A pilot programme to incorporate and standardise career awareness in the school curricula is being rolled out in primary and secondary schools throughout Jamaica.

Educators and career counsellors from tertiary institutions met last Thursday in an effort to share information on the infusion of career awareness into the school curricula.

The effort was spearheaded by the HEART Trust/NTA as part of activities to mark National Career Awareness Week, observed for the first time last week.

“The Ministry of Education is moving to mainstream career development at all levels of the education system, from kindergarten to tertiary and beyond,” said Erica Williams of HEART’s Career Development and Services Department.

She said career development was important not only for students in institutions but also for unattached youth, adults who were changing careers or who had lost their jobs, as well as those who had been incarcerated.

She noted that career information was already in schools but said the approach was fragmented.

“Now we are developing a coordinated programme with common strategies, so that each institution can do the same things,” she explained.

Some 40 primary and 30 secondary schools are included in the pilot, which is scheduled to begin this month.

The pilot programme starts from as early as grade one when children learn about their bodies. From there, they will learn whose occupation it is to take care of that part of the body.

The awareness will continue throughout primary school when students become more aware of occupations in their communities, in the country and in other nations.

Posters have been created showing the main subjects in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) — language arts, mathematics, social studies and science — and the many career options associated with them.

This, Williams hopes, will help to emphasise the relevance of the subjects with the work they will do in the future.

“Students say ‘miss why I must do maths when I want to be a deejay?’. They see people without education driving big cars, but wealth without education is unsustainable,” she said.

The importance of completing homework and coming to school on time will be reinforced with career guidance, she said.

Manager of Placement and Career Services at the UWI, Merritt Henry described the formalisation of career education in schools as an important step.

“Students in primary school are at an age where they begin to develop important skills and competencies, become very conscious of their environment and begin to make career decisions. They begin to think who they are and who they would like to be. They may make changes later on but it’s important for them to be guided at that stage,” she told Career & Education.

Henry said the early childhood stage was not too early for children to start modelling positive individuals in their environment.

“Career development is not only about jobs, it’s about the holistic development of the person,” she concluded.