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Andile Tshuma, Sunday News Reporter
WHILE a job is a daily activity to earn a living, a career is a lifetime commitment.
Planned and progressive programmes of activities are needed to help students to understand themselves, research the opportunities available, make decisions and move successfully on to the next stage.
Upon realising that many young people were not getting the much-needed career talks at crucial stages in life, some educators and youth development enthusiasts in the country have taken it upon themselves to ensure that career disasters are reduced, through the formation of Phakama Career conversations, a local organisation which seeks to hold the hands of learners as they navigate through various occupational options while preparing for a fulfilling adult life.
Their aim is to help learners making the transition from secondary schools to universities on career choices tailored to meet market needs.
Phakama brings together young people as well as accomplished professionals at various levels of their careers, from entry level to senior managerial posts, in order to ensure that the young ones are not only inspired, but have intimate understanding of what it takes to be who they aspire to be, and to get the recipe needed to follow their dreams.
Their career coaching support begins in schools and extends to colleges, ensuring young people are equipped to take successful next steps in education, training and employment.
Remedial therapist and key partner of the Phakama Talks, Dr Themba Nyoni, said an early conversation on career was crucial for both students and their parents to make informed decision of professions to take up.
She said there was a need for an opportunity for extensive consultation before one decides which career to pursue and especially why a specific one.
“There’s so much poor appreciation of professions within the student’s bodies. The effect is felt more when they get to university and take up degrees that they have no idea about or where the career projection in the area will take them to. It’s sad when you get an Ordinary Level student talk about wanting to be an engineer. And when you ask them about the type of engineering they want to take up, they are blank! Early exposure of different careers, through workplaces; work experience; role modelling, mentoring all help in bringing up an informed decision on choosing a profession,” he said.
Dr Nyoni described some heartbreaking scenes he has encountered at universities, where some final year students would still be clueless about what awaits them beyond graduation day, saying many would have chosen career paths that were deemed fashionable or noble at the time.
“My journey as an individual stems from the work with students at university. It’s heart breaking for me to see a student in his final year who does not know what he expects to be along his career, in 5-10 years ahead. They have no idea. Most Sixth formers pick up a career because it’s fashionable or the parents have decided for her or friends are doing that. There’s no self-awareness there. I get a lot of queries from friends about what I should suggest for their children to take up at university,” said Dr Nyoni.
Dr Nyoni said the birth of Phakama was when he and his partners realised a need to formalize work that they had been doing for more than a decade, helping children and parents struggling with career choices, saying their work seeks to complement Government and primary and secondary education work efforts to help coach children on occupational matters.
“This gap gave rise to Phakama as we sat around and discussed the lack of awareness on a daily basis. The sad part is that this lack of awareness is also institutionalized. Government, through schools should not take career guidance as an event that takes place once. Our Ministry of Primary and Secondary tends to make a big mistake – that of ignoring a major stakeholder in the education – Parents! There’s no holistic approach to career guidance. Careers Days are targeted at learners. Yet, when making decisions on careers, the parent is a major influence and determinant,” said Dr Nyoni.
The remedial expert therapist said some children lacked exposure when choosing careers and hence had options limited only to what they knew and liked, or what their parents thought was the best paying field.
“Choosing a career is not just about liking the title, but has a lot of other attributes that the student should go on a journey of discovering those attributes about themselves. Exposure into a wide variety of careers should be placed in front of the student.
Appropriate role models in those careers should be consciously set so that the student can access them for guidance. We take into consideration all aspects that make up an informed career choice decision. Phakama believes in a multi stake approach to careers at an early age. This should be a subject from primary school,” said Dr Nyoni.
The work done by Phakama is in line with the Ministry of primary and secondary education mantra of producing learners ready for the world, who will be able to fully feed into the country’s workforce in line with National Development Strategy 1on comprehensive and relevant education.
Speaking to Sunday News yesterday, Director of Communication in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mr Taungana Ndoro, said career guidance was important in the ministry and ensured that every school held such sessions for children.
He commended organisations that seek to complement the ministry’s efforts through helping children make informed and empowered occupational choices.
“Career guidance helps individuals make a shift from the general understanding of life and work to a more specific understanding of the realistic and practical career options that are available to them. As a Ministry, we have been having career guidance activities in various outreach programmes. In so doing we have also been advocating on the strength of our competence-based curriculum that provides life skills to pupils,” said Mr Ndoro.
“We have been motivating learners to cherish their Zimbabwean identity and value their heritage, history and cultural traditions and preparing them for participatory citizenship, preparing learners for life and work in an indigenized economy and increasingly globalised and competitive environment.”
Mr Ndoro said in whatever career path that learners chose, the ministry aimed to foster the zeal for lifelong learning for the learners to remain relevant in a fast-changing world.
“We are also ensuring learners demonstrate desirable literacy and numeracy skills including practical competences necessary for life, as well as preparing and orienting learners for participation in voluntary service and leadership and fostering lifelong learning in line with the emerging opportunities and challenges of the knowledge society,” he said.
The public relations officer and moderator of the career talks, Graciopus Nyathi, a student from the National University of Science and Technology said talking to students and interviewing experts in various fields has also been an eye opener for her, as she has also seen that her career prospects in her chosen field of study are not limited to the journalistic work that she already does.
“From moderating the sessions, I have grown so much as a person and I have interacted with people who have inspired me and who have helped me see opportunities in some spaces where I never thought I would fit in. I have also engaged with very brilliant young people and I am glad to have helped them make some choices in their lives,” said Nyathi.
The founder of Phakama Talks, Thando Nkomo a former lecturer of the National University of Science and Technology, now consultant and civic leader, said working with young people and finding solutions to community challenges was his passion, and that engaging youths and seeing them soar was fulfilling.
“I have been involved in guidance and mentoring of others at various stages of my career. In my previous employment, I was heavily involved in the career guidance committee, I have also invested significant time in training others voluntarily and as a consultant for a number of organisations and all this has been done in spirit of helping people and organisations realised their full potential, which is a core part of what I do in life. I have also coordinated industrial attachment for university students and some of the students, as a result of my guidance and mentoring have become award winners in their various lines of work,” said Nkomo.
“There is much joy and fulfilment in knowing that I have contributed one way or the other in helping someone make the right decision towards realising their full potential in the career they have chosen,” he said.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter