How Covid is Affecting Career Choices Among Students

The pandemic is taking a toll on various sectors of the economy right now, however, the education sector was affected the most. In these one and half years, the education field has witnessed a massive shift like never before. 

The traditional classrooms have now transformed into virtual meets and digital resources. This whole scenario is not just affecting students who can’t afford the resources for online education but also exacerbating emotional distress for all the learners out there.

To discuss more on the pandemic and its side effects on education, Ezyschooling conducted a panel discussion on “How COVID is affecting career choices among the students?” The session was attended by the following expert panelists:

1) Dr. Seema Dutt, Principal at DAV Public Ambala.

2) Ms. Chanderlekha Bazaz, Principal at Maple World School.

3) Ms. Mahua Chakrborty, Principal at Brainiac Heritage School.

4) Ms. Sudha Rajamohan, Principal at Sapphire International School, Noida.

5) Mr. Sharad Vadera, Headmaster at Richmond Global School.

6) Ms. Kavitta Mehtta, Founder at 3RDiConsulting.

Covid and Education

Students are not acclimatized to the new norm of digital learning; they need more time to get out of the mode where one-to-one in-person student mentor relations were maintained. They had adapted to the traditional means of education. Even teachers are unable to do much to make the pupils adapt to the new norm. 

Also read: How to Earn Professional Experience while still in School?

Ms. Chanderlekha Bazaz rightly mentioned, “This gap where we are not able to meet our children, is adversely affecting them because we are not able to influence them in the way as we were doing during offline classes." And the worst situation is of the ones who are going to start their careers: the 11th and 12th graders. 

There is always a lot of stress when it comes to choosing the right career, but this pandemic has aggravated the situation to a whole new level.

Here are some tips to keep in mind while selecting a career path after class 12th

Interests

The foremost factor is the student’s interest. If one chooses a career they are passionate about, then every day at the workplace will feel like a vacation. As Ms. Kavitta Mehtta rightly mentioned, “Taking up niche programs helps students evolve and perform better. Find your passion, follow your heart and you’ll be successful wherever you are.”

Past performance 

Past performance is a huge factor while choosing a particular path forward. For example, you can't become an engineer if you are below average in maths. You need to have good knowledge of the subject before choosing it as a career option.

Prospects

Question yourself if the options you're going forward with would yield you adequate monetary compensation? Because in the end, we need to earn to survive. 

Personality

Your personality can also help you succeed in a particular field. For example, if you're a good communicator with great convincing power you can be an excellent management student. 

Affordability

You need to choose an affordable career. A middle-class student can't afford the expenses of learning aeronautics unless they get a scholarship for the same.

Although the pandemic is taxing our mental and emotional health, we can still tune into a perspective where these times can be handled in a more positive light.

As Ms. Sudha Rajamohan said, “All that students learn in a classroom, alone, may not be the necessary ingredients for designing their career, instead they should learn from the outside world as well, and this pandemic is giving them a chance ." This is the moment that students can utilize to gain some skills which would not have been possible if we were living the same old life as before.

We totally agree with Ms. Mahua Chakrborty who said "Train and Upgrade yourself with the knowledge you can sit at home and acquire."

The working sector 10 years from now would witness the addition of multiples of new occupations which are going to require an array of skills to execute the new work. It is necessary for every student right now to focus on the foundational skills that would create a fancy yet useful career for them. All the careers in the future would require some fundamental outlooks without which it would be hard to make them survive in this fast-moving world.

Mr. Sharad Vadera was spot on when he said “Besides the learning which is going on in classes, skill education is very much required; especially in coding and artificial intelligence.” 

Here are some fundamentals that might help students with their new-age career prospects:

• Creativity: To explore one's passion and skills.
• Entrepreneurship: To be able to market and build a business out of these skills and passion.
• Digitalization: To be able to adapt to the era of digitalization. Step up by involving digital mediums.

Check out: Famous Indian Personalities who turned their Hobbies into their Career

These 21-century skills would make you adept at various kinds of jobs that the future beholds. And as Dr. Seema Dutt says, “If you have a skill or a talent and a business mind to market and explore it you can create the best thing out of it!"

Looking at the present-day scenario, there are a plethora of jobs that have been created due to the pandemic. Besides the traditional norm of professions like doctor, engineer, lawyer, teacher; the new “norm” has offered plenty of new variations in the workforce sector.

Some of the best career options apart from the regular professions you can pursue post-Covid are

Digital marketing 

Digital marketing requires you to come up with ideas that could create a good brand image of the company; particularly online where the whole world resides now.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is about pushing up the brand image all over different social media platforms. It requires new ideas and strategies to popularize brands on social media.

SEO Optimization 

SEO analyst raises the rank of the website on different search engines by increasing traffic to the brand’s website.

Travel and tourism 

Although this sector is not a new one, travel and tourism would see a boom in the near future because people are tired of staying at home and once everything starts to get normal people are going to travel to new places for sure.

Mental Health Counselors

Mental health professionals are in great demand since the pandemic resulted in an epidemic of depression and anxiety. Counselors help people deal with substance abuse, suicidal tendencies, stress management, boosting self-esteem and self-confidence, relationship counseling, and other issues affecting their mental and emotional health.

Programmers and Software Developers

Software developers and programming is a huge area of growth and coding is one of the essential skills that everyone will need to learn in the future.

Some of the hottest jobs in software development are in machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence, game development, and cybersecurity.  

On the whole, students are one of the major communities that the pandemic hit the hardest. They are in dire need of emotional, mental, and educational guidance. But worry not! This problem can be sorted with the help of 3RDiConsulting. 

3RDiConsulting is a one-on-one counseling platform that can help the learner with complete career guidance. From aptitude tests to college admissions and finding you an apartment, they would help you through the entire process. They even work on profile building by making the learner stand out from the crowd by enhancing the resume and profile.