“Work and Surroundings”: A Training to Enhance Career Curiosity, Self-Efficacy, and the Perception of Work and Decent Work in Adolescents

Abstract

The development of professional identity starts with childhood. In adolescence, individuals should have appropriate resources to make choices; high levels of self-efficacy and professional curiosity, as well as better representations of the concept of work and decent work, could support adolescents in their planning of the future. For this reason, we developed a training aimed at providing adolescents with resources of professional curiosity and self-efficacy, which would also increase their representation of the concepts of work and decent work. A longitudinal study compared a control group (n = 80) with an experimental group (n = 80). The second group participated in mainly qualitative career counseling activities and showed an improvement in the levels of professional curiosity and self-efficacy; moreover, after the training, the experimental group showed a better representation of work and decent work. Consequently, the training managed to improve the dimensions set out above. The results show that career counseling activities can help increase adolescent resources and increase their chances of finding a qualitatively good job.