Page 9 - Creating Pathways to Success

Ontario’s education and career/life planning program has been designed to ensure that all students develop the capacity to achieve their personal goals for work and life, make successful transitions throughout life, and make positive contributions to their communities. In addition, the focused approach to planning will support students in selecting the courses and programs they need to complete secondary school in four years and move on to their initial postsecondary destination.
Current research identifies significant positive outcomes when clearly articulated education and career/life planning programs are implemented across an education system. Improvement is found in areas such as student engagement, the achievement of personal goals, and the development of independence/resilience (Lent, Hackett,
& Brown, 1999). Although there is no universal model of a successful education and career/life planning program, there is agreement on fundamental principles and concepts, specific learning goals, and the need for a strong commitment to programming that responds to the interests, strengths, needs, and aspirations of all students.
Creating Pathways to Success puts students at the centre of their own learning, viewing them as the architects of their own lives. Students are encouraged to discover who they are, explore opportunities, pursue their passions, and design personal pathways to success. They are encouraged to express their insights in individual ways and to keep track of what they discover about themselves and their interests, passions, and opportunities over time. When students are empowered
to design and plan their own lives, they are engaged, they achieve, and they find themselves applying their learning in their daily lives. In an environment that encourages such learning, students develop confidence in knowing that their school programs are created with them in mind, that the world beyond school has something to offer them, and that they have something to offer the world.
It takes the whole education community – teachers, administrators, students, and parents3 – as well as the broader community to support students in successful education and career/life planning. A comprehensive program – one that focuses on guiding students’ development and not simply on transmitting information – can be transformational.
3. In this document, the word parents is used to refer to parent(s) and guardian(s).
Career Development in the Twenty-first Century 7