Ruthlessly, everyone knows and accept the crucial fact that students have been misguided and mislead in Pakistan. Every year thousands of graduates pass out of their colleges or universities but they have little or absolutely no idea what career are they interested in and how to enter that field.

Students are very important asset of any nation and that is the reason why our great leader Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah always addressed students and tried to make them realize their worth and how can they invest their energy in order to make better and brighter Pakistan. As he said in one of his addresses to students, “My young friends, I look forward to you as the real makers of Pakistan, do not be exploited and do not be misled. Create amongst yourselves complete unity and solidarity. Set an example of what youth can do. Your main occupation should be in fairness to yourself, to your parents, in fairness to the State, to devote your attention to your studies. If you fritter away your energies now, you will always regret”

In his Presidential address at the conference of the Punjab Muslim Students Federation, March 2, 1941, he said, “When you have got that light of knowledge by means of education and when you have made yourselves strong economically and industrially, then you have got to prepare yourselves for your defence — defence against external aggression and to maintain internal security”.

In my humble observation, I have found these two major factors that lead to this misguidance in Pakistan; role of parents/family and role of educational system.

Parents Role in Guidance:

Psychology says that every individual shows sign of interest right from their childhood – when a kid develops his/her sense of reasoning. It also suggests that it is parents’ duty to observe kid’s activities and then provide them right exposure and tools to help them develop the skill according to that interest. For example, if a child likes to open up his toys instead of playing with them then we can say that he has mindset of an engineer, similarly, if a child likes to play with colors or draws cartoon, shapes or figures than he has the ability of an artist. So, skill and interest development starts from very early ages, those students always do well who have been guided properly by their parents.

How to overcome this problem: Parents should first take the time out to observe and identify their child’s interest and then, provide guidance, opportunities and exposures to the child, accordingly.

Role of Educational System in Career Guidance:

Students at schools, colleges and universities receive no or very little career counselling from their teachers or institute’s management. This is one of the reasons for unrest amongst the youth in Pakistan because students graduate and gets into the market without having an iota of knowledge about the market trends and appropriate set of skills, which can help them in gaining and maintaining a job in their future.

The major problem with our Educational System is, that it does not have much of the compatibility with ground realities. Students gain theoretical knowledge just to fetch good grades and they are rarely made to do an exercise to co-relate the theory with the practical aspects keeping in view the ground facts. Students are least prepared to get through the practical tests and peruse their dreams. Another major issue is: lack of teachers’ knowledge about professional career market – they stay out of touch from leading trends and thus, cannot provide proper guidance and assistance in mentoring their students.

How to overcome this problem: This issue can only be resolved if parents, teachers and the students are on the same page, very unfortunate that students are on the page of Facebook, teachers on linked in and parents are tweeting.  This is not a process which can be completed overnight, on a serious note we all at every ladder need to address this issue so as to empower our students over the hard ground facts and enable them to survive. Educational institutes and Employer Organizations should collaborate on regular basis, by offering bulk apprenticeship opportunities, in order to promote professional career development and counselling of students. Strong relationship between educational sector and jobs market is very significant.

We at BrightSpyre, aim to provide free of cost consultation to students – they can call us and book their appointment with HR professionals who will guide them regarding career selection and career start. We also provide free assistance of developing professional CV and resume, which helps you in getting shortlisted in different organizations.

Not only this, BrightSpyre also conducts workshops, seminars, and training sessions in different institutes to provide information, knowledge and guidance.

You all are welcome to put us right thru your valued comments in this regard.