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BACKGROUND As part of the
planning phase to establish career centres for the South African
Police Service, several career centres including tertiary
institutions and the SANDF were visited to observe their
respective practices. The career centre that suited our needs
the best, are Zululand Career Centre in Richard’s Bay, was
chosen to base our SAPS visual walk in career centres on.
The Career Quest used by the Zululand Career Centre and adapted
for the South African Police Service, is used as the heart of
the activities in the career centre. The Career Quest is a
self-directed, facilitation assisted process of information
based career exploration. During this process, the person
explores and processes information related to their own career
interests. The person makes his/her own decisions on where
his/her main career interests are clustered and then identifies
and explores specific career possibilities and games, related to
the different career fields that form part of the process.
INTRODUCTION The Career Centre supports
the concept of life management and the enhancement of education
by providing SAPS employees, teachers, youth leaders, learners,
women and unemployed youth with career information, and career
guidance, pertaining to careers in the SAPS.
Economic growth is dependent on the optimal development of all
the country’s resources. This is especially true for our youth.
The key to our success lies in empowering young people to join
the Service for a competitive career and to enhance the career
planning of SAPS employees. In order to
appropriately and effectively prepare the a youth for optimum
functioning within the SAPS labour market, one needs to address
the various needs and developmental requirements of that youth.
Firstly, a person should have access to relevant career
information on the Service, so that he or she might be able to
make informed, valid and responsible choices in terms of such a
career. TARGET POPULATION
The career centre was established to address the needs of senior
grade school learners, recent graduates, women, disabled people
and unemployed youth as well as personnel employed by the SAPS.
CAREER QUEST The Career Quest forms the
heart of the career centre programmes. It is a self-directed,
facilitator-assisted process of information-based career
exploration. During this process, the subject explores and
processes information related to their own career interests in
the SAPS. The subject makes his/her own decisions
on where his/her main career interests are clustered, and then
identifies and explores specific careers offered by the Service
related to these interests. The process culminates in the
subject choosing five possible careers offered by the Service.
The Career Quest is not a psychometric instrument. The subject
is not given feedback on aptitude, intelligence, personality,
interests or any other psychological dimension. Rather, it is a
process whereby the subject is given the opportunity to make
his/her own career decisions relating to the SAPS, by exposing
him/her to relevant information about his/her interests and how
these relate to the world of SAPS careers. Ultimately, the
results of the Career Quest rest on the subject’s judgements of
the information to which he/she was exposed. back to top
The Career Quest is based on the Career Guidance
Model of John Holland, who is often cited as the father of
modern career psychology and career guidance. Holland’s model is
based on six main clusters of career fields, with the careers in
each cluster revolving around one or more common themes. In the
Career Centre, each theme is identified by one of six colours as
follows:
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Green: Realistic type (“The Doer”) |
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Red: Investigative type (“The Thinker”) |
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Yellow: Artistic type (“The Creator”) |
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Blue: Social type (“The Helper”) |
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Orange: Enterprising type (“The Persuader”) |
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Purple: Conventional type (“The Organiser”) |
The Career Quest consists of three steps.
In Step 1, you read through the
descriptions of six different groups of people. You then have to
identify the three groups (three colours) with which you
identify the most. Then write this information down on the
provided worksheet called the Career Quest Questionnaire.
You can do it right now by referring to Step 1 as per
Annexure A (Career Quest Questionnaire)
after reading through Step one of the Career Quest and then
entering the three colours, one in each block provided.
During Step 2 of the Career Quest, you are presented with a list
of careers for each of the six colours. You must write down any
careers from the lists that you have identified that seems
interesting to you. Now write down the 5 careers you have chosen
under Step 2 of the Career Quest Questionnaire after you have
studied Step 2 of the Career Quest. During Step
3, you work through extensive career guides, corresponding to
the Step 2 lists, retrieving information on the SAPS careers
which you have identified. You can continue to complete your
Career Quest Questionnaire by studying the six coloured career
guides. Below is a brief outline of the type of
activities that can be used in each colour area: |
