REACH to provide career guidance to plus-two

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Plus-two students in the state, who are often a confused lot when it comes to picking up their career, would now receive a helping hand from professionals. The Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) has designed a career guidance programme for plus-two which will cover students in 120 government higher secondary schools in the state.   REACH- Resource Enhancement Academy for Career Heights, KSWDC’s professional grooming academy for women, is behind the initiative. It is the stupendous response to its career guidance programme in the colleges that has prompted REACH to take up the new venture. It had travelled to 39 girls’ colleges in the state over the last year and talked to them on the various career options before them.   ‘’Most of them said that if they had received guidance in this direction soon after plus two, it would have really helped them. We have taken the cue from their responses to design this career guidance programme for plus-two students,” said  P T M Sunish, Managing Director of KSWDC.  In the first phase, seven districts have been chosen which has only Idukki from the southern districts. Kannur, Malappuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Kasargod and Wayanad are the other districts chosen for the programme.   ‘’We chose the northern districts since students there have less access to career guidance programmes than those in Thiruvananthapuram or Kochi,” said K Sreevidya, REACH state head and trainer.   “Some students have this genuine doubt as to what should be done if they want to join NASA or say CBI. These are questions we are trying to answer. We guide them on all subjects they could take up for study like logistics or bio-chemistry and give a layman version of the topics. Like, biochemistry is all about learning the chemical influence on a biological body and so on. So naturally they understand the job prospects lie with medical companies. This way, we help them understand a subject and tell them where they would land once they take up a particular subject,” explains Sreevidya.   The career guidance programme would take up three hours of a day. This time around, they are not adamant on benefiting girls alone, for most of the schools are co-ed ones.   KSWDC has decided to invite parents too to the programme as they are the decision-makers in most cases. The programme will kick off on September 19 at Kozhikode Chalapuram Ganapath school.