It has been created by the diversified technology company 3M with the help of itsUKemployees who have been filmed discussing their education and career experiences.
3M Careerwise (www.3Mcareerwise.co.uk) is aimed primarily at students aged 11-14 – particularly those who are considering their choice of GCSE subjects.
The website uses a questionnaire to help the students focus on what interests and motivates them and then matches their results with short video interviews of the 3M employees that share similar characteristics.
“The life experience of many students who are coming up to deciding what GCSE exams to take is largely limited to home and school,” explained John Klee of 3M.
“We wanted to give them an insight into the world of work from those who have personal experience. We hope it will help the students with the decisions they face that could have an impact on their future careers.”
The 3M employees are based at a number of the company’sUKsites and range from a female engineering apprentice to senior managers. Their roles include engineers, buyers, sales and marketing professionals and technical, finance and IT specialists.
Giving her support to the launch of the new resource is broadcaster Maggie Philbin, who has long championed the importance of students choosing science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects as a path to future careers.
Maggie commented: “3M Careerwise is a great idea to get the students thinking about the types of careers there are out there and the qualifications they’ll need to pursue them.
“There’s still a wide misconception that doing science subjects at school tends to only lead to careers involving working in a laboratory. The experiences that the 3M employees share in the videos show that’s very far from the truth.”
3M Careerwise has been designed to inspire students who may use the resource on their own or during group class discussions led by school career advisers.
