Career Counselling

Students are surrounded by choices today. They have hundreds of careers emerging every month. Every year, thousands of courses enter the market. When there are so many such factors contributing to the ever-growing maze to reach that perfect career, Career Counselling forms that guiding light in their journey.

Metro cities, especially have seen an increasing number of cases where students fail to manage their career choices in line with their interests and parents’ expectations. It is high time for educational institutions to address this issue and provide the right support to students. And a huge step in that direction is Career Counselling and Career Guidance. Career guidance can be termed as a comprehensive program designed to assist individuals mostly students make informed career decisions.

Importance

Simply because every child is unique and possesses different capabilities which are difficult to attach to a certain mould. The ‘One size fits all’ approach to education will not work in the present scenario. Career Counselling can help students understand their own self so that they can take an informed decision about education. Career counselling can also help manage a diverse range of problems like low concentration levels and disagreement between parents and children about career choices and school retention levels.

With proper guidance and career counselling, most candidates can choose the right career which ultimately helps them succeed. Career Counselling will help students understand the depth and nature of courses and possible opportunities in the future.

Motto of the Program

Career counseling mainly consists of four elements:

• Helping individuals to greater insight and perceptions in areas such as knowledge, importance, aptitudes, and personality development.
• Uniting students to resources so that they can become more well-informed about occupations and professions.
• Students in the decision-making process in order that they can select a career path that is in accordance to their own concerns, norms, proficiencies,aptitudes and personality.
• Helping the individuals to be self-motivated of their career paths including direction of career transitions and various life roles as well as becoming lifelong learners within the logic professional development over ones lifespan.

Psychometric Tests

Psychometric Tests is basically an aptitude test that is designed to evaluate a person’s interests, aptitude, cognitive ability, reasoning etc. based on a set of questions. These questions are scenario-based, ability and interest based, personality based etc. The results are compiled depending on the person’s answers. It is important to note, though that there are no right or wrong answers . Psychometric tests highlight the personality traits and judge the suitability of a person to a particular field of study.

With proper guidance and career counselling, most candidates can choose the right career which ultimately helps them succeed. Career Counselling will help students understand the depth and nature of courses and possible opportunities in the future.

Benefits

• Insights about a student’s personality – Psychometric tests give an insight about the student’s personality- whether the person is an introvert, extrovert, level of emotional intelligence, traits which cannot be judged from the profile or even in an interview.
• Helps in selecting the right subjects –We use Psychometric tests to identify the student’s strengths and weaknesses so that they can be better guided about the choice of subjects or career path.
• Cost Effective – Psychometric tests takes just a few hours to reveal information about a person that would normally take months to know. Moreover, it is easy to implement too.
• Reliable and Unbiased – Psychometric tests provide valuable insights about a person’s interests and abilities without any bias as these tests are taken by students themselves who answer questions based on what they think.

Right time

Well, there is no right time to take the test. A student can and should take the test when they are old and matured enough to think critically and analytically as that is what the test is all about.

• Class 8 to 10th – Although still very young, this is the time when students start thinking about what they want to do in life. The test would help them identify their strengths, weakness, interests etc. This can help them choose the right subjects in class 12 that is in line with their interests and would do well in.
• Class 10th to 12th – This is the time when most students are confused about what subjects to opt. The test would help them identify the right subjects and possible career options. They can identify their primary and secondary career options and make plans accordingly.

The Testing Method

There are different types of Psychometric Tests:

• Numerical ability – This determines how quickly a student works with numbers.
• Verbal Ability – This tests the communication skills of the person with the help of written extracts
• Logical – This type of test gauges a person’s ability to think logically.
• Diagrammatic – This tests uses diagrams to test the person’s problem solving ability.

In a country like India where career is given supreme importance, psychometric tests are important as they help students choose the right career. These tests lay emphasis on the fact that interest and abilities should be the deciding factors in choosing a career path and not social or parental pressure. Psychometric testing can help the educational system on various levels. It helps students choose the right subjects they are likely to do well in which would boost their morale and their confidence level. The colleges would see fewer dropouts as people would be motivated to do study towards their goal and organizations would witness a drop in bad hires as they would be in a better position to judge the suitability of the candidate for the role.