Wheebox survey reveals - almost 85 pct of higher education candidates not equipped to take career decisions

In a recent survey done by Wheebox, a global talent assessment company for India Skills Report 2018, a whopping 85 percent candidates state that they are not equipped to take career decisions. On sources of career information over 50 percent candidates seek and build career decisions for employment from colleges followed by 21 percent from different web portals and only 17 percent from their immediate and extended family members.

Career counselling and career opportunities mapped to their interest and expertise is a backbone for candidates for getting jobs, where Career development is no longer viewed as a linear process as it reflects a predictable world of work. There are other ways to get talented job seekers to have a conversation with real people, rather than resumes.

In the same survey were 85 percent candidates stated that internships with different roles and industries during their education will help them firm up career direction, they feel Employer Connect or Job fairs at college are the best way to get exposure to their first job.

On the perception accelerators of a great career start that they think will land them a meaningful career just after college 37% of candidates think excellent Communications skills will be an advantage where 30% and 19% think Industry exposure and Co-curricular activities are best bet for landing a great career after college respectively.

While many universities and higher education campuses host job fairs that provides recruiters or company representatives to select right set of candidates for future jobs but only a limited set of higher education campuses in India host Career Centers with professional career counsellors, right assessment tools and industry communication for a candidate to zero in for a right career.

In developed countries career assessments have always played a large roles followed by personal discussion with counsellors have helped students make realistic career decisions. In India Ministry of labor and employment have set up Model Career Centers to gap the problem and have used BARO Career Interest Test from Wheebox as a online tool followed by One on One discussion with professional coaches must be followed by Higher education campuses in India where colleges can set up such centers to benefit candidates right from first year of colleges.

Over 5000 education campuses participated in one of the largest employability survey conducted by global employability assessment provider Wheebox in association with industries bodies and organisation leaders like All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Pearson Education and HR Tech Company People.

Excerpts have been picked up from India Skills Reports 2018. The report publishes on 8th of February, 2018 in association with Niti Aayog at New Delhi.