AUTHOR=Chen Shi , Chen Huaruo , Ling Hairong , Gu Xueying TITLE=An Online Career Intervention for Promoting Chinese High School Students’ Career Readiness JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.815076 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.815076 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

To assist Chinese high school students in improving their career readiness and tackling career decision-making difficulties, we designed a synchronous online career intervention based on the Cognitive Information Processing (CIP) theory during the Covid-19 pandemic. The online career intervention consisted of a series of career courses to develop high school students’ knowledge and skills in career planning, career assessments for exploring their vocational interests and academic self-concept, and a database providing basic information about university majors. To evaluate the intervention’s effectiveness, 957 10th grade students were recruited in the study, 601 participants (girls = 227, boys = 324) were randomly assigned to the experimental group (online career intervention), and 356 (girls = 159, boys = 197) participants were randomly assigned to the control group (no any career interventions). All participants completed a pre- and post-intervention assessment of their career maturity, vocational identity and career decision-making difficulties. Results indicated that the online intervention significantly increased high school students’ career readiness and reduced their career decision-making difficulties. The practical implications of this research for online career interventions directed at Chinese high school students are also discussed.