Moving on: Helping Students Prepare for Their Future

Moving on: Helping Students Prepare for Their Future

Moving on: Helping Students Prepare for Their FutureDVDBritish Telecommunications plc

I attended the BETT conference/exhibition earlier in the year and left with bags and bags of stuff ranging from lollipops to educational software. The resource produced by BT turned out to be the best of the bunch. It is designed to help young people prepare for life after school. It is relevant to students from 14 upwards, whether their eventual direction lies in further full time education or work/work based training. The sleeve on the pack says “The DVD is guaranteed to stimulate discussion and widen the student’s appreciation of the options available”. I am normally very suspect of such “guarantees” but feel in this case the claim is justified.

The resource is divided into eight modules over three CDs. Broadly speaking, the first four modules deal with issues around preparing to make some sort of a formal application (course or employment). Life skills and broadening experience, and making the most of oneself are all dealt t with. There are some interesting vignettes of young people a few years into work including a carpenter who is a single mum and a bloke who appears to have managed to “drop out” from two degree programmes before he eventually sorted himself out.

Appropriate attention is devoted to completing a formal application form and the exercise requiring the viewer to identify faults in an application and then compare their assessment with a series of “experts” is a good use of the DVD technology. A very engaging representative from Sainsbury’s explains why she would not give the time of day to an application which appeared to have used at least two differently coloured pens and a rather dodgy ink rubber! In contrast, the lady from an FE College sounded a little tired and jaded – perhaps as a result of wading through 500 or so poorly written application forms!! Oddly, curriculum vitaes only featured in passing and this would seem a missed opportunity to address the construction and presentation of this in a similar, interactive, way to that used with the application form.

Module 5, The Interview, is the longest and features four case studies. The module adopts the “bad – good” model. The viewer is asked to comment on the “bad” example before again, hearing the comment from our industry and college “experts” and then seeing a good interview. My only concern here was that the bad bits were rather overplayed – a bit too bad, whilst a few of the parts in the good example may make the average 16-year-old cringe with embarrassment. Nevertheless, there is much to be gained from this module in terms of simple techniques to ensure the event gets at least close to a dialogue, an exchange of information, that all the experts were agreed was the ideal scenario. The third CD concludes with a further four case studies; two individuals on a modern apprenticeship and two on a graduate training scheme. It is a pity that these were all from BT – earlier examples were very widely dispersed across sectors and different types of organization). But, this aside they nevertheless provide engaging and valuable insight into the different route ways post school and the actual experience itself.

Overall, this is an excellent resource. It is a quality production; thoughtful, interactive and with genuine and engaging case studies and views. Movement within and around the eight modules is easy, enabling it to be used in different contexts and over different time frames. Of course, I am not a careers teacher nor a 16-year-old pondering (or trying to avoid?) my future post-school. But I feel confident in recommending its use by both such parties. It is available free of charge through BTs Education Programme and further details of how to obtain a copy can be found by going to www.bt.com/education and choosing the “not-for-profit” link.