Developing School Students’ Career Preparedness for Automation and Job Change

Accelerating job automation and changing occupational requirements are creating new opportunities and challenges for career education stakeholders in developing young people's career preparedness. To critically examine the conceptual and practical complexities of supporting young people's preparedness for automation and job change, a case study was conducted of the Scottish career education system. This comprised of a thematic analysis of national career education documents, interviews with two career policymakers, a focus group with seven career practitioners, and interviews with five primary and secondary schoolteachers. Findings revealed policymakers and practitioners conceptualised automation as creating new occupations rather than resulting in the mass elimination of jobs. Alongside difficulties addressing new information demands and career uncertainty, stakeholders suggested that exploring the novel technological and occupational changes can inspire children's career development. It is argued that stakeholders can go beyond the promotion of meta/general skills to teach the principles underlying automation and job change.