Navigating Uncertain Times with our Youth
For those of us who work with young people, there is nothing more satisfying than helping our students or young clients gain the confidence to make a career decision. Yet, that journey has become much harder. The recent withdrawal of access to benefits for 18–19-year-olds was deeply concerning. With youth unemployment sitting at 13% and underemployment even higher, the question becomes: what can we do, and how can we truly help?
As many of you know, we can’t “job match” young people for an uncertain future. What we can do is help them make well-informed decisions and encourage them to follow their genuine interests. We can foster resilience, adaptability, and a sense of purpose.
As JP Michael, the founder of the Challenge Card Sort, says, ‘Job Matching is Over’.
This means shifting from job-matching mode to development mode. Development mode is about helping people build self-awareness, to understand what motivates them, what they enjoy doing, and what matters most. When this inner grounding is established, self-confidence can grow. From that foundation, young people can trust themselves, take calculated risks, explore opportunities, and adapt when circumstances change.
Recently, I came across a beautiful podcast (available on Spotify) created by a second-year university student, Stella Anderson. In this first episode entitled, Community, Studenthood and Politics at Uni (17mins), Stella interviews Rihana Warsame, who is studying politics with a minor in criminology. It offers insights and journey-making experiences that anyone would enjoy hearing.
Stella plans to interview young people who are navigating the worlds of study and work. Talking to me about her own journey, Stella gave me permission to share this 2-minute post on Instagram, where she questions whether she is on the right path (Psychology and Public Health) and expresses her delight in discovering a love of sociology. Check it out.
The young people we work with have a unique work and study context. One, we haven’t ever experienced in the history of career work, as far as I know. I highly respect the work of many teachers these days who do great work with our youth to prepare them for what seems a daunting journey into work.
Despite the challenges, I believe we can support our youth to be robust navigators of untested territories but they need support!
Young people can take a career questionnaire to help understand what motivates them.
News Flash!
CareerEQ has just had CareerSmart achieve ‘Commended’ status by the Career Development Association of Australia as an excellent career conversation tool worth using within professional career environments.
This news means that ALL CareerEQ career tools will now have ‘Commended’ status by CDAA.
Kaye Avery
kaye.avery@careereq.nz