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Career Guidance is vital for our youth

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Sir,

To begin with, I would like to commend the work being done by career guidance teachers in our schools, to equip students with the knowledge of the different careers available and what relevant steps to take to steer oneself in the right direction.

I do wish that the Ministry of Education could strengthen that initiative and nurture the innovation to advance the technical investment in that regard so that students may be more informed and continuously updated, both about the improvements and changes in careers and in the government’s requirements for expertise in certain professions in the near future. 

Oftentimes, students complete high school, then do Matric, HIGCSE, ‘A’ Levels, or apply to local institutions and get accepted for enrollment, only to find out that their prospective courses are not among the government’s priorities and they end up not getting a scholarship despite their academic merit.

Other than the limited scholarship allocations due to fund shortages, this is an equally frustrating problem, especially for those applying to study outside the country, as they only learn in January, after scholarship applications have been processed, that the government will not sponsor certain courses.

Institutions

At that time, it is already too late to re-apply as universities would be opening in that same month in the case of South African institutions.

In light of the increase in the use of internet services among students (especially Facebook), either due to internet in schools or, for the majority, the increase in the use of internet browsing capable phones, I have developed a desire to contribute to educating our fellow citizens in the aspect of career guidance. Among other things, I have created a Facebook page where students can view information about various disciplines, so that they can get a better understanding of what different careers entail.

The page is called the ‘Swaziland Engineers Network’, which can easily be accessed by typing this name on the Facebook search box.

Currently, it has information about various engineering disciplines, with both detailed descriptions of what each branch of engineering is about and pictures for illustration purposes.

Initially, it was intended to address engineering-related topics but I have since decided to make it open to all professions so that it may be useful to everyone.

 

Anyone can post anything, from suggestions about what information it may be good to include to questions about any career and procedures in applying to institutions in the country or South Africa and abroad.

Encourage

I also would like to encourage the government to invest in introducing informative non-curriculum books or pamphlets in schools, especially in rural areas where students have no access to internet and libraries.

These can range from science fiction or technical innovations to business venture capitalism and entrepreneurship, so that students can read and broaden not only their academic abilities but, more importantly, get ideas about how to start a business, how to technically apply principles learnt in science, how to become more innovative in anything you do and so forth.

We do need this kind of informal education as much as we need formal education in schools because it is useful in empirical and application reasoning.

Finally, I would like to urge students to take education seriously and apply themselves to their school work.

By now we have all seen that completing school is only the beginning of education, and unfortunately what you can do after that to further your education will invariably be determined by how well you have achieved in your school-leaving results.

We now know that there is no job security if you do not have a qualification. It is never too late to begin working hard and being efficient with time management.

Mpendulo Ndlovu

Dear Mpendulo,

It is such a pleasure to hear from a citizen who is trying to do something to help his fellow Swazis. Your website is a great example of a way private individuals can come together to help each other without having to rely on being spoon-fed by the government. You are right to underline the fact that young people need guidance to choose their career paths, especially in the confusing technology-heavy world we live in today, where knowledge has become ever more specialised. I particularly like your suggestion about making ‘informal education’ reading materials available in the schools and tinkhundla. It is vital to stimulate the imagination and this requires reading widely and including works of fiction and the imagination on your reading list. Technical skill, in itself, is largely useless without the vision to apply it in new ways to the world around us. And yes, you are correct to point out that, these days, a competitive education begins after the completion of school.

- Editor

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