The month of March began with National Careers Week – a one-week celebration of careers guidance and free resources in education across the UK. This focus on careers is vital for young people: it enables them to make informed and insightful choices about the next steps they might wish to take. During National Careers Week students at Lighthouse, our Newton Abbot centre, were considering how to develop transferrable skills – such as communication – through volunteering, work experience, caring for others, self-initiated learning and their academic studies.
Students learnt that on average people have 18 jobs in a lifetime and that approximately 10% of the workforce are 16-24 years old – many of which work in hospitality or retail. This statistic was evidenced by centre staff who challenged students to guess which jobs they did when they were starting their employment journeys. Students enjoyed guessing ‘whodunit’ from a wide variety of job roles from waitressing and bartending to the more obscure magician’s assistant and sky diving instructor! Students also enjoyed dressing up our resident mannequin Gloria with a careers theme. Gloria is featured working as a scientist.
National Careers Week is all about getting young people up to speed with their current options for the future, and the Lighthouse team managed this brilliantly.
Further information and careers support can be found here: https://pluss.org.uk/work/looking-for-work/
Pluss supports thousands of people with disabilities and other disadvantages to move into employment each year. Find out more here.
Careers South West (CSW) offers a range of services to help guide you through your choices, provide information, and offer support, from a quick chat to more intensive, long-lasting support. Find out more here.
The following organisations can all help to provide careers information, advice and guidance – just click on each to find out more:
