The importance of career guidance

I was recently at the Hashtag Festival and Career Expo that was hosted by Namibia Media Holdings. I had time to interact and engage a young people about the kind of careers they want to pursue.

Everyone wants to be successful but they do not get the right career guidance to make the right decisions at right time. If you have a pre-planned guidance for your career then it can make a great difference for you.

Festivals such as these are very important for young people because they get them to interact with other young people and it is also a great opportunity for them to learn about the myriad of careers they may choose to further their studies and how they can go about making the right choices.

Besides the Career Expo, there was also a host of other activities such as the community games that included sport codes like tennis, soccer, netball, volleyball and hockey. I could tell from the onset that many of the learners from the different schools that attended the festival that they were not informed about what kind of careers they could prosper in. Many of the learners showed interest and some and were interested in getting as much information as possible about the different career paths that they could follow. For many of the learners, the festival was a platform for them to get first-hand information about what they could study. They were also informed through various presentations about the benefits of the many careers that they were interested in.

Many learners don’t get a chance to speak to people who can mentor them about what careers they can focus on. Therefore, for success it is important that you get guidance from the right person, and the #Festival was just the right place for many learners to get a perspective of what they should study. Hopefully through ingenuity such as the #Festival and many other career expos the youth get exposed to a lot of information so that they can make the right career choices that can impact their future.

If you are a high school student then your entire future is lying ahead of you. It is up to you and your parents who need to guide and advice you on the career choices you should make. It is crucial that for a bright future you must start planning from now on.

At the end of the Hashtag Festival I walked away happy and excited for the many learners who came to the festival. Life skills teachers at high schools should take up the duty of career guidance. In addition, the government should deploy career counsellors to schools to offer career guidance to learners on a full-time basis. If government cannot afford employing career counsellors, it is best to have at least one career centre that will cater for schools in a specific region. In order to realise this, government should collaborate with communities, the private sector, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.

Until next time. Peri nawa!