Careers in a Digital World

Gina Visram, Head of Careers at Alleyn’s, reflects on what an increasingly digital world will mean for the career prospects of our children.

“Hospital worker... including doctor”

“Ballet dancer”

“Twitch streamer”

These were some of the jobs mentioned by a Year 9 pupil in a recent careers session, when challenged to name 20 jobs. After a few pauses for clarification and / or inspiration, he continued:

“Engineer”

“Software developer”

“Lawyer”

“Influencer”

Within just a few minutes, he successfully rose to the challenge of naming 20 and was met by the rapturous applause and cheers of 140+ members of his year group as he stood on the stage in the Great Hall, before heading back to his seat.

I praised his efforts and moved onto some topics which relate to what I am sharing with you here – what an increasingly digital world (thanks to technology) means for current and future job opportunities.

At Alleyn’s, we subscribe to the Careers Development Institute notion that, “‘Career’ describes our journey through life, learning and work. We need actively to develop our careers to make the best of them. This process of career development takes skill as well as knowledge and the right attitude. Individuals need to work on career development skills throughout their lives.”  

Careers support at Alleyn’s School is available for all year groups and this summer term it has been brilliant to have whole year group sessions for Year 9s on Routes into Work, a very functional topic that was added to the PSCHE syllabus a few years ago (and made more interesting and dynamic through pupil participation) and for Year 8s on "Creating your Future: An Introduction to Career Planning.”

In the Routes into Work Session, Year 9s learned about:

• Jobs of today – from police officer and public relations manager to blockchain developer and UX designer and talked about how the types of jobs available will keep evolving over the coming years.
• Job hunting / job shopping – a very brief look at where job seekers may go to find jobs online.
• Staying in education and training: explaining that as the law currently stands all young people must be in education or training until at least their 18th birthday but that it does not necessarily have to be traditional schooling. What that may look like can vary from 16+ (including routes for students who need additional support). Discussions about options at 18+ included information about options including apprenticeships, degree apprenticeships, and traditional degrees including ‘sandwich’ courses with a year in industry.

As part of their Creating your Future session, Year 8s were encouraged to reflect on:

Attitude and openness – including recognition that careers may span 50+ years so when thinking about pathways beyond Alleyn’s, it is not with a view to what a career for life is. Instead, it is about curiosity, understanding strengths and skills recognition that careers are “squiggly” and as such, openness, a growth mindset and embracing lifelong learning, all of which contribute to a positive career journey.

Bypassing stereotypes – an essential reminder for our pupils that regardless of whether an industry is traditionally more male or female dominated, they are equally capable of entering their chosen field.

Changing circumstances – including labour market conditions impacted by global pandemics like Covid-19, political shifts such as Brexit, heightened social awareness in relation to inclusion, the environment and more.

Definitions of success

Fun, interests and hobbies

Knowing yourself – including strengths and development points.

Whatever route our students take as they move into their life beyond Alleyn’s, it is essential to acknowledge how the increasingly digital world will impact their career trajectory and how embracing it will infinitely expand their possibilities.

It is beneficial for our pupils, and those of us supporting them along their journey, to appreciate that:

• Most jobs are now in technology (as a sector) or with technology – heavily influenced by it. This includes traditional careers: as a teacher (frequently using tech); an archivist (these days, likely to be involved with digitising); an artist (who can use online tools and/or turn creations into Non-Fungible Tokens), a social media manager who engages in analytics, builds brands, and creates communities via social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram; as well as roles more traditionally considered to be within tech such as software development and games designers. Our Year 9 pupil who mentioned Twitch Streaming was spot on in recognition of this being a legitimate job – not to mention eSports, which relates to jobs in the world of competitive gaming.
  
• Even traditional careers we may be more familiar with such as medicine, banking, law, education – now have related areas such as Health Tech, Fintech, Legal Tech and EdTech .
  
• People make a legitimate and a lucrative living as Influencers (creating content on their popular social media profiles and encouraging followers to take action) as well as user generated content creators (who create authentic, personable content for the social media profiles of their clients).

It is a new digital world in which we absolutely need to be cautious and safe online , but beyond those non-negotiable safeguarding elements, we will not properly be preparing Alleyn’s pupils for exciting opportunities in the world of work if we do not embrace the positive potential of actively engaging with digital technologies such as creating a personal brand (much of which can take place on platforms including LinkedIn and through YouTube (where comments can be switched off) as well as audio podcasts (where likes and comments are not a factor). Safety, good mental health, and online visibility can co-exist with some deliberate purpose regarding what and how platforms are used.

As a Careers department, we are excited that in our upcoming whole-school event, the Festival of Inspiration and Enterprise on Monday 27 June, during which we will lean further into future potential though our Enterprise, Social Impact, Wellbeing, Sustainability, Technology and Creative Industries Zones.

For more about our Careers events and to express an interest in contributing to our programme in future, do contact us via [email protected].

Gina Visram

Head of Careers, Alleyn’s School