Comprehensive understanding of jobs

M C Mathupala

Career guidance programmes are conducted today in schools, universities and other tertiary education institutions to help students leaving such institutions to find employment. Most such activities focus on the acquisition of qualifications for the jobs advertised in the media and attempt to motivate the participating students to study further and more efficiently. Some career guidance programmes – especially in the private sector - concentrate on already employed persons to progress in their careers vertically, and/or laterally through career planning and understanding work styles and values.

Job seekers

Both these types of career guidance programmes are done in an ad hoc basis and are to coordinated and use different approaches. The Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB) has arranged to conduct similar training courses for prospective seekers for jobs in foreign countries. The recently drafted ‘National Human Resources and Employment Policy’ (NHREP) which is to be presented to Parliament soon, has suggested the establishment of a National Career Guidance Council ‘to be responsible for the planning, development and supervision of how the national career guidance plan of the country is implemented.’ This council will have representatives of the public as well as the private sector.

The attempts made by the State as well as the private enterprises indicate the importance of career guidance as a service to our youth today. Most of our educated youth – particularly in the rural sector – are engaged in ‘job searches’ than in ‘career searches’ or career planning.

They keep on applying for ‘any’ job they presume they have the necessary qualifications and feel frustrated when the responses are negative. Career guidance helps them to understand the career options available to them and how to choose a career. They should also help them to match their personalities with the career options.

For this purpose the career/job seekers have to be helped to learn about and understand themselves. They have to be assisted to identify their skills and aptitudes in addition to what knowledge they have gained through their academic qualifications. Certificates and degrees are not the only indicators of suitability to handle a job efficiently and successfully. Such understanding will help each of them to build a ‘personal and career portfolio’ which will indicate what other capabilities have to be acquired by them to make them employable.

Self-employment

Career guidance programme in a school

Some youth working in the public sector

Public sector jobs are the most attractive ones for the present day youth. Perhaps they do not know about the hundreds of careers available to them outside the public service. The majority of vacancies for jobs advertised in the national newspapers is in the private sector. They may also not be interested in the many opportunities for self-employment available today if they have the entrepreneurship qualities.

They may not know about the facilities that can be used for assessing oneself for the types of jobs available in the labour market today. There are free assessment tests that can be accessed through the internet to help them. The internet provides similar services to those conducting career guidance programmes and career counseling sessions. These facilities include lesson plans, job descriptions, career biographies, career awareness information, methods of preparing for given careers, preparing career interest inventories etc.

As there is a paucity of Labour Market Information Service (LMIS) in Sri Lanka today, the services of the internet are a boon to the prospective job seekers. The main source of information available is the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) published by the Department of Census and Statistics.

Perhaps, the proposed Career Guidance Council will attempt to provide more comprehensive information about the range of jobs available (locally and abroad) in all the sectors for the benefit of future youth.

Choosing a career

We should not forget the differently abled groups who are also termed as ‘vulnerable or disabled persons.’It has been estimated that approximately 7% of our population falls into this category. There are institutions like the Schools for the Deaf and Blind helping them to learn and a few NGOs helping such people to find jobs. They run training courses and guidance programmes for the benefit of such groups. Yet, a lot more has to be done in this area.

In order to help a person choose a career, she or he has to be given sufficient knowledge about the main vocational fields where jobs are available. There is no universally accepted list for this purpose. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has prepared a job classification which is generally used in most countries.

Some of the main vocational fields in our country are (in alphabetical order) Advertising; Agriculture; Animal Husbandry; Archaeology; Architecture; Bakery trades; Building construction; Business (commercial enterprises); Consultancy; Culinary jobs; Draftsmanship; Education; Electronics; Engineering; Finance; Fisheries; Health Services; Hospitality industry; Human Resources; Industrial Production; Insurance; Journalism; Law Management; Marketing; Public Relations; Secretariat Services; Security Services; Supply Management; Technical Skills; Tourism; Training; and Veterinary Services. These fields have many branches and sub-divisions which have to be charted/mapped for the benefit of those being counseled.

In addition to the methods and processes that have to be followed in finding a suitable job, the participants in career guidance programmes have to be given a comprehensive understanding of the nature of such jobs and the discipline that is required to retain a job once it is found. This means that information like the tasks/activities that are involved in performing the job; standards of performance expected (e.g cost/quality/time/completion time/packing and other standards); knowledge, skills and competencies that have to be acquired for progress in the job and career, working environment (s); work ethics, styles and values; wages and benefits that can be expected; human relations at the workplace; other related occupations and places/ institutions where training for such jobs/careers could be obtained have to be included in the programmes.