National Careers Week from May 15 -23 is a great time to share activities with young people to get them thinking, talking and planning for their future careers. And when we talk to students about careers, we need to keep reminding ourselves that 'career' can include many different jobs over a life time. In fact, many people will actually have multiple careers in a whole variety of fields during their working life. So what do we talk about during careers week?
You can't be what you can't see
Many young people choose careers simply because someone else they know already does it. Unfortunately, this means they are unlikely to find a career which sits outside their sphere of contacts and awareness, or which is in a newly developing sector such as renewables. You can use careers posters, videos, interviews and incidental conversations to help students explore a wider range of options and be able to see themselves as workers in that area. For some students, the simple act of showing them images of people doing jobs in ways they can relate to can prompt new discussions and ways of thinking about career pathways. Use learning activities which cover a wide range of career areas, so students are exposed to many different jobs in their senior years at school and beyond. Equally, if students never see and hear from people working in a particular career area, they are unlikely to pursue it as an option.
Setting big goals and working hard to achieve them lies at the core of success in
professional and Olympic sport.
Dream big
Capture those interest areas for students and support them in finding jumping in points that relate to what they love or the things that capture their attention. This doesn't mean encouraging everyone to be a game designer or professional athlete, but it does mean encouraging interests and motivations then exploring the wide range of options that exist for work within a particular field. Of course, for some young people their passion really does become a full time career, with opportunities within professional sporting competitions and Olympic Pathways offering young people the chance to set big goals and work hard to achieve them.
Link sporting success with other related learning areas that can support a long term career plan for the future. For example, if your student is focused on sports success show them related pathways that can support a longer term view as well, as providing steady income streams, such as:
podcasting
sports videoing
umpiring / refereeing
maintaining turf and sports fields
exercise physiology
sports training
providing first aid
fitness coaching
weights and gym training
swimming instructing
life guarding
By doing this, we are capturing the motivation for dreaming big, but also building in a back up plan so the dream can broaden a little into other related areas they may not have considered yet.
Studying costs money
The not so secret discovery recently that HECS loans go up with indexation each year has caused significant angst for many young people, some of whom have never considered the cost of their tertiary education until now. But with a 7.1% whack going onto fees this year, perhaps its a good time for the conversation about post compulsory education not always being completely free. This one is likely to disproportionately impact students from lower income backgrounds and those who are already feeling the pinch financially. It's a tricky topic and one where educators need to tread a careful line between mentor, teacher, advisor but not financial planner. Show students the simple maths that goes along with working out 7.1% of a whole number, then adding it to the total to find their new fee amount. Remind them that indexing only applies once a year, and is not compounding interest.
Practice the skills needed to calculate simple interest
on a higher education loan total
Multiple pathways to success
Despite the often heavy focus on ATAR and university entrance requirements, there are always other ways of achieving career dreams. In fact, often these alternative pathways turn out to be of great benefit, and bring far more in the way of skills and knowledge to the student than the original 'straight to uni' pathway might have done. For example, a career in the environmental sector could be achieved through direct entry into an environmental science degree, or via a TAFE Diploma in Conservation first. Although the perception might be that the direct entry into university is a better option, for many employers the fact that the student will complete their studies with a broad set of hands on, vocational skills which sit alongside their research and theoretical knowledge will be a great benefit int he workplace. The direct university entry option would have yielded a different set of skills which may turn out to be less attractive to an employer in the long run.
Use visual displays and learning activities to show how vocational and academic training
can work together to help students become job ready in their chosen career field.
When we talk to young people about multiple pathways, it's important to avoid the unspoken inference that TAFE or vocational learning is somehow inferior to university studies. We can do this by focusing clearly and deliberately on how vocational and academic studies sit alongside each other, and by analysing jobs to better understand the mix of skills and knowledge required.
Employability Skills
Build employability skills as part of your overall careers approach. Employability skills like teamwork, communication and using technology tools can help students find, keep and succeed at work.
Teach students about the importance of employability skills in
helping them find, keep and succeed at work.
Employability skills are the soft skills most employers seek in a new employee, and they are an often neglected part of careers education. Show students how experiences outside of class, such as sports coaching, volunteering, environment activities, hobbies and music can all build employability skills in meaningful ways that can be demonstrated in a resume or job interview.
Find out more about employability skills
A great way to teach young people about employability skills is with a combination of direct teaching and hands on activities such as collecting evidence for a resume, practicing and reflecting on skills used in activities and identifying employability skills in job advertisements.
The Employability Skills Information Pack guides students through the basics of
employability skills, in preparation for including them in a resume and cover letter.
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