16/07/2013
Inspire Magazine
TIME TO TACKLE THIS IS NOW
Having studied the market and social infrastructure of the world and Uganda in particular, it has been appreciated that career guidance or assessment of individual learners is poorly handled within the educational system.
This weakness leads to poor career decision-making, which in turn means unnecessary wasting of money as well as frustration, discontentment and hardship.
Most young people leave school with only a vague knowledge of employment opportunities and with little insight on the most appropriate career direction for their abilities, interests and personalities.
A large number of students receive no training at all during and after school time and become virtually unemployable. Yet, if and when pointed in the correct direction, they could have become assets to the economy.
Many school leavers believe their only chance of future employment lies in gaining some qualification. So, they rush into studying any sort of tertiary or university course, irrespective of their suitability for the subjects chosen.
Little wonder that the dropout rate for first year students at college and university stands at around 35 %!
It is at this point that the first of the wasted costs occur, especially by companies who award bursaries to students and or parents who have to meet these expenses.
The next area of wasted costs comes after these school and university leavers are employed. Research shows that a large proportion of employees feel "stuck" in their careers. This leads to low morale, poor performance and bad service levels. Further, company training tends to have only a short-term effect. In the end, unhappy employees either leave or are dismissed. In either case, the cost to the business is substantial - recruitment costs, training costs, hidden costs resulting from the poor performance and the lack of continuity within the business.
To combat this, Inspire Magazine has come up with a clever solution – train (will include providing hands on skills), guide and mentor, inspire, empower and improve information access to enhance knowledge acquisition by students right from their infancy to aid them choose and undertake career choices based on their abilities and informed view. By doing this, people will come to appreciate their field of study and dress up with motivation to research and improve themselves in the right direction with as little as a saddle push – more like the donkey and carrot analogy.
This and more stories and solutions about Career guidance will be coming to you soon in Inspire Magazine.
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