Description of Specific Program
The selected program specializes in providing career counseling to students from high school (9-12 grades). This program aims to help students understand their needs, wants, and demands and select a career path that complies with their preferences, skills, and cultural background. This information is delivered during group and individual meetings. The management of the program highly prioritizes diversity principles, and it is a critical rationale for applying an individualized approach to achieve the desired results and avoid misunderstandings.
Planning
To ensure the successful implementation of the program, it is essential to convince students from different cultural groups to participate in the process by clearly stating that an individual approach will be applied. In turn, it is vital to indicate that the program will also discuss the role of diversity and globalization in different industries and help select the most suitable career path, as these aspects may define one’s future. Describing these benefits will assist in avoiding confrontation and will encourage students to participate in this program.
As for the process, a career counselor will conduct an evaluation of skills, career assessment results, and preferences of students. These procedures will help define potential career paths while considering diverse cultural backgrounds, as there is a clear connection between family values, culture, and one’s behavior. This matter complies with the principles of social learning and psychodynamic models. A child learns from the actions of his/her parents and reflects these behavioral patterns in his/her life in subsequent years and adulthood. This procedure helps avoid intercultural conflicts that may incur due to the lack of knowledge about the cultural specifics while using stereotypes may also be offensive.
In turn, psychologists (two specialists) will conduct various assessments to evaluate individual traits of students and resolve different interpersonal and ethnic conflicts associated with cultural differences such as opinions about the role of a woman in society and the appropriateness of a particular gesture in a conversation. Alternatively, to expand the students’ horizons about the working environment and underline the importance of diversity, guest speakers such as managers of different companies will be invited. As for physical facilities, available school properties and student counselor’s office will be used.
Organization
Apart from hiring professionals and purchasing software, it is necessary to develop a sufficient action plan. During the first meeting, establishing a trusting relationship with a student while revealing his/her culture’s specifics is a priority. The subsequent stage implies conducting various assessments with the assistance of psychologists (five hours). Two or three meetings will be organized to discuss the evaluations’ results and reveal individual concerns about the possibility of choosing a particular profession. After these meetings, a career counselor and psychologists will determine a connection between cultural dogmas or socioeconomic status and the student’s threats. This information will be used to develop a career plan, goals, and steps that comply with one’s cultural background. These matters and subsequent stages will be discussed during one or two individual sessions, and progress will be monitored in the long-term. In this case, diversity underlines the need to introduce these steps, as taking into account cultural specifics will help avoid conflicts and misunderstandings due to the differences in backgrounds.
Along with the individual sessions mentioned above, it is possible that assessment can be conducted in groups to increase the process’s speed. Furthermore, the counselor will also organize different lectures about the labor market’s specifics and the importance of diversity in large groups to encourage discussion between representatives of diverse cultures. These activities will take place twice a month. Simultaneously, meetings with industry professionals will also be organized in groups, and it is expected that these lectures will occur once a month. At the end of the program, the students will be required to fill in the questionnaires or provide oral feedback about the counseling’s effectiveness.
Implementation
As it was mentioned earlier, counseling will include both group and individual meetings. In this instance, personal sessions will help develop career plans that comply with one’s cultural environment. At the same time, the group lectures will be organized to offer information about the labor market and have discussions with industry professionals. It could be said that using this blend of models will support diversity in high school and inform students about new trends. The provided services will include individual counseling, career assessment, and discussion platforms with professionals.
The organization of the program described in the previous section complies with the theory introduced by Fouad and Bingham that underlines the need to take into account cultural specifics when counseling. This model supports the idea of diversity since it focuses not only on individual preferences but also determines a connection between cultural values and dogmas, one’s concerns, and a suitable career plan. To unveil additional details about the past of the students and its impact on the decision-making process, it is reasonable to apply the concept of psychodynamic theory at the same time. This model will be actively reflected during various assessments and evaluations conducted by counselors and psychologists.
As for counseling approaches, to support the components mentioned above, the professional must discover spheres of influence related to one’s culture, values, family, and socioeconomic status. Clarifying and encouraging a student to express his/her expectations and ideas will help develop a program that considers cultural background, preferences, and needs. Overall, a combination of these strategies will not only support diversity but also will help avoid intercultural conflicts and discomfort.
Evaluation
At the end of the program, it is necessary to collect feedback with the help of questionnaires or interviews. The open-ended questions will focus on the program’s effectiveness, cultural orientation, and appropriateness of an individualized approach. Nonetheless, this type of evaluation might not be sufficient to determine whether the program was successful. Consequently, statistical information could be considered as an additional instrument. It would reflect the number of participants who could pursue the most suitable career path, develop their skills, and find a job in a particular sphere in subsequent years.
Needs of People from Diverse Populations
It remains apparent that this program will help resolve different multicultural issues related to the lack of understanding of the cultural specifics and differences and low popularity of personalized approach to education. The hired professionals will resolve the conflicts that may incur during group discussions. Thus, understanding a connection between family, culture, and perceptions towards career will help develop effective career plans that will satisfy cultural minorities’ needs. Emphasizing the significance of diversity is the main idea of this program, and this topic is reflected not only by finding an impact of culture on one’s career concerns but also is highlighted as an important theme during group sessions. In this instance, to cater to the needs of minorities, counseling methods and assessment tools tend to be more open and encourage information sharing with respect to one’s culture while physical facilities remain neutral.