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Schools should dedicate the beginning of every year to career guidance or include it in the curriculum

Best Masinire
THERE is always an assumption that a growing child may take after his or her father or sibling in terms of career choices and abilities.
The subject of economics attempts to deal with this issue in a topic called “Fallacies” which talks about the misconceptions people have when relating to life issues, especially those that concern their finances.

The topic addresses misconception called “fallacy of composition” which states that “what is true for one individual will not always be true for all others.”

Giving a lecture on the fallacy of composition, Lawrence W R <http://www.fee.org/authors/detail/lawrence-w-reed>eed who was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Northwood Institute in Midland, Michigan and director of the college’s summer Freedom Seminars gave an example that:

“A counterfeiter who prints a million dollars will certainly benefit himself (if he doesn’t get caught) but if we all become counterfeiters and each prints a million dollars, a quite different effect is rather obvious”.

To say the least, it is disheartening to note the way children in the country are receiving guidance in terms of their career path choices.

Many pupils are clueless about their career ambitions because their fathers want them to be like them or to be like so and so who excelled in a certain profession and this results in the children picking the wrong professions which in turn will result in them being frustrated, inefficient workers.

This does not paint a good picture about our education system because it seems like teachers or the rightful authorities do not prepare the learners for post-high school studies or they lack the capacity to offer career guidance to learners. As the world is getting more competitive by the day, it is important for everyone to know that academic excellence alone won’t bring success in professional life and in order to be polished professionals, the country needs proper career guidance.

Our education system should prepare the learners at least from primary level onwards when it comes to choosing career paths.

It is believed that in order to achieve this, the schools should dedicate the beginning of every year to career guidance or include it in the curriculum.

This will allow learners to select subjects that are in line with their future plans.

Moreover, career guidance could go a long way in giving learners the confidence to decide where they want to be in future.

Professor Watts from South Africa, who is the founder and past director of the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling (NICEC) once said:

“The concept of career guidance needs to be redefined as the individual’s lifelong progression in learning and in work as ‘learning’ embraces not only formal education and training, but also informal learning in the workplace and elsewhere”

National Arts Merit Awards’s Outstanding 2 Dimensional Work winner, David Chinyama is of the opinion that parents should let children decide their destiny, especially those that are extra-curricular in nature.

The award winner, however, posits that parents should not be totally excluded in deciding children’s careers, but should support, motivate and guide them in line with what they want to become not to autocratically decide for them.

“Parents play an instrumental role in the career choice of their children, but  they should not abuse this influence by autocratically declaring their future but they have to consciously support the children inline with what they want to become.

“This does not mean that parents should not have a say in the lives of their children,” he said.

“Diva”, as he is affectionately known in the arts spheres, relates mostly the country’s mediocrity in sports, arts, economics and politics to lack of proper career guidance of the youths, who are the future leaders.
The astounding artist, however, believes the country, if proper career guidance is given to the youths, will one day become the beacon of the world in all aspects of life.

“Poor career guidance has not affected Zimbabwe only but the entire continent. It has been the major reason for the country’s mediocrity in economics, politics, arts and sporting disciplines.”

“It sounds like wishful thinking, but I believe this country will one day produce influential world class leaders who will illuminate the globe if the authorities devote and channel resources to career guidance,” he said.

Career guidance is a comprehensive, developmental programme designed to assist individuals in making and implementing informed educational and occupational choices.

Career guidance will help individuals acquire the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to identify options, explore alternatives and succeed in society.

Stakeholders believe that if Zimbabwe navigates the right education for the careers of learners, it can help build a country free from social ills such as poverty, unemployment and crime.