If asked to take a walk down the memory lane into your childhood, what are the first few things you’d remember?
Your memories with family, friends, your school and… TEACHERS!
Teachers play a crucial role in every student’s life. They are every student’s first guide to academics & career. As a Teacher, one not only is responsible to deliver subject knowledge but also impart moral values for life. A teacher’s role doesn’t end here, their responsibilities vary from student to student based on the relationship they build with them.
Why does a Teacher play a vital role in Student Career Guidance?
Recall your classroom and remember what you initially wanted to become. When a Teacher, Principal or Parent asks ‘What do you want to become in life?’ most of us have our answers ready like Astronaut, Pilot, Doctor, Journalist, Teacher, Actor, and so on. Well, the truth is that not all of us end up doing what our first career choices are. Why not? Because of the lack of information and career guidance.
As a Teacher, you already are a career guide to your students. They not only look up to you for the area of the subject you teach but also for their further interests, information around it and scope of it for their future. A student learns words like profession, career, college and success in school, and look up to their teachers for guidance. Since students spend most of their time at school, only a Teacher can know their aspirations better.
How can a Teacher help in Student Career Guidance?
Being a Teacher, you already have gone through a student’s milestone years. School, Entrances, College, University and finally landed a Career of your choice. This itself gives you an opportunity to remember your journey and guide the students better.
Having a career conversation during class helps in sharing knowledge, as well as build curiosity among students. This helps them understand their interests and importance of education and learning from a very young age. They say ‘it is the destiny of few to mentor greatness’, and as a Teacher, it is the biggest privilege to guide students towards a brighter future.
Ask yourself if you have the passion towards Teaching as a profession and want to guide your students if the answer is yes, there’s nothing that can stop you. Consider yourself as one of those Super Teachers who go the extra mile for their student’s success.
As a Teacher you can follow these activities to guide your students better:
- Conduct a class survey on careers and take up topics on various professions twice a week
- While teaching a particular subject, make sure you give some career examples
- Make sure you are interacting with your students and show that you are equally interested in their career choices
- Talk to their parents about their wards career thoughts during PTMs
- Encourage students to research and polish their skill set
Well, the list can go on, but as a professional one must also take up a course that will help in identifying, understanding and analyzing a student’s interests, strength, desire and behavior.
You must be thinking that you’re a Teacher and not a Career Counselor, but why not a Career Counselor? As a Teacher you already are playing the role of a Career Guide, a smarter thing to do would be a professional certification that will enhance your knowledge and skill set to help guide your students better, in return adding immense value to your own professional graph.
Your intention to guide students is 100% sincere, but is it possible to guide an entire class? Or the whole batch for the matter? Here’s where a renowned certification will not only provide the above benefits but also give you a 360 degrees exposure to the education industry along with its changing needs.
Ever since the Central Board for Secondary Education has made it mandatory for schools to have counselors, progressive schools in India have been eagerly looking for professional & certified career counselors.
