MARTIN MAWAYA
MASVINGO-The Panyanda Lifestyle Park, will on July 28 be hosting the Inaugural Masvingo Career Expo dubbed, “Harnessing the Potential of Youth in Zimbabwe”.
The 2023 Career Guidance Expo is a high-level dialogue and engagement platform that aims to inculcate novel strategies and empower youth on the right career development.
The Expo will provide current and relevant labour market information to the youth.
Expo coordinator veteran media personality, Priscillah Zvobgo told The Midweek Watch that career guidance enhances people’s knowledge to reach their full potential as well as providing a platform for young people to learn about different opportunities.
“Effective career guidance helps individuals to reach their full capabilities, economies to become more effective and societies to become objective. It is critical to aid the process of people as they make choices about education and training and to career basket within the labour market.
“There is therefore a need, in Masvingo Province, to provide youth with a forum to learn about the different career options available to them,” said Zvobgo.
She said the career options which exist for today’s youth are many and varied, hence Panyanda Lifestyle Park and other sectors will provide essential information that will position young people to find decent work.
“Many youths are not aware of the careers that are available to them, nor are they able to determine which career option may be best suited for them. Both factors contribute to uninformed decision making among our youth,” explained Zvobgo.
She said young people need heightened support as they prepare themselves for working life as new occupations are emerging and the existing ones are changing or diminishing.
Zvobgo added that the “Masvingo Career Guidance Expo will therefore ensure that youth are given accurate and appropriate information about the labour market and career trends in Zimbabwe and the world over”.
She also added that rapid changes in the labour market due to automation, digitalization, globalization, population ageing, the green transition and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic makes decision-making about education and training options much more difficult.
A survey in 2016 on the labour market by the European Centre for Development of Vocational Training highlighted that youth are relying on friends and the internet for support and information to make career choices.
