I stumbled across this:

“More than 20 years ago a generation of schoolchildren sat down to complete a questionnaire they were told would predict their future.”

Which is a BBC Scotland story about the Jiig-Cal computer in Edinburgh that reported back to an estimated four million pupils across the UK in the eighties about which career paths they should follow. I have vague memories of doing this questionnaire, although I can’t remember what my results were.

The article says that 70% of people went into jobs suggested for them by the computer – that doesn’t mean that they were the right jobs! It just shows how influential careers education or advice can be.

Fortunately, careers education has moved on a great deal since then. Unfortunately, I think it’s still hampered by an education system that is schooling people in ‘old world’ ways that are wholly inappropriate for our current reality. This is best articulated by Sir Ken Robinson in his TED Talk ‘Schools kill creativity’. If you have school-aged children, you have got to listen to this 18-minute talk. It could change the way you view their selection of subjects, which could have profound outcomes on their career success.

Some of Sir Ken’s ideas are explored further in Dan Pink’s book ‘A Whole New Mind’. If you are not the classic left-brain, MBA touting whizz-kid – fear not! The future for us in the west belongs to those who recognise and develop their right-brain (and, ultimately, whole-brain) capabilities.

So, if you’re in any form of career education at present, I would urge you to take account of some of this thinking that our current system is somewhat off the mark in terms of preparing people for happy and productive careers over the next 20-30 years.

And if you remember what the Jiig-Cal computer predicted for you, post it here!