Job adverts: a resource for teachers, careers professionals and young people
The young people you support may not be ready to look for a job yet, but job adverts are a great resource for learning about the world of work and developing career management skills.
There is a lot to be learnt from looking at job adverts and you can help young people to unpick them and see how useful scouring job websites can be, even if leaving full-time education is in their distant future.
So, how can you use job adverts with young people?
Dream job
For those who think they know what they might like to do in the future, encourage them to explore the jobs available now in that career. Things to think about are:
- Start with reputable websites such as https://uk.indeed.com/, reed.co.uk/, www.monster.co.uk/, ww.adzuna.co.uk/ and a defined research question. The research question isn’t what the young person ‘puts into Google’, but it should help to focus their search . E.g. “I want to find out about jobs in the gaming industry.”
- What key words should be used in the search? Job titles often vary across different businesses and the terms used can be unfamiliar. For example, those wanting to be a games designer could search using other key terms such as games developer, user experience (UX)/user interface (UI) designer, technician, animator.
- What geographical area will they search in? Do they want to live close to the family home or is there part of the country that their sector is clustered around? For example, there are clusters of gaming industry companies in east England and Dundee in Scotland.
- Are they finding many jobs in their search? Where are those jobs located? What does this tell them about how ‘in demand’ the role is? This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t aspire for that job, but it does mean planning will be required.
- What planning can the young person do now? What qualifications, skills and experiences would be beneficial to help them be the best candidate for the job?
- Encourage young people to follow up their research by talking to people who do the job, or to look at other websites such as prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles or sector specific websites.
Jobs in demand
Perhaps you would like to use job adverts to give your students more information about jobs that are actively recruiting candidates with specific skills. Sourcing job adverts in a sector linked to your curriculum area will help young people see how your subject is linked to the world of work. The link could be subject knowledge, such as electricity in physics, or skills-based, such as collaboration in performing arts.
- Present the students with a selection of job adverts (remember to use a wide range of terms as you search for examples).
- Discuss why recruits for this job are in demand and what factors are driving this, for example, net zero or a skills shortage.
- What connections do the young people feel they have to this area of employment? (Do they use the products or services? Do they know someone who works in the industry? Do their interests and values align to the way the industry works?)
- Explore with the students how your subject area and lessons contribute to the knowledge/skills required for this job.
- Encourage students to find out where they can gain the qualifications required for the job. (Further or higher education? Apprenticeships?) Are these opportunities available locally or would they need to consider moving away from home?
Real life
We can use a job advert to underpin tangible activities that link to real life. With any decision we make about our career, we subconsciously compare the risk and benefit. This can hold people back from applying for a job as they may not have the confidence and self-belief. By encouraging your students to ‘play’ with a job advert now when the risks are low, they can start to overcome any barriers that may affect them when they actually apply.
- Know the company! What does the company do? (Make a product, offer a service?) Explore how the company values compare to their own. Encourage the students to have a detailed search on the company website. How would they know if they really want to work for this company? Do they think they’d feel welcome and could they see themselves being comfortable working in this organisation?
- Practise writing a cover letter for a job advert. It doesn’t matter that they don’t have the required qualifications yet, encourage students to be comfortable with introducing themselves on paper. They can then practise giving specific examples of the skills they have and how these skills would be beneficial in the job.
- Cost out real life. Will the job be enough to live on? Encourage the students to explore starting salaries by giving them a range of entry level job adverts such as school leaver, apprenticeship, or graduate. How would they like to live? (At home, flat share, on their own?) If they would like to leave home, what is the monthly rent in the area they would like to live in? How would they travel to work each day, would they own a car? What would their travel cost? Can the monthly salary cover housing, travel, food, savings and treats? This can help young people to think about what is materially important to them.
- Visualise the pathway. For a job that a young person is interested in, they can make a ‘career journey timeline’ that could get them to that job. This can be a fun, visual and creative way to think about career planning. Things to encourage your students to include are education locations, courses and qualifications, experiences of the workplace, support networks and events.
Job adverts are one way for young people to find out about possible careers. You will need to structure the activities and give your students support as they search job websites and practise pulling apart a job advert. By doing some of the activities listed above, young people (and ourselves!) are learning about the labour market and developing good career management skills.
For more information about learning from job adverts and how you can explore values and skills with young people, read Liz’s new book STEM Careers (2nd Edition).