Research Snapshot: Teenagers and Jobs of the Future
This article sets out major research and reports on career exploration for teenagers and jobs of the future.
Career confusion in the 21st century: Challenges and opportunities by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
"... analysis shows that on average across OECD countries, 14% of jobs are highly automatable and another 32% could face substantial changes in how they are carried out due to such innovations as artificial intelligence. Nearly half of the jobs in OECD countries are at significant risk of being automated over the next 10 to 15 years."
"... young people from the least advantaged backgrounds who performed well on the science test commonly expressed much lower career expectations than comparably performing peers from the most advantaged backgrounds. Considering just those student who performed at the highest levels on the science test, high-achieving advantaged students were more than twice as likely as disadvantaged students, on average, to express an intention to pursue tertiary education."
"The research literature is clear that one of the best indicators of young people’s capacity to understand and progress in the labour market is the extent to which their educational and occupational aspirations are aligned: whether the educational expectation of a young person while in school is appropriate to their occupational expectation. In many countries, a teenager who aspires to be a lawyer, for example, should anticipate attending university and pursuing post-graduate study. Misalignment, particularly when a young person plans to pursue less education than would normally be expected to secure his or her career goal, is an indication of career confusion. Longitudinal studies show that young people whose expectations are misaligned can expect to do worse in the adult job market than their peers with similar qualifications and backgrounds who understand what they need to do to realise their ambitions."
Providing guidance: whether participation in career development activities can be seen to make a difference to career thinking.
"Reviews of research literature show that young people who participate in career development activities through their schooling can mostly, but not always, expect positive changes in their educational success and later working lives. Effective career development activities can help young people develop a better understanding of the relationship between education and employment, broaden their career aspirations and help them develop a more informed understanding of what they need to do in order to achieve their goals. As such, the quality of the guidance provided is as important as the availability of a coherent programme of related activities delivered over a school career."
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