Introduction
Three decades after the end of apartheid in 1994, the youth unemployment rate in South Africa is alarmingly high at 45%. Notwithstanding the central role that career guidance and counselling plays in high school education, there are major disparities in the provision of career guidance services at high school level with the majority of schools not having dedicated personnel, services and resources for this vital function.


Purpose:
Using a community based participatory action research approach with post-graduate students working at 10 partner schools, we describe an intervention to develop, implement and evaluate a group-based career guidance intervention. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, adaptations were made to shift to developing self-directed resources for students and teachers.


Method:
A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to implement the intervention with the students. Formative evaluation methodology was then used with the teachers and students to garner feedback that was helped to improve the intervention and the resources.


Results:
Findings from 2021 and 2022 indicated an overwhelming positive impact of the self-directed manual intervention. This emphasized the importance of promoting career preparedness and the facilitation of self-exploration among adolescents.


Conclusions.
Inspite of the positive findings of the impact of the intervention, significant challenges persist in the South African educational system including the inadequate time allocation in the Life Orientation curriculum to career guidance and counselling and the limited access that students have to adequate physical and digital resources as a result of socio-economic limitations. The study emphasized the importance of direct one-on-one personal discussion and the role of competent counsellors to engage with students' queries about career questions and subject choices and their personal contexts. This research directs systemic attention to the urgent need for comprehensive and appropriate career counselling services and resources and emphasizes this as a significant social justice concern.