Young people search online for answers to what to study

Lilian Hernandez Osorio

La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, November 25, 2024, p. 13

Because 60 percent of young people seeking to enroll in a bachelor’s degree at UNAM focus on 15 of the 133 careers offered by this institution and in the second semester they realize that it is not what they expected, the institution has intensified vocational guidance actions for high school students, through events, digital tools and conferences.

The purpose is that those who enter the bachelor’s degree don’t lose your way and find meaning in what they plan to study, because the majority do not analyze their profile, despite all the alternatives they are offered to determine what they could develop as professionals, explained the director of Guidance and Educational Care of the university, Telma Ríos. County.

To counteract this situation, he explained that from October 21 to 28, the Vocational orientationan event attended by more than 1,600 young people, in which 800 conferences were given in order for them to discover what they really want to study, because it will be the profession in which they will develop in their lives.

In an interview, the official explained that the UNAM faculties and entities open their doors to high school students for tours and even take classes so that they can talk live with other students of the courses or professors, in order to resolve doubts. Do not create false illusions and make an informed decision.

It is important that students discover the meaning of what they are going to study and that it connects them with the social meaning for the benefit of themselves and their environment. It’s about planting yourself in this world, letting them see how they are going to establish themselves in it, opening their own path, because they are projects and their ideals. You can dream to infinity, but without stopping stepping on the earthhighlighted Ríos Condado.

Concentration of demand in few careers

He explained that six out of every 10 students who enter the bachelor’s degree are focused on the historically most in-demand careers, such as medicine, law, civil or computer engineering, architecture, psychology, accounting and administration, but after taking the first semester they discover that it was not what they really wanted and that is why they are putting emphasis on vocational guidance.

The director acknowledged that in the nine UNAM high schools they had to make the vocational guidance subject mandatory, since young people did not attend the sessions when the subject was optional, and now that they must accredit it, there is a greater presence, but still, There are students who do not attend and those young people are the ones who most end up looking for a second career.

As an example, he pointed out that medicine is the most requested degree, but after the first semester they study, 50 percent question whether they want to finish it. There are others who decide to continue and put effort into it, but they fall behind because they postpone the decision to change careers.

Prejudices make them stay in a degree or the fear of being criticized, but they end up dropping out because they did not make an appropriate decision.

Currently, he lamented, higher education applicants are inundated with information, but without knowledge, they believe that by reading a brochure or watching a video and social networks they will get the answer, when they have to search in appropriate sources, such as digital tools. that UNAM has designed so that they know themselves and are certain of their profiles.