Career-linked Education & Guidance in Schools

Need for Career Planning

Let's read these strange but true career facts:

• 97%of people first finish their journey (education) and then think about their destination (career).


• 94% of adults are either in the wrong career or under-employed.


• 92%of school students, when asked about their career choice have a "let's see what happens" attitude and most of them are either having unrealistic career ambitions or follow the crowd.


• 82%of postgraduates are not able to utilise their investment in education as they are unemployable and fail to understand that degrees lacking skills are useless.


• 76%of BTech and MBA degree holders are trapped in a quagmire, doing jobs that can be done by a twelfth-pass person.


• 64% of school students and 88% of college students are busy doing everything except their studies.

Benefits of Career Management

• Career is now seen not as being chosen but as being “constructed” through the series of choices about learning and working throughout life.


• Students with the right employability skills and qualifications are likely to achieve better outcomes in the world of work e.g., higher earnings and greater satisfaction.


• Appropriate career planning enables students to choose the courses of study at school/ college that will lead to the qualifications they need for the right careers.


• Better guidance means young people are motivated to complete the courses and they take fewer wrong turns. Also, they are less likely to drop school/college or to be unemployed for a longer period.


• There is a statistical association between unemployment and crime. By reducing unemployment, better career guidance can reduce crime.


• There is a correlation between income, quality of life and health status. Being out of work can lead to stress, lower self-esteem, and depression.

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin.

Proposal for career-linked education & guidance centre in school

Margdarshak Kendrawww.margdarshakendra is functioning under the aegis of the Career-linked Education Council, set up under statutory provisions of the Govt of India. We are embedding careers in the education system with two main objectives:

(a) to provide top-quality education, affordable to every student throughout the country even at the village level and

(b) to manage a person's career of any age from ambition to achievement. We believe that career guidance is not theoretically preaching to someone.

The Council will set up a Margdarshak Career-linked Education & Guidance Margdarshak Cell in the school. The salient features of the CEGS will be:

1. It will be run by the Council with the active support of senior school management.
2. The Council will provide one trained Career Professional to the school.
3. Remuneration of the career professional will be borne by the Council.

What council offers to school

1. Setting up a fully functional Career-linked Education & Guidance Service (CEGS).
2. Appointment of one career counsellor for the school.
3. The council will provide training as a career professional to one staff sponsored by the school/institute. The training fee of Rs 43,200 will be funded by the Council.
4. Career Assessment of the students from 7th to 12th standard.
5. Personalised career planning for each student.
6. Career awareness class for students.
7. Free access to the Education Index tool to all the students, the link can be accessed from the school website.
8. CAP – contests for students and the distribution of prizes and allocates/certificates to inspire the students. This is like a stepping stone for creating career awareness among students. Through an online test of career knowledge, students learn about various opportunities open before them in a competitive environment. It gives a sense of pride among students and provides a catalytic effect to accomplish higher academic excellence.

“Career guidance should be at the heart of education, not an afterthought”

CEGS will provide students:

• Access to a coherent programme that covers all eight benchmarks.
• Timely, authentic and impartial career information and guidance to develop their career management and employability skills.
• Career assessment to understand their aptitude, innate talent and work attitude.
• With a personalised career dashboard and education training pathways, students take more interest in the subjects to study.

Benefits of Career-linked Education & Guidance (CEG) Cell in School

• Students often fall into confusion in making the right choices for their future careers. Many of them make career choices based on the advice of family members or friends. They don’t consider their aptitude, work attitude and innate talent until it’s too late. A professionally trained career counsellor will give clarity and understanding to make the right decisions.
• Authentic and impartial guidance in school inspires students to improve their grades and stay engaged with education.
• The decisions that children make at school have a big impact on their lives – affecting not just their further education or employment, but also their family and social lives.
• Students are more engaged in education and highly motivated about their future when they have a clear understanding of themselves and their career options.
• Developing knowledge and skills through a planned program of learning experiences will assist all students to make informed decisions about their study and/or work options and enable effective participation in their working life.
• Supporting students in making well-informed choices about subjects can lead them to have a more optimistic outlook on life, sense of purpose and a greater level of contribution that they make to their families and society.
• Selecting a career usually, comes after choosing a course. If a student doesn’t pick the right course, it would inadvertently affect their career choice. A recent study showed that 2 in 3 college students are unhappy with the course that they picked. Such figures only point to the importance of career guidance in schools.
• Decisions made in school often make or break a student’s career. Experienced career professionals help them make decisions that ensure career success.
• Many of the counsellors in schools are either psychology teachers or motivators. Recent stats show a whopping 91% of students don’t get any career-related guidance from their schools. Having a career-linked education & guidance service in schools is a great first step indeed.
• Students are less likely to inadvertently drop critical subjects (such as mathematics) that they subsequently find they need;

Why does this matter?

• Subject teachers are highly influential – students are 18 times more likely to be motivated to learn if their teachers know their hopes and dreams.
• Students feel more engaged in their learning when they perceive the relevance of what they are studying and that only marks are not the criteria, there are numerous pathways to success.

We can help you to improve your school's career provision and prepare your students for their futures.

“40 minutes of career planning prevents 40 years of struggle in life”

Framework for Career-linked Education

We follow the global benchmark for good career guidance practices to support schools in providing the best possible career-linked education and guidance.

1. A stable career education programme

Every school/college should have a stable, embedded programme of career-linked education and guidance having trained career professionals responsible for it with the explicit backing of the senior management. The careers programme should be published on the school/college website in a way that enables students, parents, teachers and employers to access and give feedback.

2. Learning from occupational information

By the age of 12, all students should have access to authentic information about occupations and the labour market to plan their career paths and study options. Teachers/Parents should be encouraged to access the career website to support children.

3. Personalised career planning

Students have different career planning needs at different stages. Some have to attend universities and others don’t have such plans. So, a personalised career assessment and career dashboard should be provided to each student. Schools should keep systematic records of the advice given to each student and keep a track of their education or employment destinations after they leave school.

4. Linking curriculum learning to careers

All teachers should link curriculum learning with occupations and highlight the relevance of subjects for a wide range of future career paths. By the age of 12, every student should have a clear knowledge of "which subject is useful for which career".

5. Interact with employers and employees

Every student should have multiple opportunities to learn from employers about work, employment and the skills that are valued in the workplace. This can be through a range of enrichment activities including visiting speakers, mentoring and job shadowing schemes. Every year, from the age of 12 onwards, students should participate in at least one meaningful visit to the workplace in which the student learns about the nature of the work and skills required to be successful.

6. Gain work experiences

Our report found that (in comparison to 81% of European schools) only 0.001% of Indian schools are offering their students a meaningful experience of the workplace by the end of class 11-12th. Every student from class 11 onwards should have a minimum of one part-time summer work experience to help their exploration of employability skills and expansion of networks. By the age of 18, every student should have had one further such experience, in addition to any part-time jobs they may have.

7. Explore higher education

By the age of 15, all students should understand the full range of learning opportunities that are available to them. This includes both academic and vocational routes and learning in schools, colleges, universities and the workplace. This should include at least two visits to different universities/institutes to meet staff and students.

8. Personal guidance

Every student should have opportunities to meet with a career professional, whenever significant study or career choices are being made. Every student should have at least one such interaction by the age of 14, and the opportunity for a further meeting by the age of 17.

Our Methodology

When we talk about career planning, we are not preaching to someone. We create a personalised “career portfolio” of a student which is:

self-engaging – means involving a student to design his/her career;

impartial – not being judgmental or taking decision for others but helping students in their decision-making process;

authentic – research-based scientific tools and updated information from original sources;

measurable – various stages of career development should be measured, compared and analysed;

transparent – all the stakeholders i.e. student, parent, teacher and advisor can share the student’s career portfolio in real-time.