Creative Careers
by Andy Griffith Creativity is possible in all areas of human activity1. Young people more than ever need to develop a greater capacity to be adaptable and flexible. Creative approaches to careers education will help young people to develop these capacities in a fast-changing world. So far this year I have been fortunate enough to run the one-day course Creative Careers Education twenty times in different parts of the country. I hope that the word creative does not put people off. I don’t wear jumpers like Geoffrey from Rainbow and I am neither Californian nor schooled in the arts. What I do know is that everybody is creative. According to Tom Wujec 2 there are three ingredients to creativity. They are novelty, value and passion. When we are at our most creative we are doing something new, we believe that it is worth doing and we have a passion for it. One of my passions is the belief that education can help people to find “the music that they love”. I have met some brilliant teachers on these courses who have some brilliant ideas. The memorable learning experiences that they create can have so many benefits, not least fostering a better relationship between the teacher and learner. How can we all be more creative? Over the course of history many people have taught themselves to read, play music etc. because they have been hungry for this learning. We should teach ourselves more about what makes people different, and how to unleash the potential within us. Learning about multiple intelligence, creativity, neuro-linguistic programming and emotional intelligence will make us better able to achieve this. The young people we teach come from different cultures and have different talents. The more we learn about learning the more we will be able to help the different people with whom we come into contact. In essence the more tools we have in our toolkit the more connections we will be able to make. As careers teachers we should look for novel ways to encourage learning about careers, designing relevant and valuable programmes of work and delivering these with passion. This is already going on in many schools and if we can do more of it then we will contribute to building the self-esteem of more young people. When we feel more loveable and capable we can take more risks. It is when we take risks that we grow. Our education system has an obsession with formal tests and exams which value only a narrow range of intelligence. I would like to see an education system that values mistakes and failure as well, because it is at these times when we truly learn. We can really help pupils to discover and develop their own unique gifts and talents. This entails designing learning experiences which will develop independent learning skills3. Some practical examples/ideas of creativity in careers education Encouraging self-confidence and a belief that all pupils have talents and gifts. Group projects where the students set the tasks and negotiate the assessment. Three-dimensional action plans. Presentations to different types of audience. Using positive visualisation exercises and affirmations. Electronic portfolios and personal websites.
Use of drama, art and music in activities. Evaluations of the quality and relevance of lessons from pupils themselves. The encouragement of fresh and unusual suggestions for lessons and trips. Use of film and media clips. Lessons using movement and other kinaesthetic learning examples. Lessons using imagination.
A variety of lessons over a scheme of work will help to develop different types of intelligence4 and will appeal to different learning styles. Lessons that are different may have a very high impact on pupils and help them to discover things about themselves that they might not have known before. One of the main indicators of your creativity is your belief about it. We need to believe as teachers that we are creative people who can unlock the creativity of others. There is a Swahili saying, “It is not what name others call you that matters, but what name you respond to that truly determines who you are.” Creative careers lessons can help pupils to find what their name really is. Further reading 1 2 3 4 All Our Futures – Creativity, Culture and Education: NACCCE Report Five Star Mind by Tom Wujec Educational Citizenship and Independent Learning by Rhys Griffith Multiple Intelligences: the theory in practice by Professor Howard Gardner
Andy Griffith is a member of the NACGT Council and an independent careers education consultant. This article is reproduced by permission of Trait Education, publisher of Co-ordinating Careers: the handbook of careers education and guidance (2002). See
www.thecoursesource.co.uk
November 2002