As students reach their final years in secondary school and colleges, there is always panic about what courses to apply for at the university and which career to follow. This comes as the fear of not knowing what direction to take arises.

All educational institutes need to start career counseling for students as soon as they are admitted and not at the end of the course as popularly believed. If students learn about their capacities and ability in time, they can be able to concentrate on the identified direction and excel at it.

This is a better plan than letting students flounder through all courses only to realize at the end what they should have concentrated upon.

Career guidance is a very vital aspect of education. It helps students identify which direction they want to take after secondary level education.

Through career counseling they can discover their inner strengths, desires and be able to identify what their real capacities and abilities are.

It is difficult for students to make such choices on their own. Teachers as well as parents should step in and participate in motivating students to take the best choice available.

This alone is not enough. Interactions with leaders of given industries and professions is necessary. In this way students can be able to find out if the career in question really answers their need for professional as well as personal growth.

On the other hand, the involvement of schools and colleges is necessary when it comes to making and conducting informed training sessions that have up to date information on the various market trends. In this way students can know which professions are marketable and selling.

There are a number of important exercises that can be applied in schools to help with students’ career guidance. Some of these are explained below: Schools should organize lectures and seminars where talks by leaders of the various industries (C.E.O’s, Managing Directors, Heads of staff et cetera) are conducted.

In these seminars and lectures the students should be able to freely interact with these leaders so that they can get an idea of what the industry demands.

Group discussions can be held among the students in a given school so that they can exhaust all the possible solutions of what careers they can lead.

Involving the participation of other schools in these discussions should be encouraged so that new ideas are shared and not left out.

Schools can also organize mock interviews where students can gain valuable insights of what the interviewer looks at when the right time comes for selections in the given field.

However the students should not only be taught on how to get employed in the best possible company or organization. Schools should also promote and instill entrepreneurship skills into the student’s curriculum.

Through this students at an early age can learn how to be job creators and not job seekers only. Schools should also facilitate personality development whereby a student can gain confidence in his/her strengths so as to use them well and be able to reach his/her professional goals.

Career guidance as a whole is a vast area that can not be completely exhausted. Efforts should be focused in such a way that students can make an accurate and informed decision of the best possible match of a job career that their abilities and knowledge can allow.

When students realize the right direction to take, it makes them happy, responsible and focused because they will have saved a lot of time. This allows them to concentrate on their studies and thus better performances.

Ends