Absence of career counseling responsible for low work productivity – Analysts

Education analysts and experts say that the near absence of qualitative career counseling in the school system in the country is largely responsible for the simmering crisis in career pursuit and fulfillment being experienced by many youths, thus giving fillip to low manpower productivity among Nigeria’s working population.

Analysts decry a situation whereby career counseling which is a systematic process of guiding especially young people to make career choices in consonance not only with passion but identified aptitude and disposition is apparently invisible in the nation’s secondary school and tertiary education systems. Experts believe strongly that the unpalatable result of this gap in the education system is the reason for the gargantuan waste of valuable time and energy by youths who pursue careers and vocations they are not suited for, leading to work dissatisfaction, and low productivity in the workplace.

Ayo Badejo, a professor of Counselling Psychology, Lagos State University (LASU), observe that this situation present huge challenge in the country today. Badejo opines that normally, counselling is supposed to prepare a student for the future so that as the person comes out from the tertiary institution, he or she would have a ready mind to be moulded into any kind of reasonable vocation.

“There is a dearth of talents across several sectors of the economy, this did not just start over night, it is a clear confirmation of the fact that our counselling units in schools have collapsed many years ago,” she said

To her, the idea for secondary education in the first place was to ensure students are easy to groom into any kind of role within a system or organisation.

Unfortunately today, however, we see students that are obviously not groomed or schooled to make meaningful contributions to any system because they lack the fundamentals.

“Talent is not really about the certificate, but about the cerebral content that an individual possesses. The inability of a big chunk of our school leavers to grapple with the very rudiments of a work or business environment today, as well as meet up with the barest degree of expectations has become a big concern and will continue to be, until things are done to consciously address the fallen standard of basic education,” she added.

She further reaffirms that it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education to ensure that schools have the requisite counselling unit.

The university don identified lack of parental contribution to the career counselling  as a challenges students face stressing that a situation where parents are at loss in shaping the career choices of their child because they are busy chasing after material things and leave the responsibility to the school alone is a wrong move.

Nireti Adebayo, the managing director, Whycleon Limited, a human resource consulting firm confirm that employers today grapples with low productivity in the  work place, a situation traceable to lack of proper career counselling for a lot of workers.

The absence of proper career counseling in our educational institutions has a correlation with work place productivity. I know that career counselling is very important, but it is no longer effective because we no longer have the level of committed teachers that we had in those days. Adebayo observed

She further said that while the career path or work life of some people is a source of joy, for others, despondency is the order of the day, as they experience challenges which they never bargained for in the first place because they were not properly directed career wise.

She called for more private sector participation in the drive to ensure that productivity are increased by supporting government and schools to help shape the future workforce of the nation by so doing boost productivity.

Olumide Akinsola, a career consultant, identifies government lack of interest in the affairs of public education as the major barrier that preventing them setting up quality counseling units in schools. Akinsola further informs that lackadaisical attitude of most public schools with regards to the counseling students have greatly reduces their chances of forging ahead in any career they may get involved in.

On her Olufemi Ogunsanya, managing director, Oxbridge Tutorial College, noted that the nation’s education sector has taken a negative turn as a result of half-hearted attention governments at all levels, are paying to it especially as it concern guidance and counseling in secondary schools, adding however, that parents must also play their role to ensure that their children get quality education no matter the cost through engagement in counseling.

Ogunsanya maintain that as a private school, the management of the school insist on quality counseling for students to enable them compete favourably with their peers within and outside the shores of this country.

As far as the career counseling is concerned, it is necessary for school management  to make use of creative approach to address each child based on the innate abilities , saying that it is also advisable to latch on to available opportunities that come help shape the career progression of the child.

KELECHI EWUZIE