Every day, we hear stories of school dropouts who are now running start-ups worth millions of dollars. While there may be a few success stories that make headlines, it is worth considering that freelancing is now an important career option and that colleges must introduce it to students throughout their academic careers.
According to Upwork, a popular website for freelancers, freelancing can be defined as ‘doing specific work for clients without committing to full-time employment’. They are usually seen to be self-employed for tax purposes.
At a time when lifelong professional careers are seeing a downward trend, freelancing is becoming a very important choice that should be seriously entertained.
According to Price Waterhouse, the typical career trajectory is 4-5 years in a single organisation today, especially in the IT industry.
This means that people are having to consider job changes almost every half-decade. This includes undergoing the entire process of creating CVs, attending interviews and facing potential rejections. It also means getting accustomed to a new work environment and workforce every once in a while.
An option to avoid such disruptions is to engage in lifelong freelancing. Today, this is more possible than it would have been earlier, as there is a rise in the need for consultants, media handlers and content creators, not to mention other fields like architects, interior and landscape designers.
What we currently lack, however, is the knowledge of how such a freelancing career could be launched and how to prepare oneself for it.
This is where schools and colleges can help.
It is imperative now that all educational institutions offer sustained help in the form of courses, workshops and invited lectures on careers in freelancing.
Courses would have to include components of identifying core market demands, building a relevant and edgy portfolio, as well as learning the legalities of contracts. It would also have to include soft skills like time management and client communication.
Other important skills in freelancing include financial literacy and managing accounts. Networking, engaging with the community and leveraging the college alumnus are equally important.
Of course, this is not an easy ride. Many individuals prefer the comfort of a traditional job with set timings and predictable work. For others, it could be exciting and fulfilling.
Freelancing can be challenging in this sense: jobs are not always constant, nor is the payment. There is always the fear of a lull period and of losing clients. Projects also require capital that may be difficult to accumulate.
Courses in freelancing need to equip future entrepreneurs to face these realities and strategies of coping with them. This is why courses need to be embedded with short real-world situations and case studies, including setting up mock projects with the possibility of getting feedback from the market.
Being a business owner seems to be a more attractive option than working for somebody, no matter how big an organisation may be. But this does not come easily. Equipping future students with the skills necessary to stand on their own business feet should be one of the major purposes of education today.
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