Last Updated:
Early exposure to skill-based courses in areas like coding, finance, and design can empower students before Class 12 to make informed, career-ready choices.
Top career-ready and skill-oriented courses students can explore before completing Class 12.
By Dr. Alka Kapur
In today’s rapidly changing world, the recurrent question, “What do you want to become when you grow up?” stands on a different plane. With industries being remodelled by automation, AI, and changing job dynamics, the traditional career roadmaps of engineering, medical sciences or accountancy are no longer presented as the only paths to success. For students at the school level, especially those near Class 12, the need has become even more for early exposure to skill-oriented and career-ready courses that meet the demands of the 21st-century job market.
The Shift from Degrees to Skills
Recent studies indicate a tectonic shift happening in the realm of learning whereby rote memorisation is being dwarfed by skills, critical thinking, and a real-world application perspective. Technology is aiding this change, combined with an increasing mismatch between academic credentials and industry requirements. Employers increasingly look beyond degrees today and really care more about what a candidate can do than what they actually know.
Taking this into account, a tremendous number of skill-oriented courses have been designed and are currently available for students after Class 12, catering to various aptitudes and career orientations. However, the time to start exploring these isn’t post-school—it’s well before.
Emerging Skill-Based Options
The current scenario of the job market depicts a rising popularity of short-term certification programmes and diploma courses that can enable the young student to jumpstart a career in both conventional and unconventional professional fields like digital marketing, data analytics, ethical hacking, animation, hospitality, and even sports management.
These are not merely supplementary in terms of benefits, but they serve as strategic stepping stones that can help advance in formal education or even usher a student into the professional world to get a head start with a competent mindset and skills.
Some of the most rewarding and easily accessible career-ready courses for youth in present times include:
- Digital Marketing & Content Creation: The staggering popularity of new media and social networking platforms brought burgeoning opportunities for fresh and creative minds in the digital marketing and content creation domain.
- Coding & App Development: Global IT firms are hiring young talent skilled in Python, Java, and web development. Here, professional skills matter more than degrees.
- Design & Multimedia: Creativity knows no bounds, and age is no bar if one has desirable skills in graphic design, UI/UX, and animation, because there is enough scope for young talent in the advertising, gaming, and entertainment sectors.
- Finance & Investment: Students good at analytics with certification in stock trading, financial planning, or fintech tools can kick-start their career in finance and investment without any prior experience.
- Healthcare & Paramedical Training: Vocational courses in lab technology, physiotherapy, and medical transcription are easier tickets to the job market than the conventional MBBS and BDS programmes.
- Entrepreneurship & Business Communication: In the era of Make in India and Vocal for Local, students with good business acumen and entrepreneurial skills may start their own venture and can even create jobs for others.
The Power of Early Exposure
Understanding and imbibing the career-ready skills through transformative diploma and certificate courses before Class 12 can be a path-breaking decision in shaping one’s career in the right direction and at the right time. These parallel skill development programmes empower students to make informed career choices, overcome doubts and confusions during board exams, and even equip them with hands-on experience through live projects, internship programmes or working on freelance projects.
In accordance with NEP 2020, schools having good infrastructure and a career counselling department are beginning to conduct workshops on skill-building and digital literacy programmes that expose students to real-world professional opportunities with high confidence.
Amidst this changing scenario, students from non-science backgrounds can now pursue emerging fields such as AI, cybersecurity, or data science through diplomas and certification courses. This means one’s stream in Class 12 does not confine them to restricted career options, but the additional skills they have acquired introduce them to diverse opportunities.
The Way Forward
As modern schools are places to shape the overall personality of a student, our education system needs to shift from degree-chasing to skill-acquisition. Besides, to students and parents, the message is simple that don’t wait until after Class 12 to start the career. Get early, probe widely, and acquire skills that align with your interests and the needs of the evolving market. Ultimately, the true advantage is not in the lines on a report card, but in having the attitude to learn, evolve, and grow.
(The Author is the Principal of Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views)
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in …Read More
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in … Read More
- First Published:
