How can we solve skills shortages when young people don't even know the jobs exist?

A remarkable new UK initiative offers a lesson every Canadian industry, and every education system, should take seriously. Through its Inspiring Aviation campaign, Education and Employers connected nearly 200,000 young people with people working across the aviation sector. The results are revealing:

• 77% of participating secondary students discovered at least one aviation occupation they had never heard of.

• 83% reported greater awareness of aviation careers and pathways.

And these weren't simply encounters with pilots and flight attendants. Students discovered aerospace engineers, air traffic controllers, aviation lawyers, and many other occupations that make the industry work. The initiative reached children as young as five, continuing through secondary school.

This is precisely the problem I explore in my forthcoming book, The Missing Bridge: Why So Many Young People Can't Find a Path from School to Meaningful Work. We worry about shortages of skilled workers in construction, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, technology, and other sectors. We invest heavily in training programs, apprenticeships, and recruitment campaigns. But how much are we investing in helping children discover these possibilities before their aspirations narrow and their educational decisions begin closing doors?

A young person cannot choose a future they cannot imagine. And a nation cannot fully develop talent that never discovers where it might flourish. The lesson from Inspiring Aviation isn't that every industry needs another recruitment campaign. It's that career development must begin early, reach every student, and provide repeated, meaningful encounters with the world of work throughout schooling.

Employers, unions, professional associations, postsecondary institutions, families, and communities all have something invaluable to contribute. Imagine if every Canadian child, regardless of postal code or family connections, had regular opportunities to discover the extraordinary diversity of work being done in their own communities and across Canada.

That's the bridge we need to build. And that's why career development is nation building.

Read the inspiring UK findings:https://www.educationandemployers.org/inspiring-aviation-lessons-for-every-sector/

What would happen if every major Canadian industry made career discovery in elementary and secondary schools a national priority?

AI Acknowledgement: I conceived and wrote this post, with creative and editorial assistance from my partner, ChatGPT.