Sumy National Agrarian University students are participating in the 4th wave of the innovative youth program UPSHIFT. This is a global United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) program, implemented in more than 40 countries. It provides young people and adolescents with 21st-century skills and resources to identify problems in their communities and propose innovative solutions to these problems.

This time, the program’s theme is dedicated to youth career guidance. 4 SNAU students: Ilona SAIKO, Yelyzaveta SAIKO, Veronika SHELUDCHENKO and Alesia ZAHORULKO are implementing a project on career guidance activities for schoolchildren in Sumy. In 10 weeks, the girls plan to:

– break down stereotypes about boring, uninteresting career guidance activities and those aimed at popularizing specific educational institutions rather than professions themselves;

– to form an understanding of the peculiarities of different professions among schoolchildren, which will enable them to consciously choose a profession in the future and, accordingly, plan preparation for future admission;

– to develop and implement original board games (one in the format of a card game, the other in the format of a game with elements of management and entrepreneurship) in the practice of career guidance activities for students of Sumy;

– hold a meeting with students already employed in their specialty who are ready to share their own success stories and answer questions about working conditions, career development opportunities, job responsibilities, etc.

The goal of the project is to diversify career guidance activities for Sumy students to help them learn more about the specifics of different professions and the labor market. To realize the idea, the students of Sumy NAU set the following goals:

– To raise awareness of students aged 14-17 (7-11th grade) with interesting events, such as meetings with employed students in their specialty who will share their experience;

– Creating a telegram channel where there will be small tests, pros and cons of each specialty, employment opportunities, labor market.

– Develop author’s games: “master of their craft”;”career path”

Ilona Saiko, one of the team members from SNAU, assures us that they are eager to help the Sumy student community. The SNAU students conducted a sociological study and determined that there is still a lack of awareness of the labor market and opportunities for future careers among young people.

“Having personal experience of working in the counseling center of Sumy NAU, our team saw that most students choose their profession unconsciously, with little or no interest in its features, future employment, labor market conditions, etc. That’s why we decided to apply for UPSHIFT, since the 4th wave was aimed at career guidance,” Ilona adds.

The UPSHIFT program is divided into several parts, and the participants recently attended a 4-day BootCamp in Truskavets, and now they are waiting for funding and will be implementing projects.

The SNAU students are already planning their action plan and are convinced that their project will be able to help the city’s student community. We wish our girls success!