Same High School Counselors Giving Different Job Advice Now

Área high school students '. seeking career guidance from their school counselors are not receiving the same words of wisdom, they might have five years ago, nor is the push for these students to go to college quite so strong, owing to current realities of the job market. These conclusions were evident following a survey of veteran counselors at Pioneer, Huron, Saline, Chelsea and Ypsilanti high schools, all of whom have been, in their respective districts five years or more, and thus have lived through the more recent economie fluctuations. Schools are changing their course offerings, high school degrees are easier to come by, whole communities are being claimed as classrooms, apprenticeship opportunities are up, business people are more willing to talk to students and the work world is more sophisticated than it was five years ago, the counselors revealed. However, career concerns which are on students' minds as they face gradUation are not necessarily all that different, and the counselors all agree that if a student still I wants to go into a field where the current job situation isn't too bright - such as teaching, science and social studies _ he will be encouraged since "there's a1ways room for good people." Ann Arbor's proposed Community togh School, which is scheduled to open this f all, is an example of educators awareness that career choices are changing, Pioneer's Clarence Roth pointed out. munity High is proposed to be i more career, not college, oriented. "I think our advice has changed over a five-year period," said Roth, who is a 12year counseling veteran and 26-year Pioneer staff member. "The courses are changing and stressing work attitudes. They are more skill oriented where five years ago we were slanted to a college-oriented curriculum. By the time students gradúate we hope they have some salable skill from high school, even if it's merely two semesters of typing for the girls." Roth added that business people are much more willing now to take on student apprentices. More than 50 have said they would particípate in Community High School programs. Teachers are likely to have more townspeople come in to speak to classes about their occupations according to Roth. Charlene Eisenlohr, who is in her sixth year with Ann Arbor schools and third at Huron, says things have changed in education even in the small area of accessibility to a high school diploma : "If a kid didn't gradúate five years ago he only had two alternatives if wanted a high school degree. He could to summer school or he could come back the following semester. Now he can get the degree at the local community college, take the General Equivalency Degree (GED) exam, go to night school or engage in independent study. In her doling out of advice to students, Miss Eisenlohr says she and other Hurón counselors point out the number of alternatives there are to college today. With lessened draft pressures and dollar signs in their eyes, more students are inclined to think twice about college. "Guidance is more than problem-solving; it involves a much more sophisticated brand of educational planning," the Huron counselor contends. "The world of work is much more sophisticated than five years ago. Choices aren't so simple." Huron counselors are hoping to change their approach to stress career planning not only in the high school, but to initiate an Ann Arbor program in all grades, starting at Kindergarten, Miss Eisenlohr indicated. As an example of a "career" exercise, students might vsit a fire hall . . . and then listen as a firefighter addresses their c 1 a ss. Individual teachers have -done such things in the past, but now an integrated career program is in the making. "Funny you s h o u 1 d ask these qüestions now," Miss Eisenlohr told a reporter at The News. ''We (Huron counselors) are half-way t h ro u g h in-service career planning sessions being sponsored by the Washtenaw County Intermedíate School District." Miss Eisenlohr said Huron I counselors try and talk with I each member of the senior class to make sure they have a p 1 a n when they 1 e a v e school. If they want to go to college a year or two after they gradúate, they are encouraged to come back and counselors will help them piek a college, Miss Eisenlohr said. People picture counselors as being collegiate oriented and encouraging students to go to college, said Michael Rotunno, a Saline part-time counselor who now spends more time on the administrative side since he is the district's assistant superintendent. "But we are more vocationatlly oriented," Rotunno cïaimed. It is a counselor's job to make students aware of the opportunities . . . and current over supply problems in some ftelds . . . not push the , dent in one direction or anothetr, Rotunno said. "For example, if a student wants to go into teaching I will point out the problems," the assistant school chief remarked. "If they're set on a certain career and they do it well, they can still find a job. I guess that's my philosophy." Rotunno couldn't see a big difference in the questions students are asking him about careers today and those they posed five years ago, but Chelsea's George R. Bergman thinks he's seeing more students whose parents are out of work now. Others are having trouble finding summer jobs. "Maybe it isn't as much of a problem in Ann Arbor as it is here," said Bergman, in his iifth year at Chelsea. Washtenaw Community College, which so many exChelsea students attend, has changed greatly, too, in five years, Bergman commented. The smaller college is more down-to-earth and practical, he points out, yet some parents "pressure" their kids to go to the bigger universities, especially if that's what other members ofthe family did. "There is an awareness that we're not reaching students early enough with information about the world . of work," Bergman said. In Ypsilanti, eight-year counselor Richard Ouellette d e t e c t s that students are I much more anxious to eet to the joímarket. The high school cooperative education program, which allows students to work for school credit part of the day, is much larger now than five years ago. However, the percentage of Ypsilanti. fflgh School students going onto college after graduation remains stable at over 60 per cent. "But, more are going to two-year colleges and they're involved in 'terminal' programs which will lead to a job upon completion," Ouellette said. "Education has tended to look down on blue-dollar posi-j tions," Ouellette admitted. "Now we're beginning to see that these jobs pay pretty good and demand certain skiUs. "It used to be that education was an outlet. 'You could always teach,' the saying went. Now it's nursing that many students are interested in, but what are we going to do when that field is filled? Doctor jobs are the ones we'd like to fill, but ti's not that easy. I ny students, however, are looking at t h e parahealth professions. If t h e y can't make the big thing, maybe they can be a physician's assistant. "There are also engineering I jobs for those students who I complete two-year I grams," Ouellette sjiid I Yet, Ouellette echoed thel unanimous sentiment? of the other counselors in saying that teacher aspirauts - if they're good - can still find jobs. 'Tm not sure there's really I a surplus of teachers. It's just that you have to hustle a little I bit .... and you probablyl can't piek the area in which I you'll teach." I