On the 29th April, 2016 we held a career guidance day in Ipolyság, in the Collectively Directed Catholic School of Ferenc Fegyverneki. This career guidance day was exceptional, because this time we introduced a brand new initiative, which is called “Perspective”.
The Perspective Program was created to reinforce the Hungarian secondary educational institutes in the southern part of Slovakia and support the creation of a strong community around them. Marianna Pathó, who is also one of the trainer candidates at TANDEM, as well as teachers of the Collectively Directed Catholic School of Ferenc Fegyverneki were the ones, who turned this idea into a reality and made it possible to launch the first program in Ipolyság.
The Perspective Program consists of two parts: the Alumni Network and the Career Choice – Mentoring Program. The objective of the Alumni Network is that the former students – after finishing school – won’t lose their link to their school. To make the program work easier, a website was created, where the former students can meet online and share their experiences, stories from their lifes after leaving school. The Career Choice – Mentoring Program is there to help those students, who are still attending school, who did not make their decision yet about how they want to continue their education and career path. This way the students are able to get in contact with mentors, who were once the students of that same school. They can ask those mentors, who agreed to share their experience and knowledge, to tell them more about their everyday life as a certain professional.
In the morning, students were introduced to topics like planning their future, choosing a career, they were made conscious of their strengths, could give feedback to each other within the class, and thanks to the trainers of TANDEM got introduced to the programs of the afternoon. At noon the school director, Dezső Pálfy explained to the participants – together with Marianna Pathó – the prospects of the Perspective Program.
In the afternoon, students could decide on their own, which programs they want to try from the eight activities about career choice and planning their future. The “Living Library” was very popular again, this time with 20 professionals, each representing different jobs, and most of them had attended this high school. The students can borrow these “living books”, professionals to have a short personal conversation about what the difficulties, delights about that certain profession are, how they live their everyday life. They could also test their abilities at the “Job interview-Try out”, where they were given feedback and advice, so that in the future they can be prepared for a job interview. The “Individual Counselling” gave them an opportunity for a personal conversation to clarify questions, which were connected to their decision making. For those, who like to create things, there was a “Creative Stand”, where they could make a motivation pie, or collect those things, which motivate them, and they also got tips, how to write an exceptional CV. We answered their questions about university education, admission, university entrance process at the “Info Stand”. We believe that our thoughts have a power to create our future, so at the “Forepicture with a Diploma” stand we took a photo of the students in a gown, with a diploma in their hand. Aside from that they could partake in a life-sized board game, called “Have a smart college entrance!”, where they got an insight into the university life. Also they could try the “Lifeline – Ropeline” game, where the challenges of life were simulated with different symbols, which helped them get a better and deeper understanding for themselves.