Program excludes careers advisers

Schools have received invitations to participate in the Pathways Mentors Pilot Initiative 2005-06, but not all are invited, reports WENDY CURRIE.

Federation met with Department of Education and Training (DET) officials late in December 2004 about this program. The major concern at that time was careers advisers would be forced to return to teaching in their original subject area for 50 per cent of their load, while another teacher at the school became a Pathways Mentor. As a result of the meeting in December, DET emailed principals in the last week of the school year. That email said that no careers adviser would be forced to do this. In other words, schools would not be participating in this program unless they had the full agreement of the careers adviser.

The new document does not make this explicit. Federation has written to Director-General Andrew Cappie-Wood asking him to ensure that schools are perfectly clear that participation in this initiative is predicated on the careers adviser's agreement.

Federation has also sent a fax to schools about this.

The document also says that careers advisers cannot become Pathways Mentors, and in fact denigrates them by saying that "not every Careers Adviser holds all the skills and experiences necessary to cover all aspects of that role". Yet, what appears to be an admirable program of constructive and valuable professional development will not be available to careers advisers. Federation is seeking an explanation for this.

Wendy Currie is a Research Officer.

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