Your Life, the campaign to boost the uptake of Maths and Physics A-Levels, has launched a free web-app for teenagers.
With the aim of linking today’s A-Level subject choices with tomorrow’s jobs, ‘Future Finder’ uses data feeds and machine-learning to provide intelligent careers advice for young people.
Functioning on all devices via a web browser, Future Finder features 430 different jobs, with information on salary ranges and entry routes. Future Finder draws on a variety of live labour market data feeds from credible sources such as UCAS, UKCES and the Russell Group. This combination helps the user link A-Level subject choices to the jobs and skills in greatest demand in the future.
Although Your Life’s mission is to increase the uptake of Maths and Physics A-Level, Future Finder deliberately includes non-STEM related careers and subject choices to give the widest appeal to all students. It is designed to inform, but also to inspire, with students offered the opportunity to discover hundreds of varied career options. Also included are ‘jobs of the future’ that don’t yet exist, but will be prime opportunities in the workplace of tomorrow.
There are four different pathways to choose from:
- Input a combination of A-Level subjects and get a list of jobs unlocked by that combination.
- Enter a job to see which A-Levels are recommended.
- Ask Future Finder to inform them based on a brief personality profile, artificial intelligence is used to provide relevant answers.
- An ‘inspire me’ button which reveals some of the fastest growing jobs of the future, from a ‘Big Data Wrangler’ to an ‘Augmented Reality Architect.’
The content-rich experience will use Your Life’s video and editorial expertise to bring to life the jobs of today and the future. Future Finder will feature links to useful external resources such as job boards, information sites, employers’ entry level programme pages and university courses in order to develop their career aspirations further.
Student benefits intended from using the app include:
- Learning more about potential careers and strengthening the link between A-Level choices and jobs, ultimately becoming better informed about which subjects to choose.
- Enhanced knowledge of the labour market.
- Raising aspirations – students are motivated to think about a broader range of career options.
- Increasing confidence in searching and applying for jobs.
Your Life Chair Edwina Dunn says: “The Your Life campaign is very proud to be launching our free ‘Future Finder’ web-app. Our goal is to provide up-to-the-minute information connecting A-Level subject choice and the career paths those choices unlock.”
We know from our Tough Choices research that too many students view STEM subjects as a ‘dead-end’ when the reality is the opposite – so many jobs now and in future will depend on these skills – Edwina Dunn, Your Life Chair
She continues: “We know from our Tough Choices research that too many students view STEM subjects as a ‘dead-end’ when the reality is the opposite – so many jobs now and in future will depend on these skills. We hope ‘Future Finder’ will enable many more students to uncover new and exciting career aspirations, whilst equipping them with the fundamental knowledge of the subjects and skills they need to get there.”
Your Life sponsor and global management consultancy, AT Kearney provided the back-end support while app developer Fish in a Bottle designed the front end. The web app is live now and accessible at https://futurefinder.yourlife.org.uk.