Career Counseling in Pakistan-Need of the Hour
Abstract
Obective: The concept of career counseling is virtually non-existent in Pakistan. This results in lack of guidance to our youth who are reaching the pivotal stage of selecting a career for their future which is the most critical juncture in one's professional life. The aim of our study was to assess (a) the driving factors & career choice (MBBS or Dentistry) satisfaction (b) collate the views about the significance of career counselling among medical & dental students of a private sector medical & dental college (Fatima Memorial College of Medicine & Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan).
Student responses were collected through a statistically validated questionnaire and then analysed.
The driving factors behind career choice were predominantly personal choice. A quarter of students in the study adopted the profession under parental influence. A similar proportion were not satisfied with their career choice. Vast majority of students were familiar with the concept of career counselling and felt that formal structured career counselling could have helped them or the next generation of students at the stage of selecting a career path in context of joining Medicine/Dentistry as a career path or not.
The study highlights that about one fourth of our medical and dental students are not satisfied with their career choice but most feel that a true insight and flavor of the profession in the form of career counselling at the point of their career selection could have assisted them in having some practical insights into Medicine and Dentistry.
How to Cite This Article
Umar MS, Munir A, Rizwan M, Naveed S. Career Counseling in Pakistan-Need of the Hour. J Pak Soc Intern Med. 2023;4(4):333–335. doi:10.70302/jpsim.v4i4.2368
Conflict of Interest
All authors declare no competing interests.
Funding
No specific funding was received for this research.
Funder information follows the Crossref Funder Registry standard.
References
- Holland JL. A theory of vocational choice. J Couns Psychol. 1959;6(1):35-45.
- Savickas ML, Van Esbroeck R, Herr EL. The internationalization of educational and vocational guidance. Career Dev Q. 2005;54(1):77-85.
- Mansoor M. Role of structured career counselling in speciality selection among post graduate trainees. Pak J Med Health Sci. 2022;16(9):107-11.
- Gour N. Career counselling among medical students: an urgent need. J Community Med Health Educ 2011;01(1):e102.
- Ahmed El Naggar M, Ali Mohamed R, Almaeen AH. The effect of career guidance on undergraduate medical students’ specialty preferences. J Pak Med Assoc. 2021;doi: 10.47391/JPMA.236. doi:10.47391/JPMA.236
- Subait AA, Ali A, Andijani AI, Altuwaijry MA, Algarni SM, Alduhaimi TS, et al. Factors influencing the career choices among medical university students of king Saub Bin Abdulaziz University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; a cross-sectional study design. Saudi J Dent Res. 2017;8(1-2):73-8.
- Al-Hemiary N, Al-Nuaimi AS, Al-Saffar H, Randall I. Why people apply to medical school in Iraq? J Med Educ Curricular Dev. 2017;doi: 10.1177/2382120517726997. doi:10.1177/2382120517726997
- Narayanasamy M, Ruban A, Sankaran PS. Factors influencing to study medicine: A survey of first-year medical students from India. Korean J Med Educ. 2019;31(1):61-71.
- Sohail A, Nadeem N, Dogar F, Munshi MSM, Zaib T, Sohail H et al. P J M H S Vol. Motivation for choosing medical and dental profession. 2019;13(4):91.
Reference list indexed for Google Scholar and ResearchGate. DOI links resolve via doi.org.