Personally, I feel Professional Career Counselling after Class 10 has been one of the very neglected aspects after Class 10. Professional Career Counsellors are trained in different curricula, student psychometrics, careers and job opportunities, counseling, guidance, and advice. Best Junior Colleges have always encouraged good counsellors with professional training. Five reasons are –
1. Understanding subject combinations
“I want to become an Engineer and do MEC in Intermediate.” – I am not generally surprised with these statements from students during their admission counseling. Another student might be good at drawing and want to become a Fashion Designer. Neither of them is possible or recommended.
So as a counselor I feel my job is like that of a Doctor. Students and parents come to me with either zero knowledge of the interests and abilities of the student or they come with partial knowledge of careers and a lot of doubts.
In a counseling session, parents and students understand about different subject combinations that students can take and their future career possibilities.
2. Assess the student’s interest and ability
Ability is commonly ignored while planning careers. We can’t measure the ability based on School Marks. At schools, students learn and score under the guidance of a teacher and majorly focusing on marks and not on the subject. Or a favorite teacher could be the sole reason for that corresponding subject’s performance.
In a counseling session, a counselor uses multiple assessments to understand students’ interests and abilities. For example, a student planning to do Engineering needs to be inclined towards Engineering since school days. This can be observed by a parent too. Along with the interest, students need to also have the ability to study and prepare for Engineering.
Hence, always ask yourself is the ability there or can be built?
3. Discuss Career Opportunities based on Assessment
It’s usual to see only Engineering, Medicine, CA, and BBA as the most chosen options around us. This doesn’t mean that parents are rigid about only a few options that they know. Parents have their motives too. They just don’t want their children to struggle. But, 99% of the times I’ve seen that parents are more than willing to explore the opportunities and to discuss them with the counsellor.
There was a student from a town in Chittoor. She was good at drawing flowers. She wanted to become a floral designer and reached out to me to ask how can she become a Floral Designer. I asked her who suggested this option to her. Apparently, her father asked her to look at flower decorations in weddings as a Career Option. It was important for her to understand different specialisations that are available in Design and also opportunities in Event Management. She might actually become what she wants, but there’s no course so far which serves that niche yet. This was important to be understood.
In today’s scenario, there is no opportunity that is not possible and there are always multiple choices for any individual. These scenarios and awareness give parents and students confidence to jump into a field of interest and strength.
4. Shortlist Colleges and Entrance Exams
At the end of the day, Intermediate or Class 12 is not the end. College placements and placement planning are very important. What colleges students can plan for and what entrance exams the student might have to be prepared for are important factors that one should plan from as early as Class 10.
A student interested in Psychology has St. Francis, Hyderabad as an option and also Christ University, B’luru as an option. Admission process for each is different again. So this is our 4th reason to take a career counseling session after Class 10.
5. Planning along with the Junior College
Once students and parents have an idea of the direction that the student might take, they need to plan for how to balance it with the Junior College that they are joining. Talk to the Junior College about timings, coaching help that it offers, counseling facilities available and more importantly the culture. The culture of a junior college has to be progressive.
In one Junior College, the timings could be from 8 am to 8 pm which will not help if the student is planning for aviation or pilot training. Your junior college should give you enough flexibility to explore, dream and achieve your possibilities.
At SAJC, every student before taking an admission goes through a career counseling session for free. From 2022 onwards, students also have an option to take detailed psychometric assessments during the admission process. To understand more reach out to us.
Written by – Nikhilesh Bharadwaj, Director, and Counselor at Sri Amogha (nb@sriamogha.com)