Tips on how to choose the ideal career, how best to crack the NEET and JEE exams, alternative courses such as tea-tasting being offered in the country, and the prospects of overseas education were some of the highlights of the career guidance event conducted jointly by The Hindu Edge and Hindustan University at Kaloor A.J. Hall on Friday.
As many as 450 students from 19 schools attended the half-day-long event comprising six sessions conducted by stalwarts from diverse fields, including college professors, directors of tutorials and overseas education facilitators as well as the District Collector.
Civil service
“Civil service is one of the most extremely satisfying careers in a developing country like India,” said Ernakulam District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla in the first of the six career guidance sessions, as he spoke about the demands of preparing for the civil services, stressing the need to start early and read newspapers on a daily basis. “Everyday you get an opportunity to help people. The job also gives you tremendous influencing power to make changes around.”
General knowledge and awareness about society we live in was very critical to fare well in the civil services examinations, he added. “Later, this knowledge also helps you in whatever job you take up,” he said. “Identifying your true passion may be a continuous journey, but it needs to be done to pursue a career in that field.”
Aptitude crucial
Identifying students’ aptitude is what S. Rajoo Krishnan, former Joint Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, also stressed. “Parents need to be as much a part of this process, if not more, as teachers. Career guidance has to start as early as in Grade Eight, because students need to decide what streams to choose in Grade Ten,” he said.
His first session focused on various engineering and medical courses offered in the State and the country as well as diplomas offered in other lesser-known fields such as paramedics. It also dwelt on the job opportunities the courses offered and what the main aspects of these jobs would involve. His second session, on alternative careers, included options that commerce and humanities students could opt for: such as journalism, fine arts, designing and tourism.
P. Deiva Sundari, Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Hindustan Group’s KCG College of Technology in Chennai, spoke about the need to choose the right engineering discipline based on students’ interests and skills. George Thomas, one of the directors of the Brilliant Study Centre (Pala, Kottayam), touched on how scoring well for the board exams were crucial to do well in the NEET, JEE and State entrance exams. “The reason we began a tutorial centre was, because, as students, we faced the problems of low marks and struggled to get good jobs,” he said.
Overseas education
The half-an-hour-long session on the overview of studying abroad by Nicy Binu, director of Santa Monica Study Abroad Pvt Ltd, piqued the interest of students. They posed several questions for the resource person, from the best countries to pursue MBAs and biotechnology to the universities that offer game development as subjects. “Studying overseas can broaden our mental horizon and shape our mindsets,” said Binu. “Students deemed mediocre in the Indian system have gone on to be class toppers in universities abroad,” she said, sharing some interesting anecdotes of studying abroad.
Mathew Joseph, Senior Deputy Editor, The Hindu , delivered the welcome address and P. Satheeshkumar, Assistant General Manager, Advertising (Kochi), proposed a vote of thanks. K.K. Joshy, Senior General Manager, Advertising (Kerala), was present.
In the lucky draw at the end of the event, two students were presented a Kindle each, while one other was awarded a book. The event, sponsored by Hindustan University and conducted by The Hindu Edge , was powered by I Learn IAS (Thiruvananthapuram) and also backed by Oxygen (the Technology partner), Santa Monica (the Overseas Education partner) and Brilliant (Knowledge partner).
