The Changing Place of Careers Guidance in Schools

Abstract

Over the past century or so, there has been a steady movement in many countries from the ascription of status by birth to the achievement of status through education. As a result, the educational process has ceased to be concerned simply with the transmission of skills and values: increasingly it has taken on the functions of allocating as well as preparing individuals for their adult roles. Thus advanced educational qualifications are now necessary prerequisites for entry to the majority of well-rewarded occupations. This phenomenon is not confined to highly industrialized countries; indeed, for a variety of reasons, the "diploma disease" tends to be much more endemic in developing countries [Dore, 1976].