Highlighting crucial importance of career counseling in the present day competitive world, National Conference Provincial President Devender Singh Rana on Tuesday exhorted students at the secondary or intermediate level to choose their option and pursue the goal single-mindedly with sincerity of purpose.“Choosing a definite career option is indeed a challenging task but experts and career councillors can be of immense help for students to take a decision keeping in view their aptitude and needs of the job-market from time to time”, Rana said while inaugurating career counseling series from external sources, organized by Bharati Foundation, at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Kandoli in Nagrota, as part of the initiative taken by local MLA.The Director, Zilla Sainik Board Jammu Brig (Retd) Harcharan Singh and Col (Retd) K L Gupta explained to the students about career options in defence services, saying unique opportunities were available for young boys and girls in the three services.Rana described career counselling as a recent phenomenon, which has enabled students to concentrate on specific spheres rather than exploring random options. “This will surely benefit enterprising boys and girls in a big way”, he said and hoped that the Bharati Foundation will involve corporate sector too in this enviable initiative so as to have optimal outreach to the areas like Nagrota Assembly Constituency.
Rana, representing the Constituency in Legislative Assembly, has been instrumental in roping in the prestigious Bharati Foundation to take up 15 schools of Nagrota, in the first instance, for implementation of Quality Support Model. The Foundation will mentor these schools for next five years till they bring them to the level of best schools in the country. The Foundation will keep adding other schools of the Constituency every year in phased manner. In all 250 boys and girls participated in the counseling session.The MLA Nagrota described the career counseling initiative as path breaking, hoping that the students of the area would be able to take right decisions at this juncture that will place them in good stead in the present day world. “With the increase of opportunities in the current job market, right decision at this juncture is imperative to pursue the mission with devotion”, he said, adding that this is all the more important in a state like Jammu and Kashmir where dependence on government jobs is immense.
He also called for change in the mindset, not only among students but their parents as well, saying that opportunities are manifold beyond the traditional choices of doctors, engineers and office assistants. “In order to widen the horizon of targeted segment of society, there is need to expose them to huge job market available in corporate sector across the country”, he said adding this will help in tackling vex unemployment problem.Rana expressed his gratitude to Zila Sainik Board for making students of the area aware about various challenging options in the Army, Navy and Air Force. He said the students of the constituency are second to none and thus can make their mark in defence services. He also expressed his thanks to Bharati Foundation for their great effort, not only in spreading quality education in his constituency but also helping in shaping their destiny. He said that his effort would be to expand the outreach of quality education, as is being imparted by the Bharati Foundation on pilot basis, to the entire constituency.The Project Head, Bharati Foundation Anil Bhat and his team dwelt upon the countrywide mission, saying the outreach has been a continued process, which will revolutionise educational sector in years to come.The Principal of the School, Santosh Kumari thanked on behalf of the staff and parents to Devender Singh Rana, MLA, Zila Sainik Board Jammu and the Bharati Foundation for their sincere efforts in shaping the destiny of students. (KNS)