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Today’s fast-changing world poses numerous challenges before a student while making decisions related to one’s educational and vocational future.
Decisions taken during high school and college have a significant influence over the future of the students.
But how do students know about career and academic counselling, a service that guides them? Let’s see how students know about these valuable resources.
1. School and College Initiatives
Most schools and colleges realize the need for career and academic counselling, so they have in-built mechanisms to facilitate them.
Institutions host careers advisors or counselors whose duties revolve around helping students make decisions about their life.
Key Initiatives Include:
Counselling Workshops: The schools and colleges organize workshops in which professionals give talks on how to approach career counselling, its significance, and how to access it.
• Orientation Programs: In orientation, freshmen usually get to know academic advisors and career counselors. This way, they are aware of the services that await them from the very first day.
• Career Fairs: Students do not only get to see their employers through career fairs but also the career counselors who aid them to have a smooth process in getting a job, reviewing resumes, and preparing for an interview.
2. Teacher and Peer Recommendations
Sometimes word of mouth is the best way that students learn about career counselling. Teachers, mentors, even classmates are key in alerting students to these services.
A teacher is often the first one to notice if a student needs extra guidance-not in classes-but how to choose courses to take or determine what major to pursue or some sense of direction in terms of future career aspirations.
Word-of-Mouth Channels:
• Mentorship Initiatives: Teachers mentor a student in person, and as part of that mentoring, can help them to be introduced to the academic advisors.
• Peer Influence: Older students, who have attended counselling services, can share this with their juniors, as they also may need counsel.
3. Online Resources and Social Media
With the evolution of the digital world, a student today has access to information like never before. Online interfaces that include social media are the most effective ways for advertising career or academic counselling to the students.
Common Sources of Online Material
School Websites: Most schools maintain separate websites which feature sections where they have booked appointments and also the availability of all the materials for career planning.
Career counseling centers: also run campaigns on social media including Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, which provide tips and give students a push to use the services.
Webinars and Virtual Counselling: In the post-pandemic world, virtual counselling becomes one of the most prominent. Students can now attend webinars, get access to resources, and even get one-on-one virtual counselling from anywhere.
Parents and Family
Since parental guidance is an important part of the choices that students make, parents can sometimes be the first inspirers as they realize that their child seems confused or overwhelmed about his future.
How Parents Help
•Advice from the Counselor: Parents encourage their children to consult counselors when they feel their children are under pressure and cannot cope with the academic pressures or are confused about their career prospects.
• Networking: In some cases, parents may link their child with professional networks or career advisors whom they are acquainted with through their workplace or otherwise within their community.
5. Career Counselling Organizations and Private Counsellors
Many schools and colleges offer career advice, but students often have to gain the more technical forms of career advice through private organizations themselves.
These organizations often advertise directly to the students, providing personal consultation sessions and sometimes testing that may not be offered within their school or college.
6. Career Counselling through Alumni Networks
Alumni serve a very significant role in helping students to offer career and academic counselling.
Such organizations have moderately active alumni networks that involve the present-day students through mentoring programs, career panels, and networking events.
Alumni often can become examples of people who have really made good uses of their lives with the help of counselling. This could oftentimes serve as a far more pertinent guide if done rightly.
How Alumni are Helpful:
•Alumni return to their institutions regularly for talks or career panels that allow them to recount their experiences and to convey the significance of counseling services.
•Mentorship programs wherein students get alumni mentors who will train, guide them through academic decisions, and career development allowing them to become even more aware of available counselling on campus.
7. Government and Community Programs
Government and communities continue to invest in most of the regions to improve career counselling with a view to making informed decisions on future careers for students.
Most of these programs target underrepresented or disadvantaged communities. Counselling services are free or subsidized services that students would otherwise not afford.
•Public Outreach Programs: Some local governing bodies and NGOs hold career orientation workshops and counselling sessions for students in school compounds or community centers where the service may not be easy to access.
•Online Portals and Helplines: Government sites and community organizations can offer career materials, helplines, as well as virtual counselling for students as they make their way through their academic and career choices.
8. Counselling Through Internships and Work-Study Programs
Internships, work-study programs, and volunteer opportunities provide students with practical experience in various careers. Many such experiences include career counselling to help students reflect on their strengths and preferences.
It is common for students to encounter career advisors or workplace mentors who help guide them on future career options while engaging in real-world tasks.
Benefits of Internships:
• Career Mentoring: In the course of the internship, students are mostly mentored by professionals, letting them know that the task is not over yet but just begun, which makes further self-counselling needed.
• Reflection and Evaluation: Some of the post-intern evaluations request that students seek advice or guidance in collaboration with career counselors for any other actions that one is expected to take after all the experiences gotten from the internship to keep such experiences afloat on the academic path.
9. Word of Mouth from Career Counselling Success Stories
Success stories can be quite inspirational. Many of those who successfully utilized services of career or academic counselling are already word-of-mouth preachers.
It builds the awareness and trust among students for utilizing these services. Schools and colleges usually throw up such stories of success through newsletters, social media, or campus events, acting as motivators for others to avail of counselling services.
Why Success Stories Matter:
•Inspiring Peers: The story of a peer’s success often inspires others to seek career counselling on his or her way in dealing with insecurities.
•Results of Counselling: These stories often present very tangible outcomes such as internships, placement jobs, or scholarships that testify the benefits of taking guidance.
10. Career Counselling Apps and Tools
With the attack of technology, many students have now learned career counselling through the apps that teach how to evaluate their strong points and accordingly find one’s suitable career.
Career assessment apps such as Career Explorer, My Plan, or even LinkedIn offer a student an opportunity to explore career paths, connect with a mentor, or get counselling.
Tools used:
•Career Assessment Quizzes: The resources provide tests that lead the students to understand what they love to do, their personality types, and which careers are interest-appropriate.
•Job Market Insights: Some of the apps give the students real-time glimpses of what is happening in the job market thereby enabling them to understand which sectors are growing and where there are opportunities.
How Students Gain Access to these Services
•Advertising: Sometimes, career counselling organizations advertise through websites, social media or even by putting the flyers in campuses.
•Recommendations: At times, a student is recommended by a teacher, friend or parent who has heard of or worked with a counselor sometime in the past.
•Workshops and Seminars: Private agencies conduct workshops or career days in educational institutions for them to know the services.
Conclusion:
The path that a student follows to reach career and academic counselling is most often a blend of structured programs and informal interactions.
Because the student today has much more support, whether it is from school, parents, peers, online resources, or after-school programs, he or she will have to seek and utilize counselling services during the challenging trajectory across education and career prospects.
This is where an individual will take an informed and confident decision regarding his or her goals, interests, and strengths towards a successful academic and professional future.