1. THE DEVELOPING OF STUDENTS DECISION MAKING SKILLS JUKKA LERKKANEN 040609 IAEVG JYVÄSKYLÄ

2. Definition of the decision making skills Methods Results Conclusions CONTENT

4. Individual case- managed services Execution Valuing Synthesis Analysis Communication I’m choosing my next education I have reached my goals Difficulties in the beginning of the choice process Dependence on others Difficulties in committing to career choice Self-help services Brief-assisted academic services Brief-assisted peer-group services Jukka Lerkkanen 04/2009 Self-knowledge Opportunity knowledge

5. The aims of this study were to investigate 1) the amounts of dysfunctional educational and career thoughts and 2) the extent to which the dysfunctional thoughts are associated with the students' need for guidance and their use of counselling services

6. The target groups of this study were: – Students of university of applied sciences (N=667) – High School (N=231) – Vocational Institute (N=90) – Comprehensive school, secondery education Measure: – Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) (Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon & Saunders 1996) localised for the Finnish context (Lerkkanen 2002) METHODS

7. CTI TOTAL SCORE MSDN All0,940,381070 Comprehensive School 0,970,3382 High School1,060,39231 Vocational Institute 0,980,3990 University0,750,32667

8. DIFFICULTIES IN THE BEGINNING OF THE CHOICE PROCESS MSDN All1,270,491068 Comprehensive School 1,310,4282 High School1,420,49230 Vocational Institute 1,250,5389 University1,110,48667

9. DIFFICULTIES IN COMMITTING TO CAREER CHOICE MSDN All0,730,471070 Comprehensive School 0,760,4382 High School0,900,52231 Vocational Institute 0,750,4990 University0,500,36667

10. DEPENDENCE ON OTHERS MSDN All0,750,431069 Comprehensive School 0,780,3982 High School0,760,43230 Vocational Institute 0,840,4890 University0,620,37667

11. CTI MEANS IN DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES

12. THE WILLINGNESS FOR GUIDANCE

13. THE WILLINGNESS AND REAL NEED FOR GUIDANCE The willingness for guidance: The number of females was 1,5 times higher than males. The real need for guidance: CTI found out a significant number of students, who were not willing to get guidance, who were not able to find guidance or who had not gumption to meet counsellor, but they had serious problems in some dimensions of CTI. In the group of males more than half of the problems were hidden without use of CTI.

14. The amount of dysfunctional thoughts were highest in the group of High School students. Also they indicated the high level needs for guidance. Therefore the guidance and counselling in Finnish high schools needs for more research and development. The level of high school conselling services had connection to drop out rates in tertiary education (Lerkkanen 2002). Need-based guidance and counselling services: The CTI results were given information how to develop services better and more cost-effective Various ways implemented guidance and counselling services: self-help services, brief-assisted services, individual case- managed services and the external network CONCLUSIONS

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