exposure week. It is a helpful career guidance tool in order for the student to reflect on his/her experience, while at the same time allows for further thinking with regards to future aspirations and the respective post-secondary path.

Although this ‘mainstream’ logbook has been used successfully over a number of years, career guidance practitioners noticed that while students with academic abilities were proceeding well in their reflection (and answering of questions), those with limited academic abilities were quite struggling and finding it hard to understand this reflective journal. In view of this, the Malta Career Guidance Association (MCGA) thought about creating a simplified version of the Career Exposure Logbook, which is the Pictorial version of the Career Exposure Reflective Logbook for Form 4 (Year 10 students).

MCGA, in collaboration with the National School Support Services (NSSS) developed this pictorial version of the ‘Career Exposure Reflective Logbook’ specifically targeted for students with limited academic abilities. Its pictorial representation means that it is based more on pictures rather than text and will be used as an alternative tool for both the student and the career guidance practitioner to reach out to students with different abilities within the mainstream schooling context. By means of this booklet, MCGA and NSSS made the career guidance service more inclusive within its practices.

The activity also involves assessment for quality improvement.  A feedback exercise is held among stakeholders involved (students, parents, employers, educators and career guidance practitioners) to ensure that the activity meets the requirements expected by stakeholders. This enriches the experience of all concerned and makes the student look forward to engage in other career guidance activities and similar activities in the future.