Many students in Pakistan choose their careers without proper guidance, which often leads to unemployment. They end up studying fields that do not match their skills or job market demands. As a result, they struggle to find jobs after graduation. This not only affects their professional life but also impacts their mental health and confidence. Without a clear path, many graduates feel lost and unsure about what to do next.
Table of contents
- What is career counseling
- Why is career counseling important
- Current situation in Pakistan
- How career counseling can change lives
- How to get career counseling in Pakistan?
6 things every 18-25 years old gen z must do in Pakistan
According to a report by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), over 31% of educated youth in Pakistan are unemployed, many due to mismatched career choices. But why? Only because they lack career counseling.
What is career counseling?
So, first, let’s define career counseling. Career counseling is professional guidance that helps students choose their careers according to their interests, skills, and trends. It assists them in providing the necessary directions to a successful career and helps them to make informed decisions about their careers. But again, how?
Counsellors help students by giving them structured guidance in many ways.
But what is done in career counseling? Career counselors help the students by finding their strengths and weaknesses. They evaluate personality traits and types because every person's personality is unique. So, they help find career choices according to their personality. They conduct aptitude, personality assessments, and skills evaluation tests. That helps the students choose the options that are meant for them.
They help them by identifying those skills that are important for their job roles in the future. It can be soft skills, technical skills, or even specialized certifications.
Also read: WHAT ARE SKILLS: SOFT SKILLS Vs. HARD SKILLS
Real-world experiences are important for students to gain practical insights. Counsellors help in this way too. They tell the students about the internships and mentorship programs. In this way, students prepare themselves for the practical world.
Why is Career Counselling Important?
In Pakistan, many students choose their careers advised by their parents or society but they don't follow their interests. This causes frustration and unemployment because market trends change. In some fields, there are so many graduates but the job opportunities become limited. It makes the competition too high that could get by only a few people and leaves a huge lot with no road to take. This situation highlights the importance of career counseling. Career counseling helps us to choose the right career according to our interests and market trends.
There is always a place for you in the painting you make from your own colors.
Career Counseling helps in the following ways
It is a counselor’s job to identify your true potential, your hidden interests, to know you based on what you truly are not by what your surroundings tell about you and your ups and downs.
A lot of students decide to pick a career based on societal trends but don't choose according to their aptitude. Counseling prevents this mistake and makes a decision that is good for the students. Job market is nothing but an everchanging world that nobody can enter without the appropriate tools that they can not only use efficiently but innovate too. This job market has a special place for you and counselor leads you to your designated cabin in it.
Who knows your cabin is to build plazas or launch a new software? Obviously, your counselor does, telling you about yours is his cabin in the job market world.
Nonetheless, confidence boost is a compulsory to knowing your skills, and that you get by taking your aptitude assessment.
If you want an aptitude assessment for yourself, click here.
The Current Situation in Pakistan
The alarming scenario is that though extremely beneficial and important, career counseling is still rarely available in Pakistan, the reasons are:
A lot of students and parents don’t know the importance of career counseling in Pakistan. They think it is a waste of money. Many students follow the career advised by their parents or relatives and are put in an environment that they are not made for. And that is one of the reasons why 4.5 million students remain jobless in Pakistan.
Schools and colleges are the primary source of education but unfortunately, in our country, they lack a proper career counseling department. Moreover, many of our institutes don’t even guide the students about the meaning of career counseling.
Because of lack of resources, sometimes students don’t know about the educational institutes they can join for the career based off their aptitude, and so, they end up in any college or university that gives them a piece of paper called ‘the degree’. A counselor, however, identifies your aptitude and gives you a perfect pathway considering your family and financial problems.
A win-win, right?
Societal pressure also affects a lot of students. They choose their career according to society's expectations and choices.
How Career Counselling Can Change Lives
Career Counselling helps a lot of students in many ways. It can impact a lot of student lives and make positive changes in their professional career. Students will pick a career according to their interests and will have skills and choices that are according to market trends. That's why they have higher job opportunities and we will observe a great reduction in unemployment rate.
The task of choosing the right career from so many options causes anxiety in students as it leads to important future decisions. There are a lot of fears and uncertainties in students’ minds which are definitely justified. Interestingly, out of more than 300,000 students that Yousuf Almas has counseled, the success rate has been approximately 96% which chose the career recommended by Sir Yousuf Almas. It was deduced after a regularly updated and accurate survey that was conducted with different parameters including students’ financial situations, mental health and family acceptance.
Hence, pioneer of career counseling, eduvision, can assure you that a good career counseling can majorly reduce students’ stress, anxiety and boost their excellence.
How to Get Career Counselling in Pakistan?
As we know, career counseling is not common in schools and colleges. So how to get career counseling? In the following ways, students can get the answers to their questions regarding their career and get counseled.
- There are plenty of online career assessments available both free and paid. It can help students by finding their strengths and career choices. You can get a career counseling test in Pakistan by clicking here.
- Many universities and NGOs conduct free seminars on counseling. By attending such workshops, students gain insights into their career options. Eduvision has been conducting such seminars and workshops since 2001, click here to view.
- Students get career advice from people who are already working in the field they prefer. They give you real-time market trends and job insights.
- Consulting with a professional career counselor is by far the best way to get the best career choice. If you want to book an appointment with Sir Yousuf Almas, click here.
Choosing the right career is one of the most important decisions of a student's life. Career Counselling helps the students to make this decision with proper guidance. It helps the students to avoid dissatisfaction, stress, and unemployment in the end. If we take it seriously, we can surely have a skilled, educated, satisfied, and successful workforce and country will prosper like never before. So, start exploring career options and make yourself stress-free by converting your degree into successful job and career.
Visit here to know about career options available in Pakistan.
Also read: 7 Highest Paying Careers in Pakista
