Change Your Mindset if You Want to be Employed
Life used
to be simpler, made up of three stages – childhood and adolescence, going to
school and living at home, your adult life, working, raising a family, moving
into your own home and finally retirement.
This worked socially, psychologically and economically for many people.
All of this
has changed. In the past, people may have taken a course or trained in a
specific career, such as accountancy or carpentry. But today, it is common for people to have
three or more, retraining several times as they move from one career to another.
Therefore,
education no longer applies solely to young people. We offer courses globally and are finding
that more adults in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s are doing courses with us (and
others) to start new careers and businesses.
Awards
systems and apprenticeships are often aimed solely at younger people leaving school
and in early adulthood. I am involved in
some committees that help run such awards.
I have noticed though, that the definition of youth in some is under 23
years old, while others have crept up to under 35; pointing out that some people
do not begin a career in their industry until 35 years of age.
Given how
often people now want/need to change career, should awards and qualifications
for people starting a new career not be age specific? Perhaps apprenticeships
and courses should be for anyone who wants a new career.
Youth
employment tends to be higher and Government predictions suggest that it could
rise even further given the current situation with COVID-19.
So, how
do we take account of this higher youth unemployment? Young people used to be
told to do a course and be guaranteed a job for life. That message is no longer
true for many young people. I hear some
employers complain that inexperienced young people expect to start at the top.
This isn’t reality, but sometimes it may contribute to youth unemployment.
Do we
need to change our attitudes and way of learning? Are schools, colleges and
universities giving unrealistic expectations to their students of what to
expect in their first job?
We need
to learn from the past and move into the future.
In the
past, people expected to start at the bottom and work hard to move up the
career ladder. Perhaps this is a value that we need to reinforce in education
today.
Moving
into the future, we also need to recognise that the world is changing. The modern world changes on an almost daily
basis and new skills and training are required in all jobs. Adults may wish to
retrain or start a new business.
Education
needs to become more flexible and relevant.
We all
need to recognise two things. Learning and training is a lifelong process as
people want to improve and/or change their careers. Secondly, that education
and training should no longer be age specific but available to anyone who wants
to learn something new.
For more advice on specific careers:
Interactive
Career Advice Resource @ https://www.acs.edu.au/advice/career-advice-maps.aspx
Free Career and Course Advisory Service @ https://www.acs.edu.au/advice/course-counselling.aspx
Article
by John Mason
Principal
ACS
Distance Education