Becoming an Englishian

If you're good at Maths, you could aspire to become a mathematician. If you enjoy History, why not become a historian! 

If you're good at English, you could become a writer. (Yes, I made up the word 'Englishian' in the title, and it makes me wince, too).

The point is, it can be easy for students to take a narrow view, a short-cut leading from a school subject to just one occupation.  

It's frustrating for educators when this happens. That frustration is useful, actually, because it stops us from getting used to and accepting this 1:1 flat relation between subject and career.

We can ask:  

🏥 How often do medical professionals need to communicate clearly?  (All the time, with important consequences if they don't.)

🏀 Is maths important to sport? (Yes! It is everywhere - in game statistics, player nutrition and performance data just as a start.)

✍️ Without the arts, where does the content everyone watches, reads or listens to comes from? (And no, AI was not used to write this blog post.)

The subtle art of surprise

One of the powerful but simple things all teachers can do is to talk about careers that use the knowledge and skills in their subject, every day. As the OECD's global indicators of teenage career readiness remind us, having a conversation with an adult at school about your ideas for the future is a vital step towards career readiness.

If the connections between subject and careers surprise students, even better! 

Because surprise is a useful jolt.

A jolt that can help us all step beyond old patterns of thinking. Such as Maths = Mathematician, History = Historian, English = Writer.  (Or 'people like me don't do jobs like X'.)

Narrow thinking can be unsettled by a well-aimed surprising question. 'Who composes the music in video games?' 'How much maths do you think air traffic controllers use?' 'How much do journalists need to know about history?' 'Where would we find earth sciences in archaeology?' 'How much do psychologists use statistics?' 'What kinds of communication skills does a flight attendant need?'

Surprise opens up the route for new and wider ideas about careers and learning to form. 

The short examples in this video are contributions from teachers in The Heart of the Future course.

They show how everyone - educators AND students - gets inspired when we start showcasing the relevance of our learning area. 

Which topics do you teach that are used in unexpected careers? 

When we compare student responses pre- and post- BECOME program, we regularly see a significant jump up in how relevant students think school is, related to their future. Making it real can start with surprise, and end in a big boost to learner engagement - usually about a 20% lift.

The Heart of the Future, our new short course for all educators helps expand students' awareness of career opportunities, showing all teachers specifically how talking about the future can inspire learners today. 

All teachers can have a big impact on students' aspirations, optimism, and their willingness to invest effort in their learning right now. Knowing what to do and when means teachers support efforts by career leaders in the school.

Heart of the Future unpacks how, when and what to do to boost career exploration.

An engaging short course, it's packed practical tips and activities for teachers of all subject areas in years 5-11. 

Unlock the heart of student engagement today.