Amitabh Sharma
Features Coordinator

It is critical to make right decisions when you are getting into high school, pertaining to the choice of a career. Building on a firm base would ensure that you build on your strengths and get into a career path that you have wanted to pursue.


"It is critical that the students are guided to make a right choice when they are in high school," said Leevon Phillips, general manager of Institute of Business and Professional Development, in Kingston.

Phillips, who is the author of A guide to choosing your ideal career, has compiled a list of over 250 jobs that would help students to make informed career choices. The book, which is in the second edition, has been revised to make it a textbook and not only a reference book.

The book has divided the career choices into nine key clusters. "The objective behind it is to look into sub-sections of a particular field; people want to be exposed to a range of areas so I decided to put it under one cluster," the author said.

"People can find the career of their choice in one section than skipping all over the book," he said.

The book divides the choice of one's career into four basic traits:

Love or natural talent for occupation
"It is ideal to choose a career that you will enjoy, you are more likely to excel in such a job than one you are doing just to make a living," said Phillips.

He said that certain traits in children demonstrate what choice of profession could be best suited for them. "If you like to pull apart devices and put them back you have a knack for being an engineer or a technician," he said. "On the other hand, if you enjoy working with people and imparting information, consider a career in teaching, human resource management."

According to the book, one must possess a natural ability or have a passionate desire to perform the job to excel.

Access to training
It is important to pursue careers for which you can have training. When choosing an institution you should consider the quality and the recognition of the school and its programmes.

The book recommends that one should check and ensure that the school that one is planning to seek admission to should be registered with the Ministry of Education and the programme should be accredited.

Phillips said that students should be deterred by the high costs of education but try and find resources. "Good education comes at a price, do not give up if the tuition costs are high," he said, "Look for scholarships, student loans or part-time jobs to finance your studies," he suggested.

Professional Outlook
According to the book, no matter how much you love your job, you should consider an alternative career, if it is getting obsolete.

Another option could be to get further training, acquire skill sets to enhance your marketability and expand options.

Earning potential
"It is arguably the most important aspect when choosing a career," Phillips said, "No matter how much you love a career or how accessible is the training, if the earning potential in not keeping with your social and economic aspirations, it is likely that you will be happy in that career."

But, Phillips said money should not be the only consideration. "There should be a balance between your aspirations and what salary you get at the end of the month," he said.

The book includes:

• Test to determine students' personality types;


• Activity table to enable students to compare and weigh their career interests;


• Information on over 250 careers;


• Outlook and demand for jobs up to 2020, income earning group, personality type group special conditions associated with the job and major employers

There are activities at the end of the chapters. According to the author, the book can be used in upper classes or class presentations. The author said that it can be a valuable and effective tool that the guidance counsellors can use in their presentations and career classes.

He said that the idea of the book is to make decision-making easier. This can be a good tool and support material for guidance counsellors struggling to get material, good idea to have support material, give them work and activities to do, several research questions, give pop quiz or have discussions, have guidance classes, curriculum support.

A guide to choosing you ideal career costs $500 and is available at all major book stores islandwide.

amitabh.sharma@gleanerjm.com