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Teachers' notes
Purpose
This session aims to encourage students to think about:

how the employment scene is changing
how they will enter the labour market
the range of job choices open to them and their chances of success
how ideas of 'female' and 'male' jobs may affect their success.

Resources

Handout 1M: Males entering employment and youth training in (your area) in (relevant year)
Handout 1F: Females entering employment and youth training in (your area) in (relevant year)
Handout 2: Forecast of changes in employment in (your area) in (relevant years from X to Y) - no original is provided for this, as you will need to prepare your own version, as described below:
Worksheet: The most popular and least popular destinations (16-year-old school leavers)

Preparation

To prepare handouts 1M and 1F, select the percentages and SIC breakdown for your area in an appropriate year using information about school-leaver destinations from your local careers service. Write your figures (corresponding to the industrial sector listed on the left) separately for males and females, in the % column. Put in the SIC breakdown in the SIC column.
To prepare handout 2, you need a chart that forecasts changes in employment by SIC for your area. Get this from your local TEC or LEC labour market assessment. It might look something like this:

Get hold of a copy of the previous week's recruitment or jobs section from a local paper.

Procedure

1 Divide the class into four groups. Give handout 1M to two groups and handout 1F to two groups. Note that handout 1 gives the percentage figures for school-leavers entering employment and youth training. SIC stands for Standard Industrial Classification, and is commonly used in labour market statistics for grouping industries together. Ask the groups to rank the industrial sectors given on the handouts, the most popular ranked 1 and the least popular ranked 20. This should give students an impression of the different types of industry. When they have finished, ask them to circle each of the top five and draw a square around each of the bottom five.

2
Give handout 2 to all groups. Ask them to study it and then put either:

+ for growth
0 for zero growth (or stable)
- for shrinking (in decline)

in the employment growth column on handouts 1M and 1F for the top five and the bottom five industries.

3
Give each group a copy of the worksheet. Ask students to:

look at the rankings on handouts 1M and 1F
list the top five and bottom five jobs for males and females
look at the employment growth columns on handouts 1M and 1F
tick the column for each industry to show whether it's growing (+), staying the same (0), or shrinking (?).

Students will now have looked at classifying industry by SIC, identified the most popular and least popular industry destinations (for 16-year-olds), and matched these with information on projected changes in industry over the next few years.

4 Hand out copies of the previous week's jobs section from the local paper. Compare the sectors and types of jobs advertised with the sectors highlighted in the LMI.

Discussion points

1 How does the published LMI from the handouts compare with the local job situation and pupils' perceptions? What are the messages? Why are there differences?

2 How might the messages from the LMI affect their choices about future careers? Pupils might review their current plans if they include industries in decline. But many other factors affect availability of jobs. One is changes inoccupational levels: professional engineers are still in demand despite contraction of the semi-skilled/skilled workforce. Most skilled craft workers are aged 40-55 and may well need to be replaced when they retire.

3 What differences do you see when you compare the results of worksheets 1M and 1F? Are all industries equally popular with both sexes? Sixteen-year-old school leavers may need to consider changing their aspirations to include areas not thought about before, or even review post-16 options such as staying on at college, thereby delaying their entry into the labour market.

Health warning

Predictions are based on economic circumstances that can change at any time and which are subject to change. They are reasonably short term because of this and should only be used as a guide. Employment opportunities occur within industries even when in decline because of many other factors that influence job availability.

1	Divide the class into four groups. Give handout 1M to two groups and handout 1F to two groups. Note that handout 1 gives the percentage figures for school-leavers entering employment and youth training. SIC stands for Standard Industrial Classification, and is commonly used in labour market statistics for grouping industries together. Ask the groups to rank the industrial sectors given on the handouts, the most popular ranked 1 and the least popular ranked 20. This should give students an impression of the different types of industry. When they have finished, ask them to circle each of the top five and draw a square around each of the bottom five.
2	Give handout 2 to all groups. Ask them to study it and then put either: + for growth 0 for zero growth (or stable) - for shrinking (in decline) in the employment growth column on handouts 1M and 1F for the top five and the bottom five industries.
3	Give each group a copy of the worksheet. Ask students to: look at the rankings on handouts 1M and 1F list the top five and bottom five jobs for males and females look at the employment growth columns on handouts 1M and 1F tick the column for each industry to show whether it's growing (+), staying the same (0), or shrinking (?). Students will now have looked at classifying industry by SIC, identified the most popular and least popular industry destinations (for 16-year-olds), and matched these with information on projected changes in industry over the next few years.
4	Hand out copies of the previous week's jobs section from the local paper. Compare the sectors and types of jobs advertised with the sectors highlighted in the LMI.

1	How does the published LMI from the handouts compare with the local job situation and pupils' perceptions? What are the messages? Why are there differences?
2	How might the messages from the LMI affect their choices about future careers? Pupils might review their current plans if they include industries in decline. But many other factors affect availability of jobs. One is changes inoccupational levels: professional engineers are still in demand despite contraction of the semi-skilled/skilled workforce. Most skilled craft workers are aged 40-55 and may well need to be replaced when they retire.
3	What differences do you see when you compare the results of worksheets 1M and 1F? Are all industries equally popular with both sexes? Sixteen-year-old school leavers may need to consider changing their aspirations to include areas not thought about before, or even review post-16 options such as staying on at college, thereby delaying their entry into the labour market.