From the Fort Street Careers Office

The world is changing.

Digital disruption. The economy. Trump. Climate. Possible wars. Another pandemic….

With the world in such a state of flux, how should we approach the delicate subject of life after Fort Street for our students?

It is no longer as simple as suggesting: you should “be a lawyer, physiotherapist or engineer”

Careers Advisors are challenged to provide advice in the midst of this rapid and often revolutionary change – because software, drones, robots, AI and automation are all impacting the traditional pathways to jobs in a technologically- and climate-disrupted world.

Which universities specialise in subjects that students are interested in? Where is the best place to study those subjects? Where does that study lead? What will it cost? And how certain can we be of a job at the end of the course?

Firstly, students need to think about what they currently enjoy learning about at school. Then consider what they enjoy doing in their free time. If they procrastinate – what do they turn to when they should be doing something else? What makes them motivated to get out of bed?

Before narrowing down specific study choices, students should be encouraged to identify a general area of interest – space, robotics, climate action, agriculture, biology and science, AI, ICT and coding, defence and security, health innovation, robots, drones and autonomous systems, cities and urban design, smart manufacturing, startups or not-for-profit social enterprise, the environment, the circular economy, advocacy, politics, energy, reef and marine sciences, languages, law, art, design, animation, music …. the list goes on and on and on.

We’re spoilt for choice now, but that makes it so much harder to decide.

Once students have identified a general area of interest, they can begin to research what courses are available in their chosen field, and at which universities. This is where the Careers Adviser can help direct students to specific new courses or to new majors within traditional degrees. Or to universities the students might initially dismiss. And for students who really can’t decide between two disparate degrees, there is always the possibility of doing a double degree, with the benefits of each individual degree, plus the added advantage of the area of overlap. This overlap is often very niche – think carbon credit law or intellectual property law, biomedical engineering start-ups, veterinary physiotherapy, art or music therapy, architectural green retro-fitting and so on.

All Fortians, whatever year they are currently in, are encouraged to begin to dream, imagine and then research, and to reach out to the Careers Adviser to help join the dots between where they are now and where they could be in the future, no matter how unpredictable that future may be.