Schools are the springboard into the adult world, and it’s vital that we offer students a good understanding of what awaits them beyond the school gates.

However, the relationship between schools, universities and employers can be dislocated and this can lead to students hoping to embark on a particular career and then finding out that their qualifications and skills aren’t what employers are looking for.

Conversely, pupils can be left cold by subjects they believe have no real value to their future, without realising that the skills they are learning or topics being covered are far more relevant than they think.

Schools linking learning to jobs and careers

As teachers, we need to find ways to help balance this by openly discussing the link between that we teach and the real world.

1. Link lessons to career opportunities

Designing schemes of work that refer to current areas of industry and give students an insight of how their learning links directly to skills needs can pay dividends.

I delivered a project to Year 9 art students about specific careers in design, including graphic design, product design and car design. The lessons emphasised how design is relevant to a particular job and lasted throughout the year, with students spending a term exploring each designer role, while also making clear links to the curriculum.

Within the project, students worked to consider the relationship between imagery and words and how, when used in conjunction, they can be used in powerful ways.

Students also learned about typography, including studying the shapes of letters and learning the names of letter parts, exploring the rules of typography and composition. This led to both manual and digital manipulation techniques using Photoshop, before students designed their own piece of graphic design, such as a poster or advertisement.

Taking this approach has been great for boosting engagement, particularly from those who had not been so interested in art before.

 2.  Showcase real-life success stories 

The internet is a great resource for teachers for getting direct insights from people in the industry on what they do and what it takes to get there.

In music, for example, there are many videos on YouTube of producers discussing what they do and demonstrating the processes they undertake.

I used a great video by the artist Charlie Puth, who explains how he used musical software to write and produced his hit song Attention.

He talks through the composition of melodies, rhythms and his choices in sounds for the song, building the layers of tracks to show how the finished piece comes together.

This helps students to see that the work they are doing on digital studio software to compose their own songs is similar to current artists undertaking their music-creating processes, bringing the topic to life.

I have also used videos made by car manufacturers such as Audi, explaining and demonstrating the design and manufacturing process of a recent car they produced and of graphic designers talking through a project, from brief to delivery, to again help show the link between what we are studying and industry.

3. Make links with employers

Seeing the world of work in action is a tried and tested way of helping children to understand the real world.

This might be trips to places of work, asking local individuals to come into school to deliver workshops and talks, networking with organisations to make direct links from students to employers, or even developing work schemes together.

I used to work at a school in London and it was my responsibility to plan and deliver a weekly out-of-school learning programme. Every Friday, I would take a small group of students to a different place of work in London, and we would spend the day there, experiencing a day’s work at the given location such as a restaurant, garden centre or hotel.

The students really enjoyed being out of the school environment, interacting with other adults and getting a chance to learn and work in a setting with a less academic structure. Many often passed their details on to employers for future references.

4.  Use skills and insights of parents

Inviting a parent into school to explain what they do for a living is a very useful activity.

As an art and music teacher, I have worked with parents who have careers within these areas, but our parents have a multitude of experiences and insights to share with our students.

It is always particularly interesting for students to hear from those who have slightly more niche jobs and have taken an unusual path to get where they are.

For example, a figurative artist visited a school I was working at and discussed what they did and how they ended up in the career, which really helped the students understand how a lesson like art can lead to interesting, unique and different careers in the future.

Hearing real career stories from people gives students a truer impression of how in life there is not only one route to where you might hope to be.

Many parents are motivated to do this and in some cases are able to visit several times to support the delivery of a project in school and come back to formatively assess and congratulate students on their achievements, and give advice about where this work could lead in future.

Lewis Mason is an art and music teacher at The English International School of Castellón