Most people would agree the career world has changed significantly in the past decade.
While adults are feeling the challenges, youth are suffering more then anyone else, career educator and author, Beth Campbell Duke, said in a recent interview.
“Job security is a myth now. The world of work has changed all across the board. The idea of having one job for a long period of time of life has gone by the wayside.”
Campbell Duke worked for over a decade in the biotech sector, which allowed her to work with youth and adult literacy tutoring. From that experience she moved towards a career in education in her 30s and now she’s specializing in helping people develop skills to find jobs in today’s job market.
“I think career educators hold the key to youth engagement. Engagement is the issue in the school systems today. So it’s important getting kids really good at speaking and identifying what their skills and strengths are, then building from there.”
Campbell Duke said the struggle is with the previous generations’ understanding the youth of today.
“Lots has changed in expectations. You hear stories you started at the bottom and worked your way to the top and I think the difficulty now is that there is an expectation on the part of the employers. That they come out of some kind of training program and hit the ground running.
“There a frustration that youth don’t know anything and we conveniently forget that we were there before, where we didn’t know anything either.”
Campbell Duke has had the ability to work with youth and older adults looking for new jobs. She said they all seem to blame one another.
“Older workers have the belief there are no jobs for them because of the youth, and the younger workers believe the older people are getting their jobs.
“Eighty per cent of jobs aren’t posted,” she continued.
She said getting a job is not just about sending resumes out to each and every place; it’s about identifying your skills and finding a way to vocalize your strengths.
Campbell Duke said youth are lacking some skills older people have, although it can go both ways.
“The youth communication skills are lacking. Where youth are connecting online and texting a lot, the face-to-face connections are lacking.
“It puts youth at a disadvantage in the job interview situation because it’s a more formal, structured communication. Although, being a tech native gives youth a disadvantage over the older generation.”
Campbell Duke is meeting with parents of home-schooled children and bringing programs to help children develop essential skills for finding jobs early on.
“Having career skills and knowing how to market yourself are recent. So a lot of parents don’t know how to teach that to their kids and a lot of times even if it’s been in the curriculum, teachers haven’t been exposed to the newer ways to teach them either.”
Campbell Duke says when it comes to what parents can do it’s all about mindset.
“Instead of asking your kids what they want to be when they grow up, ask, ‘Who are you?’ So get them better at a younger age in understanding who they are.”
