Why career counselling?

Word "Counselling'' itself is taken as a negative word in India. If anyone is looking for counselling/ therapy it means he/she is not well mentally. And actually the same attitude you will find with the majority of the mass, like people will not visit hospital unless absolutely required, they will not give cars for  servicing unless it will break down, they will not call for appliance service, unless not working and so on. 

Further to add, we Indians took one proverb very seriously, "put (oneself) in (someone's) shoes". And hence, we can change our role very easily. At the time of election, we become "Election Analyst", at the time of pandemic, we become "Doctor", at the of film release, we become "Film Critics", at the time of cricket series, we become "Selector" or even "Captain" and so on. We can easily get into that role and start suggesting. 

These attitudes are now part of our culture and unless we can change our culture, these attitudes will keep propagating in all segments of life. 

As long as it is not affecting someone's life, we can still understand but there are certain areas where your hit and trial attitude is actually making a huge negative impact and one of them is "Selection of streams/ courses/ college etc. for a child" as these all are the affairs of the lifetime. 

When we talk about career counselling, it doesn't mean that a career counsellor will tell the students what to do, or it doesn't mean that a career counsellor will force a student to take certain option or it doesn't mean that a career counsellor will do miracle and student will become most intelligent. BIG NO.

Have you ever thought, we can always learn, buy a car and start driving but then why do we need a driving license? Because driving is one of the most responsible tasks on the road and one's mistake could take several lives. Hence govt. made a process to verify your driving skills. 

Similarly, you can always study, take a course, complete it and take a job. Definitely, even if you make any mistake, it will not harm anyone, but it will harm YOU. Or think in this way, 2-3 years back, students who took admission and started their journey says in the field of Aviation, Hotel Industries, Hospitals, Tourism, Travels etc. definitely not considered the parameter "PANDEMIC" and today these industries are not only badly hit but also become obsoleting many jobs. Definitely you will say, these are not students' fault but then we are the sufferer. Just by saying, it's not our fault, everything will not be undone. Damage has been done and today these students are the most suffered ones. 

This is where CAREER COUNSELLING could have made the difference. 

Career counselling process not only analyzes the student to find out what best will suit him/her in terms of his/her interest, personality and aptitude but it will consider many other parameters as well. Suppose a child is absolutely perfect to take up "LAW" as a career but either his family condition is something that they will not be able to support him to study for so long (as career is law, to become settled, min 9-10 years) or they are not at all even ready to support.  Or, Child has an interest in "Computer Technology" but loves books as well as he/she wants something in combination, definitely a librarian will not be the one, but what about a Digital Curator. 

So career counselling will analyze and provide you multiple pathways to reach certain career options/ jobs. At the same time, it will provide you alternate paths during various checkpoints of your journey from 10+2 to college to job, so that in case of any issues like Pandemic or family crisis etc. you would be in a position to handle the same and carry forward with the career options which suits you interest and would like to pursue for the life time.

Career counselling is a scientific method and a certified counselor puts a lot of theories while performing a counselling session. Every counselling session is custom one based on the need of the child and other parameters.

So Career counselling is not something which will find  flaws in a child and provide remedies. This is the need of the hour for every student and every student should be aware of the steps that he/she is taking during the first 18 years of their life which are actually the foundation of their life, which they will carry till retirement and they will find the traces till their life. 

In today's scenario, you will find many people which may be doing their job for bread and butter and support their family but they are not satisfied and hence highly stressed all the time. This problem of today's corporate/ professional world becoming the root causes of multiple issues in the society and affecting our future generations as well.

As parents, are you fine to see your child in one of the such scenarios? Definitely NO.

Then definitely give them the gift for lifetime, a career guidance program so that they can understand themselves and what they are going to take it up as career option. 

It's time to think, after all today's parents, one extra step could make their child's life not only happy but satisfied as well as capable of handling all adverse situations in life.

Remember, 

"Too many of us are not living our dreams, because we are living our fears. - Les Brown