My submission for the "Ideate" assignment of Design Thinking Action Group

1. 1/ free year of work experience so you can try out lots of different jobs
2/ year out funded by the state so you can find out what is out there
3/ careers advice based on psychological tests to find out who you are faster
4/ lifetime education vouchers to allow anyone to go back to school at any age
5/ personal career trainers to help pupils choose career paths right for them
6/ leave school at any age so schools never have kids that don‟t want to be there
7/ entry-level jobs for teens in all careers and industry (so there are real alternatives to school)
8/ professional coaching/tutoring scheme (teaching is a different job from life coaching)
9/ re-invent apprenticeships – all trades have an “apprentice mode”
10/ give everyone basic living wage without means test so that they don‟t have to work
11/ free hostels for 14-22 year olds while they “find themselves”
12/ works and office etc tours revisited (sort out Health & Safety issues)
13/ work shadowing scheme – for at least 1 month with an adult, repeated as often as required
14/ no compulsory school, ever., for anyone over 5, and ideally never at all
15/ unlimited access to learning, in work or unemployed
16/ cctv in all workplaces so you can see what jobs are really like
17/ youtube channels about “day in the life of” various people, linked up so you can browse them
18/ online personality (like/dislike) profiling links to suggested jobs
19/ simulators games for all jobs (not just pilots!)
20/ classroom visits by real people “what‟s my job like”
21/ fast forward your life to see if option X works out better than option Y
22/ live inside someone else‟s head for a week to see what their life is like
23/ list of future job possibilities that don‟t exist yet
24/ entrepreneur classes at school
25/ 100% accurate entrepreneurship test – should you work for yourself or not?
Unhappy high
school Student
Needs to
Understand career
opportunities suited to
his needs
because
There must be
career
opportunities which
don‟t need pure
academics
50
IDEAS

2. 26/ time out in all jobs to reassess career options
27/ no drop in wages for all career changes
28/ everyone paid the same, so no-one does a job they don‟t like just because it pays well
29/ all jobs allocated on the basis of suitability not influence or inside knowledge
30/ reprogram people‟s heads so that all careers are considered equally important
31/ schools to focus on finding pupils‟ motivating subjects not on common standards
32/ allow students to write their own timetables and pick from local schools & colleges on a course-by-course basis
33/ include distance-learning options in the standard curriculum to widen choices
34/ all teaching to come with specific examples as to why this course is useful in reality
35/ job and education mind-map developed so that links between courses and jobs can be explored dynamically
36/ roleplay career games requiring actual skills and knowledge – including pause-and-find-out mode
37/ automatic happiness monitor records what you do and don‟t enjoy (school and leisure) to design your ideal job
38/ job definitions flexible and variable to allow people to find non-prescriptive ways of working together
39/ database of skills and aptitudes irrespective of age/status etc
40/ universal aptitude-matching service to select top applicants for suitable jobs
41/ skill-bots to mine online database (as 39) to define new synergies between individual entreprenuers/team workers
42/ dragons-den (only not so scary) type online service for funding new ideas
43/ feedback from workers as to how their education has proved useful in their jobs
44/ educational “coverage maps” to show visually the results of 43 above
45/ state schools to adopt „child centred‟ learning (eg Montessori)
46/ more flexibility in job market – rewards not coupled to status and/or length of service etc
47/ space aliens to invade and decide to keep us as pets
48/ very wealthy people to pay extra tax directly into entrepreneur funding - boost crowdsource funds, perhaps
49/ reintroduce “apprentice school” route into work in all large companies, not just industry
50/ relaunch educational establishments as life training centres (educate for work not just the person)
Unhappy high
school Student
Needs to
Understand career
opportunities suited to
his needs
because
There must be
career
opportunities which
don‟t need pure
academics
50
IDEAS

3. 17/ youtube channels about “day in the life of” various people, linked up
so you can browse them
54/ State schools to adopt „child centred‟ learning
(eg Montessori)
35/ Job and education mind-map developed so that links between
courses and jobs can be explored dynamically
Unhappy high
school Student
Needs to
Understand career
opportunities suited to
his needs
because
There must be
career
opportunities which
don‟t need pure
academics
THE TOP THREE
MY FAVOURITE
47/ space aliens to invade and decide to keep us as pets

4. It‟s often hard to know what real world jobs are like and what people like
about them. Having real people feature in short videos about their work
and life would make it easier for students to think about what they might
like to do in life.
The feature of YouTube that presents “related” videos would allow
students to browse about looking at different possible walks of life easily
Each clip should be short, but longer clips could be provided for jobs
features „interesting‟, and these could provide valuable career path ideas
to teachers.
Unhappy high
school Student
Needs to
Understand career
opportunities suited to
his needs
because
There must be
career
opportunities which
don‟t need pure
academics
YouTube Channel – Day in the Life

5. At the moment the „child-centred‟ model of learning in which the child is
assisted to explore its universe rather than being regarded as a pot to be
filled with knowledge is only available to those who can pay for private
education.
If this were the standard educational approach of the state system, many
more students would get to know early what excites them, and teachers
would understand their kids motivations and „hot buttons‟ much better.
Unhappy high
school Student
Needs to
Understand career
opportunities suited to
his needs
because
There must be
career
opportunities which
don‟t need pure
academics
Child-Centred Learning for All

6. I‟m envisaging somethinguniversal – all the job specs you ever saw and
all the CVs that anyone ever wrote all linked up and categorised with
dynamic interconnections so that if you decide to be a brain surgeon you
can see exactly what training you need, what personal traits work, what
experience you‟ll require.
This would be a developing and dynamic database that would be mined
for career information but also would be altered and updated continually
by those already in work. It therefore also works out how well education
prepares students for particular jobs and professions.
Unhappy high
school Student
Needs to
Understand career
opportunities suited to
his needs
because
There must be
career
opportunities which
don‟t need pure
academics
Job & Education Mind-Map

7. Well, of course, they would feed us and keep us safe, but like the best
pet-owners they would provide stimulating and interesting environments
for us to explore and be ourselves in.
We‟d probably spend most of our time making escape plans.
Unhappy high
school Student
Needs to
Understand career
opportunities suited to
his needs
because
There must be
career
opportunities which
don‟t need pure
academics
Joke – Space Alien Pets