Choosing a profession is how young people start to shape their careers. At the same time, they’re also deciding how they will help shape the world. With this in mind, the «Jobs for Future» education project aims to encourage school pupils to consider sustainability issues when weighing up their career options. The programme is designed to give participants the opportunity, while they are looking into potential career paths, to think about climate protection and see the potential for climate-conscious behaviour across all professional fields. After all, according to the myclimate education experts, there are more than just a few green professions. In fact, all employees from a wide range of professional groups can make a contribution to protecting our climate. A shop worker can optimise ordering processes, for example, making sure that unnecessary material stocks are avoided. And retail assistants can help crack down on food waste as part of goods management. Through their work, people have power over much more than just their own footprint; they can influence the climate impact of others too.
The results of the five-year «Jobs for Future» project were published on two new platforms last year. One of these platforms focuses on school pupils. With the help of an extensive online programme, the young people involved work out how they can contribute towards creating a sustainable society and economy through their chosen profession. This helps them to view their career through the lens of environmental sustainability, giving them a broader foundation on which to base their career decisions. Guidance and instructions are also provided to enable teachers to introduce the topic in the classroom independently. And content from «Jobs for Future» is also integrated into the career choice learning medium «Profolio».
The second platform is aimed at career guidance specialists. It offers a range of practical tools for careers counsellors, teachers, associations, career platforms, young people and parents. The platforms were developed on a systemic basis in collaboration with various professionals involved in career guidance. As well as working with 100 school classes, for example, the project also involved a number of careers information centres, professional associations, providers of teaching materials and apprenticeship platforms so that specific tools could be developed jointly.
The «Jobs for Future» project was realised with the support of the Mercator Foundation Switzerland, the Ernst Göhner Foundation, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and other foundations. These tools are now available to the public. Inspired by «Jobs for Future» but operating independently from it, various initiatives have been launched to incorporate environmental issues into careers guidance in a modern way. The myclimate educational programmes «Company Challenge» (for companies offering learning opportunities) and «Energy and Climate Laboratory» (for vocational schools and inter-company courses offering learning opportunities) allow learners to discover their potential for contributing to climate protection in the workplace and develop the relevant skills directly during their basic professional training.