Experiencing the World of Work - Year 10
At a College assembly recently, I shared with the student body a story about a personal workplace experience from about 15 years ago. The essence of the story was that I was replaced. Not by another human, but a robot. A blue arm who was far more efficient than me, didn’t take sick leave and was much more reliable than I ever could be.
Whilst undertaking my studies to become a teacher I worked for a large corporation that specialised in making cereals. I would work about twenty hours a week on a production line packing boxes. This all changed when the ‘blue arm’ was introduced. I shifted roles and had to develop new skills.
I shared this story to exemplify that the future workplace may look very different to what it has and even what it looks like now. Our students, our sons and our daughters will need to develop the capacity to be agile in their learning and develop skills to not only compete for the finite number of jobs with their peers, but also new technologies. Although it might seem far off, for me it occurred over a decade ago.
Work experience is an opportunity to identify and develop employability skills, discover what is appealing and also what is not. For Year 10 in 2023 an optional work experience block will occur in Week 9 of Term 2 (June 19-23). This presents an opportunity and challenge for students considering their future and allows them to explore the world of work. More information will be provided, but for now please consider this opportunity with your young person and start to have discussions around the future of work and their place in it.
Mr Lee Hancock - Leader of Innovation and Engagement in the World of Work