We conducted holistic career counseling, “Career Orientation”, “My Future Pro”, “Motivational Session”, “Psychometric Assessment” and “Individual Career Counseling” for 10 youths residing in Himalayan Children’s Charities (HCC) to help them to make right career decision on right time and become independent what they are inherently made for.
HCC is a compassionate, global community of professionals, philanthropists, and the students in their programs. They empower youth in Nepal who have lost homes and families but not the desire to become educated, self-sufficient and contributing members of their communities. They mentor orphaned and abandoned children in Nepal to achieve sustainable paths to success, creating the next generation of professionals, leaders, and change makers.
The beneficiaries youth of HCC were those who had just appeared SEE (Secondary Education Examination), waiting for result and wondering about what to study after SEE. After participating in 3 days holistic career counseling session youth are better able to choose their best fitting career according to their individual passion, values, abilities and competencies.
5 new additions/ changes in result display that we have made in June,2019
We are permanently striving to increase our services for our clients. Most recently we have launched a new version of the results of the psychometric assessment to make them even more intuitive for students to read. Here is what we have done in particular.
The learn-more section is the first place the students and youths go to view their recommended jobs. Learn-more has gotten a lot of new changes that were highly demanded by youths as well as teachers. This page describes the 5 changes.
We have now illustrated intuitively the self-employment graph. You can see easily see the percent of the level of self employment in the entire Nepal for any given job.
The demand logo is now larger and clearer. We have also defined the demand differently. They are defined in 4 layers:
Very High Demand
High Demand
Low Demand
Saturated
If the counselor has seen your result and has recommended you jobs accordingly, you will see the tick beside your job. (The counselor recommends you job only when you have taken Assessment Basic or Assessment Deluxe)
There are multiple educational ways to reach the same career. We have illustrated that with 4 different colours:
Orange: Academic (e.g. Bachelors, Masters)
Brown: Diploma
Pink: TSLC
Blue: Training
We have created a system to view all the institutes (available in our system) in your selected district to study, all the courses, for the given job. If there no available institutes in your district, the hand signal is shown in red
We hope that all this changes do increase the usability of the assessment. If you have further ideas on how we can make our online services more user friendly, please do not hesitate to send us an email to info@careerdishanepal.org
You have not yet taken the assessment? Go and take the test now and get the jobs which are personally recommended for you
We helped seven youths, age group of 14 -18 years old to pick the best fitting education for a career by using a series of Basic Career Counseling Package. The package contained different services such as indecision scales, Career orientation, My Future Pro, Labor Market Workshop, and Psychometric Assessment. The youths were in their gap period as they had just completed their secondary education examination and are waiting for the result.
Indecision scale finds out youth’s first confusion level regarding career and education. We use this questionnaire frequently in the workshop before and after we conduct the workshops and assessment to analyze whether our services became useful to eliminate their confusion regarding their career or not. After finding out their career confusion by filling a list of seventeen multiple questions, a career counsellor provides career orientation to point out if the gap exists to confuse regarding career and education.
Similarly, they did different career activities in ‘My Future Pro’ session to find out their interest, values, abilities, weakness, and strength. This workshop is designed to make an individual career plan. After knowing ‘who am I’ clearly from ‘My Future Pro’, Labor Market Workshop was conducted to help them to know the number of careers in detail available in the local market where they can find their inclination towards. This was followed by Psychometric Assessment to help them to find out the individual personality profile and jobs according to personal interest.
After all the sessions, youths were able to find out their best suitable career options. In the reflection and feedback session, they also shared how the series of holistic career counselling process changed their perception to think about their career. Moreover, youth added that they had never thought about the career that seriously and surprisingly they were happy about the recommended career. This exciting four day long career counselling workshop was conducted by our career counsellor expert Hari Krishna Dahal and aspiring career counsellor Susma Lohala.
Dang, is in the far-western Nepal, with population of over 540,000. It has population demography of over 48% of youths between the ages of 16-30. Due to this age the number of youths looking for career has increased exponentially compared to the last few years.
Through this article, we want to illustrate where a youth can get involved in legal sector in far-western region. The article too deals with the careers within the legal sector that are more lucrative and have a higher demand. This information was gathered from a local lawyer from Public Advocacy Law Firm established in Ghorahi, Dang with an experience of more than 5 years of practice.
Number of legal careers in Mid-western Nepal
Lawyer/ Legal Advisor
Judge
Legislative Lawyer
Governmental Officers
Court License Clerk
Politician
Sheshedaar^
Tahashildaar^
Before any lawyer becomes a judge, they first become ‘Tahashildaar’ and then get a advance to become ‘Sheshedaar’.
Highest Demanded Job within Legal sector
It was found out that the highest demanded job within the legal sector is for Lawyer and legal advisor. Though there are over 250 lawyers in Mid-western, over 10 times more than other legal jobs, the demand for experienced lawyer/legal advisor is increasing. Against popular belief, only around 30% of the lawyers work full time, most of them are government employees. The self employment rate is astonishingly around 80%.
Future Trend for jobs in Legal sector
According to the lawyer, youths planning become a lawyer in Dang (major cities like Tulsipur, Ghorahi and Lamahi) overall have great prospects if they plan to invest their time in the district and ‘create link and contact’. The demand for lawyers is high both for private and public sectors alike. However, evidently the prospects for being a legislative lawyer and court license clerk depend highly upon the government creating jobs.
We conducted My Abilities sector of “My Future Pro” workshop for 9 young students studying in 9 grades residing in the Forum for the Welfare Himalayan Children (FWHC) on 6th October 2018.
My Future Pro”, the self-reflective exercise book contains 3 major parts, My Interest, My Ability, and My Values. The exercises are designed to evaluate own self through individual past and present background, hobbies, priority, and perception of each and every event of their life. And help them to find a suitable career option accordingly.
Through “My Abilities” sector, students get detailed information about their abilities as well as their friends by doing different activities. My Abilities section help them to recognize their strengths, and how strengths are interrelated with individual interests and values.
During the session, students were curious to know their unknown and neglected abilities. And our career counselor facilitates them to eliminate their queries by giving the relevant example. During the workshop, students presented the presentation, interviewed each other and share their opinion with their friends in the context of individual abilities linking with the different profession.
In the review session, students told that from now onward they are crystal clear about their future career and better able to decide career considering individual abilities. The program was run by CDN Career Counselor Hari Krishna Dahal.
After the successful completion of 2 batches in FWHC, on 1st of September 2018, we conducted career orientation program for 15 new young students residing in the Forum for the Welfare Himalayan Children (FWHC).
The aim of the career orientation was to help yet another group of students to know about the future career prospects in Nepal along with the things that determine the right career, and the importance of picking interest based career and education for a successful career.
The interactive program run by our career counselor, Hari Krishna Dahal, initiated with a related motivational story about recognizing one’s path for their career, following up with different career orientation models. He also expanded by informing students about the general mistakes one makes while deciding the education and career. And, also provides the structure to avoid such mistakes.
The students were vocal about the fact they had never thought their career that way before. According to them, the ‘eye- opening’ career orientation will help them to think twice before jumping to any education or career.
The career orientation is the 1st program this year for the new batch of students studying in 9 and 10 grades. It will be followed by 12 intensive sessions where the youths will be aware of their interests, personality, values, and their competences.
“Digital CommanDEOR” aims to raise the professionalization of youth work at global level by supporting youth organizations to improve the dissemination and exploitation of project results (DEOR) methods they use, build up their online identity in order to be more accessible for their target groups, better promote their projects and foster cooperation and exchanges between Programme and Partner countries involved. The project develops structured actions towards increasing professionalization of the youth workers and providing youth organizations with practical instruments for increasing quality of DEOR methods. To achieve this, the project foresees three different youth workers’ mobility activities, number of local activities and elaboration of an Open Educational Resource and manual on DEOR that would allow fellow organizations also building capacity in the field of their external communication strategies and continuing exchange of best practices among peers.
Career Disha Nepal was blessed to get in the training program. We were able to observe and see the progressive ideas, their practices and outreach from several youths from 8 different countries. CDN gained satisfactory enlightenment on several aspects of marketing, communication and the entrepreneurial enthusiasms. Peer and groups works flourished the outcome during the training program with inspirational feelings for our future activities in CDN.
Right after the training, the enthusiastic Nepali team held their first digital marketing and development training to their internal team. The method of group work, innovative training method with gamification created several plans for marketing activities that lead the training as a huge success. CDN saw this as an opportunity to explore their new found techniques and experience in the real life. With the expertise of CDN in the field of education and career counseling fuelled by the excitement from Portugal, we were able to organize, hold and finally create 10 career helpers from 5 major organizations. These career helpers are Nepal’s only trained helpers who will be the first person for the confused youths to go to for reliable and effective information for both career and education. The helpers too are equipped with skills for holding workshops and assessment to help any confused youth find their way into an education that fits them.
Career Disha Nepal participated in the International Training Course from 11-18 March 2018 in Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal together with VHS Bhaktapur hosted by Geoclub-Associação Juvenil– Rua da Boavista, s/n, 4435-354 Rio Tinto, Portugal. This training was organized under ERASMUS+ framework of the Capacity Building in the Field of Youth project “Digital CommanDEOR”. The project is funded by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) (https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/homepage_en). Applicant organization of this project is Association for European Cooperation, Development and Communication – Heimeulenstraat 49, 2328 Hoogstraten, Belgium and VHS Bhaktapur; mother organization of Career Disha Nepal is partner organization in the project “Digital CommanDEOR”. Career Disha Nepal is thankful to VHS Bhaktapur in creating the opportunity for CDN team to get involved in the project
CDN’s representative, COO, Hari Krishna Dahal participated in the Labour Market Information and employment Services (LIfE) Project’s Employment Service Center (ESC) Job Portal and Its Application launching program on August 24, 2018.
The Government of Nepal (GON) has taken important initiatives and established 14 Employment Service Centres (ESCs) under the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) through the Department of Labour and Occupational Safety (DoLOS) in FY 2065/66 BS (2008/9 AD), as an effort to meet the pressing need of providing quality employment services and labour market information to job seekers, enterprises and concerned labour market actors. Now, MoLESS has taken new initiatives to expand ESCs to 753 local government structures.
The KOICA funded ILO’s Labour Market Information and Employment Services(LIfE) Project supported to improve the quality of employment services through strengthened the client orientation and capacity building of employment services centers and their officials; improving the collection and dissemination of labour market information and skill indicators; and knowledge sharing under the ILO South-South cooperation Framework.
In this regard, LIfE project has been developed ESC job portal (www.jobkhoj.gov.np) and its applications (apps) for android and ios platform. In the job portal and apps, there are three modules: Job Seekers, Employers and ESC. The key function of ESC job portal and apps are:
Job seekers can register to find jobs
Employers can register and post vacancies to find relevant job seekers
ESC can register both job seekers and employers and also facilitate to match the need of employers and job seekers
Special features of Job Portal and its Apps
The job seekers can see available jobs based on category, type, salary range, skills required, education required and location
The employers can see available job seekers based on category, gender, age group, skills, education and location
The system itself inform jobseeker regarding relevant jobs available(based on skill, education) through auto-generated email
The ESC job portal apps is easily available and accessible with wider coverage using mobile tools. It content is synchronized with the portal website and can be used with offline saving for selected modules to ESCs.
Special features for DoLOS and ESCs
The super administrator of DoLOS and administrator ESCs can have information of total employers, job seekers, employment opportunities and ESCs can facilitate job matching, provide counseling to both jobseeker and employers using job portal data management system
ESC can view the mapping of employers and search using filtering features
ESC can view list of posted job using filtering feature
ESC can generate reports using job category, posted date, fiscal year and others
ESC can view job seekers status and use filtering features
DoLOS and ESC can produce trend of employment opportunity and job seekers based on available job category, type, skills, qualification, district etc.
Job portal and its apps in Android and iOS can make changes within existing practices as well as shape of the future direction of matching jobseeker and employers’ needs and expectations.
Career counseling by Career Disha Nepal is offered by an expert career counselor to help youth to recognize their individual interests, values, and abilities by using different counseling tools and techniques. The different types of career counseling tools bring clarity to career-related goals, find the possible solution for education and career problems and point out the highest potential, and recommend suitable education and career to the youths accordingly.
Research shows that career counseling has led to individuals entering more suitable jobs, achieving greater job satisfaction and experiencing less job turnover than their counterparts who were not in the recipient of the career guidance.
In the modern era, the need for introducing career counseling to the students is very important to motivate the students toward the highest potential career choices. In Nepal, after SEE (School Education Examination) knowingly and unknowingly the chances of choosing the wrong career are greater than ever. Be it due to social pressure, misinformation or lack of reflection. Therefore, if students get a chance to have career counseling in the school level, they will have the choice to have an informed career…before it is too late.
We conducted the survey on 12 schools located at different places in Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur. The places include Ram Mandir, Aadarsh, and Kamal Binayak to know the perception and recognition of career counseling in school’s administration.
Recognition of the term and concept of career counseling in schools
Figure: 1 Study reveals that the term career counseling is completely new for more than 40 percent principals.
Career counseling is a new term in Nepal. Only a few top schools in Bhaktapur are using career counseling tools effectively.
How do the 58 percent of principal know the term career counseling?
Figure: 2. Most principals know Career Counseling through Social Media
Have the principals who know the term career counseling conducted some form of career counseling programs at their school?
No! The proper career counseling in school from career counseling expert is absent in all of the visited schools. Few of them informed us that they conduct some form of informative and advising counseling program at school. Such as motivation speech and student teacher career discussion program.
From 1-10, how do the principals rank the importance of career counseling in their schools?
Figure:3. All the principals tend to believe that Career Counseling is utmost necessary
Career and educational choice of the students is important to the administration of the schools. 100% of the principals interviewed informed us that they know about their passed out students’ chosen career and education choice after SEE. According to them, the students most chosen career was management and science while only a few students choose the humanities and technical fields.
Figure 4: According the survey, most of the principal, 92%, felt the need of the career counseling for students.
Conclusion
Why is career counseling necessary in secondary school level?
It does not mean that only the confused students need the career counseling. Today, varieties of available career and education options and opportunity, which might be influenced students to pick up wrong education for the career. An Indian study shows that 1 in 3 students are unhappy with the course they picked. That is nearly half a million dissatisfied college students! Such figures only point to one clear truth – the importance of career guidance in schools.
The age group (14-18 years old) require career counseling the most. After grade 10 they need to decide the education for their career. A number of students pick specific subjects simply because their friends are opting for them while some decide according to their parents’ wishes. Only a few select subjects are based on their interests. Even this is usually chosen without knowing if their preferred subjects would lead them to their desired careers or not.
Career counselors believe that secondary schools are the platforms where students explore, experiment and enhance their life skills. It is during adolescence that they learn to communicate and interact with diverse groups, acquire problem-solving skills, polish their critical thinking abilities and recognize the importance of teamwork. Therefore, counselors suggest that secondary school students should be provided with appropriate career guidance in school level so that they can make informed decisions about their higher and professional studies.
Here are the few reasons that career counseling is important for students:
It helps the student understand their own strengths, interest, and values and lets them know what education and career they would be suited for.
It helps students understand the career options that they fit in, and plan how to pursue them. It helps the students to build self-confident on their education and career decision. Subsequently, doing well in their chosen education field.
It gives them a platform to voice their opinion about what they would like to pursue, as well as discuss the obstacles that they may be worried about. For example, with their parents.
Career counseling plays a vital role at crucial turning points in the lives of students. Students are seeking the good guidance and support in both their school and parents for their education and career. If the principal of the school understands the value of career counseling for students’ life and implements the necessary career counseling tools then the chances of the students reaching the career of their dream can be a possibility.
On 16 of June 2018, Kingdom Star School’s Hostel coordinator, Suresh Kumar Khati organized the closing session of career counseling program for this year.
We conducted Career Orientation, Labour Market workshop, Psychometric Assessment, My Future Pro and Individual Career Counseling to 23 young students, age group of 14 to 19 years old.
On the closing program, there were 2 passed out students, studied Bachelor of Hotel Management and Registered Nurse. They shared their personal story, how do they come to choose the education they are studying.
Another guest, CDN COO, and Career Counselor Hari Krishna Dahal explained the importance of individual determination to be the success in any career. He has given the example of famous person from the different careers, Neeldavids Salon of Hair & Beauty and Fashion designer Prabal Gurung . He also added no jobs are small; anyone can do their interesting job and can be famous if one has regular effort and strong determination on the respective career only.
Similarly, students who have participated in career counseling program shared their experience of how they benefited from the CDN Services to choose the right career.And also, Mrs. Kamala Khaati distributed the Psychometric Assessment Result to the students.
The chair person of the ceremony, coordinator Mr.Suresh Kumar Khati wraps up the program by telling how one person desires make the world different. Definitely, regular effort to gain the goal is prerequisite but nothing is impossible. “If the late Edmund Percival Hillary did not desire to climb the top of the Mountain Everest first time, he never could reach there, If the Steven Paul Jobs did not dream to provide people the smartest phone ever, then today no one has I Phone.” So finding a desired career where individual interest, strength, and abilities met is the way of achieving success.
