Career guidance for students

School Web Desk

Advertisement

Panchkula, January 3

Region’s largest career fest ‘Satluj Career Fest’ was organised by Satluj Public School, Sector 4, Panchkula (a part of Satluj Group of Schools, with 14 branches across India; the newest being in Jammu and Derabassi, with an upcoming campus in Kurali, New Chandigarh) with an aim of guiding the students of class IX to XII and their parents about various career opportunities. Key speakers at the career fest stressed that with many losing their jobs and uncertainty looming large, there is a need to develop entrepreneurial skills.

This year, the event was hosted virtually, leading to not only a pan-India, but international reach with student registrations from all over the world. Counsellors and foreign representatives from more than 500 universities, foreign and Indian. Over 5,000 students represented 100+ schools from India (including metros, tier 2 and tier 3 towns) and around the world during the career fest.

Reekrit Serai, Managing Director, Satluj Group of Schools, said, “After brainstorming internally, we realised that students in non-metro cities and smaller towns face a lack of opportunities when it comes to quality higher education options. Also, there’s a lack of awareness about jobs and skills of the future. Thus, we decided to organise Satluj Career Fest to spread awareness. In the past one year we have seen a complete change in the education of students because of the pandemic which has led to online teaching. It has been hard on students also as they have not been able to go to the schools but learning hasn’t stopped though. Virtual education has become a norm this year which was not there till the last year and has changed the way we educate our children.”, said.

The representatives from top Universities in UK, US, Australian, European and India including – Australian Catholic University, University of Melbourne, Florida Atlantic University, American University, University of Kansas, University of Fraser Valley, University of Essex, Queensland University of Technology, Auckland University of Technology, KREA University, Chandigarh University, Lovely Professional University, O.P. Jindal University, Ashoka University, Ahmedabad University, Amity University, among several others participated.

The inaugural session was on Jobs and Skills of the Future – Pre and Post COVID.  Dr. SPS Grewal, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industries—CII; Founder & Managing Director, Grewal Eye institute, Chandigarh, while speaking stressed on the right approach to choosing the careers and how it will be in the times to come.

Other panel discussions included, ‘Undergraduate Career Pathways in Melbourne, Australia’; ‘Evolution of Indian Higher Education and Challenges Faced Pre and Post-COVID’, New Education Pedagogy and Career Trends in the Post-COVID World’ and ‘Future Edification Pedagogy’. Interactions on Microsoft Teams were conducted by Krea University.

The official government partner this year for the festival was the State Government of Victoria, Australia, through their programme ‘Study Melbourne’.