Importance of Career Counselling for Students in Schools

What is Career Counselling?

Career counselling is a method of interacting with students about their future plans. It assists students in making self-discovery and self-realization decisions. Career counselling, to put it simply, is the process of advising students on “how to study” and “what to study”.  But, how does one decide that?

Why is it Important?

Back in the day, a career choice was easier to make. The options were numbered and the lucrative ones, fewer still. Some sought advice from parents and other elder members of the family. Some asked teachers for help. Some went with whatever course their friends picked. Some simply left it to marks, or even luck. Very few actually knew what they wanted to do and pursued it despite all odds.

The scenario today is radically different. The internet and, subsequently, every other technological development that came in its wake brought with it a multitude of lucrative opportunities. As the world grew closer, even the most ‘scoffed-at’ jobs began showing great promise. Today, we have an ever-expanding list of career options, each as lucrative as the next. Expecting a 15-year-old to pick one of these to follow for the rest of their life is a daunting ask. Even adults with years of experience on their side would balk at the choice. And yet here we are, expecting someone who is barely at the cusp of adulthood to figure it out. The following are the reasons why career counselling is necessary for every student in today’s world:

Choosing the Right Career

Career Counselling can assist students in assessing their interests, personality, and character so that they may analyse themselves and find the best career options for themselves. For example, if a student thrives at research and writing, they may be counseled to pursue a career that best matches their skills and personality.

Aids in the Development of Confidence

Career counselling assists an individual in recognising the challenges in their career path by understanding their strenghts and weaknesses. This understanding aids in the development of the confidence needed to overcome these challenges.

Helps Establish Realistic Expectations

A good roadmap can assist students in staying focused and achieving their career goals more quickly. Setting realistic expectations about a career cam assist students in understanding the different job choices and options available to them.

Helps Remove Confusion

For both kids and parents, deciding on the right career can be difficult. With the support of specialist resources and expertise about a particular career path, Career Counselling provides a platform where such confusion can be reduced

Choosing a Career Isn’t Easy

Discover yourself with Mentoria’s expert career counsellors, who give personalised step-by-step guidance to help you find the ideal career for yourself. 

When you hear 12,000 career options, step back and think – how many of these come readily to your mind? It’s hard to even think of 100, isn’t it? Imagine having to guide a child with the limited knowledge we have at our disposal. The risk is high, and the chances of getting it right? Fairly narrow. It is no wonder that so many students end up selecting the wrong course, bogged down by the tremendous pressure of choosing a career with ‘guaranteed success’. For most, this is engineering or medicine. However, not every student who attempts the JEE or NEET has a scientific bent of mind. The pressure to make the cut coupled with the inability to cope up with the subject puts a lot of strain on young minds, resulting in the horrific student suicides that make the headlines every other day. 

Is it fair to blame the child for being unable to cope? Or do we blame the parent for pushing their child towards a career they’re probably not cut out for? Or do we blame the education system for allowing square pegs to be forcefit into round holes? Every time a student decides to end their life, we, as society, have collectively failed to guide them down the right path. While this sounds grim, all hope isn’t lost just yet. There are ways for you to reach out to your students and help them avoid this dark path of suffering.

Clarity Begins at School

When a parent sends their child to your institution, they are entrusting you with a fairly large responsibility – the responsibility of moulding their child into a happy, productive and successful member of society. Parents trust you not just to impart knowledge about varied subjects but also to help their children distinguish right from wrong, and develop well-rounded personalities. However, most schools focus so much on imparting theoretical knowledge, they often fail in guiding the child to make sound, informed decisions.

As their primary source of guidance, it also falls upon you, the institution, to help them make one of the biggest decisions of their life. After all, they set the course of their future at a school level itself. And just like you would get an expert to impart any kind of knowledge to your students, you would need an expert to guide them towards the right career path as well. Let’s face it; you wouldn’t ask an English teacher to start teaching Math, would you?

Get the Right Kind of Help

Professional career counsellors can help your institution guide students in the right direction, but it is important that you choose the right expert for the job. Would it suffice to have someone who excels at aptitude tests? When it comes to career decisions, aptitude tests have often been the popular choice. However, an aptitude test only tells a student what they’re good at, and doesn’t take their interests into account.

Say a student is really good at Math, but their interest lies in painting. An aptitude test will solely direct them towards mathematical careers, and their painting dreams will remain unfulfilled. A few years into their career, they will find themselves dissatisfied and restless, fantasising about what life would’ve been like if they’d just followed their heart and taken up painting instead.

A psychometric test, on the other hand, takes their interests and personalities into account as well, guiding them towards a career they won’t just be good at but also enjoy. Even if they weren’t all that good at painting to begin with, an interest in the subject would make them work harder to get better at it, and a few years down the road, they wouldn’t be stuck pondering over ‘what if’s.

However, just like a layman can’t decipher a ligament tear in an MRI scan, a student won’t be able to discover their perfect career path by looking at the report themselves. This is where a professional career counsellor comes in.

Channel your fascination and Interest into a career you love. Take the Mentoria holistic career assessment test, to find the right career fit for you based on your unique interests, personality, and ability.

Equip your Institution

The right career counsellors won’t just help your students make an informed decision about their career paths. They will help boost your institution’s credibility as well. Parents, too, will be grateful for your efforts in relieving a giant burden off their children’s backs, thus helping you garner tremendous goodwill. Not to mention the societal problem you will be solving by ensuring that no student leaves your institution unhappy and dissatisfied with their future path. Happier students will grow up to become a productive workforce, thus benefiting the nation at large.
While hiring an in-house career counsellor may seem like a smart choice, it would also be beneficial to partner with a holistic career counselling service, depending on the number of students you wish to help. At Mentoria, we help students from Class 9 onwards discover who they truly are and what they will enjoy and excel at. Our solution is tailor-made for Indian millennials and is designed to help your students discover their perfect careers. Get in touch with us and together, let’s strive to make our future workforce a happy, productive and successful one.

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