Community Support Programme, a non-governmental organisation working for youth empowerment, will establish "Career Counselling Centres" in 4 main cities including Islamabad, Vehari, Abbottabad and Rawalpindi soon. These centres would be established at the public sector educational institutes in the selected districts and would provide career-counselling services to local educated youth.
The centres would also organise job fairs to bring the employer sector and unemployed youths closer to each other. The centres would also work closer with governmental departments and the employer sector. Main objective of the establishment of these centres is to reduce unemployment through strengthening interviewing, job hunting, and presentation and resume development skills.
In Pakistan, it has been observed that in spite of getting higher education degrees at university and college level, most of the youths are unaware of their future. Unfortunately, unlike developed countries, our youngsters are not getting proper attention and guidance for their career development. According to the available figures and statement of Federal Minister for Youth Affairs, every year, the number of unemployed youth increases to 0.7 million which is very alarming for the policy makers in the country.
In developed countries, proper counselling is provided to youths on the basis of their mental abilities. The fractional unemployment is due to the absence of proper contact between those who want to work and those who want workers. Job counselling and youth mentoring has been included in principles of policy in the National Youth Policy announced by the present government of Pakistan.
It is believed that establishment of career counselling centres would be greatly helpful in addressing the problems being confronted by Pakistani youth that constitute major chunk of population of Pakistan and are considered as the agents of change.