Be futuristic, innovative

classroom

A classroom. 

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The Kenya Universities and Central Placement Board (KUCCPs) has announced a window for Form Four leavers to review their career choices. They should be guided by eight key issues.

First, ensure that your chosen career goes hand in hand with your working style—like ability to work under pressure and for long hours. Secondly, know your talents. It is more rewarding financially and motivation-wise doing working in a field that you like.

Thirdly, go for a career that matches your financial goals and projections. Fourth, choose a career that is worth the investments to be made to complete it. Fifth, assess personal social needs. A human being spends around a third of their life in the chosen career, hence with colleagues in the field.

Sixth, undertake a thorough background check, getting information from the industry about career choices. Ask the experts in the field their experiences and real-life situation of the career path you are interested in. Seventh, be guided by online assessment tools to gauge aptitudes and likely career lines.

Eighth, in addition to the traditional careers like engineering, medicine, law and teaching, consider other courses that have high potential for development and growth in the foreseeable future.

Coding, for instance, is fast becoming a highly sought-after area of study and skill by technology firms and researchers. It will take students to areas like computer programming, video game design, and development of creative machine learning sounds and building web applications which have massive applications.

Besides, blockchain development—hence blockchain technology—will define and revolutionise the future of finances. Think of cryptocurrencies—Bitcoins. Blockchain can be used across industries and has been successful in preventing fraud and allocating royalties to artists. One can also study Big Data analytics. Data analysis is key to making predictions and, hence, the right decisions.

Other areas with future demand include ethical hackers, hygiene specialists, Artificial Intelligence (AI), data inspector or detective, gene expert or portfolio manager, and mental health expert.


Dr Giti (PhD) is an urban planner. [email protected].