It is not easy choosing a career, especially if you are a student who is just graduating from high school. Furthermore, it is not made any easier by the conflicting or even dedicated “suggestions” you may receive from the people around you. It is no wonder that many high school graduates just opt for he college course that everybody else is taking.

However, selecting what hordes of other students are also taking may not be a very good idea considering that you will be competing with so many others for the new jobs that may be available later. Except for a few courses where the demand for workers is high, it is better to select a course that not many people are taking now but will be in big demand by the time you graduate. To forecast what possible jobs will be needed five or ten years from now, you should look at what sort of national economy will be in place by then if the government’s plan succeed.

Jobs that are likely to be in demand would be technology and health-oriented professions like science, engineering, applied technology, industrial research, nursing, and nursing aide. Another important trend is the continued advances in information technology so careers such as trainorship and systems analysis that process and manage knowledge and information instead of material objects will be on the rise.

Even now, there is a large gap in the demand and the availability of quality technical manpower. For example, despite the large number graduating from engineering schools, very few of these are qualified to do design and R & D work for developing new products and processes. Manufacturing firms often complain that they still have to train new hirees in such work because many schools do not provide the needed education. It is therefore very important that you go to a school that provides good training, not “easy course work.”)

There are very few local experts in the leading edges of science and technology so that a new graduate in say, materials science or genetic engineering, would be sure to have a lot of job offers from companies and institutions that specialize in these fields. For those who are afraid of not having good laboratory to work in, you would have a better chance if you select a field in one of the leading edges of technology that the government has identified.

These leading edges are:

• Construction Industry

• Electronics, Instrumentation and Controls

• Metals and Engineering

• Textile Industry

• Mining and Minerals

• Chemical Process Industry

• Food and Feed Industry

• Energy

• Transformation

• Information Technology

• Marine Fisheries and Oceanography

• Forestry and Natural Resources

• Agricultural and Aquaculture

• Pharmaceutical Inputs

• Emerging Technologies including Biotechnology, Lasers and Materials.

So if you are thinking of what courses to take, a technical field would not be a bad idea even if you move into a different profession later on.

Tags: Career, electronics, engineering schools, graduate, manpower, students career, technology