Choosing a career is a decision that shapes a lifetime. The right choice can be rewarding, while the wrong one can be punishing. Understanding this significance has been a journey, with efforts from various sources like songs, movies, and career counselling organizations. Univariety has proudly been at the forefront of spreading this awareness in India.
While most schools and parents now understand the value of career guidance, there is a lot of confusion about what the process actually involves. Many people confuse career counselling and career guidance as being one and the same. When in fact, career counselling is only a part of the over-arching career guidance process. This is an important part, but only one of five factors involved in the career guidance process.
What Do We Mean By The Career Guidance Process?
For most people, career guidance is all about finding the right career for a student. However, it is not a one-step process. Nobody ever had one one-on-one session with a career counsellor and came out of the room having complete clarity and ready to move forward with their choice of career.
Career guidance is not prescribing the right career for a student but rather making them self-aware so that they can decide for themselves. It’s about assessing their strengths and weaknesses, creating ways to make up for those weaknesses and honing the strengths. It’s about giving them the right information so that they can explore their options. It is also about having an open conversation and addressing their doubts without any bias.
To help simplify this complex and subjective process for students and parents, we have come up with a Career Guidance System. Univariety’s Career Guidance System is a sophisticated program backed by scientific research and logic that brings parents and students into one fold in the process of career planning.
For us, there are 5 major facets to effective career guidance – Psychometric Tests, Personalized Counselling, Technology-based Research tools, Alumni Guidance, and University Engagement.
So, let’s understand these five factors involved in an expert career guidance system in detail.
The 5 Pillars of an Effective Career Guidance System
Psychometric Tests
“Every child is unique, not only capable of learning but also capable of succeeding.” – Robert John Meehan
Every student is unique. They have their own learning style, pace, study patterns, skills they are natural at, lessons they find difficult, and areas they find interesting. These qualities later become the determinants that will help them find their ideal career. However, most students are themselves not aware of their uniqueness; then how can they make as important a decision as a career? That’s why the first step of a career guidance process involves psychometrics to identify the Aptitude, Interest and Personality of a student.
Psychometric tests are scientific methods of measuring the Cognitive ability & Personality among other characteristics of an individual. They are tools of self-exploration for students to find out who they are. It is also the point of reference for every other step of the career guidance and counselling process.
These 5 common psychometric tests are given to students for career guidance.
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5 steps of psychometric tests
Personalized Counselling
High school is a confusing time for students. Not only are they at a precarious age, oscillating between childhood and adulthood, but they are also asked to make significant decisions that will come to define their life. They often hesitate to say their aspirations or interests in careers out loud to prevent being judged or dismissed. So, the second step of the career guidance process involves personalized counselling with a professional career counsellor.
Why is talking to a third-party career counsellor more effective than talking to peers, parents, or teachers? It is in fact because they are a third party and will not have any undue influence on their decision.
An expert career counsellor has 3-fold duties concerning students.
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3 steps of career counselling
Book a Session with Us to Interact with an Expert Career Counsellor
Technology-enabled Research Tools
- We understand that navigating career choices can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve crafted a platform to streamline the process. Our curated resources offer tailored information on courses, colleges, and careers. With our tech-driven tools, students can:
- Easily discover and shortlist careers aligned with their strengths and interests
- Make informed decisions on higher education by comparing colleges worldwide
- Gain insights into admission trends from their school’s alumni
- Assess their chances of admission at preferred colleges
- Explore scholarship opportunities relevant to their chosen path
- Quickly find top colleges for their desired course and career path
Alumni Guidance
Students often need to understand the real-life experience of studying a course, going to a particular college, or pursuing a particular career. Who’s more suited to give them a glimpse of their future than someone who has been there, done that? Alumni interaction can be really beneficial for students in career guidance. Only alumni can share the practical aspects of pursuing a career path that no mere research can do. Moreover, our studies show that students are more willing to listen to their alumni’s advice than any other adult in their lives.
In our Career Guidance System, students can view their alumni’s profiles, watch their videos, and interact with them one-on-one to ask for their advice and gain insights. Click Here to know more.
Book a Session with Us to Know More About Building an Alumni Network
University Engagement
The final step of the career guidance process for a high school student is finding the right university or college. But to reach this dream destination students have to do a lot of research, fill out essays and college applications, appear for entrance exams, and the whole nine yards. While career counsellors do help students do a lot of these tasks, there’s one more source who can help students find answers to all their queries and doubts – universities themselves.
University engagement ensures students and their parents get to interact with universities and college admission officers directly. This will help them find the traditional as well as new-age courses the college offers, their admission process, and understand what colleges are looking for in their applicants’ profiles.
Check Out a Free Tool to Check Student’s College Profile Strength
Summing it Up!
These five factors are the building blocks of a comprehensive career guidance system. They help students through a journey of self-awareness and realisation and find clarity. It helps them find their way towards an ideal career and a bright future if you want to know more about these factors that determine effective career guidance.
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!
2 Comments
How many stages of career guidance activity do we have and what is the first step in initiating career guidance activity in secondary schools
Please send me more content on Career Guidance activity