BMC to give its school students career guidance

Mumbai: In a bid to make the class 9 students of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ‘future ready’, the civic body has partnered with a Mumbai-based NGO Antarang to provide career counselling to them.

The BMC along with the NGO will conduct training, counselling and preparation sessions for the students to help them to decide the stream they would like to pursue after their class 10 exams. For the sessions, which will be conducted after their class 9 examinations, the BMC’s education department will provide special ‘work books’ to the students and hold the additional classes.

Unlike private school students, where students have access to coaching and special classes, the students studying in BMC schools are financially weaker and don’t have access to special classes. Hence, the BMC planned to hold sessions. After the students complete their class 9 final examination, they will start attending the sessions. The special classes will commence from November 16 and will continue for five days. The NGO personnel will conduct a three-hour lecture for the students every day.

According to a senior official, through the project, the BMC wants to convey to parents that their students are in “safe hands”. “We are aiming at the future. For the future, we should start working in the present. After class 10, another door will be thrown open to our students. So we want them to be thoroughly prepared for that, and hence this career guidance sessions will help them,” said the senior official.

According to the Antarang’s website, their aim is to motivate young people to study till age of 18 and after that, the NGO will train them to acquire employability skills, which will help them in their career. The NGO has launched programmes ‘CareerAware’ and ‘CareeReady’ in which the students “undergo a well-defined regiment of development and training”. Career awareness, self-awareness, work skills, work ethics, business spoken English session are also held.