By Darren Gilbert

Regardless of how you to respond to that, you need to know the answers. After all, how you reply will determine where you end up in life. This can’t be taken lightly. No one knows that better than Kay Cheytanov, managing director of 3RC. She deals with these questions every day. She understands the pressures that come with answering them. She also knows you can’t make youngsters choose a career when they are not excited about it.

That is why the idea of the traditional career expo is dead. It can no longer be about universities lined up in neat little rows in a hall, waiting for buses full of school children to pull up. The kids will come in, grab a brochure and run out again; simply because they don’t want to be there, which makes sense. There is nothing to keep them around; there is no feeling that these universities even care about them. It’s a situation that Cheytanov wants to transform for the better.

“The youth need to feel that you care,” points out Cheytanov. You can’t simply walk up to them and sell yourself. Instead, it’s about talking to them; interacting with them. And this is where Cheytanov, through 3RC, seems to be getting it right.

“At other expos, kids literally go from stand to stand grabbing pamphlets. But they never look at them because it doesn’t grab them.” says Cheytanov. “We do it differently. When we do an expo, it’s about having fun.”

Based on this philosophy, 3RC has managed to reinvent the humble career expo. Today it’s a 2-hour interactive show, built around the concept of entertaining.  “Essentially, we get colleges, universities and companies that want to put themselves in front of the youth and give them the opportunity to interact with them,” says Cheytanov. Add in an MC, live DJs and prize giveaways and you have a show tailor-made for the youth.

“Our first point of call is to break down the barriers of the normal education environment,” explains Cheytanov. “We get them thinking ‘Okay, this is for us. This is not for the teachers. It’s not for our parents.’” Once you have them understanding that, you are in good shape.  After all, you are now focused on showing rather than telling. You are also providing them with an event that will keep them entertained. Who wouldn’t want to be associated with that?

However, to simply describe this as mindless entertainment is to do it a disservice. For Cheytanov and 3RC, there is a far more significant reason behind the hyped-up show. “We do what we do because we love the youth. We believe that they are the core of what South Africa can and cannot be,” says Cheytanov. “If we can get them right, we stand a better future. If we can give them hope that we do have a future and they can achieve here, our country can stand on its feet again.”

Cheytanov and 3RC know that talk about the future brings with it many questions. However, it affords them an opportunity to provide the much-needed answers. It’s not about telling learners what to do. Instead, it’s to guide learners and give them the confidence to answer the age-old question of what they want to do with their life. Cheytanov hopes it’s a life spent building up South Africa. I hope so too.

For more information on 3RC, visit www.3rc.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook and on Twitter .