‘Looking to the Future and the University in an Inclusive and Sustainable Way’: A Career Intervention for High School Students

• Main Authors: Sara Santilli, Ilaria di Maggio, Maria Cristina Ginevra, Laura Nota, Salvatore Soresi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-10-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: career intervention; inclusion; sustainability
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/9048

Career guidance needs new perspectives, considering the challenges that characterize our future, and it cannot exist without solidarity, inclusion, and attention to environmental challenges. It should also positively influence stakeholders to invest in the values of the 2030 Agenda recently proposed by the United Nations, and its encouragement to think about some of the emergencies that new generations will have to face in the future. Based on these premises, we designed and validated a sustainable career guidance intervention for high school students. The participants (N = 75) were assigned to an experimental or a control group. All of the participants answered questions pre- and post-intervention to measure career adaptability, training, future investment, and wishes about the feature. The students from the sustainable career intervention group increased their post-intervention scores on control, curiosity, confidence, training, and future investment. They also indicated future wishes that take into more account attention to relationships and social challenges.