Career choice: NGO to counsel 600 secondary school students

The Centre For Learning And Educational Development Advocacy Africa (CLEADA AFRICA), says it has concluded plans to counsel 600 secondary school students on career choices to enable them to exploit their full potentials.

The Programme Manager of the NGO, Mr. Daniel Akpan said in a statement in Kaduna on Friday that the orientation would be conducted in collaboration with African Network of Adolescent and Young Persons Development Organization (ANAYDO).

Akpan explained that the beneficiaries would be drawn from 20 secondary schools in Zaria and Sabon Gari Local Government Areas of the state.

He added that the orientation, scheduled for September ending, would sensitize the students to the importance of mentorship, choosing the right career and self-motivation toward achieving sustainable future.

According to him, more than half of the 10.5 million school students in Nigeria choose a career based on parents’ and peer group pressure.

“This has grave consequences on students’ performance, which in turn affects their ability to fully develop and exploit their full potentials.

“Most of such students lose focus along the way due to lack of interest and passion which eventually lower their productivity and in the long run affect national development,’’ Akpan said.

He explained that the goal of the project was to enable secondary school students to make informed decisions while choosing a career as against coercing them into making wrong choices.

“Some of these choices are unlikely to be corrected in the future. So we want to reach out to the adolescent and young persons with preventive and motivational messages.

“The idea is to mentor them and properly guide them to take conscious steps toward becoming productive and living a fulfilled life in the future,’’ he said.

Akpan said that the two-day programme would feature an interactive session with doctors, nurses, engineers, pilots, military personnel, politicians, teachers, and accountants.

“They would share their experiences, their struggle, their fame, and the journey to their various profession or career with the students.

“This would expose the student to a wide range of opportunities out there to exploit.

“Parents would also be sensitized to the importance of allowing and supporting a child to choose his career and follow his dreams.

“This would help mitigate the negative influence parents have on children career choice,’’ the programme manager, said, adding that if successful, the project would be scaled up to Plateau and Benue states.