The Career Readiness Programme aims to prepare students for a smooth transition from school to the world of work through a series of workshops, group discussions, presentations, and other relevant activities.

The programme focuses on the following areas:

1. developing effective study skills and habits 

2. developing the necessary qualities  as an employee

3. equipping students with  collecting and evaluating career information

4. empowering students with career decision-making 

5. Career Mindfulness 
    

Tentative Outline of Workshop 

 

A workshop is an activity organized for a group of students studying in 8th,9th,  10th,11th, or 12th grade and University or individuals with similar objectives and interests to develop a certain skill or attitude in a specified time duration. The workshops are need-based. The duration and the modality would be planned accordingly.

I . Developing Effective Study Skills and Habits 

 

Rationale: Students, particularly those in adolescence, are curious, energetic, and possess much information. However, most of the time, they lack the skill of organizing and using that information for their benefit. Knowledge of effective study skills would help them prepare, plan, and implement their study schedule effectively, leading to their fullest potential. Therefore, developing effective study skills and habits at this age will help them improve their academic performance. The objective is to improve the academic performance of students.

The students will learn to concentrate. They will develop reading, Writing, note-taking, examination-taking skills, and other techniques to improve their academic performance.

 

II. Developing necessary Qualities  as an employee

 

Rationale: According to FICCI-World Bank employer satisfaction survey(2009), published in the report on “Higher Education in India: Vision 2030, FICCI Higher Education Summit 2013” conducted across 150 companies in India, around 64% of the surveyed employers are “somewhat”, “not very”, or “not at all” satisfied with the quality of engineering graduates’ skills. The top skill gaps they found are General skills – reliability, self -motivation and willingness to learn and Specific skills – problem-solving, ability to design and conduct analysis, and reading.

The workshop would focus on developing basic employability skills. The students will develop a willingness to learn; they will be trained in taking the initiative, completing work on time, teamwork, and adaptability.

 

III.Equipping students with  skill for collecting and evaluating career information

 

Rationale: Career information is important for students who want to make the most out of their lives through wise career decisions. It includes information about various occupations, information about educational institutions and courses and information on personal social development.

 

Career information should include facts that are accurate, reliable, valid and usable. Hoppock (1976) suggested that any information, specifically career information, should evaluated by asking five questions—When? Where? Who? Why? and How?

 

The workshop would be organised to develop   skill for collecting and evaluating career information. Students will learn how to identify sources of career information. They will be trained in  collecting  and evaluating the information. They will also learn to organise the relevant information and prepare a career roadmap.

   

 

IV.Empowering students with career decision-making 

 

Rationale:A career is  a developmental process.  It happens gradually and consistently by building blocks of learning experiences by the child during later childhood, the school environment and teacher attitude help to develop self-efficacy among the students. During adolescence, the influence of peers affects career choice. In the age of globalisation, media, television, and the internet also play important roles in the career choice of a child. The information available is needs to be critically analysed before using it. Therefore, the career decision should be determined by preparing, planning, executing, and evaluating one's potentialities and possibilities, knowledge about the labour market, and one's own values and principles in life.

The workshop would focus on improving  decision making ability .Students will learn how to set learn SMART goal .They will  prepare roadmap of a their own career ,evaluate and develop future plan of action. 

 

IV: Career Mindfulness

 

Rationale:A career is a movement of a person in time and space. A career is equal to time spent on the job as well as time spent during leisure. The  career choice of a person depends on his own ‘self-concept’ (Super,1953,1980)and the kind of upbringing he/she had in during the childhood (Roe,1957,1990).Each individual has certain personality characteristics and environment also has requirement of people at certain places with certain characteristics, so if efforts are made to match the personality characteristics and requirement of the environment, the chances of getting success in career are more(Holland,1997). After career choice and compromises the chance of sustaining in the particular job also depends on how satisfactory work environment is for a person . If the workplace is pleasant, the employee would like to continue to work for more time. Whether we are fully aware of it or not, our lives are spent in an endeavour to increase our pleasant feelings and avoid unpleasant feelings. 

The practice of mindfulness, which is awareness,  awareness of things, self, others, reality and the Ultimate, prepares an individual to maintain a certain level of satisfaction and well-being.

The workshop would focus on developing mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness helps to develop concentration, clarity of purpose, self-regulation and overall life satisfaction.