The Brigade School @ Whitefield- Career Counselling session by Dr Akhila Sadasivan
Students need career guidance when they reach crossroads like classes 10 and 12. They need help choosing a suitable stream, like Science/ Commerce/ Humanities.
To create awareness among our students, we invited Dr. Akila Sadasivan, Director of Samvidh Psychological Services and Executive Council member of the Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists (IACP), to speak to students and their parents. Mrs Sadasivan began the session by asking the students to start reflecting on who they were – regarding their skills, abilities, talents, what makes them feel happy etc. She asked the students where they see themselves in ten years.
The speaker conducted a group activity by dividing the students and parents into three groups. The groups were given three scenarios as case studies with career-related issues, to discuss and strategize ways to deal with them. The groups shared their thoughts and views.
Dr. Akila collated the responses from the groups saying how one can help children explore each option and narrow down their choices by studying them in detail. She reiterated that choices be made based on their interests, strengths and weaknesses. She also suggested that parents be aware of their child’s cognitive abilities, especially in grades 9 & 10. She also stressed how parents could help them to decide and look beyond conceptual thinking.
She emphasized the importance of involving the child when choosing his/her career. She asked them to consider the driving forces when a child makes a particular choice.
The second part of the session focused more on education, stress, the possible reasons for stress, and challenges like interpersonal issues, academic shifts etc. She provided a few career choices in each stream. Dr. Akila shared the journey of a boy and his career choices at each stage. She discussed career counselling and mentioned the right time to approach a career counsellor.
She gave an insight into the courses one needs to take during their undergraduate program. She discussed the prospective avenues which open up for them to move forward in the path of their choice. She apprised the audience about the various entrance exams like CET, NEET, COMED K, JEE Mains, JEE- Advanced, NATA, CLAT and many more. She encouraged students who liked humanities by saying they could opt for civil services and become bureaucrats. The students interacted closely with the speaker enquiring about fine Arts, Psychology Chartered Accountancy, Civil engineering and BTech in Architecture as careers.
It was an engaging, interactive session with parents appreciating the same.
