Career Counselling: Need of the hour in the Indian skill-deficit crisis

 The post-pandemic world is trying to slowly resume the flow from where it paused. In our country where unemployment is high, ironically, studies have revealed that post-lockdown, India will face labour shortage within the coming years. Not only that, but the International Labour Organisation has also stated that by 2030, India will face a whopping 29 million skill-deficit which is able to cause huge dent in our economy. it’s time that the country with one amongst the youngest populations within the world taps into that bottomless well of untapped potential. And for that, we’d like career counselling.

Career counselling is that the process of informed, insightful, and instructive guidance by an expert to assist students know and understand themselves and also the choices they need, to form educational, career, and life decisions. Career counsellors are increasingly being sought get in recent years as parents and students realise the requirement for creating sensible decisions regarding one’s future.

Having been familiarised with only a selected few out of the myriad of labor spheres out there, throughout school, a student steps out into the planet with a narrow view. they’re then bombarded with choices that they either never give much thought to or overthink about. this can be where career counselling steps in. As a rustic that has never been one to take a position in counselling of any type, we’ve did not provide guidance, a beacon, a pathfinder, that our young generation desperately needs.

India ranked 139 out of 149 countries in the annual World Happiness Report 2021. And of the many factors that contributed to the current low happiness index, job dissatisfaction may be a major factor. the largest issue with the Indian population has been that we make choices by limiting ourselves to the narrow spectrum of opportunities that we are accustomed to.

The education sector has also been constantly changing within the past decade. The introduction of smart classrooms, online/digital learning, National Education Policy, and also the likes have opened the arena to a promising future. because the technology evolves over time, newer techniques, and methods to blend education and technology have also come up. one in all the resulting trends of those changes has been simple access to the psychometric tests that are in use for many years in various capacities. Psychometric tests are tools to objectively assess, measure, and identify a person’s personality traits, aptitude, intelligence, skills, cognitive abilities, and behavioural styles.. These are being increasingly utilized in career counselling to match students and employees to an acceptable career or role. Career counsellors are using such tests to work out a student’s absolute potential, innate skills, and interests. The mental measurement is that the key to self-realisation. A self-aware person understands his/her personality traits, it helps to lock the goals and also the need for upskilling to the correct skills to realize the goals.

India’s biggest asset is that we are home to a fifth of the world’s youth demographic. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, this demographic will prove an advantage to us, if properly sourced, till 2055. Yet, companies are faced with a scarcity of suitable candidates thanks to the skill gap as newer professions are added and existing professional roles are changing. the present workforce has to upskill themselves to adapt to those dynamic roles. The young generation must receive exposure to the countless, unknown career opportunities out there. they have to grasp themselves and make choices with the assistance of career counselling experts.

The past few years have caused more changes than we are able to deal with the post-pandemic world has already left us all mentally exhausted and dormant. Recovery is so as. And skill deficit is one amongst the various aspects of this recovery. Bridging the gap between the scholars’ skills and employable skills needed by the students is that the need of the hour. Most of the scholars are unaware of the extra skills required within the constantly changing environment to explore greater opportunities. In these uncertain scenarios, career counsellors embody the famous person for the scholars by assisting them to know their passion and goals, and work towards acquiring the talents needed to attain their goals. Right counselling and guidance are the foremost important avenues to bridge the gap between skills and employment, parents, students, educational institutions have to explore it to the fullest to recover our country from the sill deficit crisis.