It has been a long established fact that career guidance for students in India is the need of the hour. Globalisation, AI & automation in the workplace, and an increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world have made it more important than ever before. However, what’s left behind often during these conversations is the right time when a student should start this journey.
Knowing when to begin one’s career guidance and counselling journey determines its effectiveness in the long run. Starting too late will defeat the purpose and starting too soon may cause stress and burn-out in students. We often get this question from students as well as their parents – “When should we start having serious conversations about career?”
We believe grade 8 to be the ideal starting point for Career Guidance.
Why?
By this age (13-14 years old), most students develop enough Cognitive & Emotional intelligence to start looking at choices and information in a completely different light. Sure, students can’t be expected to make hard and fast decisions about their careers so soon. However, it is a great time to help them know where they stand, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and what choices they have in front of them.
The Right Intervention at The Right Time: Recipe for Effective Career Guidance
Grade 8 – Identifying Your Own Strengths
Making a career choice is neither whimsical nor momentary. It takes a long time to find one’s ideal career. The road to an ideal career takes into consideration a student’s aptitude, interests and personality. But, what if the student isn’t aware of it?
It’s a genuine concern and in fact quite common. That’s why the career guidance journey starts with making students aware of their own abilities and personality through Psychometric Tests. These are scientifically designed tests to assess their learning style, personality, intelligence type, etc.
Grade 8 is the right time for students to start exploring their own strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, students should also start acquiring life skills and participating in extra-curricular activities that will help them build a strong profile.
Is Your Current Profile Good Enough for College Admission?
Grade 9 – Exploring Prospective Careers
Once a student is aware of their own self, the next step is to find prospective career options that match their interests and personalities.
Now, the prospective careers that might end up matching a student’s profile can be incredibly diverse and may seem bizarre. For example – students often get a combination of career suggestions like graphic designer, surgeon, and architect. However, these suggestions are based on an underlying logic. In this case, all these careers require one to have spatial intelligence.
The reason why this phase of the career guidance journey is done in grade 9 is because it gives students enough time to research and discard certain career options. Students are also encouraged to talk to an expert career counsellor at this time to make sense of the prospective career choices before them.
At this phase, an in-person counselling session also involves bringing parent-student alignment. Career counsellors often have both in-person and well as group counselling sessions to navigate the difference between students’ interests and their parents’ expectations.
Grade 10 – Selecting The Right Stream and Subjects
Understandably for most Indian students, grade 10 is a crucial time academically. They have to appear for their boards and thinking about careers takes a back seat. However, there is one decision they have to make by the end of this year and that’s stream selection. Traditionally, students make that choice post their boards because unfortunately marks play a big role in stream selection still. However, having clarity beforehand comes in handy for students. It helps them focus on where they need to improve academically to get the score needed to gain admission into the stream of their choice.
Take a Step Closer to Your Dream Career by Selecting the Right Stream
Grade 11 – Shortlisting Course, College, and Career
We are often asked why career guidance is necessary after one is done selecting a stream. The fact is, career guidance post stream selection is even more important. Just think of the number of students in the science stream who prepare for both engineering and medical entrance exams. Selecting and getting into the right stream is the first step that students take towards their career goals. By grade 11, students have to start making real choices with regards to the career they aspire for, the course of study they want to pursue, and colleges they have in mind.
We encourage students to shortlist a list of courses, colleges, as well as cities and countries in grade 11. This gives them ample time to start doing their research into their college admission processes and begin preparing for entrance exams.
Grade 12 – Preparing for the Take-off
By grade 12, students are on the final phase of their journey, at least for the time being. This is the time for students to read their resumes and profiles, apply to colleges, and appear for entrance exams as well as their board exams.
Our Career Guidance System allows students to update all their activities, profiles, and college application dates and deadlines. Their entire career guidance journey is automated and they are sent regular reminders on upcoming events. This makes this whole process cohesive and hassle-free so that students don’t miss out on deadlines and miss their chance.
Summing Up The Career Guidance Journey!
We can’t repeat enough how important it is for students to start their career guidance journey at the right time. Every step of this journey from research to psychometric assessment to a college application is equally important. So don’t lose any more precious time. Start your career guidance journey today!
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/
