Nearly 20% of India’s youth are disarrayed over their career choice, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 report, revealed.
The ASER 2023 report shows that one in every five youths couldn't identify a specific career or job they aim to pursue.
Additionally, only 11.5% of the young people surveyed were acquainted with a peer at their school or college who was engaged in comparable work. In comparison, just 15.7% of the adolescents were familiar with a family member pursuing the same career they hoped to enter.
The ASER report also shows that 48.3% of females and 42.5% of males do not have role models for their aspired careers.
These findings have shed light on a concerning matter related to India’s youth.
"There are so many career opportunities that it makes me confused because seeing someone else succeed in a particular field influences us the most", Ria Mehra, a student at Sophia College, Grant Road, told The Free Press Journal (FPJ).
However, Vidhi Shah from KES Shroff College, Kandivali, thinks that the students lack knowledge about the available career options.
"After 12th, I was confused in deciding my career as I didn't have much knowledge about different fields and even the internet only helped to a certain point but even on the internet there is so much misleading information", Shah told the FPJ.
Highlighting the importance of critical thinking and proper guidance, Shreya Desai, a student at Thakur College of Science and Commerce, Kandivali, said, "Wrong career guidance by teachers was what made me so confused that till now I cannot figure out what field I want to build my career in and what job to pursue."
Talking about the most common issues that the students face that confuse them while choosing a career for themselves, Kamlesh Sheth, a career counselor at Brainography, said, "Kids these days are infatuated by the thoughts of their childhood dreams and just decide to pursue something without proper knowledge and understanding it."
He further emphasised that with exposure to more career opportunities, the students get confused more often.
"A decade back there were not many choices given to a student to choose their career from but now that has changed. This is one of the reasons the youth today cannot decide what they want to do with their life because they get strongly influenced by other people", Sheth added.
Focusing on the youth of the age group 14-18 years, a survey was conducted in 28 districts across 26 states with the data collected based on information obtained from 34,745 youngsters of the aimed age group.
