Can you imagine having the largest student population in the world and not having proper career guidance and counselling plan for them? Oh wait…you don’t have to imagine it. For this was the reality most Indian schools faced up until a few years ago.
But be it through Univariety’s constant effort to spread the awareness about the necessity of career counselling and guidance or through movies like ‘3 Idiots’ and ‘Taare Zameen Par’ etc. that portray a grim picture of what can go wrong because of lack of it, people are starting the realize its importance. So it was a piece of welcome news for us when we heard that CBSE is launching its very own career guidance and counselling portal this year.
But the question remains – how effective is this portal going to be in shaping the future of students? So let’s find out what all the CBSE Career Guidance and Counselling Portal has to offer. What are its greatest hits? And where has it missed the mark?
CBSE Career Guidance and Counselling Portal: An Overview
The CBSE Career Guidance and Counselling Portal was developed in collaboration with UNICEF and launched on 4th August this year. The objective behind the career counselling and guidance portal is to help “students understand their learning strengths and weaknesses and have realistic goals commensurate with their capabilities.” The portal can be accessed by students of classes IX to XII from all CBSE affiliated schools for information related to – career options, courses, colleges, scholarships, and entrance exams.
CBSE also plans on conducting digital training for 2 teachers/counsellors per school and they will be given access to a personal counsellor’s dashboard to help their guide students. In addition to this, they can take up online courses and assessments through the dashboard to get certified as professional career counsellors.
What CBSE Career Guidance and Counselling Portal Got Right
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A Centralized Hub That Can be Accessed Across the Country
Career guidance and counselling was a much-needed part of the Indian school curriculum. CBSE’s attempt to build a portal that can be accessed across the country, irrespective of the state, city, town, the student lives in is a definite step forward in that direction.
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A Career Guidance Portal for FREE
The Career Guidance and Counselling Portal is completely free for students and teachers/counsellors that are enrolled for access. This allows students across socio-economic backgrounds equal opportunity at understanding their future career options.
But the free portal can be a double-edged sword – while it can impact millions of students across the country; as is true with most free programs, the commitment for efficiency remains to be seen.
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No Linguistic Barrier
The career guidance portal can be accessed in Hindi, English, and 8 other languages. Since learners in schools come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, having an inclusive career guidance portal will ensure more students can reap its benefits.
The Missing Ingredients from CBSE Career Guidance Portal
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An Information Directory is Not the Same as Counselling
The CBSE portal is a valiant attempt at providing some semblance of career guidance and counselling to students across India. However, it inadvertently falls into the trap of thinking providing information about courses, colleges, and career options is the same as career counselling.
This can’t be farther from the truth. Career counselling is not just about providing information about career options. It’s a process of helping a student recognize their strengths and weaknesses, their interests, their aptitude and guide them through career options that are ideal for them. On the other hand, CBSE Career Guidance Portal provides a ‘one-size-fit’ solution for all students without assessing their personality type, motivation, aptitude or learning styles.
Explore Univariety’s psychometric tests to gain insights on what is your ideal career option.
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Leaving Parents and Alumni Out of the Loop
Parents are perhaps the second most important decision-makers when it comes to choosing a career path. (Right after the child, of course!) They are not only responsible for the financial aspect of choosing a course, college, and career but are also heavily invested in the process because it is the decision that will affect THEIR CHILD’s FUTURE! Keeping them out of the loop of the career guidance and counselling process is a disaster waiting to happen. And yet the CBSE portal grants no access to parents.
Alumni of a school are perhaps the first source of information related to course, career and college for school students. Think about it – aren’t children directly inspired by the career paths their seniors undertake? Students reach out to their seniors first when they want to know about a certain career path or college information. And yet the CBSE portal fails at leveraging this readily available potential of an alumni network.
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No Bridging the Gap Between Schools and Colleges/Universities
The world that a student encounters as he/she steps into a college or a university is vastly different from a school environment. So are the expectations that colleges have from students applying for admission. Nowadays colleges look for a student’s worth beyond an impressive scorecard. And it is very important for students to have an impressive profile when they seek college admission.
The CBSE portal doesn’t do much in bridging the gap between schools and colleges or universities. It only provides a directory of information which is something that students can google on their own. It doesn’t tell them how to go about building the right profile for college admission or how to face an interview or even which college to choose if they have more than one option.
What We Offer at UNIVARIETY
Univariety has been the pioneer in career counselling and guidance in India. We have spent years spreading awareness about career counselling. We have helped thousands of school students understand their aptitude, personality, and learning style . Our expert career counsellors take into account all this before they begin the career guidance journey.
So, what are you waiting for?
Payal Dixit
Payal is an avid reader and compulsive writer who thinks being able to pen words is her primary life skill. She loves giving her blogs a quirky spin that sets them apart from the rest. After all, who would mind a bit of Sherlock or Jack Sparrow in a blog on career counselling!
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Payal Dixithttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/payal/
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Payal Dixithttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/payal/
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Payal Dixithttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/payal/
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Payal Dixithttps://www.univariety.com/blog/author/payal/
1 Comment
Great post, thanks for sharing Education related information.