One Day Workshop for Career Guidance and Career Counselling


Gyanfort Foundation invited Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia to Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter School to facilitate a one-day workshop to train school teachers and provide guidance to students of schools of Farrukkhabad, UP, on 28th July 2018. Ms. Sanjogita Mishra, Programme Officer, Skills, CEMCA conducted the workshop for making 80 students aware about the avenues in vocational careers, and training 24 teachers with the use of CEMCA’s CGCC Kit.

CEMCA in collaboration with UNDP developed a Career Guidance and career counselling kit, which comprises of –

  1. 200 career cards covering 37 Industry sectors, carefully chosen from over 3000 Job Roles defined by Sector Skill Councils formed under the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

  2. 40 Self-awareness cards based on John Holland’s RIASEC Model that help the young adults introspect their personal preferences and understand their occupational personalities

  3. 15 games documented in an Activity Guide to be used by facilitator who plays these games with the young adults in groups of 30-40 over 6-8 months

This kit is based on the principles of “Activity Based Learning” and creates a pull from the learner. None of the sessions are delivered in a lecture mode and it forces the young adult to indulge in self-discovery.

The workshop began with training 24 teachers, 22 from Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter School and 2 from Rajputana Public School. Ms. Mishra explained and demonstrated the concept of Activity Based Learning to them, in order to change the current method of teaching along with the mindsets of teachers that activities can only be conducted for practical sessions. Ms Sanjogita Mishra also stressed on the need to focus on awareness about the employment avenues and employability of learners. This is important, since the current education system doesn’t provide any information to the learner about the job market in the real world, and therefore students are not prepared to face the world of work.

After the session with the teachers, Ms. Sanjogita Mishra invited the teachers to witness a live ABL session related to employment and employability, and played a few games with the 80 students such as “Reach the Chocolate”, where the students are given the basic information about the career cards present in the kit. The learners stand around in a circle and try to reach the chocolate kept in the centre, based on the instructions given by the facilitator, where they take a step in or a step back based on the information given on the card they hold, which allows them to learn about the various job facts present on the cards. They also pay attention to what job profile has what specific features, as they hold the same card throughout the game. This game acquaints the students with the world of work, and the fun way of playing it gives information to the learner in an interactive way. The programme officer also conducted a session on RIASEC to help them understand their occupational personalities in order to understand the kind of jobs they are suitable for.

The session was concluded with a brief session on Generic Employability Skills, i.e. Self-Management, Team Work, Enterprising, Problem Solving and Speaking & Listening. This was followed by group photographs and planting of a tree to commemorate the beginning of a long journey and association with CEMCA.

The workshop was coordinated by Mr. Vimal Rathore, Director, Gyanfort Foundation. Ms. Jasvir Kaur, Principal Gyanfort School also assisted in conducting the training workshop. Mr. Ravishankar Singh, Manager of Schools of Vidya Bharati said that he will take this workshop to a larger number of teachers across all Vidya Bharati schools of UP. Overall, the workshop was very successful, and a step forward to increase CEMCA’s beneficiaries and also give multiplicity to CEMCA’s career guidance.