What is your vision of the careers and jobs your students will hold in 2010 after leaving school.?
Career and job preparation continues as one conventional reason people use for encouraging students to remain in school.
Twenty years ago, career counselors in colleges were telling students they should prepare to hold five to seven careers during their working lives. At least half of those careers had not yet been invented, let alone named.
In the past 20 years, for example, physicists have created a sufficient body of empirical evidence that careers now exist in nano technology enineering.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources periodically offer best guesses (forecasts) of future careeers and labor markets. Projections for sooner dates seem more reliable than those further away.
The Bureau forecasts a 13 percent growth rate in employment between 2001 and 2014. Production occupations and farming, fishing, and forestry occupations are projected to lose employment over the period.
* An associate or bachelor’s degree is the most significant source of
postsecondary education or training for 6 of the 10 fastest growing
occupations.
* Short-term on-the-job training is the most significant source of
postsecondary education or training for 5 of the 10 occupations with the
largest job growth.
Many doomsayers publish shocking anaylses and predictions about the future. These seem of little value for supporting a student’s schooling.
The optimism of entrepreneurs, venture capitalist, and inventors has definite, but as yet unknown affects on careers and jobs for today’s students. Some school programs can include support for students willing to enter these vocations.
Perhaps such information will assist you in clarifying a vision about careers, vocations, and employment for your students. For example:
Centre for Entrepreneurship Education & Development – CEED