“Your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see”- Muhammed Ali.
A range of factors play a key role in determining what alphabets would appear on the child’s future LinkedIn profile. In a constantly evolving world, the immediate environment of the child plays arguably the most crucial role in determining the eventual career path. The impact of the immediate environment is hinged on the nature of a range of sub-factors- family conditions, geographic location, government policy, exposure to traditional and modern media, et al. The robust or limited nature of the immediate environment determines the child’s perspective of career choices and the extent to which they view the world as an oyster brimming with endless possibilities, including non—traditional career choices. This creates the necessity for parents and family ( as first agents of socialization); teachers, educators, and counselors to expose children to swathes of career opportunities.
One of the most ubiquitous questions asked to children is ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Parents, teachers, friends of parents, etc., ask these questions and expect replies of exciting career paths or professions chosen by these children. A friend of mine shared that she was asked this question when she was 10 years old by a neighbour. She responded proudly ‘I want to be a cleaner’, because she was fascinated by the white headed mop her mother had recently purchased and she thought it would be exciting, to clean the rest of her life with it.
It is not uncommon to see children drive towards a particular career, due to what they could have rightly understood to be their interest, passion and strength, but be ignorant of the numerous career fields into which these interests may fit. Sometimes, they could also be wrong about the realities of the profession of their interest. For example, a student interested in Law or Medicine because of the theatrical/ dramatic performances portrayed in TV series like Suits and Grey’s Anatomy respectively soon find themselves disillusioned at the mostly uneventful nature of the study and practice of those courses. More importantly, they lose insight into the fact that the legal and medical professions, like many other professions, are wide professions spanning across different practices and operations. So that a child interested in law, but who does not see herself in the cutthroat courtroom theatrics of Harvey Specter does not miss out on the fact that as a corporate lawyer, they never need to jump on tables and shake fists dramatically to make great lawyers. Similarly, a child interested in medicine but jarred by the constant and exaggerated gory images of twisted joints and spurting blood in Grey’s Anatomy knows that there is an exciting and fulfilling medical path in public policy medicine, for example.
This underscores the important reason for early career exposure; to expose young people to a wider scope/view of whatever career children themselves are posturing after. Early career exposure can help students understand the vast arrays of options available to them in making career choices; aligning their passion, strength and talents with global needs and opportunities. This, in turn, would create a sense of purpose early on.
Career exposure prevents students from touring career pathways with stereotypical views adopted from the community around them or the larger society. It is a usual thing to find secondary school students in Humanities with a near comical view that if they love to argue, they definitely would do good studying law or have law as the only best thing they can pursue. This commonly portrayed position blurs opportunities that students with communication skills, creativity, critical thinking skills and problem solving could take up in less talked about but profitable fields like Journalism and Media, Content Creation and Management, Media Strategists, Marketing, Advertising, Human Resources Management e.t.c. Many students looking to tap into the ‘tech is the new oil’ scene project assume that a career in Tech stops at coding and building apps. Yet, there are a range of exciting and lucrative Tech careers such as AI Ethics and UI/UX designers which might be outside the limited perspective of the student. Early exposure, early awareness improves the knowledge about what a field entails, and supports them to truly find their place to shine in society.
Early career exposure in developing countries like Nigeria, becomes an even more pertinent consideration, considering how conventionally attached we are to some traditional professions such as lawyering, medicine, engineering. With early career exposure on the wide range of career opportunities at an easily malleable stage in life, children are free to see that for whatever ability they possess there is actually a world big enough to accommodate them, with the right support, mentorship and guidance.
Early career exposure increases the self-awareness of children and students. It opens them to the demands of understanding their strength, weakness, the values they appreciate in life and how it can influence how they attend whatever career they would get to pursue. It allows them to pay attention to themselves early on and the career that accommodates their nature, character, skills they look to build up on the way going. This self-awareness particularly spills into a student becoming aware of their weaknesses in academics to know what they would have to work on and develop to not get sidetracked from an end they do cherish so much.
Exposing children early on to career opportunities is not about making a definitive career choice for them but raising their awareness of the possibilities that lie ahead of them in their recognized ability. It is an exercise towards ensuring that informed decisions are made by children and students. Awareness early on, is both important for providing direction and also to help understand what choices are possible even within a selected career field. This calls for parents, teachers, guardians, counselors and educational bodies to provide children with opportunities for early career exposure.
Challenges to early exposure like limited resources, accessibility and even limited awareness by children's agent of socialization can be tackled by parents and schools collaborating with local organizations, industries, community groups for the purpose of getting students in contact with an expansive worldview. Organisations like JuCE Africa, have arisen recently to support students, parents and educational institutions in this imperative demand for early exposure, mentorship and support. JuCE Africa partners with young professionals in a wide range of careers and professions to share their journey, insight and practical insights into this path with the young people. Most importantly, they are committed to mentoring and equipping students; not just for careers of today; but careers of tomorrow; i.e., careers of import in the next 5-10 years when the average secondary school student emerges into the workforce. In similar passion as Mohammed Ali, JuCE Africa aims to support the African child to see clearly where to punch and to land the punches with intentionality, without wavering and with clarity.
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