I was particularly interested in Q.3.9, which asked about the reasons behind misalignment in university and VET aspirations. It struck me that each individual thinks about things differently. For instance, I tend to be the kind of person who does one thing at a time and just see where it leads me. It's not often that I think numerous steps ahead to an end goal. This is because I am pretty happy to just see where life takes me but at the same time it might also be because 'map' knowledge is inherent for me and I therefore take it for granted because I just 'know what to do' without having to really investigate. However, in thinking about this particular question, I started to wonder whether some of our students might take a similar approach to life. Perhaps they don't really see their educational and occupational goals as being part of the same pathway or journey. It might be that they like the idea of going to university and can see themselves going there to study something, but that they also see themselves as being a hairdresser later on, which doesn't require a university degree. So is the misalignment always because students are relying on 'tour' knowledge and simply don't know what or where they need to study in order to reach their occupational goals? Or is the misalignment sometimes the result of students seeing their educational and occupational aspirations as two different/separate things that are not connected? Perhaps then, it is important to first help students understand the connection between the different points on their aspirational 'journey' in order to resolve issues of misalignment.
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Skye, I agree with you. However, I would add that it also possible that the apparent misalignment between educational and occupational aspirations is symptomatic of the rapid pace of change currently impacting the world of work? Linking educational and occupational aspirations is helpful; however, so is enabling students to identify (and then pursue) tertiary level educational goals that align with their interests - as doing so will likely expose them to a myriad of occupational paths that the student was neither aware of, or did not yet exist at the time of leaving school.
I agree with you both. I teach a lot of students who have experience and interest in the agricultural industry, however, the jobs they are aspiring to now, in years 4, 5 and 6 will most likely not exist in the form they are today. Therefore, following an interest in the field of agriculture could lead to occupations they had not previously considered.