Cashing in on Education

By Rudina Xhaferri and Khalid

ECONOMIC crisis hit some countries more than others for various reasons. One country’s lost opportunity is the other’s golden gate out of misery. Pakistan’s strength rests in its young population. While the industrialised countries of Europe and Japan are currently undergoing a negative population growth due to low birth rates, Pakistan has an estimated 36 million young people aged between 15 to 24 years. Alarming statistics regarding the aging population in Japan and its shrinking economy have increased the need for importing workers to run its industries.

Young Achievers

By ZARINA PATEL

The bright, luminous morning of the year 2011 brings with it hopes and optimism for every one especially for young generation. We asked some outstanding young achievers about their future dreams and ambitions and last years performances.
Let us first introduce our interviewers.

Academic and Career Counseling from the Grassroots Level

Written by Sufyan Aquil

When observing the education scene in Pakistan, the common phrases to hear are: “it has become commercialized”, “it has become a money-making machine”, “it has become a ‘business’ industry rather than a platform for public welfare”, and so on. Hearing such observations, one can do nothing but nod helplessly in agreement, and wonder where things have taken a turn for the worse.

Campus Conversation-a career counselling session

GOVERNMENT College University Lahore on Thursday hosted the biggest Pakistan Student Congress 2011 to bring together students with different environments, cultures and schools of thought from all over Pakistan and to inculcate leadership qualities to them.

GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khalee q-ur-Rahman and LUMS’s Vice Provost Dr Shafay Shumayl chaired the closing and opening ceremonies of the four-day Pakistan Student Congress that was organised by the IEEE Pakistan in collaboration with GCU Computer Sciences Department.

Students from 40 educational institutions including LUMS, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, NUST Islamabad, Military College of Signals, PNEC Karachi and Karachi Institute of Engineering and Technology took part in the Congress that spread over 31 sessions which include d competitions, workshops, seminars, talks and social integration activities.

The Congress kicked off with a lecture of Google Pakistan Head Badur Khusnood on “TECHNO-PRENUERSHIP” in which he told the students how to earn money online. The most appreciated event of the Congress was “Campus Conversation-a career counselling session” which was conducted by top management officials of various universities and industries.

Talking about details of the competitions, IEEE GCUL President Ali Turab Gillani said the NUST Islamabad won IEEE Ethics Competition that organised events to encourage the study and awareness of professional ethics among students.

GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman said that such events provided great opportunity to students to exhibit their creativity and talent, and a chance to learn from other students.

Link to original post. 

Two Careers We Are Forced To Opt

By Hamid Rashid Gondal

Make you kid a doctor or engineer!

The first thought on the mind of a father whose wife has just given birth to a baby boy in the maternity hospital is: my boy will become a doctor or engineer. The little boy's fate is often sealed before the nurse cuts the umbilical cord.
I have spotted this big billboard in the bazaar. Apparently, there are only two professions- doctor or engineer - for the children in Pakistan. I have yet to see a family where the father happily allows a brilliant child to study social sciences instead of those hard core sciences.
My father, on the other hand, was very supportive when I broke the news that I am dropping out of my 4-year NUCES-FAST computer degree midway. I opted for law and never repented my dropping out decision.
One of my cousins miserably passed his eighth grade. His mother came to my house, asking me to arrange the 'brilliant' boy's admission in some good school. I asked her why she is insisting for a good school. She answered with the innocence of an Asian mother, "I and his dad want him to study science".
Our parents' wild daydreaming often make as career counselling blunders. I don't know why social sciences are not a priority for our parents when many of them miserably failed to do good in sciences.

Link to original blog: 

We are Career Counselling Disasters

By Hamid Rashid Gondal

No no this one!

There is this guy who does bachelors in economics from the Government College University Lahore with distinction. He shifts to Islamabad and does MBA from Quaid-e-Azam university. He gets nostalgic about Lahore and returns to do LLB from Punjab University. Lahore’s hustle and bustle starts disturbing him and he moves to Islamabad again and does LLM from the International Islamic University. He feels a little empty and does masters in criminology. After studying so much, he decides to settle in the life and appears in CSS and gets a job in Pakistan Railways.
If he wanted to do CSS, he could have opted for it right after his bachelors. He wasted eight years of his life and money on studying various disciplines.
We are ages away from career counselling. Most of the professionals around us did not opt for their professions. They accidentally landed in them. My father went to Lahore to become a primary school teacher, but somehow landed in law of which he had developed an aptitude. Right now he has a large clientele and is a successful trial lawyer by many ways.
Following my father’s 'golden' footsteps, I went to Islambad’s National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES) – commonly known as FAST - to do software engineering. After spending two years in the university, I realised that I didn't have any aptitude for computers and I quit the degree half way. I came to Lahore and started working in Daily Times and studying law. Me and my father have a slight edge over the guy as we only wasted a couple of years contrary to him wasting eight years.

Link to original post:  ow.ly/89voR

Need stressed for career counseling of youth

Karachi : Teachers should guide youth in career selection, as youth career counseling helps the student community in their future career planning, said speakers of a 6-day Youth Counseling Workshop jointly arranged by Youth Affairs Sindh, The capacity Builder & British Counsel at a local hotel.

Sindh Youth Affairs Minister Faisal Sabzvari, Secretary Youth Affairs, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Director Y.A. Khursheed A. Sheikh, Director British Counsel Mashood Rizvi, Director The Capacity Builder Mansoor Naz Vindhani, spoke some 30 participants from Karachi University, Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, PECHS Girls College, Commerce College, SMB Fatima Govt. School & Gulbai Govt. School.

Earlier British Counsil Director Mashood Rizvi informed the attendants that the council will soon arranged a entry test of the participants for admission in the advance career counseling course of Warkwick University U.K.

Co-organizer of the workshop the capacity builder TCB Director Mansoor Naz Vindhani outlined the curriculum and scope of the workshop. He announced that the next session of Youth Career Counseling Workshop will be held in Hyderabad 12 to 17 December.

Link:

http://pakistan.onepakistan.com/news/education/17899-need-stressed-for-career-counseling-of-youth.html

Career Guidance Centre inaugurated at DUHS

Karachi—Guidance plays a pivotal role in shaping the lives of today’s youth who are faced with fierce career competition and a wide range of career choices in terms of the different disciplines that they can opt for. Pakistani fellowship is very difficult.

Policy makers must provide an opportunity to young generation for embarking their career said Prof. Masood Hameed Khan, Vice Chancellor, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) while inaugurating the newly established, fully fledged Career Guidance Centre at Dow Medical College, DUHS.

Dow University today launched newly established Career Guidance Centre which will offer a one-stop solution to medical students with career choices by workshops, resource centre, individual counseling and mentorship program. Prof. Masood Hameed further said that Pakistan is facing high unemployment and a severe skill shortage.

How to Choose Professional Career in Pakistan

Pakistan consider in the list of countries where lots of young people are jobless due to high unemployment rate. Pakistani youth is facing lots of problems for getting jobs after the completion of their studies. Lots of students get degrees every year but there is not enough space for them in the job market. So there is very high competition in for getting good job.

Dear students there is no need to worry about the career selection, of course it is quite difficult in Pakistan to get an appropriate job in Pakistan. Due to the lack of available jobs mostly students join any profession where they get a chance and mostly they don’t have interest in that field. Students here are some useful information available here for the students about the selection of Professional Career in Pakistan.

ACCA Pakistan and Career Counseling

Karachi—ACCA Pakistan recently organized a series of Career Counseling workshops for teachers and student advisors in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. ACCA recognizes the integral role career guidance plays in helping students identify their natural talents in order to pursue a career promising them professional success.

The workshops were based on the concept that the best career exploration and job search strategies capitalize on the natural strengths of an individual’s Personality and Behavioral Style. Shamez Mukhi, Head of Public Affairs, ACCA Pakistan welcomed the participants, explaining the challenges students and parents encounter while making career choices and the resources developed by ACCA for students, teachers and parents. Speaking on the occasion he added, “One of the aims of the workshop is to ensure that ACCA Pakistan recruits students with the right aptitude, who are ambitious and committed to their careers so that they can excel as ACCA members”

Noorulain Zafer, Manager Marketing and Student Recruitment, ACCA Pakistan, made a presentation on Foundations in Accountancy and ACCA qualifications, entry routes, tuition providers and employment opportunities in Pakistan. She also answered questions about employability and the excellent employer base that ACCA enjoys nationally and globally. In addition to that participants were also given an overview of ACCA’s brand and the marketing activities it undertakes for potential students.

This was followed by a technical training on ‘career counseling to personality type’ conducted by Rahila Narejo, Lead Consultant and Chief Executive, NHR. Rahila emphasized on the significance of aligning career decisions to student’s aptitude and industry demand.


News Link:
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=118433

Need for Career Counselling is acknowledged

KARACHI: Governor Sindh, Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan Sunday said the youth are very talented and have many achievements at international level.

He was talking to a delegation of FPCCI's Standing Committee on Youth Affairs at Governor House.

The Sindh Governor said Pakistan is facing many challenges including population increase.

Equipping youth with technical education and their career-counseling can help bring Pakistan among the developed nations, Dr. Ebad added.

He termed availability of resources at par with the population of Pakistan as another big challenge for the government. Attention is
being given to provide basic facilities to masses, he said. (APP)


Link:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=22985&title=Ebad-kudizes-youth

Bridging the Industry – Academia Gap

KARACHI - Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers Pakistan, (IEEEP) Karachi Centre, has organised a discussion session titled “Bridging the Industry – Academia Gap” at the Karachi Expo Center. Senior executives from the industry and universities attended the discussion. Invited guests from industry included senior executives from Philips, Siemens, Intel, IBM, Super Technologies, Shaheen Air, PEL and many more. From the academia there were representation from leading universities including NED, Sir Syed, IBA, PNEC-NUST, Bahria University, SZABIST and others. Senior executives from IEEEP also attended the session.

The main points of this discussion were to identify the needs by the industry in terms of human resource, are the organisation able to find the right human resource for their hiring? How could these needs be addressed, how could be the universities are helpful in addressing these needs and what support is required by them to fulfil these needs and last but not least, how could IEEEP is helpful to the industry and academia, addressing these needs.

Career planning and personality assessment

By Hina Malik



Making important decisions in life also require knowing thyself. The selection of a life partner is one important decision that a person makes in his or her life … another equally-important decision is selecting a career for oneself through self assessment of one’s personality.
Personality assessment is primarily a process in which an individual takes the help of information regarding different areas of one’s personality on the basis of several parameters such as likeness, strengths, weaknesses, competence, adjustability, socialising skills, extroversion, introversion, etc.

This knowledge can play an important role in the life of the students as it may identify their needs and areas of improvement at an early stage, preferably the class seven or eight level. The early identification would not only give them a chance to improve on their weaker areas but also open future opportunities for them.
Students in our society start thinking about their careers usually after Matriculation or O-Levels. The challenge for them comes at the time of making the final decisions which is when they need to rush and hence make career decisions on the basis of unrealistic grounds such as market trend, parental influence, course with short duration of study, lack of interesting courses offered by recognised and top institutions, salary and benefits after graduation, and the cost of the course. Those who select a career on the basis these facts have no specific focus. They usually stay confused and are bound to face difficulty in finding a suitable and stable job for themselves.

Knowing thyself and awareness about your personality can minimise the outcome of such challenges. This would identify the needs of students at an early stage; provide them room for counseling and space for reflection and thinking. It also provides insight to teachers and parents to channelise children’s talent in a positive manner. Therefore, the people working with the students should pay attention to their unique profile of strengths and weaknesses, be ready to support their natural gifts and help them deal with any special challenges that they might face. It is also wise to give special attention to their individuality.

There are several personality tests and psychological inventories available in the market as well as online. The procedure is simple. You are just required to provide your email address and respond to the specific set of questions given to you. The report or outcome of your responses would either be given to you at the time of the test or by email later on. It is also recommended to consult a trained psycholoisgt or qualified career counselor for your personality assessment before making your career choices.
The writer is an industrial psychologist and career counselor.

First published in Dawn Newspaper
http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/02/career-planning-and-personality-assessment.html

At the career crossroads

By Hafsah Sarfraz 


Today’s world focuses on more variety than what was offered to the previous generations. Take coffee for example … there are so many types of coffee to choose according to your taste and preference. Ice cream, which was available in maximum 10 flavors a few years ago, comes in hundreds of different flavors and combinations now. New cell phone models keep popping into the market everyday while giving us a greater variety to choose from. From lawn prints to cars, laptops or anything you can think of the variety is just growing giving us an astounding amount of choices today.

Rooting out illiteracy

KARACHI:  Nabila, Zahoor and Majida faced the same problem that many of their peers in government-run schools do: they lacked the means to pursue higher education.

But things took a fortunate turn for these ambitious yet underprivileged children. Nabila, who hails from a typical Punjabi family from Minhalla, is now the first member of her family to study to complete her Masters while Zahoor Ahmed from Mauribad has realised his dream of being an electrical engineer. And 14-year-old Majida, after losing her home and family members during the devastating floods in Shahdad Kot, is now able to read and write Urdu.
There are similar other narratives of how students, hampered by financial shortfalls, were given a chance to get educated. For instance, students of Sindh Madrassa Board (SMB) Fatima Jinnah — previously considered a substandard institution — now have the resources and teachers to compete aside the top league of school in Karachi.
The mushrooming of non-governmental organisations and community-based initiatives in the field of education has made these success stories possible. However, the offer for free or subsidised provision of education hardly attracted scores of eager students to these institutions.
In a country where children and women are often fraught with the obligation to financially support their families, even the opportunity of acquiring education gratis is not attractive. Yet despite the odds, the perseverance of the people behind these initiatives helped them survive and achieve the tall order of educating Pakistan’s poor youth.

Pakistan Students Problems and Their Solutions

Pakistan Students face many problems in daily life we share some Students’ problems in Pakistan. Student life is full of charm and enjoy and every one who is in practical life always miss his/her student life. But with lots of joys and fun student life is also have some challenges and problems. The students of developing countries like Pakistan have lots of problems, as financial problems, poor transportation system of Pakistan, language barrier, insincere teachers and many more problems. Some students didn’t get admission in their desired colleges or in desired study programs. In spite of all these problems and challenges the student life is best period of everyone’s life. Some problems faced by students are given below.

In Pakistan education is very expensive due to the shortage of public educational institutes.

We have only 73 public universities and most of the population study in these universities. Similarly, there is short number of public colleges where students can get free education. Our most of the students belong to the middle class and they have very limited resources. Parents can’t afford easily the expenses of studying their children. Lots of students have to work part time to sponsor their studies themselves. In students life nearly every student usually face financial crisis.

For this problem Govt. and Private sector will have some programs to solve the financial problems of the students and also universities have financial loan programs too.

Transportation
Traffic is a very common problem of the citizens of Pakistan. You will see traffic jams on the roads at morning and evening timings. People are packed in the buses and vans like sacks, young students climb up the roofs of the buses, vehicle’s horns never allow you to hear the voice of the person beside you. All of us face these traffic problems but here I’ll we discuss how it create problems for students.

Universities and Local city Govt can solve this problem because in Pakistan oil prices are bit high.

Career counseling

Students when pass their matriculation examinations they face too much confusion about the selection of their further studies. They don’t know which one study area is best for them. Most of the students don’t know the different areas of study rather than Engineering and Medical due to lack of the counseling. They got admission in these sequences and didn’t have enough marks because it was not their interest area. So they can’t get admission in medical or engineering colleges. At that time they are very upset and thinking of their career.

Language Barrier

When students got admission in colleges or universities they face a very common problem of language barrier. Most of the students were studied in Urdu and in colleges and universities most subjects and books are in English. They can’t understand it easily.

This language barrier is also caused lack of confidence among students who got education in Urdu. In colleges and universities they meet the students of English medium schools who speaks English fluently they lose their confident in class. Experts believe that students can learn very quickly in their mother tongue but in our Pakistan we are running behind English language.


Article Source: http://education.ezinemark.com/pakistan-students-problems-and-their-solutions-7d2f6a0d566a.html