Effective career guidance key to CBC success

It will be quite hurting to Kenyan learners and the Kenyan job market should career guidance be ignored or offered by unqualified personnel in our Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).

By the nature and structure of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), JSS learners cannot be left unguided on matters of career choices. The damage, once carried over to Senior Secondary School (SSS) institutions, would not only be too costly but the damage to the learners would be irreversible.

Interestingly, most learners go about the assignment of choosing careers without the benefit of professional knowledge and advice; solely guided by uninformed narrations by peers or over-ambitious parents. 

Indeed, most of them lack information on both the education requirements and job market dynamics as they settle for careers to pursue in universities and middle-level colleges. This, more than the 8-4-4 system, has been injurious to the economy.

Uninformed career choices have bred a disgruntled workforce prone to all unethical practices and corruption. This costly mistake can easily be replicated under the CBC system should career guidance and counselling services be overlooked in the school setup. 

The CBC anticipates that learners would choose specific pathways that would eventually deliver them to their dream careers. What would be the motivations to embark on the said pathways?

The task of determining this heavy choice cannot be left in the hands of unguided learners, nor can it be driven by parents, the majority of whom are uninformed and would only settle for careers that guarantee their sons and daughters flashy lifestyles and unrealistic financial rewards, their abilities, likes and dislikes notwithstanding. 

For career guidance to achieve its intended purpose, career teachers need to be equipped with the necessary information and skills.

Appointments to the Department of Guidance and Counselling in both JSS and SSS should not be pegged on the ability to offer moral guidance, but rather on competencies in communication, public relations and extensive knowledge on the dynamics of the local and foreign job market, acquired through education and training. 

Lucrative careers 

First, career guidance teachers need not work with the 19th-century mindset that a university degree or STEM (Science, Technology and Mathematics) are the only ticket to lucrative careers. This would be an unfortunate incongruity in the present world. 

It is important that Kenyans appreciate that as universities in Kenya continue to churn out graduates across the faculties, the percentage of those who get absorbed in the job market is quite a disappointment. Indeed, the advice has been that university graduates should resist the temptation to be choosy. 

Instead of preaching this reality after our children have wasted their youthful years pursuing courses that do not suit them, it is crucial that career guidance teachers invest in up-to-date information on job-market dynamics, right from the JSS level through to the SSS level, to extenuate the extent of damage in case of a mistake. 

Secondly, career guidance teachers should desist from offering carte-blanche career guidance to students. Effective career guidance should take into account the interests and abilities of the clients. It should provide all the possible and attractive alternatives that the client has at their disposal, and provide a true picture of the Kenyan job market. Effective career guidance cannot be based on a single examination outcome or even abilities observed within a single encounter in the field or theatre. 

Lastly, effective career guidance will require that the counsellor liaises with both the teachers and the parents in order to extract accurate data on the interests and abilities of the client. An ad-hoc approach where counsellors base their recommendations on rumours from parents and biased teachers will only disadvantage the learner and injure our economy. 

Dr Mwirigi is a researcher, author, and Principal, Kagumo High School. [email protected]