The computer paradigm in vocational guidance

The technological advances in last decades have transformed the external resources of Vocational Counseling, Occupational Information and assessment of clients. Most computer systems follow a behaviorist-cognitive approach. However, the use of vocational counseling software is not exclusive to one conceptual approach. Computers are introduced in education from primary school; counselors and other educators are expected to use those systems. The attitude of counselors ranges from enthusiastic acceptance to complete refusal. Many counselors fear that computers will replace them. An underlying theory holds that counseling is based on the counselor-client interaction. A computer- client interaction cannot be considered vocational counseling. Counseling has five basic aims: prevention, assistance, education and development, service of diverse groups and research. The most relevant trends in computer-based counseling are: tests and questionnaires based on computers, adaptive development, computarized information, vocational counseling systems and research. Basic aims and the potential role of computers in achieving them are discussed. Present vocational counselors can use the technology of computers to link the past of our profession to its promising future. In view of these premises we have developed two computer systems that assist the vocational counseling process: "Professional Interests Questionnaire, Computer Version", and "Computer-based System of Vocational Counseling".

Counselors' education in complex contexts with special reference to Latin America

This paper makes reference to the importance lying, at present, on the professional education of counselors. It goes through the history of the different pre-scientific and scientific stages of counseling, and it points out the main representatives in Latin America . It also shows the current state of the specialization, taking as an antecedent some in-depth, widely encompassing research carried out in the European Union in this area. Coincidences and differences are exposed here in terms of professional profiles, university degrees, institutional dependence, up-dating processes and modes of intervention. The current state of postgraduate studies at university is also touched upon, and the different proposals for further education in Latin America are analyzed as well as their dependence upon an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Educational Sciences or Psycho-pedagogy. Finally, this paper places counseling within the complexity and the need to provide all-encompassing and integrative answers which require a wide and deep enough education so as to answer all these issues and problems.

La orientación en América Latina : Consideraciones generales acerca de los criterios de coherencia, cooperación y calidad

La Orientación en América Latina, como campo de formación profesional y en comparación con Europa y Estados Unidos, es una actividad de reciente aceptación en los medios académicos. La misma se ha caracterizado por una constante evolución en su afán de adaptarse a los nuevos cambios y transformaciones sociales, políticas y económicas que se suceden en el continente latinoamericano. En esta ponencia se presenta un panorama general acerca de la Orientación en América Latina. Las principales consideraciones formuladas se relacionan con cuatro dimensiones: a) la dimensión política pública, donde se presentan la situación actual y las propuestas al respecto; b) la dimensión contextual que hace referencia a la formación del orientador y los diferentes escenarios de acción; c) la dimensión organizacional que se relaciona con la provisión de este servicio, y d) la dimensión metodológica donde se desarrollan los principales aspectos relacionados con la práctica de la Orientación.

De siderúrgica a turística : Breve historia ocupacional de la ciudad de Palpalá (Jujuy-Argentina)

The growth of Palpalá City (Province of Jujuy, argentina) since the 1940s, is linked to altos Hornos Zapla (ahz) the state-owned steel and iron company whose privatization in the early 1990s as part of the external three-sided opening, privatizations and deregulation which characterized convertibility, meant large changes in the local economic structure. In the 1950s, this city was identified by the town hall as 'mother of Industries' ('madre de Industrias'), whereas today, the municipal slogan is 'City of Tourism' ('Ciudad Turística'). Recovering the recent occupational history of this city meets the need to know the labor and socioeconomic reality of this urban area in the Province of Jujuy, about which information is rare. Although it is included in the Home Survey?s sample, it is shown in blocks, making the information very limited. It is paradigmaticin this city to study the means chosen to try to overcome the traumatic shock that ahz's privatization meant, to analyze the policies developed and evaluate their results, some years after their application. In Palpalá, a local development strategy was applied, with a strong impulse to micro-businesses, following, somehow, the model postulated at national level, what will allow us to know the local reality better, as well as the regional and national realities for its characteristics. The methodology used in this work ('From iron and steel industry to tourist city. Brief occupational history of Palpala city) was the bibliographic research of the rare existing studies, interviews to qualified informers as well as the use of secondary data sources, such as data from different national Censuses. To conclude, it can be said that due to the crisis of the 1990s and its state reducing plan, those who suffered its consequences less are, paradoxically, those who are still related to state jobs. In Palpalá, when ahz was privatized and the buyer company failed to fulfill its contract duly, leaving a great number of the local people unemployed, it was the municipal government who had to assume the responsibility of an answer ( in this case, through training, credit and/or counseling to micro-businessmen) In the last years, however, the possibility to work in informal activities has become important in Palpalá, with a high percentage of people working in city fairs selling different kinds of goods. although the change in the model in the recent years has allowed the reactivation in different areas, a preliminary evaluation is that the improvement does not seem to have reached the core of excluded and marginalized of the previous decade

The computer paradigm in vocational guidance

The technological advances in last decades have transformed the external resources of Vocational Counseling, Occupational Information and assessment of clients. Most computer systems follow a behaviorist-cognitive approach. However, the use of vocational counseling software is not exclusive to one conceptual approach. Computers are introduced in education from primary school; counselors and other educators are expected to use those systems. The attitude of counselors ranges from enthusiastic acceptance to complete refusal. Many counselors fear that computers will replace them. An underlying theory holds that counseling is based on the counselor-client interaction. A computer- client interaction cannot be considered vocational counseling. Counseling has five basic aims: prevention, assistance, education and development, service of diverse groups and research. The most relevant trends in computer-based counseling are: tests and questionnaires based on computers, adaptive development, computarized information, vocational counseling systems and research. Basic aims and the potential role of computers in achieving them are discussed. Present vocational counselors can use the technology of computers to link the past of our profession to its promising future. In view of these premises we have developed two computer systems that assist the vocational counseling process: "Professional Interests Questionnaire, Computer Version", and "Computer-based System of Vocational Counseling".

Counselors' education in complex contexts with special reference to Latin America

This paper makes reference to the importance lying, at present, on the professional education of counselors. It goes through the history of the different pre-scientific and scientific stages of counseling, and it points out the main representatives in Latin America . It also shows the current state of the specialization, taking as an antecedent some in-depth, widely encompassing research carried out in the European Union in this area. Coincidences and differences are exposed here in terms of professional profiles, university degrees, institutional dependence, up-dating processes and modes of intervention. The current state of postgraduate studies at university is also touched upon, and the different proposals for further education in Latin America are analyzed as well as their dependence upon an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Educational Sciences or Psycho-pedagogy. Finally, this paper places counseling within the complexity and the need to provide all-encompassing and integrative answers which require a wide and deep enough education so as to answer all these issues and problems.

La orientación en América Latina : Consideraciones generales acerca de los criterios de coherencia, cooperación y calidad

La Orientación en América Latina, como campo de formación profesional y en comparación con Europa y Estados Unidos, es una actividad de reciente aceptación en los medios académicos. La misma se ha caracterizado por una constante evolución en su afán de adaptarse a los nuevos cambios y transformaciones sociales, políticas y económicas que se suceden en el continente latinoamericano. En esta ponencia se presenta un panorama general acerca de la Orientación en América Latina. Las principales consideraciones formuladas se relacionan con cuatro dimensiones: a) la dimensión política pública, donde se presentan la situación actual y las propuestas al respecto; b) la dimensión contextual que hace referencia a la formación del orientador y los diferentes escenarios de acción; c) la dimensión organizacional que se relaciona con la provisión de este servicio, y d) la dimensión metodológica donde se desarrollan los principales aspectos relacionados con la práctica de la Orientación.

The computer paradigm in vocational guidance

The technological advances in last decades have transformed the external resources of Vocational Counseling, Occupational Information and assessment of clients. Most computer systems follow a behaviorist-cognitive approach. However, the use of vocational counseling software is not exclusive to one conceptual approach. Computers are introduced in education from primary school; counselors and other educators are expected to use those systems. The attitude of counselors ranges from enthusiastic acceptance to complete refusal. Many counselors fear that computers will replace them. An underlying theory holds that counseling is based on the counselor-client interaction. A computer- client interaction cannot be considered vocational counseling. Counseling has five basic aims: prevention, assistance, education and development, service of diverse groups and research. The most relevant trends in computer-based counseling are: tests and questionnaires based on computers, adaptive development, computarized information, vocational counseling systems and research. Basic aims and the potential role of computers in achieving them are discussed. Present vocational counselors can use the technology of computers to link the past of our profession to its promising future. In view of these premises we have developed two computer systems that assist the vocational counseling process: "Professional Interests Questionnaire, Computer Version", and "Computer-based System of Vocational Counseling".

De siderúrgica a turística : Breve historia ocupacional de la ciudad de Palpalá (Jujuy-Argentina)

The growth of Palpalá City (Province of Jujuy, argentina) since the 1940s, is linked to altos Hornos Zapla (ahz) the state-owned steel and iron company whose privatization in the early 1990s as part of the external three-sided opening, privatizations and deregulation which characterized convertibility, meant large changes in the local economic structure. In the 1950s, this city was identified by the town hall as 'mother of Industries' ('madre de Industrias'), whereas today, the municipal slogan is 'City of Tourism' ('Ciudad Turística'). Recovering the recent occupational history of this city meets the need to know the labor and socioeconomic reality of this urban area in the Province of Jujuy, about which information is rare. Although it is included in the Home Survey?s sample, it is shown in blocks, making the information very limited. It is paradigmaticin this city to study the means chosen to try to overcome the traumatic shock that ahz's privatization meant, to analyze the policies developed and evaluate their results, some years after their application. In Palpalá, a local development strategy was applied, with a strong impulse to micro-businesses, following, somehow, the model postulated at national level, what will allow us to know the local reality better, as well as the regional and national realities for its characteristics. The methodology used in this work ('From iron and steel industry to tourist city. Brief occupational history of Palpala city) was the bibliographic research of the rare existing studies, interviews to qualified informers as well as the use of secondary data sources, such as data from different national Censuses. To conclude, it can be said that due to the crisis of the 1990s and its state reducing plan, those who suffered its consequences less are, paradoxically, those who are still related to state jobs. In Palpalá, when ahz was privatized and the buyer company failed to fulfill its contract duly, leaving a great number of the local people unemployed, it was the municipal government who had to assume the responsibility of an answer ( in this case, through training, credit and/or counseling to micro-businessmen) In the last years, however, the possibility to work in informal activities has become important in Palpalá, with a high percentage of people working in city fairs selling different kinds of goods. although the change in the model in the recent years has allowed the reactivation in different areas, a preliminary evaluation is that the improvement does not seem to have reached the core of excluded and marginalized of the previous decade