Career-guidance assistant - a knowledge based systems approach

Abstract

A study, done as part of this research, and detailed later in the report, concluded that there is a mismatch between the careers most high school graduates choose and the ones of their natural interest. Appearing in a report later in the paper, are results of a separate study that concluded that one of the main reasons why people are later dissatisfied in their vocations is uninformed choice of vocation immediately after school. Interviews with Ministry of Education (Kenya) officials and career guidance teachers confirmed that students are simply given the careers booklet with university courses, their prerequisite subjects and cut-off points, instead of career guidance and counseling. This is due to limited skilled human and time resources. This problem may be minimized by the use of an Expert System that would store the specialized knowledge of the career counselors and dispense this knowledge in under thirty minutes to a high school graduate. There is, clearly lack of a quality and cost-effective Career Guidance Model. This report presents results and analysis of the studies mentioned above, the process of identifying desirable activities in the career guidance process and the integration of those activities into a career guidance model using Expert Sy.S):""e"~fos,r easy and quick querying by a high school graduate. Based on the proposed model •and prototype, an application may be constructed to provide instantaneous career guidance to high school graduates.