Monday, July 16, 2012
The News Education Expo is organized every year and it provides a platform for educational institutions to reach out to students across the major cities. This year the education expo happened bigger and better than ever in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. A large number of people, particularly students of all level of education systems, many accompanied by their parents, visited the expo and took a keen interest in the event.
This year as part of the Expo, career counselling sessions were also organized. The turn out was really good, and what was even more surprising that students at all levels of education had turned up to these sessions.
The sessions had university going students both private and public, and some even regarded as the best in the country. Students from college and schools including those doing O and A levels also attended the sessions. There were students from government schools and from private schools too.
The large number of people attending and the fact that they were from across different education spectrums leads one to an important conclusion. There is no career guidance avenue available to students. More importantly there is no career guidance avenue which is well-informed and students can trust. Presently, most young people are worried about their careers, and perhaps rightly so.
A large proportion of the largest part of our country is not guided. Primarily due to a lack of information and counselling available to students. Neither private schools in general invest on guiding their students nor has the government taken any initiative in this regard.
Whereas in the developed world even in neighbouring India career guidance has become an integral part of the education system. Whereas our students are still stuck in the doctor, engineer and computer diploma paradigm that has been plaguing them for so long and taking away the spark of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Career counselling is not a new phenomenon at all. Frank Parson in the US was one of the pioneers of career guidance in the US. In the 1970s a normative approach to career guidance was developed and implemented across the US.
The practice of career counselling and its new models became part of every individual. Currently there are lots of career counselling and guidance centres around the world that provide guidance for studies, information on opportunities and possibilities, and nature of institutes and courses.
While this has developed to some extent locally in the form of education consultants. However, their advice is not only biased but often incomplete and ill informed.
They are driven more by the lust for earning profits from universities that pay them for every student that they send their way. There is thus a lack of any kind of objective advice, which is in the interests of the students.
True career counselling is a unique exercise that supports people by building a link between work to passion, determination to do a job and acknowledgement/understanding of work. It takes attention of different features like individual insight and better understanding.
A part of this, it benefits in making high motivational level by understanding their passion. A career is something that you don’t often switch and will possibly be doing it for the rest of your life.
The best part of career counselling is that it encourages each individual to create a career for themselves in a field or place that ignites passion within them. Thus, it also helps people be more productive.
There is a need for the government to set up career counselling centres. Select teachers from different schools can also be trained to be career counsellors. Introducing proper guidance specially in our public schools can make a world of a difference. Most people don’t know that some vocational and technical professions can pay more financially then many white collar jobs do.
This kind of guidance if made available across the board to students will help them make better choices and the mismatch of employment that exists would be reduced.
Private schools should also be required to have a trained career counsellor available in order for having their students eligible to sit for exams. Examinations and studying are all pathways to a career, and often the short-term goal takes precedence over the long-term goal. By reorienting this a lot of students and their parents can make better choices.
Career counselling also becomes very important during higher education. The HEC must step forward and create better linkages between industry and higher education universities.
A simple example of how a lack of career guidance is affecting our industry is seen in the textile sector. One of the biggest exports of Pakistan is textile, yet it is also a sector in which the least higher education is offered. If you go abroad there are degrees offered in programs such as audio stage management to video production. All professions and fields that are considered hands on here, yet because of market demand there is a need for good trained people in these professions.
Career fairs seldom happen in our universities, whereas abroad and in many countries they are one of the star attractions at colleges. One of the key factors in rating universities is the employability of its graduates too.
There are immense benefits of career counselling. It is giving your career a direction and bringing it to the right path. It separates facts from myths about careers. Currently most of the career guidance that our students receive are either based on hearsay or random talk between different parents.
There is no research, no facts and no testing to determine aptitude and careers that students should aim for. With such a large demographic of young people in our country it is important to take these steps to guide them properly.
The writer is Youth Ambassador of Geo and Jang Group. Email: am.nawazish@janggroup.com.pk Facebook: facebook.com/ali.moeen.nawazish Twitter: @amNAWAZISH
thanks for the share and too think career counselling is required by each and everyone.
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