With multiple dynamic career opportunities available now-a-days career counseling forms an important part of educational functionality, which can help students understand their strengths, weaknesses, and interests, and provide them with a clearer picture of their career paths.
And in this, two 16-year-old young Hrishit Deb and Mansi Katuri have come up with their inventions – Kwicon, an app-based career counseling aimed at empowering students with transformative education, practical experience mentorship, and networking for personal and professional growth.
This app was among top 400 innovative teams across India of the prestigious ATL Marathon 2022-23 which is Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission.
Kwicon has formulated a programme supported by a secure online technology platform specific to schools, or colleges that allows students and alumni to connect with each other based on shared interests, majors, and career goals. Students can use Kwicon to find mentors, learn about paths for further studies, career paths, internships and job opportunities, and get advice from alumni who have already been in their shoes.
The journey with Kwicon started after a survey that suggested:
- Only 15 percent of students between Class 9-Class 12 are sure of what courses to pursue in the future
- Only 50 percent of parents have clarity about their children’s career path. Incidentally,
- Only 1/3 of the students said that they are satisfied with the career counseling that is available in the market.
Kwicon enrolment is basically a multiple-step journey of career counseling including – registration, evaluation of career interest of students, career paths and job opportunities, Advisor Match, Advisor Chat, Networking with professionals from the industry, Ongoing Updates
“It is important to have a clear idea at the secondary level with professional help. Many a time parental and peer pressure often lead to taking up courses that become a burden for the student or even a mismatch when the student pursues the undergraduate course. Kwicon, thus fill this gap of information and understanding based on the need of a student,” Hrishit said.
“It is important to have access to the repository of advisors and alumni who guide a student in addressing their concerns and in guiding them for the future based on their own journey. This is a network that will last a long time,” Mansi said.
