The workforce landscape years ago is different from what it is today. And it’s going to continue changing. Along with the rapid pace of digital transformation, the future of work is getting harder and harder to predict. As the upcoming members of the workforce, how can you start preparing your students for the future?

 

How to prepare students for the future of work

Guide them through their career exploration

Once your students stop being students, it’s time they focus on their careers. Your role is to guide them through their exploration of the numerous options they have. And with technological advancement, more and more jobs are popping up. It can even be more confusing for them to find what they should pursue.

In a previous blog post, we listed 3 ways schools can help students choose their careers. The first one you could do is to conduct career orientations to educate your students on the options that they have. Another thing that you could do is make them take career exploration assessments. Career exploration assessments can help them understand their selves better and figure out the options they have based on different attributes such as their strengths or passion.

You can also conduct one-on-one counseling sessions so that you could get to know each student better and provide recommendations tailored to them. Aside from their affinities and strengths, other factors can affect their decision such as family expectations or financial capabilities. Talking to them can uncover these factors and you can better guide them with these into consideration.

 

Keep them updated

As mentioned above, there are more and more jobs that are available today but aren’t before. There are also jobs that were in demand in the past but aren’t anymore. That’s why, in preparing your students for the future, you have to be updated and also keep them updated.

Career orientations are a great way to do this. You can invite people from various fields to give your students an idea of the jobs that will be available to them if they do choose that career path.

At the same time, keeping your students updated also means that you have to equip them with the skills they need for the future.

 

Don’t just teach them technical skills, soft skills are essential too

Technical or hard skills are important. It ensures that a person can do their job. But, for your students to be successful in their jobs, they need to have soft skills. This is what makes soft skills essential.

So, when preparing your students for the future, don’t just equip them with technical skills but soft skills, too. Equipping for soft skills requires the participation and immersion of your students. And, it also requires constant practice. So, give your students situations where they can do so. For example, group works will help them enhance their collaborative and interpersonal skills, which will help them better interact with their future colleagues. You can also give them tasks where they need to lead to hone their leadership skills.

 

What no one is talking about when preparing students for the future

Challenges litter your students’ road to success. Which, will possibly make them stop in one place for a long time, go backward, or even take another direction. As their guide, you should also prepare them for the potential detours in their career paths.

In fact, according to Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO of Monster.com for the Asia Pacific and Gulf regions, “The prospect of a career change is worrying for a majority of the work force in the Philippines, but it’s also the most desirable option to earn more money and explore opportunities beyond what they have studied.”

So, to truly prepare your students for the future of work, you have to let them know that career changes are also part of their options. That if their initial paths aren’t working out for them, they could change them.

 

People Dynamics offers the Profiles Career  Keys (PCK) and the Profiles Academic Clusters (PAC), assessments that utilize our cutting-edge, job match technology for a well-informed career exploration and selection. These assessments suggest academic tracks, courses, and professions in which a student is most likely to succeed in, where suggestions are based on the profiles of successful people in their respective fields who have similar abilities, interests, and work values. We also offer test development services, with the test battery depending on your requirements and desired outcome.