Guiding the path to success

Dubai - Rema Menon Vellat is offering counselling services to children in distress

When all tricks fail to deliver, parents in Dubai approach one of the consultancies in town to get a professional advice on education and career building. Rema Menon Vellat, founder and director of Counselling Point Training and Development, is heading one of the busiest consultancies offering counselling services to children in distress. Try giving her a call and her standard answer would be, "I am in a middle of a session".
"I have a small venture with a big vision. My approach is student centric and focus is on career counselling. Since life and career choices are intrinsically intertwined, many are the times that students and their families discuss personal challenges and seek my counsel. When the situation is beyond the scope of my work, I refer them to professionals outside, for example in the case of psychiatric intervention," she said.
Rema started Counselling Point in 2005 to help students and young people to realise their higher education aspirations and to support them in their career quest.
"Many peers and well wishers urged me to name the centre "Helping Hands" or "Options" or any such 'non threatening' name as counselling was perceived to have a negative connotation. Equipped with a masters in medical and psychiatric social work and a decade of counselling experience with children in India, my contention was that if I did not believe in counselling, then how my clients would trust. I knew that my strong convictions about the impact counselling would have on young students was not misplaced.
"I secured a licence from Department of Economic Development, Dubai, in 2005 and Counselling Point was born. In 2012, I also obtained a KHDA licence. It is now close to 15 years since I have had the pleasure of working with students in the UAE, helping them actualise their dreams and setting them on the path to success," said Rema.
In 1998, when I began my career in Dubai as a counsellor at the Indian High School, there were mostly federal government supported institutions that catered to the needs of Emirati students with very few options for expats. Over the years, the education landscape has grown exponentially and has attracted both educational institutions and students from all over the globe. The UAE and Dubai in particular, has become an education hub. The UAE government through the Council for Academic Accreditation and the Dubai government through KHDA has brought in checks and balances and streamlined processes, ensuring quality of academic programmes offered in this country. It has certainly matured over the years and we are seeing a lot more sophistication in the way counselling is perceived, she said.
Rema has been a counselling partner of Getex for over eight years now. She also participated in the international education show at Sharjah Expo and Najah in Abu Dhabi. During Getex, she also facilitates counsellor forum for school counsellors of the UAE. The upcoming Getex counsellor forum is slated for the April 18.
"Through Counselling Point, I have been able to reach out to thousands of students over the years. My students have secured admission in Ivy league institutions, community colleges, professional institutions and in vocational programmes. It gives me great joy when I see the young persons I counselled at 16 are now working with federal government entities, the UN, Google, educational institutions and some are themselves entrepreneurs! I am usually one of their first contacts on Linkedin and this helps me understand their journeys, their successes and allows me to stay in touch," said Rema.
Maintaining a life balance
So how does Rema balance her work and home?
"Technology has made it possible for me to remain connected with my advisees, their families, schools and universities 24x7. Most of my clients meet me after fixing mutually convenient appointments. I'm also invited to educational institutions to make presentations and to speak on various higher education and career related issues. I work flexible hours and am able to efficiently balance work and home," she said.
Rema recommends her peers who intend to take the entrepreneurial path to conduct market research, putting together a business plan and building on one's own core competencies. "I see my contemporaries as collaborators, not competitors. "Together we are stronger" is my personal mantra. This open minded approach has helped me earn trust and the cooperation of other enterprises. Most of my clients come through word of mouth. Integrity, commitment and sincerity are some of my guiding principles," she said.
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com