Ensuring all young people have equitable access to career guidance from the start is crucial. This support helps promising professionals to navigate their options and make informed decisions based on their career preferences.
Prachi Mishra’s story offers a compelling insight into the importance of mentorship and guidance in addressing India’s skilling and employment priorities.
As a young girl, from Dhenkanal, Odisha, she realised that neither school nor college had prepared her for a ‘non-conventional’ career in her village and moved to Pune for her first job.
Instead, the guidance she received from her supervisor during an online internship proved to be immensely helpful in building a successful career in the social sector. Prachi is an exemplar of a change agent reinforced by appropriate guidance and mentorship.
Today, Prachi is the Founder of Project Nilay, to support marginalised children in Odisha and Co-founder of Safe Odisha for Her to empower rural women against gender-based violence through advocacy and local interventions.
Prachi’s example reiterates the need to ensure that all young people have equitable access to career guidance.
The National Education Policy, 2020, through National Curriculum Framework for School Education, emphasises the importance of integrating career exploration activities and consequent skill development into the school education curriculum. This approach aims to equip students with knowledge, skills and provides them support to make informed career decisions.
Accordingly, systemic approach to career guidance would need deeper integration of career guidance into the broader educational framework from the school-level itself. It is in this context that the Department of School Education, Ministry of Education (MoE) released India’s first ever Career Guidance Guidelines in 2023 and in collaboration with UNICEF, a Career Guidance Book with 500 Career Cards in 2024. Apart from government initiatives, effective career guidance needs an ecosystem approach from other stakeholders too.
A successful collaboration would involve shared resources and expertise from both the public and private sector. For instance, on the joint recommendation of UNICEF’s YuWaah and Education team, the government allocated more than ₹200 crore per year under its flagship Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan for Career Guidance and Counselling, which will allow State governments to hire 7,000 career counsellors, one per block, across the country. Approximately 30 million students in the age group of 14-18 years in the government schools are expected to be supported by this scheme.
Inclusive ecosystem
All stakeholders need to create inclusive opportunities, fostering a dynamic ecosystem that empowers youth and drives sustainable growth.
Case in point being UN Women’s Second Chance Education programme, which was implemented in select aspirational districts across five States in India. This programme successfully engaged students, parents, communities and industry partners to empower girls and young women.
Furthermore, holistic development is crucial in ensuring that students’ personal strengths and passions are considered alongside professional choices. In India we need to move towards effective career guidance which needs to be systemic and inclusive, involving collaboration among public, private, and youth sectors to create equitable opportunities. The goal should be to leave none behind.
Kumar is Secretary Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education; and Singh is Deputy Country Representative, UN Women India