The role of educators in career development

Tighter the job market, tougher the competition amongst students. Ultimately, students who possess niche skills are hired by the top employers. To prepare for the competition outside, students are looking out to learn skills that the big players demand. Irrespective of the profession students select, they have to upgrade their skills on a regular basis. And this is where the role of career development comes into the play.

 

The first step towards a successful career lies in making difficult career choices. The profession students choose plays a significant role in their life. But the present-day labor market keeps changing, which means that the skills in-demand today might become irrelevant tomorrow. Taking all of this into account we can say that students are expected to make complex high stake decision at a very young age, with little to no experience. As a result, students end up getting stuck with the wrong career choices.

 

Universities understand student dilemmas while choosing careers, and hence, educators realize their growing role as career guides. Educators are best aware of their student’s potential and are in the best position to guide them.

 

Understanding the role of career guides

 

Career development is not a short-term activity. Educators should first analyze what professions attract their students. Some students might feel free to express their thoughts and interests, while some might not. Educators must identify the anxieties and concerns of students, be friendly with them, understand their aspirations, and then try to help them with their career choices.

 

But, for all this entire exercise to come to fruition, students must know what jobs are best suited for them. And this is where the role of educators as career guides becomes most significant. Deans, curriculum planners, and the faculty, all need to share with student’s insights like:

• Job ‘hotspots’ or best cities to apply for a particular job
• Job titles to apply for
• Skills that a job would demand
• Likelihood of finding the desired job

But the question is, how will educators gain access to such insights so they can share them with the students?

 

 

Identifying the need for career planning tools

 

Tools and technologies are being devised for the unique needs of all professional segments. For instance, do you remember the days when we had to call up customer care executives to clear any doubt we had about a product we bought? Now, how many of us follow the same pattern? None. With the help of chatbots today, we get answers to our queries quickly, without any human intervention. Similarly, robotic process automation tools help companies automate the tedious and mundane tasks while increasing accuracy and productivity.

 

Likewise, educators, today don’t need to go around hunting for insights on job trends for guiding their students. Technologies like big data, predictive analytics, AI, and ML, are already there to take care of such insights. With the career planning tools like Talismatic, educators can leverage technology to:

 

• get a better picture of the current and the future employment trends
• identify regional employment trends
• find internship & corporate opportunities for students
• counsel students to make them job-ready

 

The benefits accrued by Educators using career planning tools

 

The main focus of educators should be to build strategic collaborations and training programs that will upgrade student skills, making them ready for industry demands. The right career planning tools like Talismatic help educators achieve their goals.

 

By picking the right career planning tool, educators can:

• predict skill demand and boost course offerings
• stay on top of job market trends
• match their students to their ideal employers
• establish the university as a reliable brand amongst students

 

Providing niche insights to students will help universities gain a reputable brand image, which will, in turn, enhance student enrollment rate, increase student retention rate, and intensify student graduation rate. Ultimately, the revenue growth will boost, allowing universities to spend more on their R&D affairs, hire the best faculty, and plan more strategic curriculums for students.

 

Talismatic is an education analytics platform that helps educators predict the skill demands, advice students to take up the right courses, teach students the required skills, and churn out employment-ready students for a competitive job market.