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Job Awareness in Schools
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I watched the 'Fifteen Billion Pound Railway' on BBC2 the other day and was struck how valuable it would be in informing and enthusing kids about engineering.
The series follows more than ten thousand engineers and construction workers as they race to complete Crossrail. If you haven't seen it, it is quite mindblowing and inspiring. It gives a view of not just engineers but the many associated job roles in construction and in particular what Project Management means on a grand scale. (It's still available on iplayer and I think this was first episode).
I'm out of touch with Career Counselling in schools these days but certainly from my own kids schooldays it was still pretty poor. With material such as this available, and I'm sure many similar things, surely we could create an online National Career Guidance web site, to inspire and inform in the earlier years and help choices prior to University, or when closer to choosing a preferred career. For all I know such a thing may be there already but if it is I've never heard mention of it.
Assuming it isn't there at the moment it should be possible to create without much public money because every trade body and profession would have vested interest in portraying/marketing their job opportunities.
Does anyone think this is a worthwhile idea?
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If there is a gap in the market, which you seem to think there is, then it's something that would fill that gap and, hopefully, improve the sources of career counselling for young people.
I suspect, but don't know, that career counselling is better in universities than it is in schools. I know someone who works at Surrey University and one of her roles is to encourage women to enter professions such as engineering.
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The best that I'm aware of is the National Career Service https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/ but this doesn't really hit your spot. It's useful for identifying what jobs might suit but it's not (intended to be) inspirational. I'm guessing that most secondary schoolkids wouldn't have a clue what a civil engineer or a project manager or an accountant actually spend their time doing, so anything that addresses this would be very useful.