Does Career Counselling address Social Issues?

According to UNICEF, globally there are more than 121 million students who are out of school and out of them, 54% are girls. The situation is quite grave in sub- Saharan African countries which have more than 80% of the girls from the above-mentioned statistic.

Whilst the whole world is taking measures to improve gender parity, there are some countries such as Mongolia, Lesotho, Nicaragua, Philippines, Namibia, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana where disparity actually favours women.

From the Enrolment Rate of men and women of age 15- 29 in 17 noted countries, it is clearly visible that there is no or very little gender discrimination in education. In most countries, the enrolment rate of women is more compared to men but the difference is not much.

Germany, Switzerland, Indonesia, and India are the countries where the male enrolment rate is more compared to female. The difference in the enrolment rate of male and female in Germany, Switzerland, and Indonesia is marginal and can be neglected.

But in India the difference is 8.2%, which is due to gender disparity in the country, however, it can be a soothing fact to observe that the difference is becoming narrower year after year indicating increased awareness towards girls’ education.

Decreasing Unemployment Rate With Career Counselling

Career counselling is also about managing and organizing human resources in the country and employment becomes an indicator to reflect these efforts.

In the last decade, governments of various countries are taking up efforts to enhance their labour market policies in order to help the youth to attain employment, retain their jobs and as a result reduce government funding towards unemployed youth. Some policies include job and career counselling to the youth so that they are able to identify suitable jobs for themselves.

Many countries have started National Career Services which serve as a national platform for career counselling.

The success of these policies can definitely increase the rate at which the unemployed can find jobs. Although, there are no proven sources that can ensure the impact of career counselling on re-employment, yet employment issues have been solved in many countries through career counselling.

Here comes the role of career counsellors to lower the unemployment rate by guiding the population in a precise way depending upon the individual talents and skills. Career counsellors play a vital role in decreasing the unemployment rate in a country.

Unemployment is mostly caused by two factors-

• The adverse economic situation within the country
• Lack of required skills (individual academic, mechanical) among the country’s population

The Economic situation is beyond the control of career counsellors however, skill deficit can be effectively solved by them.

• Career counsellors analyse the industry trends and have the foresight for the upcoming skill requirements within the economy.
• They can guide the students about how to enter into the work field, hone their skills and make themselves more employable.
• Career counsellors guide the people in pre-transition and post-transition of a job.
• They provide them information about work culture, work environment, skills required for a particular task, lifestyle and job requirement etc.

Among the G20 countries, the average unemployment rate is 6.9% as of March 2017. Spain, Brazil, Turkey, Italy, France and the Euro region contributes to the higher unemployment rate.

Although, economic the condition within the Euro region is also responsible for the fact, yet, lower education standards and lack of proper procedures cannot be neglected. Career counselling is much required in these countries to improve the job scenario and thus the economy.