VIEWSVIEWS & OPINIO N OPINION


Why it's time formore immersive career advice in primary schools


Comment by CHRIS JEFFRIES, CEOand founder of Dev Clever


For many of us, thinking of how we decided to proceed into our profession probably conjures up memories of


confusion and questions about “what do you want to be when you grow up?” As a school student, thinking about your career and the rest of your life feels like an enormous ultimatum at a time when it’s also a low priority. Often the decision is made through a career-councillor session at school (if offered), a steer in a direction from your parents, and an inkling within yourself about what job you might like


based on what you know about that profession.


This process is rarely structured and seldom factors in the student’s personality traits or existing skills. I’m also amazed that with the huge technological innovation around us, the careers guidance process has barely changed since I was in school some 25 years ago. In short, it’s dated, needs a revamp, and should start earlier.


Today’s students have grown up with engaging digital experiences in


their everyday life through platforms like Spotify, Netflix, Instagram, TikTok and more. A customised, gamified, tech-based experience is expected by them – so why aren’t they being used more in schools? While more change is needed, there is progress. A number of schools use VICTAR to create a more immersive careers guidance experience for their students. Students can discover the best career path for them based on their personality and interests, through full 360-degree environments. They can also see LMI stats and information about the career, such as how much they could earn, the predicted growth by region, and videos of people in the role with insights into their work environments.


The benefits of getting students into the right career from the outset go beyond personal success too – they have economic impacts. Research from the LGA has shown that 12 million people could be caught in a skills gap by 2024, caused by a perfect storm of millions of low-skilled workers in the job market alongside millions of high-skilled jobs available, without people to do them. This skills crisis could mea n £90bn of economic growth is lost.


Our company ethos is ‘imagination, intelligently applied’, and that’s what we need more of in careers guidance, for the sake of our students and our economy. In a positive step in this direction, we know the Government plans to place more available resources into primary and secondary schools, in turn giving them the means to reach the mandated criteria of achieving the GATSBY benchmarks by the end of 2020. The Department of Education has also pledged it will offer careers-related activities to pupils.


With this resource, it’s important we see primary schools in particular employing technology to bring more structure to the career-choice process and to help identify students’ skills an d strengths from an early age. In using technology and a more immersive experience to guide career choices, educators will be able to better develop students and give them the best possible chance at employment.


Te


Technology off


ffer away


out for growing teache r workloads


Comment by NAIMISH GOHIL, CEO& Founder, Satchel Schools are pressure cookers – there are


pressure is mountin no two ways about


g. Rising teacher it – and that


workloads; shifting regulatory goalposts; soaring student menta l health issues and schools culling pupils to skew exam results: these are just some of the challenges and scandals that those working in education face. As a teacher and entrepreneur, I feel


as a nation, we don’t appreciate our


teachers enough. That this malaise shows up in schools is hardly surprising, but the net impact is nonetheless eye-opening: 75%of teachers say their workload has caused health problems, while 45%find it impossible to achieve a healthy work-life balance.


These figures have resulted in an exodus of talented teachers from the industry – and our future leaders, artists, coders, doctors, engineers, historians, et al are those who stand to lose. Because good teachers have that rare ability to help students realise their potential and succeed in ways they didn’t know were possible. But such relationships take time to build, and will not happen when students are faced with a revolving door of supply teachers.


2 2 www .education-today.co.uk.co.uk www


Tech and retentio n


Tech and retention


Hundreds of millions are spent on training new teachers every year. With 35,000 teachers leaving the profession for reasons other than retirement last year alone, this is a false economy. A mere £91k was spent last year on trying to improve teacher retention issues. More money should be invested in retention, and one of the key areas for this should involve edtech, in which Britain leads Europe with a nnovative tools on the market, many of which are dedicated ng the administrative workload of teachers, giving them back


to minimisi wealth of i


their teaching superpowers. I’ve made it my personal mission to try and help do this.


My revelation came while teaching in Hammersmith and Fulham: Around me, teachers were stressed and overworked. The technology in place was dated and unintuitive. Tracking the shifting policy on homework requirements was nigh-impossible.


wholeheartedly that, edtech


In a bid to tackle this initially, I built “ShowMy Homework”, Satchel’s flagship software, with the aim of driving simple time-saving, workload- reducing results. It provides complete transparency with all homework details and deadlines accessible on schools’ public calendar, alongside the ability for pupils to submit homework online and teachers to efficiently provide grades and comments from an array of platforms. Some years later, we support 35%of UK secondary schools and have launched our all-in-one Satchel One learning platform, which will help teachers bring our ever growing range of innovation into their schools quickly and cheaply to reduce the workload burden beyond just homework.


Many schools are still lagging in edtech however, and school leaders need help to put in place a successful digital plan for their schools. Teachers can never, ever be replaced. But they can be supported by technology that takes the “robot out of the human” and allows the creative humanity of teachers to flourish. It’s time that the government sat up and paid more notice to the role such technologies can play in teacher retention, while championing a pionee ring sector.


Octobe r 2019 2019


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