WESTERN HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL 

CAREERS DEPARTMENT

The Careers Department is based in the Student Support Centre and offers career guidance to all students to assist them in making informed career decisions and wise subject choices.

Talk to careers advisers - Use the appointment forms to make an individual appointment to discuss your career options.

Attend careers expos, seminars, open days and hear visiting speakers.

Gateway programme - Discuss the option of a gateway placement in a field of work you are interested in. On-the-job training and a relevant study programme.  Available for years 11, 12 & 13*. selection criteria applies.

Year 13 Students have individual appointments to help determine options beyond school - employment, tertiary training, scholarships, apprenticeships.

Year 12 Career decision-making - looking at personal qualities, interests, work values, occupational types, career options, tertiary training and occupations.

Year 11 The career education module builds on the social studies unit from year 10 students identify interest areas and possible career options.

FUTURE CAREER PROJECTIONS

No-one can accurately project what the major job opportunities of the future will be. It has been said that many of the jobs of the future have not been thought of today.

Below is some information collected from various sources, which may be of interest.

Career Edge - Quote taken from an editorial by Lester Oakes, Chief Executive, Career Services.

Readers may be surprised to learn that in the past decade more than 150,000 jobs have changed or disappeared and that every year, half a million people move into or out of the labour market.  This volatility is not confined to New Zealand.  Advances in information and computing technologies have helped to create a global labour market for people with the right skills and qualifications.

The boundaries between countries, between industries and between occupations are blurring.  All indications are that this trend is set to continue.  The ability to acquire new skills, transfer skills and change career direction is becoming an increasingly important part of people's working lives.

Careers in the new Millennium

Top 10 Skills for the Future

Based on lists of most-wanted skills prepared by a variety of sources and on a wide range of employer interviews, the top ten skills are:

Oral and Written Communication

Personal interactions become vitally important; also clear, accurate report writing.

Information Processing

Understanding, analysing, reasoning, interpreting and presenting information and the ability to think critically.

Self-management

Ability to work unsupervised or independently.

Teamwork and Co-operation

Numerical and Data Skills

The majority of workers need at least a good basic understanding of numbers.

Creativity and Problem-solving

Lateral thinking, visualising and conflict resolution in interpersonal activities.

Second Language Skills

The Treaty of Waitangi and development of Maori lands and resources increasingly demand knowledge and skills in tikanga Maori and Maori language.  Business and tourism look for people with foreign languages, especially Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Business Skills

Confidence in work with business machines eg computers, faxes.

An understanding of multi-skilling in the workplace.

Learning Skills

Understanding how learning takes place and having the curiosity and enthusiasm to constantly seek out new information.

Personal Skills

Every employer emphasises the importance of high level personal skills.  In many service industries they are valued more than academic or technical skills.  Frequently mentioned are presentation and grooming;  good hygiene; loyalty and commitment; reliability; maturity; desire to work hard. Flexibility and adaptability to change are also valued.

A high level of skills will not necessarily safeguard against loss of jobs, for example, in the banking or communications industries, but it should mean an easier re-entry to a new occupation.

Factors affecting employable skills:

• The steady expansion of professional and information-based occupations and the loss of many production assembly jobs.

• The organisation of work - how, when and where it is going to be done.

• The speed of change in both product and technological innovations.

GROWTH INDUSTRIES FOR THE NEXT DECADE

Labour Market News researched and produced by Lesley Taylor Workshop

Predicting growth industries is a dangerous undertaking!

Replacement of workers in current industries always needs greater numbers than those in new industries.

Nevertheless, here are my 10 top picks - not in any particular order:

• tourism and cultural services
• health - community, mental health, rest homes, some medical and nursing specialities
• recreational, sporting and entertainment services
• electronic high tech manufacturing and electronic security
• computer professionals - systems integrators, business applications, designers and developers eg of multi-media, the WEB, games etc
• applied scientists, technologists and researchers - in food, biotechnology, communications, logistics, environment etc
• tutors, trainers and teachers
• business and property advisers/planners/managers
• sales and distribution of goods and services
• personal services - cleaning, delivery, beauty care etc

Smaller but growing:

• organic growing and processing
• boat building
• recycling of waste
• personnel services

Future Bright for High-Tech Job Hunters by Nick Smith

Looking for a job with prospects in the new millennium  Try the information, technology, health, hospitality and tourism industries.

These are the sectors that have been experiencing employment growth since 1991, statistics show.

The biggest rise - up 42 per cent since 1991 - comes in the technicians and associate professionals category.  This includes computer consultants, programmers and operators.

Systems software engineers, systems analysts and computer service engineers are included in the professional category, which grew by nearly 17 per cent.

Health professionals are also in this category, while dentists, physiotherapists, veterinarians and pharmacists count as associate professionals.

The other big increase came in the service and sales industry - up nearly 40 per cent - which covers tourism and hospitality workers.

There are good prospects in corporate, financial and specialised managerial areas, which grew by 38.4 per cent.

Elementary occupations  - cleaners, messengers, rubbish collectors, labourers and workers not classifiable by occupation - saw a 35 percent rise.

John Pask, the Employment Federation's policy analyst, said there was a obvious trend away from blue-collar work, with hospitality, tourism and information technology all flourishing.

Research by New Zealand's largest recruitment agency, Morgan and Banks, showed that the sectors most likely to see employment growth were computer/information technology, sales and accounting/finance.