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.
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