Background: South African schools have been severely impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. State-imposed restrictions to mitigate the spread of the infection have significantly limited direct interpersonal contact, curtailing the existing career guidance and counselling activities in schools. Crucially, in low-income settings, the social distancing regulations implied that in a year of increasing anxiety and uncertainty, many high school learners would have had to make important career-related decisions with limited or no tacit career guidance.Objectives: In response to these challenges, this study developed a self-directed career guidance intervention to provide continued career guidance support for Grade 9 learners amidst the unfolding global pandemic.Method: A cross-sectional mixed-methods design was employed to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of the intervention amongst a sample of 498 learners across eight high schools in the Cape Winelands district, Western Cape province, South Africa.Results: Favourable quantitative results were obtained assessing learners’ experiences of participating in the intervention and on the perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. Participants reported a mean score of 41.25 (out of 50) for acceptability of the intervention. In addition, they reported a mean score of 17.1 (out of 20) for perceived impact of the intervention on their career preparedness. In terms of feasibility, qualitative findings revealed that the intervention improved learners’ self-knowledge and career directionality.Conclusion: The mixed-methods results confirm the feasibility and utility of implementing a self-directed career guidance intervention amongst secondary school learners. Whilst learners reported positive evaluations of the self-directed career guidance booklet, they also expressed the need for one-on-one or group engagement with the intervention content.

The South African government’s COVID-19 pandemic risk mitigation strategies significantly limited social contact, which necessitated a novel approach to existing face-to-face career guidance practices. The Grade 9 Career Guidance Project, originally developed as a group-based career development intervention, required radical adaptation into a self-directed, manualized format to offer career guidance to Grade 9 learners from low-income communities amid a global pandemic. The adaptation and continuation of the project was deemed essential as secondary school learners in low-income communities have limited career guidance support. Furthermore, a close collaboration with the teachers at eight resource-constrained South African secondary schools was vital for successful implementation. To assess the success of the adaptation to a self-directed format, a mixed-methods design was employed, and Life Orientation teachers’ evaluative feedback was solicited (n = 11). Favorable quantitative results were obtained; majority of teachers agreed that learners enjoyed the booklet (manualized format) and that it was deemed an adequate substitute to the previous contact-based format of the Career Guidance Project. This was also confirmed by the qualitative findings revealing teachers’ satisfaction with the booklet’s content, specifically that the booklet is complementary to the Life Orientation curriculum. Qualitative findings identified specific contextual barriers that contributed to some learners struggling to use the booklet optimally. The results suggest that it is feasible and acceptable to implement a self-directed career guidance intervention among secondary school learners amid a global pandemic. Teachers recommended ways to integrate the booklet, resources, and contact sessions as a preferred way forward. These findings have important implications for similar resource-constrained settings that may not have readily access to in-person career guidance and counseling human development.