Career path and professional lives

In Tanzania, youth face the challenge of deciding on a career path and starting their professional lives, often while navigating a weak and constantly changing labour market. Though having an education and in-demand skills are crucial components, youth need more to achieve long-term success.

They need to know how their economy—on a local and national level—is growing and changing, and how this influences the job landscape. They need to understand how the available career options related to their own interests and talents. And they need to develop the essential soft and technical skills that employers seek while gaining relevant experience for the workplace. 

Go na NMB through its career guidance programs address these issues, helping youth to make confident, tailored, and insightful career choices. Research suggests that insufficient or incomplete knowledge of available career paths, and how to pursue them, is a primary barrier to youth entry into the labour force.

Our experience in a wide variety of contexts has shown that guiding youth—not only through skills acquisition but through the process of career choice—is crucial to successful youth employment programs.

CHARTING THE COURSE: CREATING EFFECTIVE CAREER GUIDANCE PROGRAMS So, what is career guidance? CG helps young people make informed choices about their future by actively engaging them in a process to understand their interests and abilities, identify the right job opportunities within the local environment, and become better equipped to make decisions about which training or career opportunities to pursue.

Career guidance should help youth ask and obtain answers to the questions: Who am I? What are my options? Where do I want to go? How do I get there? The ultimate goal of CG is a career plan that is chosen, designed, and carried out by the individual young person.

However, for this to happen, programs need to be based on accurate assumptions about youth and youth behaviour, have access to high-quality training and up-to-date market information, and provide competent and caring adults to help youth navigate a path to success. With these elements, successful CG programs produce informed, inspired youth who feel empowered to pursue their career path. 

To support this, IYF has developed a number of materials to help staff at youth-serving organizations to plan and implement effective career guidance and related services. These include the My Career, My Future reference package for career guidance facilitators, as well as the Certified Youth Development Professional training program. The following best practices for implementing quality career guidance services draw on these two resources as well as on IYF’s experience implementing career guidance programs across the globe.

Competent Career Guidance Facilitators The most important factor in providing effective career guidance services is the presence of caring, competent adults in career guidance roles who help youth to make informed decisions and take tangible next steps towards their goals. It is recommended that these adults—Career Guidance Facilitators (CGF)—have the following key competencies:

• An understanding of career guidance theory and practice
• The capacity to communicate with, support, and advise job seekers and facilitate career guidance sessions.