On the way towards career awareness: Interview with graduates

Abstract

Considering the problems; lack of recognition of hearing-impaired employees, facing difficulties in work environments, and requirements of work places, it can be said that raising awareness of hearing-impaired students in vocational education to inform them about working life and familiarize them with work places is important. For that reason, it is necessary to provide settings and opportunities, which bring graduates and students together and support knowledge transfer between them. Suggested action research aims to examine the process of “Interview with Graduates” activity, which is one of the important steps of career awareness study, conducted with hearing-impaired university students. The research was carried out with the participation of senior students and graduates of Anadolu University, School for the Handicapped, in 2015-2016 fall semester. As a results of the research, it has been determined that “Interview with Graduates” activity had positive effects on the improvement of hearing-impaired students’ awareness and hearing impaired students were informed about things to do after graduation, jobs that can be applied, problems to be encountered, procedures for applying jobs, and work places