Otumfuo Education Fund holds Career, Guidance Counseling Fair
From Issah Alhassan, Kumasi
The Otumfuo Education fund has organised a Career Guidance and Counseling Fair for students in some selected second cycle institutions seeking to write the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) next year.
The five-day fair, which attracted over 8,000 students selected from 27 senior high schools across the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, and Eastern regions, was aimed at providing them with an insight into the various courses at the universities and other tertiary institutions, and how to make the correct career choices.
Addressing the students, Nana Brefo Boateng, Executive Secretary of the Otumfuo Education Fund, said the lack of information on career counseling on the part of students had been a major problem facing most of them in their choice of subjects and future careers.
Nana Brefo Boateng said most young people pursued goals and careers that they were not passionate about, and only end up failing in their chosen careers.
“The more passionate you are about your career, the more likely that you will ultimately succeed in life,” he said.
Nana Boateng said the Otumfuo Education Fund deemed it fit to organise such fairs for students, so that they would not misplace their priorities when they are to make life choices.
He said the fund does not only sponsor the education of students, but more importantly, seeks the total well being of the students, hence guiding them to make the right choice.
He appealed to the students to take advantage of the fair to enable them to make the correct careers in future.
Professor Steve Sogbotey, President of Garden City University College, explained that the fair was organised to guide students on how to better pursue a career that suited their personality, make-up, and passion.
He noted that only a few people were able to work effectively to achieve their goals, and tasked the students to aspire for challenging and realistic goals, while they became enthusiastic about bringing these goals to fruition.
The Regional Director of Education, Joseph Onyinah, mentioned that with such an enthusiastic response from the students, his directorate would strengthen the career and counseling unit at the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the various schools, so that students can fully benefit from them.
He said the programme, the first of its kind to be organised, would greatly enhance the students’ choices of the right careers, and asked them to take the fair very seriously.
The Regional GES head said the unemployment problem among graduates in the country could be attributed to the fact that most of them did not make the right career choices, noting that the choice of a job was not done overnight, and advised students to know a lot about career and counseling to enable them to offer the correct courses at the universities to help them secure jobs.
“You may not necessarily have to work for somebody, or apply to an institution to work if you go through a proper counseling, since you will be equipped with skills, and you may decide to pursue your own ambition, and that is entrepreneurship, that is even the best,” he said.
Among resource persons that were at the fair and who took students through the various counseling programme and related the topics to their situation, in the face of challenging course combination and entrance cut-off, are retired educationist I. K. Gyasi, former Director of the Ghana Education Service, Solomon K. Obeng, Festus Nyame, Education Consultant, and a lecturer at the Kumasi Polytechnic, Yaw Ayeboafo.
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