Youth's Career Counselling Vital To Address Unemployment, Improve Productivity

(@FahadShabbir)

Youth's career counselling vital to address unemployment, improve productivity

World is a global village and it is land of opportunities for youth. Youth's wise decisions especially in selection of suitable careers can help not only in addressing the issue of unemployment but it can enhance productivity by dint of interest in the particular field

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jun, 2020 ) :World is a global village and it is land of opportunities for youth. Youth's wise decisions especially in selection of suitable careers can help not only in addressing the issue of unemployment but it can enhance productivity by dint of interest in the particular field.

Unfortunately, the majority of our youngsters lack awareness as well as vision about future prospects, emerging demands of markets and selection of career as per requirements of the modern world.Students in our country make decisions based on what their peers and elders recommend, and this makes them confused and put them in a dilemma where they cannot think for themselves anymore.

This leads students selecting the wrong career path and instead of feeling inspired and motivated towards their jobs, rather they face difficulties and cannot perform as per their potential. So, selection of a proper career is very much important. Here, comes the role of career counselors. Unfortunately, in our culture, we lack career counselling.

Career counseling is a process in which someone investigates and brings out one's strengths and weaknesses, to better understand oneself , which helps in making the best decisions for academic and personal future.

Vice Chancellor Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture, Multan (MNS-UAM) Dr Asif Ali talking to APP stated that career counselling was of vital importance as it provided exposure to emerging trends of developed world. The youth should be given awareness about different modern fields, bright careers and future trends of markets.

"We should give complete liberty to our youth to select the career by their own choice after they have exposure to different careers as in this way, they themselves will be responsible for their success or failure".

"Unfortunately, our universities are disconnected to schools and colleges. Universities conduct research and the outcome of their research should be shared with students of colleges and schools but we lack this culture," Asif told APP. "The university teachers should hold workshops or special lectures on career counselling of students at school and college level he said and added; "they should inform students about future trends, importance of new fields, and requirements of markets so that the students should select suitable fields as per their own choice as well as market trends. Career counselling was very much essential to address the issue of unemployment and improve productivity, said VC Dr Asif.

Chairman Institute of Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Dr Shehzad Ali while talking to this scribe said, career counselling should be initiated right from home and Primary school level. The government should focus on primary school education also; Psychologists should be appointed in schools so that they should guide students as per students' interests,he suggested.

"We should focus on skilled education as it is vital to abolish unemployment, Unfortunately, a number of students give up their education at school level and start learning skills at different shops. They perform good at AC, Refrigerators, Motorcycle, car mechanic shops. In developed countries, the students are imparted skilled education right from schools and it is the basic reason behind their success. We should bring changes in our curriculum also," he advised.

The government should spend maximum amounts on Human Development. The students should have enlarged choices for their careers. They should be provided awareness about modern fields also so that they should select careers according to their own interest and deliver better to society. I knew many people who openly expressed that they were misfit to their jobs. They could not perform best as they lacked interest in their jobs.

Dr Irfan Jafar, Head of Department of Software Engineering (A Private University) also hinted that parents in developed countries hired services of career counsellors for proper grooming of their children. Similarly, the educational institutes regularly held workshops, seminars and even they introduced specialized systems for guidance of the students from school level. e"In our country, the students lack exposure to modern trends and they select conventional careers which lack market demands these days. Dr Irfan added that he knew many educated youngsters who selected such careers which were not according to market trends. "Now, they are giving tuitions only to eke out earnings; He quoted example of artificial intelligence and data science and termed it the future of the world. Dr Irfan stated that the students, especially in backward areas, did not know about such an important field. He also proposed that the government should hold sessions in schools and colleges to keep students aware of new career opportunities.