Remember the first time you learned to ride a bicycle? Or the first time you cooked something by yourself? Well, it obviously wasn’t easy, especially when there was nobody to guide you. Now, imagine if there was someone who guided you or told you how to cook or ride a bicycle? It’d be much easier, right? Counselling helps to de-clutter thoughts and provides a clear picture of students’ likes, interests, aptitude, attitude, personality and helps keep the students mentally and psychologically sound. Counselling advice builds the future of the student. It is more important to take counselling advice in order to save years and money that would be invested in something that the students don’t like to make a career in. And to help career counselling the process of guiding students, we are sharing the steps for career counselling.
Challenges While Counselling Students & Parents
A career is not a destination but a lifelong journey. I firmly believe that along with the child, counselling of parents is also very important. Trust is precious and it is important to gain the trust of all stakeholders who are part of career counselling. It’s necessary to ensure that despite a conflict of opinion both parent and child should be on the same page. It is advisable to do one to one counselling as we know every child is unique and moreover one size doesn’t fit all. Now, when NEP 2020, is implemented on all levels, primary, secondary, higher secondary or university level. Moreover, there is no hard separation between arts and science stream, vocational and academic streams, curricular and extra-curricular activities. The role of a career counsellor becomes very crucial. Now the situation is such when parents are utterly confused about the strength and weaknesses of a child, they find it very difficult to streamline the strengths of a child. Many parents are of the opinion that their ward is good in all fields, so on what parameter to decide the career options. So, the intervention of specialists becomes paramount.
Steps for Career Counselling
According to me, there is a great similarity between career counselling and SPRINT – If we decode this anagram.
Confused? Read steps for career counselling to understand the entire procedure.
Step-1: Self Assessment – Discover Yourself (Find out all your Wh— questions)
- What are my interests?
- Values?
- Skills?
- Personality preferences?
- Strengths?
- What are three careers that interest me?
- What are three college majors that I want to explore?
Step-2: Plan to Meet a Career Counsellor
- As Career Counsellors, our first job is to study the students and understand what they want.
- Let the student & parent do most of the talking.
- During this discussion you will come to realize that the career choices are most often based on – peer and parental influence, choose by others influence, get tempted by current trends, salary package along the marks scored in the board exams.
- Rather it should be based on the Aptitude and ability of a child.
- For proper assessment, suggest a Psychometric test – It should be grade-appropriate.
Class 8- Learning Style Test
Class 9- Multiple Intelligence Test + Personality
Class 10- Stream Selector Test
Class 11- Ideal Career Test
Class 12- Branch Selector Test – Science, Commerce and Humanities
Step-3: Research Majors and Career Options that Fit Your Assessment – Exploring options
- Focus on 3 C’s – course of your choice, the career of your choice and country of your choice.
- What information or individuals can help me to explore my college or career options?
- What classes or activities can help me to develop my strengths?
Step-4: Identify the Potential Major and Career Path – Narrowing Your Search to 1-3 Career Options
- Here the role of career counsellors is very crucial, depending upon the situation they guide for virtual internships and summer programs. The Virtual Internship Program (VIP) is a first-of-its-kind immersive career-based online internship program. A student can experience 18 different careers through expert videos and practical assignments in a simulated work environment right at home. Each of the courses can be completed in a day. On completion of the program, the student receives an Internship Certificate and a Detailed Skills Report.
- Summer programs help to get a feel of the career to help make an informed choice; proven to improve seriousness towards studies; build a strong profile to stay ahead of the competition; Improved admission chances at top universities and also helps to develop social skills, confidence and network. Most college admission counsellors across the globe believe that the only difference between students from India and the West is Experiential Learning; which is best done during summer breaks.
- 97% of students who experienced the program got a better understanding of various career options.
- 88% of students who completed the program found clarity on what career to pursue.
- Soft skills like communication skills, leadership skills, creative thinking, decision making are very important to grow and succeed in life and require in any course you study.
Step-5: Network with Students, Alumni, Working Professionals from Same Field
- As a career counsellor, you get the chance to meet clients with different backgrounds, having different thought processes.
- Networking helps to increase the number of clients and makes you understand the different personalities you may meet in future.
- It helps to make strong connections and relationships that can be beneficial later.
- It is advantageous to develop a diverse network composed of contacts from a variety of social contexts (e.g., work, family, and community) and contacts with different demographic and organizational characteristics (e.g., gender, organizational level, and organizational affiliation). Knowing many kinds of people from many different social contexts is believed to improve one’s chance of getting a good client base and to increase one’s power base and advancement opportunities in an organization.
Step-6: Target and Take a Final Decision on Career /Course /Country of Study – Decision Making & Taking Action
- Based upon your psychometric test results, Virtual internships; summer programs and personal interest take a final decision on a course of study, career choice and country of study. While deciding on the country keep in mind the climate of the place, demographic composition in college, type of food available and hostel accommodation. Along with this QS ranking to be checked, affordability of college fees for the course of study, scholarships available.
These are the steps for career counselling and the process of career counselling that every career counsellor can follow while guiding the students.
A career counsellor not only helps in the identification of the right career but in a detailed execution plan with complete career clarity and help in identifying factors that will influence career decisions. A career decision is a continuous process. At every stage of life, a career decision is very important. Career counselling is not just only for students, it’s a myth. Even working professionals do need career counselling.
The student benefits by understanding the various career options available, working professionals can also get benefitted to move ahead in their careers. They get career clarity and be happy. There are more than 200+ career paths, 18+ career clusters and 3000+ career choices. With the right psychometric test, a career counsellor paves the way for students and working professionals. Effective career counselling and guidance is the need of the hour. Right decisions are playing a crucial role in the life of an individual.
If you like to help students find the right career path and want to make your career in a satisfying sector, become a trained career counsellor. The online program is offered by Univariety and the University of California, Los Angeles Extension (UCLA Extn.). It is an all-in-one guide to career counselling in India. After completing the program, the candidate receives a Green Belt Certificate from Univariety and a Record of Participation from the UCLA Extension. This Green Belt Certification gives you global recognition and validation to guide students across the globe.
To know more about the program and how it can help you grow professionally,
Anjali Drolia
This is Ms. Anjali Drolia, Senior Educationist, Teacher and trained Global Career Counsellor. Anjali has more than 16 years of teaching experience. When she was working as a teacher, she realized the need for guiding students on the right career path.
She noticed many students confused about their career decisions. Then she took the responsibility of guiding students and started helping them understand their strengths, interests, likes and dislikes. According to the personalities, interests, and other aspects of the students, she suggests them the right career direction.
1 Comment
Beautiful write ups. Thanks Anjali Madam 🙏🏻