Kids and the world of work

Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

ALL STUDENTS need to experience the world of work, particularly work of the future, long before they leave school, according to a new report.

The latest Mitchell Institute report, Connecting the Worlds of Learning and Work, says that collaborating with industry and the community is vital to better prepare children and young people for future work and life. And governments need to play a leading role to ensure that this happens.

Jobs in the digital age, and the skills and capabilities required to do them, are transforming at an unprecedented rate. Schools alone cannot be expected to foster the complex combinations of science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), digital and transferable skills, like collaboration, problem solving and communication, that young people will need in their future careers. That’s in addition to core skills like literacy and numeracy.

Bringing together the classroom and the workplace has broad public benefits but can be challenging to do in practice.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Exposure to the world of work provides opportunities for students to build connections with professionals outside of their usual family networks, and to learn by ‘doing’ in real-world contexts. Students picked by design thinking, coding and