This is a guest post by Surabhi Dewra, an entrepreneur and founder of CareerGuide.com. She is an ardent believer of education for all and is giving her efforts to provide career counselling in access to each and every student across the country. She is helping students to select ideal career options according to their inherent skills.
SSC board exams are one of the most tension worthy exams for school students and like every year, lakhs of students appear for exams across the country. These exams are used as a standard to test the caliber of students. It is highly important for students’ career since they get admission for under-graduate courses based on the scores. Parents as well as teachers use these exam scores to guide students for their future. It is a general convention that if a student secures good marks, then he should take science stream and if he is average then commerce and otherwise humanities. This tradition is going on since ages regardless of it being vague in nature. Read, why interest matters while making a career choice? The question arises how deep it is affecting our students. This post talks about how selecting career through psychometric tests impact lives of students?
There are more than 160 lakh registered students giving 10th board exams across the country
This is the right time to acknowledge the fact that students require proper career guidance before taking any career decision. As per last year’s statistics, 15 lakh students registered for SSC Board examinations, which was 6.3% more than that of 2015. In 10th class, 14, 99,122 students registered for CBSE alone. If we consider other boards that have similar examinations, Maharashtra board stated registration of 17.3 lakh students from 10th grade and similarly in Gujarat, 9.75 lakh students appeared for the same exam. A large number of students appear from Uttar Pradesh for the board exam which is more than 35 lakhs every year. Even in Tamil Nadu, 10 lakh students appeared for 10th class board exams.
These students often follow a career based on limited information from teachers, friends and family
On combining all the numbers, there are more than several lakh students across the country who appear for board exams of class 10 every year. Considering the numbers, not even 2% of these students have a clear idea of what they want to do in their lives. These students mostly follow a career based on inspirations from other students, opinions of their parents and relatives and limited awareness of their teachers. These students often fall prey to the traditional advice as has been mentioned above. It is never thought of that every student has different calibre and skill and they can perform their best only if they pursue a career according to their aptitude. Students are pushed towards a particular stream without considering suitability of the stream which is also one of the reasons why many graduates in the country apply for jobs which are way less than their study level.
Career psychometric tests determines students’ aptitude and suggests a suitable career option for them
These problems can be easily solved by using a psychometric test for selecting the right career which can guide students towards the right stream. In a career counselling, psychometric test is taken which evaluates student’s competencies and strengths. According to the aptitude level of the student, report of psychometric test suggests suitable career option for the student. With a further support from a career counsellor, a student can select a career which is best suitable to him according to his competencies. The test mostly comprises of questions related to aptitude, personality, logical reasoning and interests. The career psychometric tests categorises the aptitude of a student into four categories- Mathematics, Biology, Commerce and Humanities. A student is suggested one of these streams and is also given a chart of his strengths and weaknesses so that he can work upon them.
Career selection after board exams is highly crucial and needs to be taken special care of
A student’s choice of stream after the board exams determines the career which he can pursue further. If a student selects a wrong career option at this stage, it becomes almost impossible to rectify the mistake later on. Students then mostly remain stuck to the same career option for the whole life time which is often one of the reasons for average performance of many students in their higher-level studies. If a student go through career psychometric tests and pursue career as per his aptitude, he has a good chance to prove his calibre in the field and also, he can show his passion for the field. This is highly important for parents and teachers to guide students towards the right direction so that students do not make a mistake of selecting a wrong career option for themselves.
In fact, government has also started its online career counselling programme. Through career psychometric tests students are guided about different career options and fields that they can pursue. Also, they are guided on what course to take for different career options. This service was started in 2015 and is a clear indication of government’s acknowledgement of importance of career counselling.
You might also like to read our post on start over with a meaningful career choice and choosing commerce stream.
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