Purposeful development of career management skills in the podologists’ study process

Improvement of the quality and attraction of vocational education is one of the priorities of education policy in the European Union; as a result demands also to the education of the health care specialists, including podologists, increase, paying more attention to purposefully set aims of the study programme, the organization of the study process and the planned learning outcomes. A study programme actually is the planning of the study process and content. Therefore the aims of the study programmes are closely connected with the processes and topicalities taking place in the society among which there is also the need for each specialist’s abilities to manage his/her own life career. The aims set in the study programme are implemented during the study process. At present the career management skills are considered to be the leading individual skills that help to plan, organize, manage and control the effective use of the internal and external resources of the individual in order to attain the aims set in life. This refers not only to the skills necessary to choose the direction of education and future work but also in the professional development and successful management of the personal life. The professional formation of the podologist’s career and the acquisition of the career management skills is topical already during their study process which is one of the planned learning outcomes. At present the formation of the career management skills in the study process of podologists is integrated indirectly. In order to explore the formation of podologists’ career management skills in a purposefully organized study process the aims, methods and the planned learning outcomes of the study programme “Podology” implemented in P. Stradiņš medical college of University of Latvia and two European podologists’ study programmes have been compared paying attention to the development of career management skills as the outcome of a purposeful pedagogical process. The aim of the article is to analyse the formation of podologists’ career management skills in the frame of a purposefully organized study process. Research shows that the main stress in podologs education is put on study process that has been directed to practice, which allows students to acquire the knowledge and skills that has been defined in study programms, and as well promotes development of carreer management skills that are necessary in further proffessional development.