ARE VIRTUAL CAREER GUIDANCE CENTRES NEEDED IN THE ROMANIAN SCHOOLS?
ARE VIRTUAL CAREER GUIDANCE CENTRES NEEDED IN THE ROMANIAN SCHOOLS?

Summary/Abstract: The present article analysis and poses an important question concerning school counsellors’ knowledge regarding the use of virtual career centres in the practice of counselling and guidance. The design of the paper is based on theoretical analyses on the basis that these virtual career centres are needed to ensure a better practice. Several types of ICT applications and Internet-based services have emerged since the last decades of the previous century: for example, email, chat, newsgroup, websites, SMS (text messaging), telephone, software (CD-ROM and free-standing computer programs) and video-conferencing (Watts & Offer, 2006). Thus, these new technology enables the use of such resources at a wide range, but at the same time, it also poses other challenges ahead. The documentary analysis concerning these virtual career centres developed and how these technologies are being used to assist different school actors (students, parents and even teachers) in developing their career management skills and making informed and realistic decisions about occupational, educational, training and employment choices will be investigated throughout the paper. The results of our theoretical analysis obtained from different studies (national and international) will bring into light a theoretical imagine on the one hand, how is it beneficial and if it is being used and on the other hand in guidance practice (advantages/disadvantages, school level, teachers’ implication etc.) are just some of the issues being analysed throughout this paper. Furthermore, the paper will emphasizes the role of the school counsellors and the role of teachers regarding the use of virtual career guidance centres in Romanian schools (advantages, limits, opportunities, threats, strengths etc.).

• Details
• Contents