Career Guidance and Counselling in Uganda, Current Developments and Challenges

Abstract

Uganda like other countries in the Saharan sub region has made strides towards promoting career guidance and counselling with an aim of producing students who are prepared to make adequate career decisions by the time they complete secondary school and tertiary levels of education respectively. Thus, career decision making is perceived to be a key output of career guidance and counseling among students at all levels of education withZ support from teachers, counsellors, professionals, private sector, old students, and other government officials. The government of Uganda has made effort to invest in career guidance and counseling at all levels of education through infrastructure development, human resource, capacity building, publication and distribution of career guidance materials, and monitoring and evaluation of career guidance and counselling activities in the country. However, there are glaring gaps in human resource, capacity building, inadequate training manuals, lack of career information and standardized assessment tools, high student and career masters/ counsellor ratio, and the general lack of school counsellor education, supervision, and certification at national level. This leaves the quality of career guidance and counselling wanting, a situation which is exacerbated by overconcentration on curricular activities, role conflict on the part of career masters, poor funding, and general attitude towards career guidance and counselling. Effort can be made to improve guidance and in secondary schools by developing locally made standard and user-friendly career guidance materials, increase sensitisation about the importance of career guidance and counselling in schools and the general population, and increase the capacity of teachers in general and counsellors through refresher courses. It's also incumbent for the government to make more effort towards setting guidelines to standardise and regularise training of career counsellors and teachers in teacher training institutions in skills of career guidance and counselling which would be used after training in schools. The schools are encouraged to continue to partner with professionals in the private sector to supplement the existing human resource to fill the man power gaps in career guidance and counselling.