Educational institutions should actively encourage their students to choose fields of study that will prepare them for lucrative careers.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supp

“Career can be conceptualised as Car plus rear view”. It means seeing through the rear mirror of a car to ascertain what has been achieved in the journey undertaken so far. The journey referred here may consist of smooth road and thus peaceful driving or it may consist of twists and bends, thus, difficult journey. As research has shown that every human being has access to use his cognitive abilities in order to decide which journey should be undertaken, thus, the decision should be left to the person wishes to travel. The prompt asserts that educational institutions should encourage students to choose lucrative careers. However, in my view, I strongly disagree with the claim and argue that student should be given the choice to choose from all available alternatives based on his desire, ambition and skill and only guidance should be provided by institutions for each alternative chosen by them. The reasons justifying my view are mentioned in the following paragraphs.

First of all, are lucrative career options are sustainable? In other words, one must know that everything varies as per change in time and circumstances, so does career options. For instance, the period between the end of 1st world war and start of 2nd world war was hyped with nuclear engineering because countries which were in war, were competing to develop the nuclear weapons, thus, institutes were in the favour of nuclear engineering since it was lucrative then. However, as peace established by United Nations worldwide and non-proliferation treaty signed and implemented by contracting parties, this career field saw significant decline, thus, rendering those nuclear scientists job less. Further, during the time period of 2000 to 2006, the demand was very high for students having skills in finance and economics since it was a time of great economic boom. However, when things collapsed in early 2008, the trend reversed and people that were working in investment banks were found to be jobless and students who just graduated from the college were not able to find jobs. Thus, again no assurance on lucrative career options made the life of these people miserable. Hence, the institutions should not encourage students to pursue lucrative careers since what is lucrative today, will not be even at par with other less paying career options.

Secondly, are institutions able to nurture inherent talents? In other words and it is widely believed by people from all religion that everyone is gifted with unique talent and skill, thus, work accordingly to make a mark for himself. For instance, Sachin Tendulkar, the great batsman of 20th century, had skills for supreme batting, thus, he known as the batsman scored highest runs ever and was on 1st ICC ranking for 7 years continuously. Imagine, had he been forced to pursue civil services since it was lucrative career then, he would have not been achieved by being a civil servant what he has achieved by being a cricketer. Further, the voice of Late Ms. Lata Mangeshkar is known in India as a voice of a quail since it is mellifluous. Again, imagine, had she forced to pursue classical dancing because of her mother and it was then lucrative career, India would have not got the best singer of all time. Therefore, institutions should set aside the lucrative career but rather guide the students to hone their inherent skills.

Finally, are lucrative career options provide satisfaction or self-actualisation? In other words, if a student to force to pursue what is lucrative, he may be enjoying wealth and affluence but going to office on time and completing the assigned job responsibilities may vex him persistently and it would affect his performance at work as well, thus, would make his life no worthy and at the mercy of reviewer. Further, when it comes to self-actualisation, the behavioural scientist have shown that doing something because of name and money attached to it, initially it would make the person happy but as time passes by, he would not derive the utility from the work he is doing, thus, would make him unproductive. Therefore, institutions must understand that self-satisfaction does not follow lucrative career option always.

However, some would argue that if institutions urge students to pursue lucrative careers, these careers would make them self-reliant and independent because of affluence or wealth they are amassing. However, the proponent of this idea must understand that collecting wealth is not an objective for each and every student and moreover, cupidity is considered as one of the sins in religious texts, thus rendering the idea of such a career may cause students to feel guilt at later stages of their life. Therefore, while concluding, educational institutions should not urge students to choose career on the basis of financial benefits but they should consider the overall needs, desire and moral meaning of a student life.