Acharya Devo bhava: Let’s Empower Our Teachers
In India, the whole concept of “Acharya Devobhava,” where the teacher is considered Guru Tattva or God, is evident to signify the profound endowment and reverent regard of teachers. Education has always been considered to be one of the major foundations of knowledge, and teachers have been considered as such, as they worked towards helping young people build better for the future. In today’s fast-changing environment, diverse career and professional learning opportunities for teachers are even larger than before, making it critical to empower our teachers. The fact that they are in a position to influence the future workforce places them in the right stead, as they need to adapt, and especially with the best career coaching services at their disposal.
These are the Changing Faces of Education
Learning is no longer a preserve of formal curricula and conventional techniques of knowledge delivery. First of all, it’s important to note that the emergence of new technologies and market shifts have resulted in new demands for educators. It has become common for students to be introduced to various types of careers, including digital marketing careers, artificial intelligence careers, data science careers, and even art careers, as well as entrepreneurship careers. Teachers should therefore now transform from the traditional absorptive type of personnel to being career trainers and be in a position to guide the students through their careers.
Increased professional competency calls for the need to prepare the current students to not only be academically competent but also career-fit to specific interests, abilities, and the market forces in the job market arena. Thus, it is teachers’ responsibility to prepare these students, and in the process, they effectively become part of career coaching service providers.
Why Teachers Need Empowerment
Teacher professional development isn’t a product that can be handed over to teachers; it is about enabling the teachers at every level by giving them access to learning. This way teachers can provide the students with better advice based on statistical information they have acquired about trends in the industry and teaching.
Here’s how empowering teachers can make a significant difference
Improved Student Outcomes: The teachers informed about modern career coaching services can give the students individual recommendations. Teachers are successful, and they help students choose the right career that can enhance success.
Enhancing Career Guidance: By training and acquainting with real-life trends, teachers provide the right directions, which can bridge the gap between facials and working environments. This in a way assists in narrowing down the gap between the theoretical knowledge acquired and the practical application in the field.
Mentoring Future Leaders: The teachers who are empowered teach their roles as mentors, which are different from being mere trainers. They can cultivate leadership-spirited students to be more innovative in choosing their careers and engaging in unknown arenas or professions.
Making Efforts in Teacher Training and Development
The process of empowering our teachers is an investment process, and the first step would be to train them. To address learners’ needs, educational institutions must incorporate continuing professional development that aims at covering new approaches to teaching, the use of technologies, and, primarily, training for career choices.
Career coaching services aimed at teachers should include:
Workshops on Career Counselling: Teachers should be educated on the various career paths available due to the availability of various options in the market today. The required sites can include industry and placement workshops, which can assist them in being on par with the current trend, learning about the psychology of students, and doing need-based counselling for the students.
Exposure to Industry Experts: Teachers can involve industry players and practitioners in the profession to gain firsthand information regarding the different market needs. It will also assist them in advising the learners on how best to approach the selection of their careers.
Access to Technology: The learners of today’s generation are the digital generation, and so the teacher must learn to be a part of this generation. With modern career assessment software, online classes, and teachers’ professional networks, institutions can be assured that teachers are offering the best career coaching services to the students.
Teachers as Career Mentors
Today’s teacher also requires more than just teaching skills necessary for conveying knowledge. They are the guides, coaches, and counsellors in the young people’s lives. Where educated with the correct equipment, they can assist in defining the future force. Teachers, therefore, must be in a position to notice the strong and weak areas of the students and guide them to find the careers that suit them.
The aspect of empowering teachers and giving them a career mentor will also help in easing the workload of the career counsellors in that both the teachers and counsellors will work hand in hand as the teachers will take up some responsibilities on career guidance while the career counsellors will handle the rest.
The Role of Educational Institutions and Government Institutions
Government agencies and other higher learning institutions should take measures forward to empower teachers. The following aspects can go a long way towards making a difference: the use of such government-released propositions as teacher training projects, research grants, and collaboration potential.
Institutions can also encourage their teachers to practice career mentoring in many ways since effort in this area is also valued. If properly assisted, the teachers can spend their time searching for talent in students and help deliver one-on-one career advice that would suit each student.
To progress towards a better tomorrow is a collective endeavour
Teachers’ capacity enhancement is not the sole responsibility of institutions, educators, government or non-governmental organisations, or society but everyone in society. The possibility of providing a generation of leaders for our society can be achieved when teachers are appreciated and provided with appropriate tools to help students make the right choices of their career paths to fulfil their dreams as well as benefit society.
In the spirit of Acharya Devo bhava, let’s make our teachers what they should be. This way gives them the best opportunity to access the best career coaching services, continuous professional development, as well as mentorship to ensure they are always in line with education. Altogether, it is possible to help teachers bring the other generation to success and thus fulfil their mission called ‘builders of the future’.
