The Future of Work up for discussion at Bristol’s first ever National Career Guidance Show
Yesterday, the National Career Guidance Show was be in Bristol for the first time. As part of the UK’s leading series of free conventions for people passionate about careers, the topic “Future of Work” was be high on the agenda.
Over 500 professionals who work to support the transition of young people and adults into work were expected to attend the event at Ashton Gate Stadium, to meet with employers, colleges, universities, training providers and other organisations that can support their work.
The convention kicked off with a breakfast networking event hosted by West of England Mayor, Tim Bowles. Prospects Events, the organisers of the National Career Guidance Show series, partnered with the West of England Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership, to present a seminar later in the day titled “local learners and labour markets – The global skills needs of the future.”
Before the event, West of England Mayor, Tim Bowles, said: “I’m delighted that this event is coming to our region. It is important that we all work together to ensure that our young people are given the right careers advice so that we are supporting our key sectors with a steady flow of skilled labour in the future.
“The West of England has one of the most highly skilled workforces in the country and is home to around 43,000 businesses, one of the many reasons it’s a great place to live. However, matching the right people to the right jobs, education and training opportunities often relies on the skills and knowledge of career professionals.
“Events such as this help ensure that those professionals have access to the very latest labour market intelligence and understand the rapidly changing needs of the local economy
“The National Career Guidance Show South will also help ensure residents across the West of England have access to high quality career guidance and support to help them achieve their potential and excel in their working lives.”
By 2022, 9 million people with low skills are expected to be competing for 4 million low-skilled jobs, with a shortage of 3 million workers to fill 15 million high-skilled jobs. These figures, as well as the thousands of further education opportunities available and the fact that these options are very different from the choices made by their parents 20-30 years ago means that young people are in desperate need of good careers guidance.
With the long awaited publication of the Government’s new Careers Strategy and statutory guidance, the National Career Guidance Shows act as a one stop shop for careers leaders to access free resources and toolkits all under one roof, aiding the development of their career programmes so that they meet all eight Gatsby benchmarks.
Further seminars at the event will include an update on the Careers Strategy from the Careers and Enterprise Company, and a presentation on the future skills and attributes that employers are looking for by global company KPMG.
Nina Hurst Jones, Events Operations Director at Prospects, the organisers of the National Career Guidance Shows, said: “We understand the importance of young people and adults receiving excellent career guidance from professionals with the right skills, knowledge and experience. That’s why our National Career Guidance Shows allow professionals who play a key role in advising the next generation of workers to access free CPD certified seminars to ensure their knowledge is up-to-date. Our exhibitors are also all on hand to network with our visitors to forge partnerships that will benefit the people our visitors work with.”
With over 490 visitors attending the event yesterday, it was a huge success and raised many interesting questions about effective career strategies in schools and the progress of the future work force.