Background

For many people today, a career for life is no longer a reality. Most people will hold jobs with a variety of employers and move across different sectors and fields through their working life. The need to stick to only one career no longer holds with the evolving dynamics of the labour market coupled with the new era of information and technology. Career has now become a lifelong continuous process of development. Hence the need is felt for people to have access to information all through their career path.

Career information should be readily accessible to students at all stages in their schooling. Career talks will thus be organized with the main aim of making students aware that they have a career path to take once their schooling is over and they should prepare themselves as from an early age. These talks are meant to trigger and inculcate the thinking process of students about career management.  Supplying the students with maximum information at this stage is crucial.

A first launching of the project had career talks targeted to all Lower VI students in the four zones as they will be transiting from Secondary to Tertiary level or from Secondary level to the job market. Career talks will also be given in two randomly chosen schools per zone for interested classes in the 2nd semester. Form III level students who are faced with an initial exercise of choosing subjects will also be given priority for the career talks and the focus will be on components 1 and 2 only.

The programme has three components:

Component 1: How to think Career and manage career.

"Career" was traditionally associated with paid employment and referred to a single occupation but in today's world the term career is seen as a continuous process of learning and development. Nowadays we don’t have a career for life but a life for careers. It is a must to be a career manager as from early school days and hence avoid the common career failures in the future.

The outline of this presentation is as follows:

• Preparing the student to adopt a career mindset
• What is a career?
• What leads to career success?
• Qualities needed for a successful career
• How does one learn to manage a career at school level?
• Distribution of a career cube, specially designed with visual information

Component 2: Employability skills

Employers are often looking for skills that go beyond qualifications and experience. While education and experience may make you eligible to apply for a job, to be successful at the job you will need to exhibit a mix of skills: ‘employability skills’.  For employers, getting the right people means identifying people with the right skills and qualities to fulfill the role and contribute to the organisation's success.

This presentation highlights:

• Employability skills (Interpersonal skills, Communication skills, Critical thinking skills, presentation skills, IT skills, Literacy and Numeracy skills)
• The need of these highly sought skills which are the foundation of career building blocks.
• The skills and attitudes that enable employees to get along with their colleagues, to make critical decisions, solve problems, develop respect and ultimately become strong ambassadors for the organisation.

Component 3: CV writing and interviewing techniques

CVs and covering letters enable individuality of expression as compared to application forms and is a powerful marketing tool. It is thus vital to have a concise, explicit and straightforward CV to make it easier for the candidate to obtain interviews.  Interviews, being a dialogue between the candidate and the interviewer, are an efficient way to assess how well the person would fit into the company and whether they have the skills and experience mentioned in the CV.

The presentation highlights:

• Important elements to include in a CV.
• Importance of a covering letter.
• Different interviewing techniques for a successful interview.

This will prepare the student irrespective of the career and career path he/she chooses in the future.

The content of the talks have been a result of a number of surveys and research work conducted by the HRDC.