Career Guidance & Counseling – Developing the Right Approach For Our Students
This article is for those Parents, Schools and Colleges who are in consistent pursuit for growth and development of their children/students. In today’s tough and competitive environment, they try to equip their children with a plethora of work activities like tough schooling, extra classes, coaching classes and personality development courses. Without much exception, today’s parents & teachers set very high expectations from their children. And rightly so. Because the times are so tough. There is cut-throat competition. Students win or lose by margins of as low as 0.25 %. So, one has to be a true genius and also a flawless performer in all areas of endeavor, in order to get successful and prove one’s worth, capacity and edge over others.
This is the mental make-up that most of the modern day parents and academicians possess. There is nothing wrong with the intentions as well. The intention is to get the best out of a student in the present moment, so that he/she can become better educated & can secure their future.
The intentions are absolutely right, but it is highly ironical that the approach is absolutely wrong!
Such an approach may show up better results in the near future but prove a disaster, in the long run. The pressure of competition, pressure of performance and the pressure of expectations, generate stress in their lives, which gets associated with the process of their development and growth. This leaves a very bad impact at the subconscious level. Without knowing, a lot of stress, anxiety and pressure gets linked with their learning. So whenever they engage in a learning activity, they feel an inner resistance. And so, they have to exert more pressure; they have to work harder than ever before; they feel the doer-ship; they feel the burden; and they stop enjoying.
Make them natural learners:
Taking the right approach is therefore extremely important. It is essential that the students are not treated like one in a crowd. It is important to understand the student’s personality, identify their strong areas, facilitate an environment that they enjoy, and then allow them to thrive and make significant progress. And when this happens, an individual doesn’t even realize that he/she is engaged in any kind of learning activity. They become natural learners. They associate pleasure with whatever they are doing. They enjoy and their passion can even take them beyond the horizon.
Only Career Guidance And Counseling Can Help:
It is a common misconception that career guidance is only for those, who are looking for a job. They misinterpret that it is only about selecting a career stream or an area of academic specialization. There is no denying the fact that Career Guidance is useful for these things. But the bigger truth is that Career Guidance and Counseling is the soul of Career Development Process for any individual, which begins from middle school level.
Career Guidance works for School Students, College Students, Job-seekers & Professionals in entirely different ways. For students in schools & colleges, it is an excellent way to make learning, an enjoyable experience for them. It is a scientific and logical approach to student’s personality analysis. It aims at understanding the student’s core interest areas and then relating their course curriculum with it. As a result, they begin to find their academic pursuits much more meaningful. They begin to appreciate the importance of genuine learning at this level, in the attainment of their dream aspirations.
Such is the kind of education framework that Career Guidance & Counseling provides; where student growth process is not based on pressure and stress, but is based on passion, interest, enjoyment & satisfaction.
