The Significance of Career Counseling

The word ‘counseling’ has numerous layers of connotations, especially about the development of an individual in terms of psyche and personality. It usually involves two individuals, the one seeking help and the other professionally trained to help solve life and career problems. Talking about career counseling, it is imperative that new age parents should be aware of what it entails, and not confuse it with psychological counseling. Students from all ages are often confused about the right education stream or career option. At times, some are even forced to take up career options owing to family expectations and peer pressure. Here comes the role of a career counselor, a person who can guide students based on their aptitude and by assessing their core abilities, interest and depth of knowledge. It definitely clears the cloud of weaknesses and strengths, and brings to the surface, the core competencies of a child thus removing the first line of pressure and ambiguity.

Once a student or a parent figures out the need for career counseling, they also have to dig deeper into their long-term and short-term goals. To understand where a student wants to see himself/ herself in the coming 5 -10 years will not only help parents to guide them, but also aid the career counselors to facilitate the intellectual development and clarification of goals.

Counseling involves spending time to unfold the problem, gain insights into the complex situation, and give actionable solutions to help the child reach the career goals. In terms of career counseling, it also involves active listening, empathetic understanding and releasing the pent up feelings confronting the student to dig deeper, understand their strengths, weakness and preferences, find a suitable match, and creating an action plan to reach the goal. Guidance and counseling are needed to help students deal effectively with the normal developmental tasks of academic life, and face these life situations boldly. The manner in which students spend their non-class hours clearly affects their success in achieving both academic competence and personal development. Career counselors can give a positive direction to students as to how they can use those non-class hours.

“In our country, students are expected to make career and subject-related choices at a stage when they are least prepared. Accordingly, their exposure is minimal and they often reel under apprehensions and confusions. This can be a forbidding situation for the child as well as for the parents because parents are aware of the career options but with the changing world, dynamics are not able to provide expert guidance. Hence, professional career guidance is of utmost importance which is not only well-meaning but also a well-informed guidance”, adds Pervin Malhotra, Director, Career Guidance India.

Interestingly, tutors can also make great counselors given the fact that they are well versed with a student’s academic depth and goals. Majority of students lack a sense of direction, a sense of purpose and a sense of fulfillment and indulge in destructive activities that lead to social damage and loss. Adequate guidance and counseling facilities are the only answer to help and guide them to worthwhile channels and realize the goals of optimum academic, personal and social development.

Article Written by: Vidhu Goyal, Founder, WONK, Tutor Booking App