Republic of Mauritius- Three-day workshop for senior educators on career advice and guidance

The workshop, organised by the HRDC, targets some 80 senior educators, professionals and stakeholders from the education and training sector to deliberate on and validate a toolkit that will be distributed to senior educators in January 2020 with the aim to better equip the latter with requisite skills and knowledge as regards career guidance and management.  The participants will also be required to discuss and elaborate on an action plan which focuses on career guidance and support and is best suited to their school’s context.

In his address, Dr Boodhun underlined that educators are the best instruments to impart knowledge and guide young students in their choices with regard to tertiary education and career pathways.  It is important to empower educators and consolidate their skills so that they are in a better position to provide quality advice and guidance to students, he emphasised.  The overall aim, he said, is to ensure a responsive and relevant education and training system which corresponds to the needs of both students and educators.

Government, he stated, has come up with a number of policies for increasing the citizen’s employability and upskill their talents through high quality information and training. The HRDC, he recalled, has come up with an Integrated Career Counselling System which informs about the current and future labour market to help citizens, including students, school leavers, people willing to change career and unemployed, retrenched workers towards a successful career or career opportunities.

Dr Boodhun highlighted that all these efforts are being done for students to make informed decisions about their career and to reduce the issue of mismatch of skills on the job market. He concluded that having ‘the right man at the right place’ concept will be achieved only when the problem is tackled at grassroot level, which according to him, is at the school itself amidst educators.

For his part, Mr R. Auckloo, said that the HRDC is doing its best to keep pace with the evolution of the labour market and its demands while ensuring human resource development. He also spoke of redynamising the education and training sector with the aim to increase the quality and competency of the Mauritian labour force.