Over 4m senior school students need career counseling – Umunna

Founder of the Young Professionals Mentoring Initiative of Nigeria (YoPMIN), Donald Arinze Umunna, has said there are over four million senior secondary school students that need the help of counselors to plan their career paths. Umunna said this at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) in Abuja recently when he unveiled a book […]

Founder of the Young Professionals Mentoring Initiative of Nigeria (YoPMIN), Donald Arinze Umunna, has said there are over four million senior secondary school students that need the help of counselors to plan their career paths.

Umunna said this at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) in Abuja recently when he unveiled a book on the operational tools for addressing unemployment and planning the perfect career for students of senior secondary schools.

He said YoPMIN which is a chapter for the Africa-wide initiative (YoPMIA) is supporting and strengthening the Guidance and Counselling (G&C) unit of Secondary Schools in Nigeria to make them very effective and dynamic so they can help students in their career development.

Umunna said there are over 20,000 secondary schools with senior secondary classes, translating to over 4 million students in SS 1 to 3. “There are about 40,000 dedicated G & C experts in these schools. We feel the task of ensuring that over 4 million students make informed decisions about their careers is enormous to be left to the government and the private sector alone. 

“We shall be administering our services to the students by working with the G&C unit of the schools to ensure that we have Properly Positioned Professionals (PPP) who would help to catalyze the development of Nigeria and Africa,” Umunna emphasized.

He noted that the book is very relevant to parents and students in tertiary institutions as well.

The initiative said complimentary copies of the book will be distributed to all guidance and counselling units of Senior Secondary Schools within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and in the states.

The event had in attendance representatives from the National Assembly, Director General of NAPTIN, Ahmed Bolaji Nagode; education officers from the FCT Secondary Education Board, Federal Ministry of Education, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), German International Cooperation (GIZ), and representatives from many secondary schools.