It is said that the biggest form of help to the needy is by getting them well equipped to strand on their own and this is possible only by educating them. Keeping this initiative in mind, the KH Industry, founded by mohammad hasim, which is mainly into leather goods manufacturing right from shoes to bags to gloves etc. The founder runs a trust, whereby out of all the initiatives, they run schools separately for boys and girls. Both the school run the state board curriculum and students are exposed to various extracurricular activities. The encouragement of students towards a better future can be seen through their initiative in inviting career guide team to guide the students towards choosing a career best suited to them.
For more information, check: http://www.melvisharam.com/2009/01/kh-schools.html
Career guide as such needs no introduction. Composed by a strong team of counselors who are ready to help students anywhere and anytime. Every counselor whether online or offline are well equipped to deal with students issues related to career.
But before that we need to mention, the co-ordinator who brought both the school and career guide on the same platform. Mother Vasantha Educational Trust, Vellore, into education since 1992, founded and managed by Mr J. Ramadurai,. Mr. Ramadurai a multi disciplinary educated professional, who holds degree in science to library science, nutrition and dietetics, but his passion for teaching got him to be involved in the HR Department and he is also a certified career counselor.
The counseling session for this school was headed by the senior most counselor Nithya Sriram. Ms. Nithya Sriram, a psychologist by qualification has 10 years of experience in the field of counseling and helping students choose a career through scientific ways. She is a well trained REBT practitioner and a green belt in career counseling from ULCA
Mrs Nithya with her team reached the school venue and discussed the details of the 3 days session.
To know more about career guide, check: https://www.careerguide.com/
As decided in sync with the school authorities, the entire seminar was divided in 3 days, which included:
Day 1: A talk by Mrs Nithya regarding how and attributes needed to choose a career
Day 2: Administering the test
Day 3: Report distribution and one on one counseling session
Day 1: A talk by Mrs Nithya regarding how and attributes needed to choose a career
Being an expert in the field of career counseling, her years of experience has helped her realize that just not marks or grades are enough for students to choose a career. This was the main agenda of the session. She helped the students understand that one must not blindly follow the ratrace. Since every field has different needs and everyone is unique, one must have thorough information about the stream or career, like what are the qualities needed to be successful in that career?, e.g., an artist, apart from skills in sketching must have skills like visualization, out of the box thinking, colours etc.
Thus students realized that apart from just interest, knowledge, passion, one must have the necessary skills or popularly known as Aptitude. This switched on the students thinking caps and everyone started questioning, how would they know their skills or potentials or Aptitude?
The student’s inquisitive minds were put to rest, by the counselor. She introduced the concept of psychological testing. She made them understand that these tests are scientific based and well researched on certain students with a similar background like age and education. These tests are objective based test that are very generic and makes use of reasoning capacity of the person undergoing the test.
A short introduction towards the test and its importance in choosing a career generated interest in the students to appear for the test.
Thus day 1 ended with students being highly motivated towards the choice of a career that too with the help of their potentials. Students just could not wait for day 2 to begin, so that they could know themselves better.
Day 2, was the day when the test would be administered to the students. After the eye opening session by the counselor Mrs. Nithya Sriram, students enthusiastically came forward for the test. Everyone had a question on their face.
- What is the test all about?
- What kind of questions are to be answered?
- Are there negative markings?
- Is there a pass or fail?
And many more such questions were patiently answered by the counselor.
The counselor addressed grade 10th and 12th students separately. As the tests for the two groups were different, as their needs were different, the students were assigned two different classrooms.
The counselor addressed the students first to calm down. She made them understand that the tests were objective, day to day kind of questions. The test did not cater to any subject perse, so they could relax and not think of any subject at the moment.
Since grade 12th, had to make a career choice, their test mainly focused on factors that would help them choose a career and be successful in the long run. The main focus was their potentials or Aptitude, whereby the skills that the student possesses and the one they need to develop were highlighted. The other factor measured was motivation factor. Was money the motivating factor or the position etc. Not only Aptitude and motivational factors but also their line of interest and their personality traits was also noticed. Thus a comprehensive test that would define the individual completely and would highlight careers best suited for them.
While grade 10th, still had time for a career choice. Their main concern right now was, what after grade 10th? Meaning which stream to choose. This choice is the most important, as selecting the right stream meant selecting the right subjects which at last led to selecting the right career. The test questions mainly focused on subjects like Math, Science, Humanities (ARTS) and verbal. The Aptitude test in sync with the child interest led to making the right choice in terms of stream for grade 10th students.
Thus Day 2, ended with students appearing for the test with a questioning mind and leaving with another questioning mind, what will be the result?
Day 3, would reveal to the students and their parents the most important decision of their life, the career choice for grade 12th students and stream choice for grade 10th students
As the students were mainly children of the employees of the KH Industry itself, and the school was run by the trust, the students had a limited choice in terms of streams and career options. As far as streams were concerned, students had a choice between science and commerce. Grade 10th students, based on their test reports were guided accordingly.
As far as grade 12th students were concerned though students had limited choice and were guided by a trust, students had big dreams and had the necessary potentials to achieve those dreams. Students, who could opt for Science, would just not end up with a B.Sc but could opt for fields like medical, engineering, computer sciences etc. Whereas students with commerce, could opt for courses like CA, Banking etc.
FEEDBACK:
The results of the test followed by the career and stream choices were so accurate, that students felt that they were standing by the mirror and the reports were a reflection of their thoughts. They thanked the counselor for the guidance and promised to follow the advises given to them. They felt that the session helped them relax and they were now confident about themselves and their careers too.
The session in the school clearly indicates what psychologists believe that, talent or potentials are innate. Money or too much of coaching cannot help generate those skills. The students of Islamic boy’s schools have such natural talent and now since they are aware of it feel much more enthusiastic and motivated that they can achieve their dreams. The trust and students expressed their gratitude towards career guide
