As grade 11 ikamvanites prepare themselves for the final hurdle of their schooling journey, they had to ask themselves which careers to follow, what interest them and whether they meet the requirements needed. Half of the youth in South Africa is clueless on what to do when they finish their high school. Ikamva Youth prides itself in helping the youth with the necessary information and giving them opportunities needed to further their dreams. On the third week of October, Ikamvayouth Ebony Park hosted an online career guidance followed by a career talk.
The day started with an online career guidance that is meant to provide comprehensive, individual meaningful career guidance based on learners/students interests, skills and personality characteristics, to ensure a career path best suited to them. A complete report ensures individual career direction, recommendations on school subject selection, tertiary qualification and institutions, as well as full details on the ideal career options. This enabled Ebonites to find the subject choices, tertiary qualification and career direction that is ideally suited to them. When Ikamvanites completed the online guidance, they walked away with a booklet that includes their career choices, requirements needed for chosen choices, universities that offer such choices and companies they can work for.
As if this was not enough for Ikamvanites, a career talk followed which was conducted by SAB Miller employees. The career talk was facilitated by professionals from different departments of the company like Finance, Human Resources, Engineering, Marketing and logistics. This session focused on post school options (besides universities) for students to explore, given that many may not achieve sufficient grades to get into university i.e. University is great to get into, but not all will have the opportunity to do so. Ikamvanites heard about various career opportunities, and more tailored and engaging sessions where Ikamvanites can pick specific career options to engage on looking at the online career guidance report.
This session helped ikamvanites know about drawbacks, challenges and successes that comes with certain professions. Most of the youth from disadvantaged communities do not know that there’s other profession’s than those they see each and every day in their communities.
The responses from learners were amazing as Theory Mahomane said “having my future career typed for me in a form of a book and being able to meet professionals from big companies, telling me about different careers that are unknown to me than those we see at our communities like Police Officers and Soldiers”.
It’s fascinating to see how individuals offer their support to prepare the youth for tomorrow. Thanks to Ikamva Youth and its relevant stakeholders for preparing future leaders with knowledge needed to realise that their dreams are possible.
Lloyd Lungu