In a few short months, another group of our students will be graduating from high school and contemplating stepping into the world of work, or heading straight to a tertiary institution for continuing education or skills training. As they reach this crossroads, they will ask themselves that perennial question: what career pathway shall I choose?
Not all of them will face this conundrum. Of the privileged minority, those from well-heeled backgrounds will be joining their family’s business, be employed by a family friend or depart for a tertiary institution abroad. The ‘best and brightest’ will be eligible for scholarships to overseas universities from the government or foreign governments through the auspices of our relevant authorities, as will those with the correctly aligned political connections.
So, apart from that minuscule two or three percent (probably too generous) what about the rest of the graduating students? Long gone are the colonial days when one’s leading aspiration was to join the Civil Service, acquire a certain status within local society, enjoy such benefits as six months paid long leave after a certain number of years, be assured of long-term employment and a decent pension, the latter, of course, prior to the scourge of devaluations and inflation.
The sharper minds of that period were more often than not pointed in the direction of the five standard professions: Accountancy, Architec-ture, Dentistry, Law and Medicine. These vocations, under the safeguard of professional bodies, entail success at increasingly demanding examinations as one approaches the attainment of those prized initials after one’s surname, whether be it, CA, ACCA, RA, AIA, DDS, LLM or in the case of medicine, the prefix Dr. The prime benefit of these qualifications is that it allows the option to ‘hang one’s shingle’ and enjoy practice under one’s own terms and conditions. Alternatively, one might seek employment in the safety net of a large firm or organisation. The five standard professions are still highly sought after carrots with the potential to lead to an affluent lifestyle, but their pursuit should be considered with due caution when one notes the carnage of those who invested a considerable amount of time, effort and resources, but were unsuccessful in their bids perhaps due to the lack of the requisite self-discipline.
While the near graduates ponder their options, they should be reassured that at this stage in life, very few people actually know exactly what they wish to pursue career-wise, except for the very gifted or talented, and even those possess doubts. The question that arises, however, is how well is our education system preparing these students for this critical transition phase in their lives? Reference is not being made here to learning the intricacies of physics, chemistry or mathematics, or the nuances of French or Portuguese, but the reality of what actually happens in the day-to-day world. Are there in-house guidance counsellors fielding questions and arranging Career Day symposiums? Aside from the previously often mismatched work-study programmes, have our schools, over the past two years, been exposing students to different environments in the working world such as farms, hospitals, factories or food-processing plants? Have schools invited alumni or other qualified professionals from various fields to speak to students about their jobs, entertain queries, and, or offer advice on the various pathways to pursuing personal development?
As regards those students who seem assured of their choices, one would hope that they are not pursuing a whimsical dream or fantasy of say a career in medicine based on having watched dozens of episodes of medical dramas on network television. The hope is that they have been guided to read and conduct research on the profession and are prepared for the grind of medical school. Has anyone suggested reading Arthur Hailey’s novel, The Final Diagnosis, which details the role of post-mortem examinations in the teaching of medicine?
Those still uncertain of which fork in the road to take should be reassured that they have a few years to decide. Nevertheless, they should always be on the lookout, as sometimes the answer is right in front of them. They should be encouraged to explore work opportunities in various fields, bearing in mind that if they end up doing something they really enjoy, then they will not be working at a job, but rather pursuing a hobby.
In North America, where opportunities abound in numerous directions, there has been a notable shift in the promotion of the professional trades, including electrical and plumbing, where the pathway to the licence is via the apprenticeship model. The major selling point has been the acquisition of a profession (which also entitles one to hang one’s own shingle) over a four-five year period whilst earning and gaining experience, as opposed to attending a university for four years to pursue a degree and then having to find employment. Most importantly, the university graduate would have accumulated huge student debt whilst the trade professional was in a position to accumulate savings equal to or larger than the graduate’s debt.
All graduates need to be aware that the workforce is constantly in a state of flux. It never remains static. Forty-odd years ago, there was another major transformation, which today, still affects every facet of our lives. This tectonic shift was captured best by TIME magazine, which, in 1982, rather than naming a ‘Man of the Year’, as was its custom, opted for ‘Machine of the Year’. The cover of its January 3rd, 1983 issue featured a papier mache sculpture of a man seated at a table in front of a personal computer, under the headline of “Machine of the Year: The Computer Moves In”. The cover story commenced with the following paragraph, “There are some occasions, though, when the most significant force in a year’s news is not a single individual but a process, and a widespread recognition by a whole society that this process is changing the course of all other processes. That is why, after weighing the ebb and flow of events around the world, TIME has decided that 1982 is the year of the computer. TIME’s Man of the Year for 1982, the greatest influence for good or evil, is not a man at all. It is a machine: the computer.” Whilst the influence of the computer still reigns heavily in today’s environment, the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought its own bale of changes on today’s work environment, most notably the work from home option.
Here, we are hammered with the subject of oil on a daily basis. While not everyone will be eligible to work in that industry, graduating students should be aware of the spin-offs from this development, most importantly, the recent announcements of the construction of several hotels by international chains and the numerous opportunities that will soon be available in the hospitality and service industries.
As the next group of graduating students begin to hunker down for examinations, they also need to explore their options. Here is a parting thought from American poet Max Ehrmann’s famous Desiderata – Words for Life: “Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time”.
