Introduction

How could a young person know how many different jobs there are inside your company or organisation? Yet today, it is more important than ever that we encourage young people to think as broadly as possible about the opportunities available to them and ensure that whatever experience of work they have with you, they are also aware about all the other opportunities in your world of work. The world of work is changing so fast, the education sector cannot be expected to keep up and this means informing young people is something the corporate sector should take on board. But the information needs to be presented in a way that is meaningful and inspiring for young people.

Instead of simply presenting a list of job titles which won’t mean very much to anyone outside your organisation and even less to someone in school, we have created a simple and easy way of presenting jobs by different personality types that enable you to show how varied the roles are within a company and how different characters, skills and interests suit different types of jobs.

This Insight is not intended to offer careers advice or guidance. The objective of this session is for young people to understand the variety and scope of opportunity in the world of work and to use this knowledge to see how to apply their talents and skills to what they might do in the future. It is a means to create the next stage in a conversation started with Insight 1. Keep the focus of this conversation on people not positions. It is a way of explaining jobs in terms of skills and talents. In a marketplace that is getting increasingly hard to get into, it is even more important that we help young people sell themselves. Use this experience to help show them how.

How to make the most of the ‘Look Behind the Scenes’ session

We suggest this is used as a framework to consider the roles in your organisation. It is a means to create the next stage in a conversation started with Insight 1.

Before you use it with a young person, work through the grid and add the roles within your organisation that best suit the descriptor in each row.

Having completed Insight 1 you will have a rough idea of the personality type for the young person you have on work experience. Find the corresponding section in this Insight and read the information underneath. Finally, suggest examples of the types of jobs they might enjoy in your company.

It is important to explain that, during the questions asked earlier, certain attributes may have become apparent in terms of how that young person may feel about operating in certain work environments.

The objective of this session is to convey opportunities specific to your organisation. It is not to suggest that you label or typecast the young person in any way about either their capabilities or their future or who they are.

Once you have talked to the young person about the specific links to roles they might like, use all the sections to show them the variety of jobs that exist in the company.

Download the list of personalities and roles (PDF)