What age were you when you started to have an idea about careers?
Starting careers conversations at an early age is so important to help children explore the huge range of options they have in front of them. If we want them to have big ambitions, it is essential that we keep their minds open to lots of possibilities.
Research tells us that children aged 6-8 start to form ideas of jobs based on gender stereotypes, so we are always looking for volunteers who work in jobs that are not ‘typical’ for their gender to get involved.
At age 9-13, children start to limit their aspirations to what they see around them, so arranging encounters with professionals in jobs they may not have heard of promotes awareness and aspiration.
In March, with funding from the Careers and Enterprise Company ‘Start Small Dream Big’ initiative, we supported 400+ primary school children to take part in Skills Street led activities at the ‘Get Up To Speed’ event at Magna..
The brilliant team at Skills Street supported the children around their carousel of business volunteers including a pilot, youth worker, accountant, sporting events promoter, HR and business development.
They then went to explore a mega marketplace of employers offering engaging activities to explain their careers and immersive sector specific skills workshops.
If you are not already working with us and want to find out how you can help us to improve life chances and career choices, we’d love to hear from you at seeitbeit@sheffield.gov.uk.
