Building Dreams through Love: Developing People-oriented Career and Life Planning Curriculum via School-Based Internship Programmes

Overview

This school is one of the Schools for Social Development (SSD) in Hong Kong, primarily serving students with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The school motto is 'Be faithful, conscientious and modest, Love God and one another', the school’s teaching staff commit themselves to foster students to be good citizens who are always grateful, joyful, loving and reverent to God.

Career development education is one of the most crucial elements in the curriculum of Schools for Social Development. Through people-oriented career and life planning activities and courses, students are encouraged to unleash their potential based on their interests, abilities, and aspirations, allowing students to explore their career aspirations and learn to make informed decisions.

In this seminar, the speaker will share several growth stories of students from Schools for Social Development, illustrating how the school has constructed two 'Career Development' internship programs in the past three years using the people-oriented approach. Within the career development activity plan inspired by John Dewey1, teachers personally discuss the learning content with the organisations with the intent to 'learn first, work later' in order to achieve the effect of 'Learning by doing', thereby enhancing learning efficiency.

The Career Development Program differs from career planning activities. Career development activities no longer focus solely on the 'planning' stage, but instead allow students to enter the 'development' stage in which they can practice relevant career skills, attitudes, and network building within the activities. Through work experiences and debriefing sessions with instructing internship mentors, students can gain a clearer understanding of their development direction, strengthen their career adaptability, and cultivate a sense of hope. The school has dedicated itself to documenting these students' growth stories in a journal, titled ‘The Pursuit of Careers with CMTS’.　

Participants of this seminar will:
1. learn how to significantly increase the frequency of internships and enhance teaching and learning effectiveness through the development of school-based internship activities;
2. be inspired by several growth stories of students from Schools for Social Development, learning how to assist students with low learning or achievement motivation in their career and life development; and3. learn how to develop people-oriented Career and Life Planning Curriculum and how to write a school-based career planning booklet.