TOPICALITY OF CAREER GUIDANCE AT SCHOOLS FOR PROMOTING OF STUDENTS' PROFESSIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION

Professional self-determination is an important issue for anyone in the course of a lifetime. The dynamic nature of modern social and economic circumstances makes the issue even more topical. It determines the necessity to improve the career development support system currently existing in the field of education, where various specialists, by purposeful and systematic cooperation, help students in setting their career goals, understating the changeable working environment, seeing various alternatives and making deliberate career decisions. The career support is important as it helps learners choose a suitable professional sphere, profession and educational institution for continuation of their self-improvement upon acquiring of general secondary education. The aim of the research is to provide a scientific basis for topicality of career guidance implementation in school educational environment in order to promote the students' professional self-determination. In Latvia, a number of career development guidance systems, including counselling and student career support methods and forms are being created and approbated in the educational environment, focusing on the career support curriculum and principles, which would ensure a purposeful implementation of students' professional self-determination at schools.