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Welcome to Space4Careers, the blog of the Centre for Career & Personal Development at Canterbury Christ Church University. This blog does what it says on the tin, it provides an opportunity for anyone who is interested in all aspects of careers work to find a little bit of space in their busy lives to think about current issues and trends. If you like or dislike, agree or disagree with what you see, please respond and let us have your views. We'd love to hear from you.



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Wednesday 23 June 2010

Careers videos on websites

Until this week, I hadn't given much thought to what careers websites are trying to achieve that carry video case studies. There are a growing number including careersbox, icould, U-explore and pods4jobs. I suppose I had assumed that they were trying to provide careers information for young people that did not require a lot of reading. Young people for their part would choose to view case studies that matched their interests; while the goal of the producers of the videos would be to boast that they'd added another 20 titles this month! Then I met Andrew Manson of Talking Jobs. His stance is different. He has filmed a set of 40 case studies and written a number of career learning activities around them that can be completed in the classroom or by independent study out of it. Andrew is on a mission to raise awareness of the interdependence and connectedness of jobs in society, to use video stories to help young people clarify their own values and identities; and to enable young people to learn how to manage their careers (even from people who are doing jobs that they themselves might never want to do). It has made me realise that we all need to probe the rationale behind the sites we use and to discuss whether we think they will contribute to good career learning. Has anyone come across any other well-thought out websites with video case studies?
Anthony Barnes

1 comment:

  1. I am very grateful to Anthony for his comments above. He gets it! In producing www.talkingjobs.net I wanted to let young people explore the lives of those they might not ordinarily encounter, and to prompt ready comparison between them also. For me Talking Jobs is a snapshot of UK society seen through the lens of work. If you can’t get young people out of their post-code, perhaps you can get other people’s insight and experience in.

    To produce Talking Jobs two core components had to be delivered in tandem; the case studies needed to be in-depth, exploring family backgrounds as well as work, with adequate time given to each recording. In addition the Talking Jobs player, needed to encourage sideways exploration of the archive. While very attached to the original clunky version, this year’s updated player has moved the project on tremendously. Most significantly the bookmark and print functions now built into the player let users capture their immediate responses to what they have seen. In turn this document can be used as the start of meaningful conversations either in groups or in one to one sessions with careers and IAG people.

    The resource was designed to let young people understand they can learn from everyone they encounter. Life in a silo means see a vet, be a vet. I think children should be allowed to draw their influences more widely; see chef, be an engineer. See an engineer, be a nurse. However using the resource is not an end in itself – it should be the beginning of a conversation, with your peers, and with those working in careers and IAG roles.
    I am currently collaborating with an illustrator who has created the Emily Brown character as means of quickly explaining how the site can be used. Follow this link for a back door into the site – I will likely leave this ajar for a while yet.
    www.talkingjobs.net/index.cfm/jobs/home.landingpage2

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