AI career guidance application for students from grade 4

This is an activity under a program combining capacity assessment and career counseling operated by educational agencies, scheduled to take place in November and maintained annually.

Dr. Le Thi My Ha, Director of SEAMEO CELLL, delivered a speech at the launch of the CELLLO program.

PHOTO: NGOC LONG

This morning, October 16, the SEAMEO Regional Center for Lifelong Learning (SEAMEO CELLL) in collaboration with the Southern Center for Education and Training Development (Ministry of Education and Training) organized an international workshop on "Program for assessing learners' competencies, career counseling and lifelong learning development for high school students" (CELLLO). This is a program to assess the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which will be deployed from 2022 and has just been officially launched.

The program will be implemented first in Vietnam and is expected to expand to a number of Southeast Asian countries where SEAMEO CELLL partner centers are located, according to Dr. Le Thi My Ha, Director of SEAMEO CELLL.

Combine personal competency assessment with self- discovery results

Sharing at the event, Dr. Sai Cong Hong, President and Director of the Institute for Testing and Quality Assessment of Education (Association of Universities and Colleges of Vietnam), informed that the career orientation picture in Vietnam and in the world has many similarities. As in the US, research shows that only 15% of high school students across the US receive full information about their post-graduation path, from choosing a major to going to university, vocational training, and even joining the army.

Meanwhile, according to a report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2020, each year about 30% of university students worldwide drop out or change majors within the first two years. Similarly, in Vietnam, every year 25-30% of first- and second-year university students drop out or change majors, and 20-25% of vocational school students drop out after the first year, according to some domestic studies.

"The common reason is that you receive very little information during the career orientation process," said Mr. Hong.

Based on the above reality, in recent years, Vietnam has accelerated career guidance and streaming, notably making experiential activities - career guidance a subject taught at secondary and high schools. However, there are not many tools to help learners discover their interests and career trends, and the CELLLO program is designed to "fill" this gap, according to Dr. Hong.

According to Dr. Sai Cong Hong, Vietnam in particular and the world in general are facing many challenges in the process of career guidance for students.

PHOTO: NGOC LONG

The difference between the CELLLO program and other career guidance toolkits is that it combines personal capacity assessment with the results of students' self-discovery, helping them choose a career that suits both their capacity and interests. This approach avoids the situation where students have to change majors or drop out of school because their capacity does not meet the requirements of the vocational training program.

In addition, this program also builds a data warehouse to support teachers, counselors and parents on their career guidance journey for students in addition to the data set CELLLO provides to students.

Dr. Sai Cong Hong noted that the assessment must be done many times, at many different stages to determine the most accurate capacity of the student, then it can be combined with in-depth career counseling. Career counseling at the secondary level also needs to integrate the selection of subject combinations at the high school level.

Career guidance by AI

According to SEAMEO CELLL, the CELLLO program applies to students from grades 4 to 12, in which each level will participate in different types of competency assessments in accordance with the current education program. In particular, middle and high school students are given additional questionnaires to self-assess their personality and career interests.

This questionnaire is based on Holland cipher theory and has been adapted to suit the context in Vietnam and the region.

On the other hand, AI technology is applied in evaluating results, scoring, and analyzing learner data.

Associate Professor Sim Soo Kheng, working at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, said that AI is creating more opportunities for students to receive career counseling.

PHOTO: NGOC LONG

As this is a long-term program, students who participate in the first year will receive independent results of the assessment and questionnaire as a baseline. In subsequent years, they will receive career counseling based on the analysis of the assessment results in relation to the self-assessment results in the questionnaire.

Associate Professor Sim Soo Kheng, Director of the Center for Learning Innovation and Workplace Environment at the Institute for Lifelong Learning (Singapore University of Social Sciences), said that career counseling is becoming increasingly important, especially in the context of technological development and during a person's working life, he said, people can go through three or four career changes, according to some studies.

"Career counseling has always required a lot of human resources and time, because it often operates in a 1:1 format. But if we take advantage of AI, we can shorten the time it takes for students to access career counseling services. This is a good sign," Ms. Kheng shared.

Talking to Thanh Nien on the sidelines of the event, Mr. Mai Tze Woei, Director of COGNOTIV Company (Singapore), emphasized that AI is not only limited to tools like ChatGPT or other large language models, but also has many branches such as neural network, rule-based, deep learning...

“AI has no limits, it's about what part of it you want to apply in education,” he said.

Mr. Mai Tze Woei, Director of COGNOTIV Company (Singapore), shared about the technology factor, especially AI application, in the CELLLO program.

PHOTO: NGOC LONG

One issue that Mr. Woei emphasized is that in the age of AI, the relationship between skills and knowledge is "changing very rapidly." He gave an example that in the past, when working in finance or accounting, we did not need to have an understanding of AI. However, the picture has completely reversed in recent years.

"AI is now integrated into most professional fields and industries. In some countries, when analyzing career fields, it is found that some professions tend to decline, while AI-related industries develop in the opposite direction," Mr. Woei informed.

And in the field of career guidance alone, AI can now suggest to users the necessary skills to apply for a certain job based on advantages and disadvantages, as well as quickly synthesize and select the needs and requirements of that job in the labor market.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ung-dung-ai-huong-nghiep-cho-hoc-sinh-tu-lop-4-185251016190141966.htm