KARACHI, July 22: Educational experts, career counsellors and NGOs' representatives at a seminar on Thursday stressed for provision of guidance and counselling to students at school-level regarding their future planning and taking up of any suitable profession.

Deploring that hardly one per cent of the total population of youths in Pakistan had the opportunity to get higher education, they said, without proper career counselling, the country would continue to face a shortage of required, trained professionals in areas of public administration, teaching and others.

They maintained that parents and teachers could play an important role in guiding youths about selecting educational fields and careers for them.

The seminar on "Critical role of career counselling at educational institutions" was organized by the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) at its PPF Vicky Zeitlin Media Library, Karachi.

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs Rashida Valika and Ms Hasa Mirza from the Shaheed ZA Bhutto Institute of Technology (SZABIST) pointed out that youths were facing lot of psychological problems including depression, relationship difficulties and several other disorders owing to lack of career counselling facilities at their respective educational institutions.

They claimed that lack of proper guidance to youths including males and females often led to psychological and personality disorders, adding that some of such persons might also opt for injuring themselves or even committing suicide.

Ms Hasa Mirza, defining the role of career counsellors said higher educational institutions must have trained and qualified career counsellors, with links in the corporate world so that they can easily place their students in suitable organisations.

President, Pakistan Crescent Youth Organization Naeem Qureshi deplored that Pakistan was 138th on the list of United Nations in HR development. "Majority of youths in Pakistan are illiterate, while only one per cent of the literate get an opportunity of getting higher education at the graduate or postgraduate levels," he added.

"Parents should not pressurise their sons and daughters for adopting any particular profession. Rather, they should inquire from them about their choice as per their potential and capabilities," he said. NGOs could also play an important role in creating awareness in society in this regard, he viewed.

Chairman, MIS and Computer Department of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Saeed Ghani regretted that except for some private sector varsities, the facility of career counselling was not available anywhere, which was resulting in saturation in several fields and professions.

He said national varsities and institutions of higher education must initiate research and collection of statistics regarding the requirement of trained manpower in various professions and fields in the country.

He disclosed that the IBA had started a project to ascertain national demands and needs in areas where local youth should be trained and educated.

Siddique Shaikh of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) said by providing proper guidance and career counselling to students, precious public resources could be saved, which otherwise go to waste if a person adopts any other profession he or she was not trained in.

"Several doctors, adopt other professions while female doctors after marriages do not join hospitals, thus wasting public resources and opportunities, which could have been spent on other needy and deserving students," he maintained, adding that the civil society, educational institutions and government departments should pay attention to this important area.

EDO Higher Education of City District Government (CDGK) Prof Raees Alvi said upholding merit in every walk of life was the only solution to stopping public resources from going to waste, as many talented youths were ignored in selection for important posts.

"We are far behind the developed nations in many areas of science and technology because we don't give attention to human resource development and training of youths in areas in which they were required," he added.- PPI