Search

Career prospects of high school students in the context of social change. Education & Pedagogy Journal. 2023;4(8):43-57. DOI:

Against the backdrop of global social change, modern high school students face the challenge of choosing a career path corresponding to current realities. This includes taking into account the trend towards specialization in modern education. Established career prospects help young people decide about their educational and career options. This enables them to gain self-confidence and take the necessary steps to achieve their goals. Consequently, one of the most important tasks of educational institutions is to psychologically and pedagogically support the process of developing career perspectives in high school students. The study aims to examine the current trends in creating professional opportunities for modern high school students and determine the goals for the organization of psychological and pedagogical support of this process. The methodological framework of the study is based on the ideas of a systematic approach. From this perspective, career perspectives are conceptualized as a series of interconnected developmental pathways that emerge in the context of a person’s life events. These paths shape the future in terms of career development and advancement. The dimensions of career pathways are defined as a systemic personality formation encompassing the following aspects: Values and Meaning, Cognitive, Emotional and Evaluative, and Organizational and Action-oriented. The empirical research methods used in the study include questionnaire surveys, subjective scaling methods, and psychological tests. The collected data was analyzed with mathematical and statistical techniques using SPSS Statistics 22.0 software. The study involved 120 high school students from a Russian general education school. According to the study, the basis for the development of career prospects for high school students is based on values associated with professional activities, health, and self-development. Modern young people tend to make plans for the medium-term future, a period of one to five years. High school students are positive about their professional future and actively engage in self-organizing activities, planning skills, and setting strategic goals. High school students’ career perspectives should be shaped with psychological and pedagogical support that is aligned with their academic profile. In some cases (math profile), it should aim to prevent loss of interest, while in other cases (humanities profile), it should address anxiety.

Keywords: career prospects, high school students, life prospects, academic profile