Thursday, February 25, 2010

Wrong Audience

Parents all over the world are always afraid their children will lose out to their peers. Now it seems the Singapore government is getting into the act.

The Singapore Ministry of Education has now launched an interactive web-based Education and Career Guidance (ECG) portal to help schoolchildren make informed choices in their career aspirations. Nothing wrong with that, in fact it’s a good idea but the web portal is targeted at Primary 5 and 6 students. In Singapore, that means children about 11 to 12 years of age!

Even in fast-pace Singapore, that’s just ridiculous. How many 11-year-olds really know what they want in life? And I personally like to know how this portal can tell the difference between career aspirations and childhood fantasy. I remember a time when I wanted to be a NBA player (I was a kid), is this portal suppose to help me become a NBA player?

The ECG portal is a good idea but it is targeted at the wrong audience. If the portal was targeted at 15 to 18 year olds, it would be great but children 11 to 12 years of age don’t need career guidance.

2 comments:

Natalie said...

Wow. At 11 I think I wanted to be...let's see, rich and spoiled? no, wait, that's still kind of current. I think it was maybe between a vet and antiques broker. You know, having kids job-shadow at the ages described is great, but beyond that, I couldn't agree with you more. Let kids dream, let kids be kids.

Ghost said...

An antiques broker? No wonder you're living in the Middle East. Maybe you can make that dream come true in Dubai.