Mary Flaherty
Question:63 Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Education if she has satisfied herself that career guidance courses give sufficient attention to the equality issue in view of the Government's commitment to gender balance and equity.
Written Answers. - Career Guidance Courses.
To qualify as a guidance counsellor in a second level school, one, usually, must have taken a post-graduate course in guidance, in addition to being qualified as a post-primary teacher. In the main, the training here has been done by the universities.
While these courses have many common subject areas, each college may have, with good reason, its own preferences and emphases in relation to parts of the course. Each course is, therefore, different.
It is hardly necessary for me to lay out in detail the topics that make up such courses. I can say, however, that they are put together in the light of the best academic thinking available and the views of the others involved in providing guidance services. The content of the courses has evolved in conjunction with changes in society and the world of work.
As to my being satisfied with the attention being given to any particular theme, the following information has been given to me: (1) the ratio of female to male lecturers is skewed in favour of female; (2) the ratio of female to male course participants is skewed in favour of female; (3) where possible, gender specific language is not used — guidelines for students have been provided on this topic; (4) some questions on the examination paper relate to equality issue; (5) where an equality issue emerges in any subject area, it is taken for discussion; (6) the practice of guidance is underpinned by a code of ethics — the concept of the equality of persons is a central part of this code; in one university, the course handbook invites the students, who are teachers, to note how they are treated in the pupil role while attending the courses; (7) the course organisers are active parties to overall university guidelines on a number of equality issues, e.g. policy on equal opportunity, guidelines on sexual harassment, advice on the giving of feedback by students to teachers-lecturers.
In addition to basic training courses, a great number of inservice courses on guidance have been organised and delivered by officials in my Department. In all of them, the question of equality is attended to. In addition, my Department has been involved in programmes which have dealt specifically with equality, e.g. the Futures programme, Career Vision videos.
In the light of the above information, it is clear that those who are involved in the provision of basic training courses and in inservice education in career guidance are actively concerned about the equality issue.