Align school subjects with future careers, Mamelodi learners told at career expo

Learners often choose the wrong set of high school subjects, not considering the possible career choices they want to follow in life.

This is the message from the COO of the Walter Sisulu Foundation Environmental Centre in Mamelodi East, Naomi Rabothata.
Rabothata spoke during a career expo held at Mahube Secondary School in Mamelodi East on Saturday.

She said that often, learners only realise their mistakes later, and this causes them to not finish the course they are studying.

Rabothata said that Mahube Secondary School was chosen as the venue for the career expo because the environmental centre has a good working relationship with the school regarding other programmes.

She said the career expo will hopefully guide learners into making well-thought-out decisions when it comes to matching their school subjects to possible career choices, especially for the Grade 9 to 11 learners.

Another problem she touched on was that of peer pressure, where some learners choose to study the same courses as their friends, without taking into account what career they want to follow. This leads to some learners dropping out of their studies.

The career expo aimed to introduce learners to different career fields.

Balwin Properties and their finance, legal and human resources teams, the South African National Biodiversity Institute, and representatives from the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone, and Wits RHI were invited to talk at the career expo.

Rabothata added that parents need to support their children in their career choices and allow children to make their own career choices.

The learners showed interest in their careers and asked questions about what they wanted to do after completing matric.

Acting principal of the school Matshidiso Tshaka said she was excited about the career expo, as many learners often make wrong decisions when it comes to career choices.

“Several careers have been exhibited here for the learners. As a top-achieving school in terms of matric results in Mamelodi, this initiative will come in handy for the learners and their parents, so they should not [feel limited] when making career choices,” said Tshaka.

She added that at the moment, most Grade 12 learners don’t know what career path they want to follow. They then look at the courses offered by institutions of higher learning, but don’t have enough information about how to match courses to careers.

This can cause them to choose careers that don’t line up with the subjects they are taking at school, or hop from course to course, before ultimately dropping out.

“We would be grateful if we could have a career expo of this nature annually at our school, and I am hoping that other companies would also come on board to exhibit careers that are available at their entities,” she said.

A Grade 9 learner, Thato Moloto, said the career expo helped him a lot and showed him just how many careers are available out there.

Moloto wants to be an artist, but was disappointed that no artists were brought in as panellists.

Another Grade 9 learner, Aiden Nekanda, wants to be a pilot and travel the whole world. He said that the school must organise more events like this, adding that he will be doing more research of his own about becoming a pilot.

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