Options Afternoon Talk 3rd March 2015
Slide 1
Your son/daughter has reached a key transition point in their academic lives - at Year 10/12 as they consider their options for GCSE or at Year 12 as they consider their options for A Level study, What I would hope to do this morning/afternoon is to give you some pointers to inform the decisions that the pupils will make this week.
Slide 2
I will give an overview of the changes in the NI economy, look at where the economists predict there will be future job opportunities, indicate the skills that employers want, show you where you can access information and suggest how we can work together as teachers, pupils and parents to meet the challenges of the future.
I begin by looking at the economy. Our pupils are entering a very different labour market than the one our generation faced. Technology is moving at such a pace that researchers say that many of the jobs that our Year 10/12 pupils will be doing in their life time, have not even been invented yet. There are not the same opportunities in many of the traditional career paths such as medicine, teaching and law while new and exciting occupations such as systems analysts and biomedical engineersare on the horizon.
Slide 3
The NI assembly’s programme for government has identified as their first priority to grow our economy through increasing job numbers through entrepreneurship, inward investment, working in global markets, investing in up skilling our work force and in research programmes for new product development.
Slide 4
We hear a lot in the news about recession but the economists predict that by 2017, we should return to peak employment – Year 10 with 2 years GCSE, a further 2 years at A level and a 3 year degree course will hit the labour market in 7 years time
Our current Year 12, with 2 years A Level study and a 3 year degree will hit the labour market in 5 years time when hopefully things will be looking up.
Slide 5
Unquestionably, there are challenges ahead in the local economic conditions but there are opportunities if we focus on export, gain qualifications and skills in relevant areas and use labour market information as we shape our career decisions and plans. The government are also focusing on particular sectors for growth and have an agenda in terms of promoting the career attractiveness of these sectors. Having the right skills and qualifications in particular sectors will be critical to our success.
Slide 6
So what are these sectors that the government in NI and indeed across the UK are focusing on and what may be the implications of this in terms of the qualifications our young people will need to access these sectors?
- Technology and creative sector – areas such as mobile telecoms, ICT, E health development of pace makers, creative industries – film production, broadcasting
- Financial services – accountancy, banking, actuarial science and risk assessment
- Business services – export sales and marketing, legal and compliance outsourcing
- Renewable energy – off shore, wind and wave power – manufacture and assembly of wind turbines at the harbour estate
Slide 7
Look at our recent investors to NI –companies such as CITI Group, Thales, Caterpillar and Allen and Overy. Think about recent announcements by Kainos of 5oo IT jobs in NI and Deloitte of jobs in Technology and Financial Services. These will be the future employers for our pupils.
Slide 8
Other key sectors include:
- Advanced materials and engineering – research into composite materials at Bombardier Aerospace to make the wings on their new c series planes
- Agrifood – 20% of our private sector employment is in the food industry – growth of export based companies such as Mash Direct, Moypark and Dunbia to name but a few
- Life and Health Sciences – Almac Pharmaceuticals, Randox, Heart Sine
- Tourism and leisure
- New emphasis on languages as we enter the global market place
Slide 9
Look at the pattern and extent of recent investment here – In the last 10 years, 78% of new foreign direct investment jobs have been in business, financial services and software development.
Slide 10
So while these have been identified as the key growth sectors, what do employers want?
Well, they are looking for highly skilled, well educated young people.
Slide 11
So what are the implications for our pupils’ futures? There are skills gaps in a range of engineering disciplines particularly Chemical and electrical and it is currently estimated that there are 500 unfilled software development vacancies in NI. There is worldwide demand for software engineers.
Slide 12
It is important to recognise that it’s not just the academic ability but also employability skills such as team work, communication, decision making, commitment etc which our pupils can develop through engagement in the CEIAG programme and the wide range of extra - curricular activities on offer in Aquinas from Duke of Edinburgh, sport, music, drama, computer games design club to name a few.
We should recognise that there is oversupply of graduates in a range of career paths such as medicine, Pharmacy, teaching and law.
Slide 13
So now that I’ve set the context for the predicted growth of our economy, where can you access information to help you make decisions about subject choices? I would direct you to the website
Slide 14/15/16/17/18/19
I would recommend that you log onto this site and look at the parents zone. You may also look at the section on planning your career. In here, you will see subject links for A Level and GCSE. The school careers adviser Margaret Mc Guigan is available this afternoon for guidance interviews. I would suggest that if your son/daughter has a particular course at university or a career path in mind that you check with a careers teacher or the careers adviser that they have the combination of subjects required for entry to that course. You can also check entry requirements on the UCAS website and I have included web addresses in the options booklet which your son/daughter was given last week and which may also be down loaded from the school website as can today’s presentation.
Slide 20
To conclude then, pupils, parents, teachers and careers advisers need to work together to develop an awareness of the most up to date labour market information and hopefully we have gone some way today in doing that, align this with the young person’s interests in particular subjects and raise their ambitions in terms of future study and employment prospects in NI and further afield.
In preparation for the world of work, we have a wide range of employers through the school, working with and informing students about their employment sectors. We also engage in work experience and educational visits to local industry and I hope that this has opened our pupils’ minds to some of the career paths that are available to them.As the leader of CEIAG in Aquinas, I sit on industry advisory panels with local employers and with QUB and UU. This ensures that the most up to date and accurate information is available to your son or daughter as they plan for their future careers.
In the next few days, I will be emailing you out a link for a short questionnaire on the options process. I would very much appreciate if you would take the time to complete this and give us some feedback and suggest any areas for development as this will be used to inform our careers planning for the next academic year
Thank you for your time and I will be available for questions in the library all afternoon. Our school DEL careers adviser Margaret Mc Guigan will also be available for careers support.