Chapter 16
Evidence-Based
practice makes a lot of sense to me. It is important to know what is working
and not working to be able to fix what needs to be fixed or enhance the part of
the program that is actually working. This chapter makes a good point in saying
that “accountability is increasingly important in an age where shrinking
budgets force administrators to make choices about the relative worth of
various programs” (Brown, 2012, p. 358). People want to know that they are
investing their money in a program that is going to work.
It is also
important to have research backing the program because negative consequences
can also results. For example, I recently saw that the military is now having
their soldiers watch violent war crimes to prepare them for when it happens to
them in the field, however, there is no research supporting that this will
work. What happens if this results in soldiers becoming desensitized to human
pain and killing? Now I know this is far from talking about career development,
but take for example that we introduce a program designed to broaden children’s
view of gender occupations, but it ends up restricting their views instead.
This would negatively impact their lives, so being able to look at research to
support programs and then evaluating them to ensure that they are positively
doing what we want them to do is crucial.
Chapter 17
I was most
interested in the section that discussed the occupational world through 2018.
There were a couple statistics that really surprised me. First of all, the jobs
that are having the most growth require very little formal training or
education (Brown, 2012, p. 369-370). It makes me wonder how more and more
people are going to college and yet the jobs that are opening only require on the
job training. I also noticed while we were doing research on O*NET and other
job websites that some of the jobs that paid the most only required a bachelor
degree. Sometimes it makes me wonder that if the jobs that are opening up
require less education and pay more then why are there so many people going to
college and graduate schools?
The
second thing that surprised me, and the chapter predicted it would be a
surprise, is that there not a lot of jobs that deal with primarily technology. After
thinking about it thought it really makes sense. Earlier in the chapter, Brown
discussed how jobs were being eliminated because of technology so the jobs that
involve technology, machines can do by themselves without machine operators (Brown,
2012, p. 364).
With all of
the different statistics, the economic and population factors, it is
important to be informed about the direction in which the job market is heading.
It is important to know where the growth and decline are occurring. While I don’t
believe one should base their entire occupational/educational decision on what
is going to be most available, I do think it is an important consideration.
Reference
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10thed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
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