CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
The purpose of the ‘Career Development Centre’ is to enable students to think about their Careers from an early age, provide them with an opportunity to explore the various career options available to them and guide them to take informed decisions and act as a bridge between students’ aspirations and parents’ considerations. Thus helping them to have a happy and successful career!
College Placements (India)
We provide students with information regarding the various colleges in India and the admission process to these colleges. Students can fill in all the applications from the school itself and even make payments for the same. We help students understand how the admission process is different in Universities and colleges across the country. We guide them in course and college selection since there are a wide variety of colleges offering different courses besidesproviding information on the rankings of colleges and career prospects. Information booklets and copies of advertisements by the Indian colleges are available at the centre for students.
Entrance Test Preparation
We are building a resource centre with all the required study materials for students to prepare for any kind of an Entrance Test like SAT I (Aptitude Test), ACT, CLAT, LSAT, SET, IIT-JEE (Main and Advanced), Medical Entrance, SAT II (Subject Test), NID Test, NIFT, IELTS and TOEFL, HSEE (IIT Chennai), IIM Indore (IPM) etc. We are also planning to have tie ups with external service providers to offer coaching classes for interested students on our campus. We already have a tie up with AHA Guru for IIT – JEE. All students of Senior School (classes 9th to 12th) will take 5 aptitude tests during the year to gain adequate practice.
External Linkages
The ‘Career Development Centre’ today has direct contact with several Universities in India and Abroad and hence can provide students with first hand information with regard to the admission process. Our Career Counselor has visited several Universities in the US and has developed an association with these Universities. We request them for Application Fee waivers or scholarships for meritorious students. The Headmistress has visited 16 top ranked Universities in Canada. We will also have some teacher exchange programs with some of the top Universities in the USA. We will have a few Universities/colleges conducting their entire admission process on campus at Lovedale.
Campus visits
We have been organizing Campus visits for students to colleges to understand the college better before they could join them. Some of students visited the FLAME campus in Pune during the vacations to understand their curriculum and have a look at their infrastructure. We also had a campus visit to DJ Academy of Design where students went through a workshop on Design as a career option and this in fact has encouraged several students to consider Design as a career option. We will plan many visits in the future.
Internships
We organize internships for interested students during the vacations so that this experience gives them an opportunity to experience various careers in real life. We had sent some of our students to the NDTV media training institute to understand the media industry and also to experience real time work in a Media industry. These internships are organized on request.
Seminars on ‘Career Options’
Periodic seminars and workshops are organized for students to help them understand the various career options by both internal and external resource people. Video conferencing is being used to enable Old Lawrencians across the globe in various careers to connect with students back in Lovedale. This would greatly help in giving students a wider perspective about certain career options.
Personal Counseling
Life issues can deeply affect the career choices students make and hence personal counseling becomes a part of the Career counseling process.
Resource Person
The resource person who manages the ‘Career Development Centre’ is our HR Consultant who has over 14 years of experience in the corporate world training and guiding students to crack some of the most competitive selection processes to college admissions. He has a Bachelors degree in Electronics and Master’s degrees in Management and Applied Psychology. He is currently pursuing PhD in Human Resource Management.
A Brief list of colleges/universities where our students have been placed last year
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St. Xaviers – Mumbai and Kolkatta
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Loyola college – Chennai
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Christ University – Bangalore
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SRM University
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Narsee Monjee – Law
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NLU – Bhopal
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Jindal Global Law School
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Shristi school of Design
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Manipal Institute of Technology
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SUNY – Buffalo
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Manchester University
Career Counseling
We follow a process that is both scientific and intuitive in nature. Each student fills in a ‘Career Development Data Form’ where certain important data points are captured. The Big Five Factor and Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence are some of the tools used to make students reflect on their personality and also analyse their strengths and limitations. Then a one on one Career Counseling session is done with each student. The counseling happens in multiple stages depending on the need of individual students. Parents are also consulted depending on the need.
College Placements (Abroad)
We focus on both applications to colleges abroad and also in India. Today the ‘Career Development Centre’ has the complete facility for a student complete the application process to any foreign University from the school itself. Some of the other facilities offered in this area include Seminars and information sessions by foreign universities, information booklets on all these Universities are available at the Centre for students to go through and video conferencing facility to interact directly with University representatives abroad. Apart from these facilities we also provide assistance in writing ‘Statement of Purposes’, getting ‘Letters of Recommendations’, preparing the profile for college admissions and guidance relating to financial documentation and visa interviews.