Social Finance’s Post

Career readiness is more important than ever. Despite the high school graduation rate being at an all-time high, a recent survey showed 75% of students do not feel adequately prepared to enter the workforce. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g5cvEAJz My Future AZ provides career exploration for K-12 students so they can confidently transition from high school to their desired career path by being armed with the knowledge and skills to succeed in their chosen pathway. If students are unsure of their desired career path, My Future AZ offers a skills quiz that can help them identify career paths aligned with their personalities and interests. Is your school using My Future AZ? Learn more about our K-12 version of Pipeline AZ, which is Arizona Department of Education's approved K12 platform, here: https://lnkd.in/gXK-HGHB

I didn’t go to university… and I’m (mostly) ok with that. While my step daughter awaits her GCSE results, I started reflecting. I was a good student and I always followed the rules. I was lucky enough to go to grammar school and I got great GCSE results. However, it became apparent that I was only seen as a successful statistic, destined for academic greatness. I started to question what it meant – not for the school and their league tables – but for ME. The person behind the numbers. I was curious about life outside of school. I was fatigued with pushy teachers when it came to choosing A Levels and their persistent cries of “Pick me! Pick me!” I was never asked what I thought or what I wanted. In their eyes, I was a shoo-in for university. End of discussion.   And so my very small rebellion began. I didn’t do anything drastic and I wasn’t quite brave enough to ditch school completely. But I did turn my back on my old subjects and picked brand new A Levels. The school was convinced I was “having a moment” and I’d soon come to my senses. When I asked my careers advisor about how to get a job, she told me to take a quiz about what degree to study, then promptly stopped talking to me. I stuck to my guns. I had always been independent with a reasonable amount of stubbornness and I decided to do things my own way. I completed my A Levels then got out into the real world. I secured an apprenticeship and I forged my own path. Although I’ve never needed a degree to advance in my career, I have had to constantly navigate job specs that requested “graduates only”. I ignored them and did it anyway. I’m still asked today, “What did you study at university,” followed by a look of surprise when I say I didn’t go. And here's my confession. I still get a tinge of ‘not good enough’ and feel incomplete that my LinkedIn profile doesn’t include a three-year stint at university. 😡 😡 EVEN TODAY 😡 😡 We’ve come so far, but there’s still a stigma around degrees. I’m not anti university or anti education, but I do believe we need to encourage a much more open mindset when it comes to talking to young people about their options. Especially looking through a DE&I lens. I love initiatives like digilearning and Brixton Finishing School who are opening our eyes and creating more opportunities for young people entering the advertising industry. I’m excited about the breadth of apprenticeships available – from AI Specialists and Data Analysts to SEO Apprentices – all with qualifications, in some cases equivalent to a Master’s degree. But we still need to move away from this ‘one size fits all’ mentality and instead play to people’s strengths – from the start of their education – and not force everyone down the same path, or abandon them when they choose an alternative route. And in the meantime, let’s finally remove that graduates-only prerequisite on job ads, PLEASE. #GCSEs #ExamResults #Education #FutureLeaders

Do you remember being asked 'What are you going to do when you finish YR12?'. For you, YR12 might have been last year or years ago. Well consider this…. the story about your pathway since completing YR12 is SO valuable to share with current secondary school students. Just think back for a moment to your school days. When you were in YR12 did you know what your pathway would be when you completed? Did you have a goal on where you wanted to head? Did you know what job you ultimately wanted, what company you aspired to work for or what industry you wanted to work in? For most of us the answer would be 'I had no idea'. The reason you are SO valuable to a current secondary school student, is that you now have real world experience and insights that you can share that might trigger a light bulb moment, generate a spark or provide a goal for a particular student to head in a particular direction. Perhaps you got an apprenticeship? Perhaps you've worked in many different roles across multiple industries? Perhaps you won a scholarship to Uni but decided that Uni course wasn't the right one and changed direction? Perhaps you took an incredible gap year and travelled the world because you needed this time to work out what direction you might like to head? Perhaps you're still studying? Perhaps you got a job straight out of school? Perhaps study was totally not up your alley, but you've landed on your feet? Perhaps you run your own business? Perhaps you're still working out what career will give you satisfaction and the journey towards this discovery has enabled you to do so many things on the way? Perhaps.... you're a rock star! You see, everyone's path is different and... interesting. Maybe you are still thinking that your pathway is nothing to write home about. Well, please consider that to someone else, maybe it absolutely is. In the eyes of current school students who have their post-YR12 study, career and life pathways still to come, your story or a tiny snippet of it, could be what prompts their choice of studies or career goal. I encourage you to touch base with your old school and offer to return to talk to a cohort of students or if their Alumni team / Alumni Program Coordinator reaches out with an invitation, please say ‘yes’. It’s so rewarding, and you will help some students answer the question… 'What AM I going to do when I finish school?' Reach out at [email protected] if you would like to be a part of the ever-growing alumni community at North Geelong Secondary College.

Gallup recently released a thought-provoking study on career-connected learning, which highlights the impact of experiential learning on helping young people identify career paths. Ashley Mowreader covers this in a great article for Inside Higher Ed titled "Survey: Experiential Learning Helps Young People Identify Career Paths." Expanding diverse career education opportunities in middle and high schools could be the key to keeping students more engaged and confident in their choices for post-secondary education, apprenticeships, and careers. Does anyone have experience with programs that have successfully engaged students earlier in the career pipeline? I'd love to hear what's working in your community!

University orientation season is ON Here’s how my Facebook feed looks like at this time of the year. This is my #score and these are my grades. I got my #baccalaureate in X with honors what can I do ? High school graduates asking strangers on Facebook for their opinions about their own future ! Insane isn’t it? Well, not really! I don’t blame them , I’ve been there and I know the dilemma they are facing at this moment! They have zero idea about the job market and how things work in real life outside of books. Simply because we don’t focus on that in high school, we just teach maths, science, physics and languages! None is there to orient, to guide or to just explain what to expect after #graduating high school! Just get your degree then we’ll see. Even ‘high achievers’ are lost, seeking advice from family members and friends! They don’t know what they want, what their dream job is, or whether X path is actually suitable to their set of skills. Their choices are based on their ‘scores’ ! My #score allows me to do this so I’ll just do it! So unfair! Why would the bac examinations determine my entire future? Maybe I didn’t perform as I usually do in the exams ? Maybe I didn’t handle pressure well ? Why should my future depend solely on this particular exam! It is sad! The #job #market is constantly changing, yet , the orientation book is the same! Same choices, same everything! We go to university, get the degree and then BAM 💥 reality hits! We are unskilled and unprepared in the eyes of the recruiters! Why ? Because of the poor training we are getting! It is the 21st century! It is time to make some changes! It is time to integrate financial literacy at #high #school ! It is time to focus on skills development ! The whole system has to be changed! It is stupid to build your future on one single exam! Let students have a glance at the job market at the level of high school! Bring people from different professional backgrounds to deliver talks, let them work on projects! Let students discover their abilities and potential to have a clear idea about what they actually want to be in the future! Instead of a national exam that completely ignores students’ individualities, universities can prepare tests and provide materials so that students who apply for a university of their choice sit for its specific exams. Why are we so resistant to change? Why should we stick with an outdated system and study with the same outdated materials ? Same questions I ask myself every year! I just hope the gap between the job market and #education will be filled very soon .. #BaccalaureateExams #JobMarket #Orientation #University

It’s graduation season and it’s gotten me thinking about my own graduation from Ohio University — 👩🎓 how has it been 21 years?—and some of the things I’d wished I had known as I started my first “office” job. ⏳ Invest time into the people you work with, don’t just clock in and clock out. The relationships that I built with my colleagues have had positive impacts throughout my career. The people I have worked with over the years have supported me through good times and bad, boosted me up as I went to grad school, changed careers, and built my own business. Take time to get to know the people you work with every day and stay in touch as time moves on. 📚 Never stop learning; a degree is not the end of your education. In many ways my education truly started when I entered the work force full time. Growth wasn’t linear, it wasn’t required, and I wasn’t graded on it, but it has been critical for my success. Seeking out opportunities to learn and grow helped my advance in my career, change careers when I discovered new passions, and has enabled me to now help others grow. Keep challenging yourself to learn more; you’re capable of so much more than you think. 🌳 You can change your mind along the way. To many people, your major or degree should set you up for a specific job/career and the ladder you’ll be climbing toward “success” and retirement. You’ll earn raises along the way, promotions, and accolades. And it can feel like a failure to switch ladders. The direction you chose when you were 18 doesn’t need to dictate your whole life. You can change your mind, chart a new course, hop onto a different ladder, and follow your instincts. We don’t always know all the opportunities available and they do change over time, so allow yourself the chance to explore. What advice would you give to your freshly graduated self and/or recent graduates?

How do you help families reduce the stress around finding the "right college" that leads to the "right career"? By using the same career development strategies and tools that career development professionals use. As an educational consultant, investing upfront time delving into your student's values, strengths, personality style, interests, and skills is crucial. This comprehensive approach helps determine how these capabilities can translate into future work and college choices. While this strategy requires a deeper understanding of career development techniques, implementing these strategies is worthwhile. You'll find that it narrows down the number of majors and career options to those that fit the student best. This not only provides clarity and relief for the student but also engages them more proactively in the college and career decision-making process. But, we get it. You're busy and don't have time for extensive career development training and it can be challenging to figuring out what career assessments and activities to invest in for you and your practice. So, how do you get just the career development knowledge and the guidance you need without investing a lot of time and money? By learning from seasoned career development professionals like us who have a lot of expertise in the career development field and also understand the needs of busy educational consultants. Join us on Thursday, 6/6/24 from 12:00-1:00pm EDT to gain insights into how you go about identifying student capabilities and guide them through the career and college fit process. We will also introduce you to My Career Design Studio,™ an all-in-one toolkit (developed by one of our presenters, Ronda) that provides a comprehensive student assessment, step-by-step activities to help your student narrow down their career choices, and provides resources that will help your student explore the day-to-day responsibilities of careers that might fit them. Ready to learn how to de-stress the college-to-career journey? Click here to grab your seat today! https://buff.ly/3wybap5

For anyone starting the year wanting to invest time in themselves, check the post below.

I’m “retired.”  Okay, not really.  I am still working, just not for a paycheck. A non-profit can: → Catalyze a rising generation of Energy Professionals. → Reimagine the power behind a community of 2,000 families. → Provide career advice to worldwide students. People say With money, we can buy things. By itself, money does not buy transformation.  Transformation takes also: →Ideas →Work →Execution and follow through. In “retirement” I enjoy → Organize worldwide competition → Offering $31,000 prizes to students → Work on Energy trilemma (Energy Affordability, Energy Sustainability, Energy Security & Reliability) Bringing more affordable, sustainable energy to the world gave me a rewarding career.  Why stop now? Okay, no longer should I be a prime actor.  Yet why not help the prime actors of the next forty years start on their journey? Advice to my younger self: → Get started on an agile career journey. → Focus on one, at most two goals for the next 6-12 months Ex: get good grades this term, and an internship next semester break. → You don’t need to have a perfect strategic plan. You will learn so much the next year that will change those plans. → Just get started and apply yourself. Question: What is the one - at most two - goals that if achieved over the next 6-12 months, will put you on a career path of learning and impact?