Right across the areas of business, education and governance of a country, it is predominantly accepted that the skills of young people’s employability are as significant as their academic attainment for the readiness of work, entrepreneurship as well as the career progression.
Research conducted by Sutton Trust, found that 94%, 97% and 88% of employers, educators and young people respectively are of the view that the element of “life skills” should be regarded as at least being prominent as that of the grades, achieved academically to their future success.
Most interestingly, well over 53% of teachers who got surveyed were of the belief that skills were more important than that of the academic grades, received by the young students.
It is crystal clear that employers are keen and look for these skills as the new employees are recruited. Within the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) the most recent survey conducted by the scholars on the aspects of employers, behaviour, character and attributes were considered as a priority, in the recruiting process of school and college leavers for employment. The urge and the requirement for the skills of employability would only escalate,as the world of work seeks for greater adaptability.
The experiences on career preparation assist the young people in getting prepared to reach success in the areas of post-secondary education, a career or independent living.
In this context, career preparatory activities include with career awareness, career exploration as well as career assessment tied to classroom learning, training, given on enhancing employability skills and work experiences.
Preparatory experiences
It is also found that the appropriate and the most applicable career preparatory experiences give room for young people to explore diverse and multiple career opportunities while simultaneously being able to identify their interests and abilities in career as well as that of their required potential for accommodation and assistance.
It is further revealed that career preparatory activities are able to assist the young people in order to make the right decision for a smooth and successful transition into careers.
Research studies indicate that it is necessary to sustain the preparation towards the transition into secondary school to post-secondary education, employment and independent living.
Career preparation is an indispensable element, spanning right across experiences, gained during schooling and they are also able to be accomplished in parts by means of career preparatory activities which include both classroom and community-based experiences.
By participating in these particular activities, young people are able to explore and traverse the nature of the learning options as well as the required experiences in order to develop primary work skills for employment, taken up with the courses, required for the post-secondary education enrolment the training programs and ultimately obtaining the skills that are mandatory for their independent living.
According to World Youth Policy Forum and Centre for Workforce Development, (2021) “career preparatory experiences acquaint youth with career opportunities by: (a) organising the curriculum in more meaningful ways; (b) highlighting occupations, career paths, and experiences in the community that youth might otherwise be unaware of; (c) giving youth skills, academic knowledge, and personal competences required in the workplace and for continued education; and (d) providing youth with personalised opportunities and related skills to meet their individual needs (e.g. budgeting, transportation)”.
Others too play vital role
Schools certainly are not the only organisations which offer career preparatory opportunities.
It should also be noted that the post-secondary education institutions, employers, community-based organisations, public employment, training bodies, families as well as any intermediaries also play a vital role in the sphere of youth’s career preparation.
Career preparatory activities that are made available with the students during their high school years are able to facilitate the young people where they getinterested in exploring some specific careers in a comprehensive manner through the processes such as mentoring, work-based learning, job shadowing as well as the projects, done in the classroom which may apply academic concepts and ideologies with career.
Even merely taking part in a structured sequence of courses in a career path or major let the young people to have a deeper and broader exploration of a particular area of career.
In addition to that choosing a career is definitely an issue which is significant in the young people’s developmental lives, as the said is said to be accompanied by positive and also deleterious and damaging physical, psychological and socio-economic inequalities which persevere well beyond an individual’s younger days into his older age (Robertson, 2020; Bubic and Ivansisevic, 2021).
Occupations
As noted by Ryan and Deci (2021), factors that are intrinsic have a relationship with the decisions that come from the self, and also the set of actions followed get energized and invigorated by the kind of enjoyment, interest, oddity, idiosyncrasy, and pleasure; they are involved with job satisfaction, career advancement, personality traits and learning experiences. The factors that are extraneous turn around external regulations as well as the boon involved with certain occupations (Shoffner et al., 2017).
As per Ryan and Deci, (2021) decision-making on the youth careers is stimulated and motivated by the celebrated and prestigious occupations and a handsome remuneration.
Hence, young people who are congenitally inspired may tend to choose their future careers in line with the fringe benefits, associated with a specific profession, such as the security, and the stability of the job, job satisfaction, the element of finance and the job accessibility.
At the same time, interpersonal factors enclose the activities of agents of socialisation in the life of an individual which include the influence of their loved ones, educators, peers as well as social responsibilities.
For some time, there has been a noteworthy shift with regard as to how education institutions and communities conceptualise the matter of family involvement, through an earlier focus on as to how the families are able to assist the education institutions and community systems to current orientation as to what the education institutions and communities are able to do in the event of assisting the relevant families.
The expected goal is to develop and promote the partnership with the families relevant which assist and nurture every child to learn and also to grow. The partnerships that are identified as successful are often able to have a reflection in understanding the huge diversity that prevails among families and a vast of differences in the aspect of cultural and social economic conditions.