Education Counselling – The Next Big Thing

On of my cousins met me recently to discuss the education plan of her child. She wanted me to give advice as to what stream she should ask her kids to pick up after 10th standard. She has started thinking about it now as her child has just entered class 10 and she was confused on this subject.

My initial response to her was to tell me what she thought were the options. The answer was medical / non-medical (other sciences) / Commerce in that order. Then I asked her what was her son interested in. The response was that she were not very sure but he got good marks in science. To be honest even the child did not know what he wanted to do.

Take my own example. This was year 1995. I had thought of doing engineering and thus was standing in a queue of students who were getting enrolled for the engineering stream because it was the most talked about stream in the school and though I was not good in science as a subject, I wanted to opt for it. Side by side this queue was the queue for enrolling in commerce stream. I glanced at the commerce steam and saw that most of my friends from class 10th were standing in that queue. I dont know what came to my mind, I decided to change my queue and went on to enrol myself in the commerce stream. Now in hindsight i see it as such a stupid way of taking a career decision.

But was I at fault? No. I dont think so. My school where I did my 10th and 12th std was the best in my city. Even then they did not have any session with their class 10th students where they explained the pros and cons and career options for students enrolling in various streams. It was left upon students themselves to decide their career options with whatever limited access to such knowledge they had and fend for themselves. This has made me think for long that there is a definite need for a service which helps parents and students decide what they would like to pursue as a career and thus decide the education stream they would want to enrol for. This service can be provided by schools or by professionals (in partnership with schools) who are passionate about helping youngsters take conscious calls on their career, help them and their families take informed decision about their careers.

To my mind this is a huge business opportunity and if researched well and executed well, this can turn out to be a huge success. Today parents are willing to spend any amount of money for their child’s education even if they have to take loans. Such has become the mindset of parents which to my mind is a good thing because good education has not been given its due importance in smaller cities for a long time. A small amount for a service which could change the course of a stundent’s life is something no one would be unwilling to part with.