Teacher training has contributed significantly to the success of career guidance at schools, according to Daleen Christians, Senior Curriculum Planner for Life Orientation at the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).

Career Guidance forms an integral part of the Life Orientation curriculum in both the GET and FET Bands. It is a compulsory subject for all learners.

In the GET Band it is dealt with under the Learning Outcome: Orientation to the World of Work, and in FET it falls under the Learning Outcome: Careers and Career Choices. Every teacher teaching the subject is expected to include it in his/her lesson planning.

"It is the intention of the WCED to have a formal impact study on the use of the PACE programme in schools in 2009, but the tool used by Life Orientation Curriculum Advisers when supporting teachers during school visits, also enquires about the use of the PACE programme," Ms Christians said.

"It has been reported that all schools where teachers have received training implement the programme to its fullest. The PACE programme is only one of the tools that teachers could use to teach the content embedded in the learning outcomes and assessment standards relating the Career Guidance as indicated above."

The WCED has been involved in the training of content of Career Guidance since 2005 using the PACE Career Centre which has developed two programmes in collaboration with the WCED.

The PACE programmes are computer and paper based so as to accommodate all schools. Every learner from Grade 7 is expected to complete the interest questionnaire that would guide him/her to his/her field of interest and the programme offers a variety of careers to explore. Since 2007 the training has been expanded to include Grade 7 teachers.

There is a tendency at some schools of not having permanent Life Orientation teachers as in other subjects as a result there will always be a need to train new teachers. It must also be kept in mind that 2008 was the first year for Life Orientation in Grade 12.

The WCED has developed a number of pamphlets and distributed them to schools, e.g A Grade 9 Guide to subject Choices in Grade 10; Making a Career Choice; and, Would you like to become a teacher? The WCED has also distributed a set of career posters to schools and in 2009 another set of different career posters will be distributed to schools.

"We will work at innovative ways to entrench career guidance at all levels of the schooling system in the short, medium and long-term," Ms Christians said.