Adolescence is known to be a very stressful period, that not only comes with possible identity crisis, but also increased responsibilities for accepting first major life decisions. One of those is picking the right career path. To aid with that, there is a special professional orientation included in the school system, which is mostly the responsibility of consultancy workers. Adolescents with special needs must be even more diligent with picking a profession, since career or education choice are tightly connected with the chance of being employed, which is usually lower for physically impaired.
The aim of this thesis was to acquire the look into professional orientation of physically impaired adolescents and their satisfaction with the experience. For these purposes we have carried out five interviews with adolescents with physical impairments, that have each experienced at least one transition to a higher education level. We were interested in their experiences with the professional orientation in school and with extra-curricular organizations. We were also intrigued with how the program was executed. With the help of the interview we were given insight into individual's experience regarding its professional orientation, career choice and education. We gathered information about adolescent’s satisfaction with professional orientation they received, their thoughts on possible improvements and how physical impairment affects their choice of a career.
We discovered that physically impaired adolescents are given different forms of professional orientation that are panned out in varying speed - some receive professional orientation in 8th grade, while others in 9th. Lesser part of physically impaired adolescents is informed and included in extra-curricular organizations that aid with professional orientation such as Prehod mladih. Career decision is mostly affected by the adolescent's family, but also their interests, wishes and their impairment as such. Physical impairment affects job selection due to physical limitation, ability of transport to school, limitations with job execution and being employed, as well as their inability to move. We have also discovered that the satisfaction of physically impaired adolescents with professional orientation differs, in which the adolescents that are given more in-depth orientation are also more satisfied. Current professional orientation that the consultancy workers undertake needs the following adjustments: longer period, dedicating attention to special needs, more informing and individually designed professional orientation. The only differences between professional orientation for adolescents with physical impairment and their peers are information they are provided and talks in regards with additional professional aid. There is also very little co-operation between professional workers that execute professional orientation and adolescent's parent. Those two groups rarely work together in meetings.
|
