Students and Careers : Convenience or Choice?

Students and Careers - Convenience or Choice?

Volume 4 Issue 4

December 2013

In This Issue

Perspectives : Students and Careers : Convenience or Choice?

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Greetings!

2013 is nearly done and dusted and all of us at JA India have been busy trying to ensure that we see the year out with a bang! November and December are two of our busiest months with scores of programs, competitions and events.Read on to fund out more. In this issue we also bring you the findings from a first-of-its-kind research by a student who looked at how her peers make career choices and reached some very startling conclusions!

Perspectives

Salonie Dua: Students and Careers - Convenience or Choice?

Salonie Dua is a class 12 student from DPS Gurgaon, sec-45 who loves writing, dancing and travelling. As an intern with JA, she carried out research across a cross-section of students to understand how they make career choices.

For many generations now, we have been approaching the process of deciding upon a career, from the view that the subjects we choose to study and later on the profession we enter, defines our future. However, unless we chose a career based on what we enjoy doing, we will find it difficult to sustain and to perform.

In order to understand how students choose careers today, I interviewed many students from grades 9 to 12 across different backgrounds and schools. What I found, was startling.

Students drift into career decisions

Most students in grades 9 and 10 choose streams of study in class 11 based on perceived effort required and flexibility to switch later rather than basing their choice on an interest in the subject or with any long term idea of what they want to do. Many students in class 11 and 12 drift into a field of study or profession based on convenience, family/peer pressure and do not really invest enough thought in the process of choosing a career. Very few students have an idea of what their interests are and how these tie into a choice of profession.

Clearly, there is a lot that can be done to help students become more aware of all the choices available to them as well as equip them with the tools that will enable them to identify the right career or profession. Not only students, both parents and teachers need to be educated on this front, as they are the primary influencers and mentors.

How can we help students make better choices?

Organise training sessions to raise awareness amongst parents of the different career options available today and to sensitise parents to their children's needs and potential. They need to be trained to break free from the conservative beliefs based on safety.
Raise awareness amongst students that a profession can be created out of what they like and that their likes and dislikes are relevant when it comes to choosing a career
Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation can be used to ensure that by the time children pass out of school, they are confident of their worth and know their strengths or at least what they want to make their forte.
Training sessions should be conducted for teachers, especially in government schools, to increase their knowledge base as well as provide motivation to support their students in achieving their professional aspirations
Professionals from various fields should be invited to schools to explain their subject to the students and outlining what it offers in the future along with the specific attributes required to pursue a career in this field. This would be very beneficial for the children and seed their minds with the range of options available to them.

To read the full research report and details of student interviews, click here

News and Events

We reached over 21,000 students over October and November, across Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. JA MFM, WIN, JACWAP and WOW programs were conducted by individual and corporate volunteers.

Company Visit - ExxonMobil and Caterpillar

Students from the Apeejay school in Delhi visited the ExxonMobil office as part of the company visit program and interacted with the CEO as well as people from many functions and roles.In an extremely student friendly environment they learnt all about Exxon Mobil - the business and structure, different departments like Customer Service, Supply Chain and careers at ExxonMobil. It was a very well structured, informative and enjoyable day for the students and we really appreciate all the effort put in by ExxonMobil to make it a great event!

In Bangalore, students were invited to visit the Caterpillar factory in Hosur, where they toured the engine assembly floor, met various professionals and learned about the various business processes as well as career paths at Caterpillar.

Workshop with Dream a dream foundation

In Bangalore we conducted a workshop on Learning, Communication , Habits and Skills in partnership with Dream a Dream Foundation for class 8 students from 2 schools.

Social Innovation Relay 2014 has begun !

The Social Innovation relay 2014 kicked off on Oct 16 and global online case studies were conducted in November, so that students could interact with real life social entrepreneurs and learn from their achievements. India's Youth Innovators team and 2013 SIR winners were one of the featured case studies. Registrations for the competition are currently on, with 112 entries received so far, with more teams and ideas yet to come. Learn more

STEM Innovation camp

JA STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)

Innovation camp was conducted in collaboration with Blackberry at Lokhandwala Foundation school in Mumbai on 23-Nov. Over 75 students from different schools participated, working to devise mobile technology based solutions to overcome some of the challenges faced by society. The winning team came up with the idea of having food sensors in smartphones that could be dipped in different types of food and let you know the chemical content. The India winners participated in the global online finals against winners from 8 other countries, with "Live Green" a team from Mexico being crowned the global winners for their idea to create environmental awareness and motivating people to care more. Learn more about STEM

JA India Business Challenge (JA IBC)

Registrations for the National JA IPC have now closed, with around 180 teams all set to participate in the Nationals which will be held in December 2013 and Jan 2014. Stay tuned! JA-IBC on facebook

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. Do let us know what you think - please reach out to Sucharita Venkatesh with your queries, feedback and suggestions. We would love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

The JA India Team