The National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) place a range of expectations on schools to collaborate with business and communities around work and to raise the expectations of learners.
Now a government-backed programme is expanding through the country, offering a package that can help schools meet some NELP and curriculum priorities, as well as enrich the experience of learning about work and career options, by doing it in a fun and engaging way.
Inspiring the Future (ITF) is a research-based programme supported by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) as part of its role in providing careers information and funding transition education. It brings learners face to face with volunteer role models from their communities, and provides students with the chance to hear about their jobs and ask them questions about what inspired them and how they got there. Events are free to organise and run. Schools receive a printed resource pack on how to run a session, which includes pre and post-activities for the classroom.
While the idea behind the programme was developed overseas, it has been refined in New Zealand using local research.
In 2019, students in primary and intermediate schools took part in a survey called Drawing the Future. They were asked to draw pictures of what they want to be when they grow up. In just a few weeks more than 7,700 drawings were sent in.
The results showed more than half of these students aspire to one of just nine most popular jobs, such as police, doctor, vet or teacher. Less than one per cent of young people knew about their preferred role from someone visiting their school from the world of work.
They also showed stereotyped patterns in career preferences. Boys were four times more likely than girls to aspire to be an engineer. Girls were fourteen times more likely than boys to aspire to be a beauty therapist, make-up artist, hairdresser or barber. Children at lower decile schools were less likely than children in higher decile schools to aspire to careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.
So the big message was that many young people are not seeing the rich variety of potential career opportunities available to them, limiting their study options and potentially creating skills gaps for the economy over time.
Inspiring the Future was designed to counter that by broadening horizons and challenging stereotypes that can limit the potential of learners, while bridging the gap between schools and the world of work.
A key tool is the role models. They bring their variety of jobs, backgrounds and stories direct to learners, who get to hear about different jobs and why people love doing them, as well as the role models’ pathways and the challenges they faced along the way. The aim is that learners will find something relatable in the stories they hear that will encourage them to find out more. And that could lead to a new direction and rewarding career.
TEC has recruited hundreds of role models across New Zealand. A website has their profiles and locations. This allows schools to request the ones they want, to focus the session on what will be most engaging for learners. Of course, being volunteers, some first choices won’t be available for the time requested.
When the session starts, the role models’ jobs are not revealed and learners have to try and work them out through a question and answer session. After ‘the big reveal’, often involving demonstrations of uniforms or specific tools of their trade – there’s the chance for small group sessions with the role models so more detailed discussion can take place.
Sessions can be in-person or online. The events are mostly designed for primary to intermediate age children (7–13 years) and four to eight role models, but secondary schools are also making use of Inspiring the Future. An in-person event runs for two to four hours. An online event runs for about one hour with fewer role models.
For role models, Inspiring the Future is a great way to give back to their community and be seen as a positive role model for young people.
For schools, it can expand their student’s sense of what’s possible and deliver to the curriculum at the same time.
For Alice Dunstan, Year 7/8 teacher and Deputy Principal of St Joseph’s School, Queenstown, she sees the value in expanding horizons beyond traditional roles.
‘The great thing about the programme for students was that it just exposes them to things that they may not have been aware of or even thought of, or that isn’t in their immediate environment. For the kids it was a chance to realise, you can actually make a career from something you’re passionate about, something that you’re really excited about and somehow you can turn it into something that makes money for you.’
‘They might just assume they’ll do the same career as their parents. But for a lot of them, exposing them to different career options that aren’t actually what you’d call traditional or things that they even realise you can make a living from, I think was really powerful for them.’
‘One of the other benefits was that the role models didn’t all have straightforward careers. They hadn’t decided, “I’m going to do ‘this’ when I leave school”, and then left school and done it. They had lots of different experiences on their journey and didn’t have a straight path to success. They tried some careers that didn’t work out; then they tried something different. And I think it’s a really important message.’
As a small school, they chose to do the sessions in person, bringing in role models to the classroom.
For Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura), in person isn’t really an option and not the primary way they teach. For them, Inspiring the Future is working with a national group of students who are older – Years 11–13. Their focus is more on transition from school and building awareness of and connections with the world of work.
Trudy Harrison says the model is flexible enough to work well as online sessions for an older learner group. They were part of the pilot in 2020 and got involved ‘to expose our young people to a variety of future pathways’.
As Kaiārahi-a-Motu mō te Whai Taumaru (National Lead for Leaving to Learn), part of her role is focussed on making connections outside school and supporting the creation of lifelong learners.
Being online means they have focused on doing frequent and short sessions, with a focus on engagement.
‘Research shows that akōnga are most likely to follow the pathway seen in their immediate family. This encourages them to be curious and to explore. We encourage them to contact role models outside the sessions to ask more questions. The depth and breadth they get from that is far more valuable to them than just doing it to gain credits.’
Te Kura’s sessions are short – only about an hour – because that keeps learners engaged. Trudy says they like the fast pace.
‘I believe the best value is when it’s done more regularly. If you’re only doing it as part of a careers module, it’s not frequent enough.’
‘We are guided by the student voice. We ask what they learnt after the session and build the chance to reflect. That helps us gather information that the programme is relevant. Its success can be measured by the high numbers coming back. That tells us that they are enjoying it and that their eyes are being opened to pathways. One of the NELP goals is connecting to the real world of work. Where else would they get that chance? We wouldn’t run it if we didn’t think it was worth it.’
‘I will always advocate for it. I believe that the programme is flexible enough to be able to create the ideal conditions that suit each bespoke school, whether they choose face to face, online, or blended. I am an advocate for what we’ve been able to do in an online space because the other one too is that I’ve seen a face to face school, but the role models be online.’
To get more information on Inspiring the Future, go to the website It contains information on the programme, how to sign up as well as videos showing how sessions can be run.