The government intends to spread the career sensitisation project in the country through the Department of Culture and Youth.

Principal arts administrator in the department, Dean Molebatsi has said they would take the project to Kgalagadi and Gantsi next month.

He admitted that his office has not done enough to publicise the project because of manpower and financial constraints.

He said the project was started in 2006 with the aim of educating school going children about arts related careers. So far it has been confined to Gaborone and the surrounding areas. Molebatsi said they feared advertising the project because they felt schools would respond in large numbers and the department would fail to deliver because of staff shortages.

The project was introduced after the realisation that children are not aware of careers related to arts. Hence they continue to take subjects whose career markets are already saturated. The project sensitises students about social challenges that they are likely to face after school.

About 13 schools have already been covered under the project, a majority of which are junior secondary. Molebatsi said they have had different responses from the children in the schools they have covered.

He said they realised that students are still not aware of arts related careers. "Traditional careers like law and medicine still dominate children's career ambitions," he said. "We hope that the project will give the students the much-needed career choice exposure," Molebatsi said.