What you decide affects your career
Just as most adults find it hard to make the right career-affecting decisions, so too will many HKCEE students be scratching their heads at results time. Those with a clear sense of what they want to study and the likely job afterwards should have no problem - provided their results support them. But there are many students for whom this can be a troubling time.
Those wanting to go on to Form Six need the results and, even if they get them, they need to think about which subjects to focus on in preparation for a degree or job.
Fortunately, help is at hand. Clement Ng Po-shing has been vice-director of the Hok Yau Club Student Guidance Centre for two years and he said one of the biggest problems for students was the need to imagine themselves years down the track. 'Students usually think about the next step only,' he said. 'Form Five students think about Form Six. They don't think this is a decision that is going to affect their career. We encourage students to think five and 10 years down the track, not just next year.'
Part of the reason Mr Ng advises this is that careers such as medicine, dentistry and architecture demand passes in certain HKCEE and A-Level subjects before the student has reached the undergraduate stage. 'Different jobs have different requirements,' he said. 'If you want to become a doctor there's a pathway - you have to study chemistry in secondary school. What you decide affects your whole career. Students have to understand that.'
Despite more resources being open to students now, such as the mass of information on schools and careers on the internet, Mr Ng finds that often they rely on others to make decisions for them, whether it's following friends or parents. Since he's been at the centre, Mr Ng said the number of calls from parents had doubled, with the common complaint being that their offspring were not seriously considering their academic and career decisions.
'In the past it was students that contacted us directly. Nowadays more parents complain that: 'My son has done nothing',' he said.
While the need to get decisions right can seem overwhelming, Mr Ng suggested breaking down the decisions in a reasoned way. He recommends students be honest about what they can achieve. That way they should end up in a career that will be interesting for years.
'Students need to consider more than mere results. It's important that they feel the subject is interesting and they like it. After that they should consider their interests and abilities, even their personality.'
Mr Ng laments the lack of internships for Form Five and Six students as it is a useful introduction to what a job really entails, but there may be options if they apply directly to companies or professional institutions. Such an interest may mark a student out as one with initiative and enthusiasm - something that could make all the difference at recruitment time.
