GET READY FOR NEXT STEP
Prepare yourself for any outlook, writes Melanie Burgess
YOUNG Australians are unsure what their future careers will bring, split between fearing new technologies and being excited by the opportunities they may present.
Research suggests more needs to be done to help young people make educated career choices that will set them up for either scenario.
A WorldSkills International and OECD report, Youth Voice for the Future of Work, reveals 34 per cent of Australians aged 18 to 24 worry technological change will threaten their prospects of getting the kind of work they would like.
It is a much higher proportion than their counterparts in Canada, France, Russia, the UK and the US.
Despite this, 65 per cent are optimistic technological change will give them job opportunities in the future and 69 per cent feel confident they have what it takes to retrain when older if their job is automated.
WorldSkills Australia chief executive Trevor Schwenke says young people are hungry for more information about the variety of pathways they can take towards a fulfilling work life beyond school.
The report finds just 53 per cent of surveyed Australians consider the career guidance they received at school to be “OK” or “good”.
One in seven (14 per cent) did not receive any career advice at all.
Coca-Cola Australia public affairs, communications and sustainability director Christine Black says it is OK for high school students to not have clear post-graduation plans but they can better prepare themselves by talking to people who have been there before.
Beacon Foundation and Coca-Cola partnered to develop online mentoring program MyRoad, which connects small groups of high school students with people working in roles from IT and law to finance and strategy who are open to sharing their experience and advice.
Black encourages more mentors to put their hand up for the program, saying they gain as much from the experience as the students do.