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By Lovemore Chazingwa
The zeal to erase the dearth of guidance within a plethora of careers has led Dalny High alumni organizing a successful careers guidance session at the institution recently.
The session is part of a series of such instalments for the past couple of years running.
Dalny High Old Students Association (DOSA) under the astute leadership of Blessed Guta is determined to inspire learners to fit well into the new normal, during and post Covid-19 pandemic.
“The annual sessions are meant to open learner’s eyes to vast job and vocational opportunities that face the high school graduate in the years after basic general learning.
Empirical research has it that, a significant number of graduates face a career fit-in crisis post-high school studies.
“We’ve been undertaking these sessions for a couple of years now. Our aim is to avert a career crisis for these entrants. It’s on record that graduates may face a career squeeze soon after studies. Only last year stands odd, as you may be aware, we were hampered by Covid-19 lockdowns. The pandemic has ushered in a new norm that should also be craftly negotiated.
“With that mindset, this year we tread the fertile opportunity that is presented to us to inculcate that hybrid guidance among our juniors. Hybrid in that we introspect pre and post Covid-19,” said a confident Guta.
He took the stage to shun yesteryear frailties in terms of holistic careers guidance.
“When we were students, we didn’t get an opportunity for structured, deliberate, strategic and sustainable careers guidance. We were fed impromptu sessions by our teachers and at times, from home. This is a tradition we want to overcome. We desire for our juniors to have a feel of what they’re likely to encounter in the real working world. We have experienced careers guidance deficiency ourselves, hence, these co-ordinated sessions,” Guta emphasized.
The man at the helm of DOSA is excited by the response from those invited to impart knowledge to the younger generation: “We invite tradesmen as well as professionals from various fields. The response is always encouraging. These include practitioners involved in emerging fields in the new world order and those retooled learning models like financial intelligence, mechatronics, engineering, cyber security, digital innovation. Traditional careers are always a cardinal component of the menu, be it finance, IT, agriculture, law, medicine, construction industry to mention a few.”
Shelling the nuts
According to the DOSA president, the sole aim is for the learners to make solid decisions at the right time. This bold statement helps learners point the radar toward a specific profession.
This year’s program is unique in that it included learners from surrounding secondary schools like Torstock and Mususe.
“The program is good. It benefits us a lot. I have learnt so much from this careers guidance session. I was not aware of some of the jobs available out there but, now I know what l want to do in life. I have committed to work towards achieving it. I now also know the subjects that are important in my field of choice,” said Notchzedic Mukuwa, 16, a Dalny High Form Four learner.
The young mind says he aspires to be an engineer. He nonetheless, is yet to select a specific engineering filed as he pointed that he was overwhelmed by information on the day. Mukuwa and peers did not have their initial session last year.
A career teacher who is still in the field had this to say: “The importance of such an activity is that it opens up a variety of job opportunities to learners who are from an environment that doesn’t offer much. It also creates an appetite for careers that learners did not know about completely. Learner interests in studies are reinvigorated by coming in contact with former students who at one time where students just like them.”
So determined among their role models that the man spearheading co-ordination of the event said instructors are sometimes drawn from outside Zimbabwe borders, specifically Malawi and Zambia.
The old students and current staff had a chance to exchange notes during a post-session networking slot afterwards.
Instructors at this year’s session were drawn from finance, education, IT, agriculture, the legal fraternity, journalism, construction, law and uniformed forces, among other fields.
Conversely, as the sun set in the gold mining settlement discussions were around various careers and prerequisites to pursue each, delighting all and sundry.
About the writer
Lovemore Chazingwa is a media practitioner. He can be contacted on 0782929782 / 0712428244 E-mail: lpchazingwa@gmail.com