IMS “Career Guidance” program is offered to grade 11 students. Girls are carefully chosen to participate in the 180 hours training program, receiving a certificate of completion at the end of the program. The aim of this platform is support girls to choose their career pathway, i.e. what major they must decide on for college. As the educational curriculum in many countries and specifically Lebanon, lacks a well-organized career guidance program, IMS decided to fill this critical gap by launching this new orientation program.
During the program, girls start knowing themselves better, taking various international and well-chosen quizzes to be able to better define what they like, dislike, their interests, skills, knowledge and what natural talents they have. As the majority seek careers they simply “thought” they like, at IMS, we support girls choose according to ‘who they are’ rather than “who they think they are”. Meaning, many times we think we want to be in a particular career path, never taking into consideration if this path matches with our strengths, our talents and skills we have ability to work on. During the program, girls understand step by step who they really are which make choosing the right career effective and successful.
Another important element to choose wisely the professional path is to know the labor market. In the Career Guidance Program, girls are exposed to the job opportunities offered in Lebanon in order to enable them to stay and work in the country. When the program is implemented in Rural Areas, specific opportunities are exposed to the youth in order to understand that their choices may enable them to stay and develop the countryside.
Using the above information, but also more supportive ways, we introduce girls to the workplace by organizing field visits to different industries they are interested in. In this way, they can see a closer perspective of how their life would be – maybe sometimes, how they don’t want it to be. In addition, we bring experts and young professionals to share with the girls their different career paths and experiences.
In this way, we believe that girls get a chance to decide freely without pressure what they really want to do. We support their choices through mentoring sessions with young career coaches. In their final year, a follow up is offered to these girls to ensure they are taking the right choice.
