Young people's education and career pathways are shaped by interconnected academic, social, economic and personal factors. Effective support therefore requires coordinated interventions that connect career development with appropriate psycho-social, family, educational and community support. An integrated approach can help young people understand their capabilities, make informed career and entrepreneurial choices, navigate critical transitions and access the specialised support they require to build sustainable pathways into further education, work or entrepreneurship.
Written: 12 February 2025
Young people’s ability to progress through education and transition successfully into further learning, employment or entrepreneurship is influenced by a combination of academic, social, economic, family and personal factors. School dropout is therefore not simply an education challenge; it can affect young people’s longer-term participation in higher education, skills development and the labour market.
Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey highlighted multiple reasons for school non-attendance among young people, including family responsibilities, lack of interest in education, poor academic performance, financial constraints, illness and disability (Statistics South Africa, 2022). These different factors demonstrate why interventions aimed at supporting young people need to recognise the complexity of their circumstances rather than addressing individual challenges in isolation.
In engagements between the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and the Department of Basic Education in 2023, attention was similarly given to partnerships between government departments, civil-society organisations and community stakeholders in responding to learner dropout. Proposed interventions included different teaching and learning approaches, psycho-social support, the General Education Certificate and strengthened monitoring of school attendance.
Career Development as Part of an Integrated Support System
Psycho-social support plays an important role in responding to the emotional, social and psychological circumstances that can affect young people's participation in education and their future development. However, young people must also be supported to understand where their education can lead, what capabilities they possess and what pathways are available to them.
Career development therefore has an important complementary role.
Career development can help young people identify their talents, strengths and aspirations; understand education, career and entrepreneurial pathways; make informed choices; and develop greater clarity about their future direction. This is particularly important at critical transition points when decisions about subjects, further education, employment and entrepreneurship can have longer-term consequences.
Career development should not replace psycho-social support, counselling or other specialised interventions. Rather, these different forms of support should operate as complementary components of a coordinated youth-development system, with each delivered by appropriately equipped practitioners and institutions.
An Integrated Support Framework for Young People
A holistic approach could bring together several complementary forms of support:
- Career Development and Coaching: Supporting young people to discover their talents, strengths and aspirations; explore career and entrepreneurial pathways; make informed education and career choices; and develop realistic pathways towards their future.
- Psycho-Social Support and Counselling: Providing access to appropriately qualified professionals who can support young people experiencing emotional, behavioural, social or psychological difficulties.
- Life and Personal Development: Strengthening capabilities such as decision-making, problem-solving, communication, resilience and personal responsibility that support young people as they navigate education, work and wider life transitions.
- Family and Parental Engagement: Equipping parents and families to understand and support young people's education, career choices and developmental pathways.
- Mentoring, Peer and Community Support: Connecting young people with mentors, positive peer networks, community resources and opportunities that can reinforce their development and broaden their exposure.
- Referral Pathways: Establishing clear mechanisms through which young people requiring specialised support can be connected to appropriate health, mental-health, social-development, substance-abuse, vocational or other professional services.
The value of such an approach lies not in expecting one programme or organisation to provide every intervention, but in ensuring that different forms of support connect around the needs and developmental pathways of the young person.
Strengthening the Education-to-Work Pathway
Career development becomes particularly important when young people cannot see a meaningful connection between education and their future.
Supporting young people to understand their capabilities and explore realistic career and entrepreneurial pathways can help them make more informed decisions about subjects, qualifications, further education and work. Parents and families should also be included where appropriate, because they can play an important role in supporting these decisions.
This support should begin before young people leave school and continue across critical transition points. Career development is therefore not simply about choosing an occupation; it contributes to a broader process through which young people develop the self-understanding, information, decision-making capability and adaptability required to navigate changing education and labour-market environments.
A Coordinated Institutional Response
The interconnected nature of young people's needs requires collaboration across the institutions and actors responsible for their development.
Government departments, schools and education institutions, business, civil society, families, communities, career-development practitioners and specialised psycho-social professionals each have different but complementary responsibilities. Effective collaboration requires more than the existence of multiple programmes. It requires coordination, appropriate referral pathways and clarity about the contribution of different actors across the young person's developmental journey.
A holistic response to youth development should therefore connect psycho-social support with education, career development and pathways into further learning, employment and entrepreneurship. By strengthening these connections, young people can be better supported not only to respond to immediate difficulties, but also to understand their capabilities, make informed choices and build sustainable pathways into adulthood.
Goshen's Contribution
At Goshen Business and Career Advisory Services, our contribution is situated specifically within career and capability development. Our career-development programmes support young people at critical stages of the education-to-work journey to understand their capabilities, make informed choices, navigate changing labour-market conditions and build sustainable pathways into careers or entrepreneurship.
We recognise that career development forms part of a wider ecosystem of support. Strengthening outcomes for young people therefore requires career-development interventions to connect appropriately with families, education institutions, employers, communities and specialised support services so that young people are supported across the different dimensions that shape their development.