There is no doubt that the world of work is changing, we are heading into the fourth industrial revolution and students need to be prepared. We asked our Career Counsellor, Mr Cuthbert, his opinion on the future world of work. Can you explain to us how the world of work is changing? The world we live and work in now demands that young people to seriously rethink the skills that they need to build a successful career and therefore thrive in the future. In the past careers advisors used to ask – “what do you to be when you grow up kid” This worked in an industrial model as career development sought to broaden the knowledge of specific technical skills for specific occupations. Nowadays career pathways are far more complicated and students need to be better prepared for the future of work. What are the sorts of things our graduates need to be prepared for? A typical 15-year-old of this era will likely need to navigate 17 changes of employer across five different careers. An industrial model will not best prepare them. While there are more than 1000 different occupations in Australia today many involve similar skills, day to day tasks and work environments. Rather thinking of specific jobs, students should be thinking about job clusters or groups of jobs that they have the skills for (for example the carer cluster involves 131 different jobs; most of which need the same set of skills). What should career counsellors be doing to prepare our students for work? Careers advisors of this generation should be asking who are you, what are your skills, what are you good at and what passions drive you? At a time when young Australians are more educated than ever, the average transition time from full-time education to full-time work is 2.6 years. Compare this to one year in 1986. One in four young people has found that their lack of career management skills (CV writing and interview skills as examples) are significant barriers to entering full-time work. Changes in the world of work today point to the need to better prepare students for the world of work. Are there opportunities for career counsellors to help our graduates access full-time work faster than 2.6 years following full-time education? Recent research conducted by the Foundation for Young Australians has identified four factors that accelerate entry into full-time work. These are: Building enterprise skills in education – 17 months faster 5,000 hours in relevant paid employment – 12 months faster Paid employment in a future-focused cluster – five months faster An optimistic mindset – two months faster I believe that CCPS is uniquely positioned to engage in these spaces and it is my passion to assist students in this community to acquire these skills and opportunities through its curriculum and therefore enhance their employability at the completion of school. The quest to achieve these outcomes excites and drives me as I engage with CCPS students.