Career Guidance Team Progress | Blog 2
In our first blog, we presented our Team Career Guidance with the motto to guide the students of the 12th standard in Pakistan so they can find their dream career path. We worked out one of the most important features of students that how they faced a lack of career guidance. We took this initiative due to our team and started researching different careers and paths students can choose. Our team has 8 members and we did a bundle of meetings to work on this and planned that which activities are carried by the particular members. Our starting weeks were for research or planning the program but the next two phases went mind-blowing in which we launched our Youtube Videos and Conduct online workshops. We absolutely got surprised by the tremendous results. Our premier video crossed about 450 views in a day and after that when we arranged a workshop a lot of students enroll themselves and participated in that.
Progress made on the project
We used different platforms to reach students, in these platforms we used YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and online workshop through Zoom.
Progress made on Facebook
We had a Facebook page with 21K+ likes on it. We converted that page to our project Career Guidance team page. We created a Facebook group as well with 50+ students joined. On the Facebook page, we have shared 15+ posts about different stories of students and about university details.
Progress made on Instagram
On our Instagram account, we have 76 followers to the date we are writing this blog, a WhatsApp group in which 37 participants are present who are our targeted audience and we are reaching out to more students so we can increase the number of students to guide by convincing more students.
Progress made on YouTube
Growing YouTube channel is really tough nowadays but my team did it. On our YouTube channel, we have 3 videos regarding medical and engineering fields published by our team. We successfully managed to get 116 subscribers with 600+ views, 30+ comments on our videos.
Progress made in 1st workshop
On 4th June 2021, we conducted our first workshop to provide career guidance to 12th class students. In our workshop we had 17 participants joined our workshop. 6 students gave feedback on our workshop.
Challenges faced by the team and their Solutions
Challenge 1
When we decided to do a Career Guidance project for students of class 12th the challenge was how to manage our project in this pandemic situation because we decided to deliver in colleges as a team but were unable to do that due to that situation.
Solution
The Career Guidance team decided to start our project online and for this purpose, we designed a Google form to reach intermediate students through social media apps.
Challenge 2
The challenge which our team faced was how to interact with students through an online platform because we were unable to contact students in person.
Solution
The career Guidance team decided to reach out to our family, relatives, and friends first. We took responses from intermediate students in our circle then we asked to spread our message in their circle as well.
Challenge 3
Engaging the audiences on our social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube channels was a challenging part for the team.
Solution
Firstly we develop content according to the needs of the project like if we talk about YouTube channel we made videos related to different fields and on Instagram we post different stories of people who belongs to different fields like Pharm-D, Mining engineering, MBBS, and CA in which they have shared his/her experiences with our us. So, in this regard, we successfully engaged our audience.
Challenge 4
The Team Career Guidance decided to conduct our first workshop but the challenge is to convince the students to join our online session.
Solution
Firstly, we discussed in a meeting how to solve this problem, then we decided to create a registration form and then we uploaded this link to Facebook, WhatsApp Status, and Instagram stories so we received a positive response from our audience and through this, we generated a pool of students. We send text messages to every individual and then we create a WhatsApp group and finally we conduct our energetic workshop and the feedback of students is amazing.
The approach used in the project
The main idea was to present a virtual product that would appeal to our audience, especially during the pandemic. During the first few weeks, we focused on the social media pages and introduced our brand to our audience. Through various engaging posters, introduction to our team, story, and product we tried to introduce our product in the market.
We made two main videos on youtube and tried to engage as many students online as we could. But since the last couple of weeks, our focus has shifted to workshops and one on one interactions with the students. Many students have contacted us on the Facebook page, youtube channel, and on WhatsApp. We plan to arrange three workshops to help students get informed, teach them about how to research, and answer their queries.
For the workshops, we have been trying to do extensive research on different fields, career options, university criteria, and entry tests. Most students in the workshops were concerned about entry test preparation and requirements so we shared stories of ourselves, guided them to think about their second options and the lists of career options available for them.
We divided our circle into teams: research, marketing, video production, script, and management. Each team was given a weekly task. The teams were changed as we changed our approach.
In conclusion, our approach has shifted from mere online presence to extensive interactions with the students and guiding them in choosing their careers.
How everyone contributed to the project?
A total of 8 members worked on the project and gave their best to make it worth presenting.
Saif Ur Rehman:
As a project leader, I divided the task among team members and assigned their particular responsibilities. Created forms and surveys to ask about students’ interests in getting guidance. From arranging meetings regarding the mega project to inquiring about daily progress I left no stone unturned to make our project the best. Also, I was managing our Facebook pages so well to seek the attention of most students and made them aware of its importance. When the leader realized that we got the attention of most of the students he decided and arranged a workshop for students to have online interaction with students and ask them about any queries they had.
Video Creation Team:
Sadia Yaseen:
Our project was mainly based on YouTube Content so she volunteered for writing scripts for our Videos which will be providing students with relevant information regarding a specific field. Starting from data collection which contained emerging fields, their scope, and importance to writing scripts, she did well and wrote scripts including intro of the team, medical, and ICS. Not only sticking to her responsibility she also collected stories of people that would inspire our target audience. Also assisted our marketing team by posting these stories on Instagram to engage. In the workshop, she also presented herself as a speaker to present the engineering field and to answer every possible query of students with the relevant information she had.
Tazeen Zahra:
Tazeen with excellent writing skills decided to accompany Sadia in writing scripts for YouTube Videos as we believe in” Aik or Aik Gyarah “.She collected data of relevant information and used her expertise in writing introductory as well as scripts containing fields related to engineering. Then she amazed us by volunteering for voiceover and adored our videos with her excellent voiceover.
Ayesha Naseem:
Since YouTube was the highlight of our project Scriptwriting was nothing without an excellent portrayal which Ayesha gave. She worked hard and utilized her technicalities for our Videos. Not only designing and creating videos she also collected stories of students doing their best in a specific field. She also volunteered to assist our research team in collecting merits and data of universities that would guide our students. She proved herself as an active participant by designing the Presentation of our workshop but also encourage students as a speaker.
Rabia Jameel:
She tried to reach out to as many students as possible to whom our team will be guiding. Rabia worked with Ayesha in designing and creating YouTube Videos and their collective effort made the content worthy of seeking attention from students. This is not the only responsibility she took but she also took on the challenge of doing a voice-over, which made us believe that, there is nothing she Can’t do. During our workshops, she made every effort that would engage students and keep their energy high.
Marketing Team:
Yusra & Summaya:
Our efforts and content would have been fruitless if lacked proper marketing. Which Yusra and Summaya took over. They created social media pages and also tried to manage them on regular basis. Yusra guided students about tests universities are conducting for some degrees and Summaya tried to answer the queries of students.
Benish Imtiaz:
Conducted In-person surveys that helped the team to know about student’s mindsets and what would be our next action plan. She researched different universities gathered data relevant to scope, and tests, merits, and scope of degrees. Researched about criteria of different universities and degrees. Also, she helped Saif in managing the project.
The impact generated to date:
Data collection of almost 50+ students through google form and in-person surveys. Our YouTube channel has relevant helpful videos created by our team and it has 110+ subscribers. We did social media marketing and content making by doing research about different universities and fields. We have Instagram with almost 76 followers, a WhatsApp group in which 17 participants are present who are our targeted audience and we are striving to increase the number by convincing more people. Our Facebook group is active with 22K followers and we are posting the content regularly to facilitate the audience. Recently we did an online Zoom workshop which almost 20 participants attended and we received positive feedback from the audience about our work, management, content, and initiative.
Sustainability:
Our audience is increasing day by day and we planning to further diversify our guidance criteria by making content on every single field and by providing 1–1 sessions to students.