The role of pedagogical technology parks in encouraging school students to pursue teaching and enhancing the appeal of teaching as a profession

Abstract

Pedagogical technology parks are an effective tool for the development of the education sector. They are modern infrastructure platforms providing a set of new high-demand services for education actors, which includes improved career guidance. The article describes the role of the parks in providing career guidance for school students and specifies the ways in which the resources of the parks may be used to improve the quality of career guidance. The author provides a list of services that the parks may offer to education actors in order to improve career guidance for school students.

The author concludes that increasing the effectiveness of career guidance requires networking between educational institutions of different levels of education. Various education actors should make proportionate contributions to career guidance activities. Pedagogical technology parks can be centers for career guidance work with school students to promote not only the teaching profession, but also the natural sciences and technology professions of the future. There are three vectors of career guidance activities that pedagogical technology parks may offer to school students: raising the awareness about professions, conducting career guidance diagnostics and providing career guidance counseling. The parks may work not only with school students, but also with teachers, mentors and other professionals interested in increasing the effectiveness of career guidance.

The author maintains that career guidance cannot be carried out autonomously by a pedagogical university: it requires a proportionate contribution from institutions of all levels of education and participation of economic and social organizations of the region.