Career Exploration & Skills Development Program for Mwanza Youths
The key to building a positive relationship and sorting out any communication difficulties with your teenager is to keep the channels of communication open, encouraged our in-house career counselor – Sajida Master, to the parents when she visited Mwanza Jamaat.
As one of the focus areas of the AF Education Board for the term 2019 -2022 is to support all community students to make their career choices effectively and plan their careers keeping in mind the new trends, Sajida Master AF Education Board’s in-house career Counselor who is a certified career guidance counselor and accredited SII practitioner, visited Mwanza Jamaat from 13th March to 15th March 2020.
The 3-day program included;
1. Strong Interest Inventory Assessment- a psychometric test- with one to one career guidance sessions for the students.
- Strong Interest Inventory is an online assessment which provides robust insights into a person’s career interests, helping them to discover potential career paths they may not have considered, and giving them a wealth of information about how they approach the world of work.
- After the test, the students received individual feedback by the counselor where an in-depth explanation of what the report shows and how it relates to them.
- AF Education Board provides the Strong Interest Inventory free of charge to all community students.
2. An interactive session with the students on how to choose the right career path.
- But how does one choose the right career? There are a number of things that one should take into consideration to pick a career that suits one best. A lot of people end up choosing the wrong careers due to a lack of appropriate guidance and advice. This session aimed at helping youth to make confident, tailored, and insightful career choices.
3. A session with parents outlining the role of parents in their children’s career development.
- Parents influence the level of education or training that their children achieve; the knowledge they have about work and different occupations; the beliefs and attitudes they have to working; and the motivation they have to succeed. Most of this is learned unconsciously – children assimilate their parents’ attitudes and expectations of them as they grow up. This session was designed to discuss how parents’ can be an important and positive influence in decisions affecting their children’s career choice.
Some comments received by parents and students were;
“I would like to thank the organizers and counselling experts for taking their invaluable time and coming all the way to Mwanza for providing the right guidance to our children. It has given them an insight into the other possible choice of careers they can pursue. Indeed, we can’t repay you in this world, however we pray to the Allah (swt) to bless you and protect you. “– Parent
“We want to take this opportunity to thank you for all the time and effort that you routinely put into organizing such events.
We were really on the wall as to what direction to take for our son who is in Form V. The strategy, research and planning tips you offered him and us have made a big difference. Every piece of advice is actionable and makes good solid sense. Sometimes We have a whole stream of lofty goals for our children, but then we lack the know-how to get them accomplished. You have such an incredible wealth of ideas and knowledge.
Thank you for taking the time to discuss career options for our children.” – Parent
“I am very grateful to Mwanza jamaat and Sajida Master for bringing about the career counselling program. It really helped my kids to know what career options are available and to narrow down the choices to the ones most suitable ones. Thanks a lot. I wish programs like this would happen more often.” – Parent
“I would like to thank the education board and Sajida Bai particularly, for the career counselling as it was a very much help to all of us in giving a wide range of options to our career. Thank you again and may God bless you for your effort.” – Student
“The counseling session was amazing, and you opened my eyes to many opportunities I hadn’t considered before. My career choice was a big decision I had difficulty making, but your help in matching my skills with the position I chose was essential. Thank you so much for your time. Inshallah hope to meet you soon.” – Student
“The career counselling was very helpful to me because I had no idea on what to do and what direction to go in order to achieve my goals. But after the career counselling I had got many various options on what to do and what steps to take in order to achieve my goals.” – Student
4. A workshop in collaboration with Hussein Inspires -Mwanza with the youths titled “Am I really Cool?”.
- While it can be normal for a teenager to lack confidence at times, people with self-esteem issues normally view themselves differently to how others view them. Positive self-esteem is important as it allows teens to try new things, take healthy risks and solve problems. In turn, their learning and development will be productive and will set them up for a healthy and positive future.
- The discussion at the workshop included; what are value and how important are they to us, positive self-esteem, factors that cause low self-esteem (peers, social media), how can we work on our self-esteem and decision-making model in sticky situations.
Some comments received from the participants for “Am I really cool?” workshop;
“I learnt how to love myself, believe in myself and become more confident in myself.”
“I personally felt this session was relatable and helpful because there are times when stuff that was discussed in the session happened in my daily life. This session helped me see life differently in all situations.”
“I gained a lot today and I shall be applying it to my life; things like keeping a gratitude diary.”
“It helped me understand myself better and how we could face day to day challenges specially in the developing world without crossing your limits.”
“It reminded me to be comfortable in my own skin and not mind what others think about me, hold firm to my values which are my identity as a Muslim.”
Mwanza Jamaat & AF Education Board would like to express their gratitude and appreciation to the career counselor Mrs. Sajida Master for her time and dedication towards the youths of the community.
Moreover, thank you to all the volunteers for their tireless efforts in ensuring the success of the program.
AF Education Board would also like to thank The World Federation for sponsoring the Strong Interest Inventory tests (SII).
For more information on career counselling or SII tests feel free to contact us on education@africafederation.org
EB Secretariat