Career guidance helps students explore careers based on their interests and skills in order to choose the right career path. It involves assessing work demands and an individual's potential. Factors like psychology, society, economics, and culture influence career choices. Approaches to career guidance include mentorship, volunteering, networking, and training. Theories like Super's career development stages and Holland's interest model provide frameworks for career guidance. Social Cognitive Career Theory examines how career interests, goals, and satisfaction develop. Mental health impacts thinking, feelings, and actions. Factors like stress, experiences, and genetics influence it. Guidance personnel can promote positive mental health through counseling, reducing stigma, and creating supportive work environments.

1. GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING
UNIT-II
CAREER GUIDANCE AND MENTAL HEALTH
Dr.N.SASIKUMAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Education
Alagappa University
Karaikudi-630003

2. CAREER GUIDANCE
4 Career guidance helps plan occupational goals and take
actionable steps. Career guidance is a type of counseling
undertaken by professionals to identify and explore the most
suitable careers and occupations to start their career in the
right direction.
4 Students need career guidance to explore and plan for future
career endeavors based on their individual interests, skills and
values. Participation in career guidance enhances linkage of
academic and career experiences and thus, improves career
preparation and management.
4 The basic purpose of career guidance is to acquaint individuals
with their occupational choices. It is a process that involves
the work demand and potential of the individual. Thus, you need
not stress anymore about the short term and long-term goals.

3. FACTORS AFFECTING VOCATIONAL CHOICE
4 The choice of a job or profession. A realistic process
of this type frequently starts during the teenage years,
with an analysis of strengths, personal interests, and
hinderances in association with a chosen vocational
framework.
4 Occupational choice is affected by four factors:
psychological, social, economic, and cultural. An
individual's job choice is molded by their family,
morals, values, intelligence, abilities, finances, and
many other factors.
4 The most important things are job description,
required skills and education, salary, career outlook.

4. APPROACHES TO CAREER GUIDANCE
Mentorship,
Volunteerism,
Networking, and
Training and education.

5. Super’s Theory of Career Development
 Super states that in making a vocational choice
individuals are expressing their self-concept, or
understanding of self, which evolves over time. People
seek career satisfaction through work roles in which they
can express themselves and further implement and
develop their self-concept.
 Super's theory is a combination of stage development and
social role theory (Super et. al, 1996), which posits that
people progress through five stages during the career
development process, including growth, exploration,
establishment, maintenance, and disengagement.

7. Holland's Model of Interest and its
Application in Selection of Career
4 John Holland's view that career choice and career adjustment
represent an extension of a person's personality. People
express themselves, their interests and values, through their work
choices and experience.
4 Holland emphasizes that people who choose to work in an
environment similar to their personality type are more likely to be
successful and satisfied. This idea is important as it shows
Holland's theory can be flexible, incorporating combination types.
4 Assessments using Holland Personality Styles link vocational
interests to job families. Assessments use a two or three-letter
RIASEC or Holland code. Different assessments provide
information on the relationship between job personalities and
key characteristics, college majors, hobbies, abilities, and
related careers.

10. Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT)
 Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) was developed to
explain how individuals form career interests, set
vocational goals, persist in work environments, and attain
job satisfaction.
 Drawing on Bandura's three-factor causal model, SCCT
constructs a three-factor interaction model of career, in which
Self-efficacy (Can I do this?), outcome expectations (what
will happen if I do this?) and personal goals (how much do
I want to do this?) are the three core concepts (Buthelezi et
al., 2010).
 According to SCCT's choice model, people develop goals to
pursue academic and career-relevant activities that are
consistent with their interests as well as with their self-
efficacy and outcome expectations.

12. Concept of Mental Health
 Mental health includes our emotional, psychological,
and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and
act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to
others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is
important at every stage of life, from childhood and
adolescence through adulthood.
 psychological well-being - The Ryff Scale is based on six
factors: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal
growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life,
and self-acceptance.

13. Factors Affecting Mental Health
Stress, life events, past experiences and
genet- ics all play a part in determining our
mental health. Student life exposes in-
dividuals to risk factors affecting mental
health including financial worries, periods
of transition, substance use, parental
pressure, culture shock and
disconnection from previous supports.

14. What causes mental health problems?
childhood abuse, trauma, or neglect.
social isolation or loneliness.
experiencing discrimination and stigma,
including racism.
social disadvantage, poverty or debt.
bereavement (losing someone close to you)
severe or long-term stress.
having a long-term physical health
condition.

16. Role of guidance personnel in
promoting positive mental health
Mental health counselling can help a
person understand their treatment
options and help better manage a variety
of mental health conditions like
depression, eating disorders, sleep
disorders, anxiety and other issues.

17. How to promote mental health in
the workplace
Create clear workplace guidelines for health
and safety. ...
Establish an employee assistance program
and talk about it frequently. ...
Reduce the stigma associated with mental
health issues or concerns. ...
Provide supervisors and managers with
mental health training.