Piloting a mentorship platform for career guidance of students

Abstract

In 2018, a total of 11.86 lakh students appeared in the class 12 CBSE board exams. CBSE conducts exam for about 800 subjects, but 90% of the students are found in just 6 subjects. (CBSE, 2018) According to multiple surveys conducted across India, a majority of the students are not satisfied with their careers or would rather have been doing something else than their chosen some other career (allstudyx, 2016). There are about 15 lakh engineers that graduate in India and less than 10% are considered employable (Aspiring minds, 2018). It is evident that many students are not aware of many career options that they have and choose careers without having known what the profession is actually about. A recent report suggests that more than 95% of the Indian students selected their class 11 stream without even understanding the career choices that lay ahead (Chakrabarty, 2013). Most engineers choose their stream of chemical or electrical or civil without really knowing what a chemical or an electrical engineer does, what job opportunities are available or their future prospects. In a recent survey done by Wheebox, a talent assessment company for India Skills Report 2018, nearly 85% candidates state that they are not equipped to take career decisions. (Khosla, 2018) In the same survey, 85% candidates stated that internships with different roles and industries during their education will help them firm up career direction, they feel Employer Connect or Job fairs at college are the best way to get exposure to their first job. Students clearly need mentors to guide them towards finding the right career path, connecting with the right people and gathering adequate resources. They need to talk to people who are working as professionals in their field of interest to get a first-hand narrative of what the profession is about in daily life. The 2018 Annual International Career and College Counselling (IC3) Conference that concluded on August 30 in New Delhi acknowledged that India's 350 million students -- the biggest student population in the world -- need at least 1.4 million career counsellors to maintain a globally acceptable student-to-school-counsellor ratio (Chakrabarty, 2013). This gap can be bridged by providing a platform to connect people who are currently students of a university or working professionals as mentors with school going students of classes 8-12. In India every year produces 1.5 Million Engineers, although a survey by Aspiring Minds reveal there are only 7% of them that are employable and only 3% get job in core engineering sector. While the number of universities, colleges and programs in the country continues to increase, the shortage of quality education persists. The key problems plaguing higher education are profit-hungry management, lack of skills training, genius corruption, emphasis on rote-learning strategies, and lack of faculty (both in quantity and quality). In spite of not being qualified enough to be a productive part of the Indian economy, graduates are earning their degrees.