Some young people struggle to find opportunities for stable employment as they lack proper guidance and requisite information on the labour market demands. These include people who are making attempts to earn more and broaden their sources of income. Government authorities in association with private partners can devise ways to enhance outcomes of the labour market for youths and provide them with career guidance to improve job prospects. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) describes career guidance as the services and actions planned to assist people, of any age and at any point all through their lives, to arrive at decisions and make choices regarding their education, professional training, and work-related choices and to cope with their careers. The International Labour Organization (ILO) in their report also confirmed the significance of career guidance, advising, and counselling in helping students attain three goals, namely, lifetime learning opportunities, enhanced outcomes of the labour market, and attaining social equity and inclusion objectives. Moreover, career advice along with support services need to shorten the time required for transitioning from school to further opportunities of studying and then into the occupation. The long waiting time increases the risk of their skills/competencies becoming out-dated, financial burden, and possibilities of losing self-esteem. Ultimately, it lowers the possibility of landing a stable job. The steps that can be undertaken to deliver proper career guidance to young people are hereby mentioned below:
Ensuring a smooth transition from school to further opportunities of studying
Superior quality career advice and guidance are vital if youths are to make informed decisions on courses (what programs to take and where to study) when they pass secondary school. The authorities can devise different ways to assist these schools leaving students in finding the appropriate course based on their interests by setting up programs and resources, deploying trained guidance practitioners, developing ICT tools for counselling, providing reliable information, delivering lifelong accessibility to guidance services, and ensuring the availability of adequate knowledge on diverse skills by establishing networks.
Establishing career education services
These services need to be provided by trained, proficient and qualified tutors and counsellors, who can share adequate information on the aspect of work, different kinds of careers and their roles, duties, and accountabilities, gaining potential, and demand on the labour market. Besides assisting with the application process, professional trainers can also offer assistance, considering the individual circumstances and character traits of the jobseekers.
Instituting school and industry connections
Instituting linkages between school and industry will help youths to get exposed to higher job opportunities through job fairs, work-placement arrangements, career discussion forums, and others.
Ensure training providers, as well as other agencies, have the potential to deliver such services
The training providers and agencies need to be able to advertise programs, and enrol youths into courses both offline as well as online, direct young people toward prospective careers, deliver information on academic qualifications necessary to enrol for courses, location of study centres, duration, mode of delivery, cost and many others.
Delivering reliable and latest information on labour market
This information needs to be able to reveal growth segments and the types of skills/competencies employers hunt for.
Fast-tracking job search
To fast track the process of job search it is important to find advocates and leaders who uphold a career guidance program. Strong strategic leadership is necessary so that services on career guidance can be considered to be an important element of human resource development. Moreover, it is important to engage multiple stakeholders to develop a coherent system. Whilst government authorities have an important role to play in the provision of career guidance, however, it should not be considered as the sole provider. Therefore, an effectual strategy can be coordinating government as well as non-government services. Also, it is crucial to prioritize resources for allocating scarce resources with a focus on enhancing career and educational information.
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