The International Center for Refugee and Migration Studies (ICRMS) held its first career counseling at Firdowsi high school, Hazara Town Quetta. The session started with our Career Counsellor Ali Zaidi, who has years of experience of career counselling with high school and university students. He started the session with the introduction of what career means and how it is different from having skill and knowledge. He explained the practical aspects of career and why does it matter to choose a career that suits one’s personality type. He explained how to know about one’s talent, skill and learnings to know which career options would be suitable for a person.  With the practical aspects he then explained the Occupational Theory of Holland in detail. The session was interactive, so students were asking questions and were clearing their concepts throughout. He explained the 5 different personality types of Holland.
After the theoretical explanation, together with Ali Zaidi, Ms. Anqa Gharshin who’s the lecturer of Psychology and a Counselling Psychologist, conducted RIASEC test of Holland with students. The test they used was easily scores by students themselves. In the scoring of test, the students would know the top three career personalities they hold, and then Ali Zaidi explained what their test scores meant and what jobs or careers would complement their personality scores. Students were eagerly waiting for their scores and were curious about their personality types. Many students were clear in their head and the scores didn’t surprise them, while others were surprised at the possibilities of career spectrum they were introduced to.
She started her session with Understanding Stress symptoms and understanding the types of stressors. And with understanding the stressors, how can one divide the stress into two categories, controllable and uncontrollable stress. As many of us often take stress and overthink on circumstances where we can’t control the situation and on the other hand, we fail to recognize our power in controlling certain stressors by few lifestyle changes. She then talked about healthy coping strategies and the importance of a healthy support system in dealing with the challenges of life. Her session included accepting oneself, and having a positive relationship with their bodies, understanding emotions, and dealing with certain emotional outbursts that teenagers mostly go through.
After Ms Anqa’s session, Ali Zaidi continued with his presentation on free online learning and certification options for refugee students and talked about the importance of having skills and knowledge of different domains in one’s career. He talked about different freelancing and online distant job options for students and had a detailed discussion on available scholarships for students.
The session was filled with hope and positive future aspects for students if they worked intelligently with proper career mentorship from professional counselors and their teachers, they would have a clearer vision of what kind of career path they would like to choose for themselves in future.
After the career counselling session, the ICRMS team introduced themselves to the students and brief them about what the Center’s ongoing work on refugee and forced migration studies. The session concluded with certificate distribution and refreshment.
