Digital platform bridges gap between students and careers

Sridevi (name changed) was looking for a career guidance counsellor for her son, studying in first-year PUC. Her complaint was that most of the counsellors were marketing agents for some institution and did not serve her purpose of guiding her son to make the right choice, based on his interests and aptitude.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is being gradually implemented in institutions. Meanwhile, thousands of engineering and management graduates and postgraduates are settling for mundane jobs. The results of NEP 2020, whether positive or negative, may take at least a decade. Thus, both students and their parents are in a confused state.

A Mysuru-based career counsellor has floated a digital platform to bridge the gap between students and careers, by creating awareness and facilitating the right career choice.

Shankar Bellur, an academician, facilitates ‘My Career Lab’, on which an entire spectrum of career-related information is available for both the students and their parents. It is a flexible programme for school and also college students, keeping in mind their varied needs, interests, aptitude and personality.

Shankar said the present-day job market was greatly impacted by changes in global economy, emerging technologies, financial status of job seekers, changing aspirations of people, and the skills set requirement.

“We see a change in the mindset of job seekers with the expansion of the economy. The future job market is in for a paradigm shift and the students or job aspirants have to prepare for their careers, given the challenges of the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) world. The students are staring at a volatile, but exciting job market, requiring a focused and exhaustive preparation to kick-start their careers,” he said.

He said, “Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) or automation, internet of things (IoT), cloud computing and quantum computing are intensely impacting the future job market dynamics. Human skills are critical and would be in demand. Relevant knowledge, appropriate skills, robust attitude, unlearning and relearning are the key to future career success. It is imperative to have a clear and an open career path. Planning, preparation and execution, under expert guidance is inevitable for finding and sustaining career success.”

“Career counselling systematically analyses a person’s personality, interests, skills, aptitude and matches them to an appropriate education and career option to ensure job satisfaction and sustainable success. A recent survey on career option awareness among Indian students revealed that a staggering 93% of the students, aged 14 to 21 years, were aware of just seven career options, although there are more than 300 types of job options in India. A majority of the students do not get any career-related guidance from their respective school,” Shankar said.

"A recent survey by Wheebox, a talent assessment company for India Skills Report 2018, revealed that nearly 85 per cent of the candidates stated that they were not equipped to make career decisions. Unplanned education means uncertain future. Low awareness may lead to wrong career choices. Professional guidance is thus crucial," he said.

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