Students need guidance on career opportunities
Nov 23, 2009
TO most students in Uganda, the term “career guidance†connotes university education or charting a way for a highly professional career. This narrowed understanding poses a great challenge in a system where success is gauged by academic grades.
FROM THE EDITOR
TO most students in Uganda, the term “career guidance†connotes university education or charting a way for a highly professional career. This narrowed understanding poses a great challenge in a system where success is gauged by academic grades.
Most students go through university without a definite career path. Cases of students choosing careers due to family or peer pressure are common.
Speaking during celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the Uganda Communications Commissions in 2008, President Museveni said unemployment was not due to absence of job opportunities, but a result of having the wrong skills. Without career guidance, the students are thrown in the deep end and are expected to swim.
Even when students make career choices, they do so based on scanty information provided by their peers. Limited access to information stifles proper decision making. Inadequate information also makes students believe there is no future for those who cannot make it to university.
Many students have pursued successful careers in fields like aviation, agriculture, military, carpentry, metalwork, theatre arts, etc, after O’ or A’level.
There is a need to expose students to the less known careers with vast opportunities. Given the range of career options available for those who have not made it to university, it is wrong to perceive a non-university graduate as a failure. Career guidance should empower students beyond the narrow confines of academic grades.
Schools need functional career departments to gather and disseminate up-to-date career information to students. Such information may include scholarships, careers in demand, different career options for those with Senior Four or Senior Six qualifications and profiles of personalities who have made it in different fields.
Career guidance is not just about dishing out information. Schools need to empower students with decision-making skills which will help them navigate their way through life.
TO most students in Uganda, the term “career guidance†connotes university education or charting a way for a highly professional career. This narrowed understanding poses a great challenge in a system where success is gauged by academic grades.
Most students go through university without a definite career path. Cases of students choosing careers due to family or peer pressure are common.
Speaking during celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the Uganda Communications Commissions in 2008, President Museveni said unemployment was not due to absence of job opportunities, but a result of having the wrong skills. Without career guidance, the students are thrown in the deep end and are expected to swim.
Even when students make career choices, they do so based on scanty information provided by their peers. Limited access to information stifles proper decision making. Inadequate information also makes students believe there is no future for those who cannot make it to university.
Many students have pursued successful careers in fields like aviation, agriculture, military, carpentry, metalwork, theatre arts, etc, after O’ or A’level.
There is a need to expose students to the less known careers with vast opportunities. Given the range of career options available for those who have not made it to university, it is wrong to perceive a non-university graduate as a failure. Career guidance should empower students beyond the narrow confines of academic grades.
Schools need functional career departments to gather and disseminate up-to-date career information to students. Such information may include scholarships, careers in demand, different career options for those with Senior Four or Senior Six qualifications and profiles of personalities who have made it in different fields.
Career guidance is not just about dishing out information. Schools need to empower students with decision-making skills which will help them navigate their way through life.