I want to be an astronaut

I remember my meeting with my careers advice teacher, during my final year at school. It was 1972, in the heady days of the final lunar landings, where space exploration was top news and we were all very excited by it. Space travel and moon landings had caught the imagination of every kid. The conversation with my 'careers master' went something like this:

"Right Wheeler, what do you want to do when you leave school next year?"
"I want to be an astronaut Sir"
A moment's silence, a slight pause while the career teacher's spectacles glinted. He adjusted his tie, then... "Don't be silly sonny, being an astronaut isn't a real job."
"It's what I want to be Sir. I want to explore."
"Well, I'm afraid that's just impossible. You have to be an American to be an astronaut."
"Or a Russian Sir, they're called cosmonauts in Russia, Sir."
"Well, clearly you're neither, so think again. What are you good at?" (He's a careers adviser at the school. He should know this. He should have done his homework on me).
"I'm good at Art, Sir."
"What else are you good at?"
"Music. Not a lot else."
"OK... not academic... so you'll be an artist or a musician then. Good luck with that. Time's up Wheeler, I have a lot of other students to see." He indicated toward the door. I walked out.

And that, as they say, was the end of that. I left the office none the wiser, and still yearned to be an astronaut, or get involved in some other kind of exploration. From my time studying geography and history, I had learnt about the explorers of old, including my heroes David Livingstone, Mungo Park (who always sounded to me like a municipal recreation area) and Robert Falcon Scott, whose mission to reach the South Pole ended in heroic failure. Astronauts to me, were the last great explorers - launching into the deep unknown, exploring the final frontier - space. I wanted to boldly go where no-one had been before. To be the first. Captain Kirk and Mr Spock had a lot to answer for.

Funnily enough, that is exactly what I think I have become. An explorer. I eventually, through a long and convoluted set of career pathways, went from being a graphic designer and photographer, through technical work with videos and computers, to being a psychologist, part-time musician, a lecturer in education, and eventually a researcher. As a researcher, I am an ultimate explorer, discovering and investigating areas that are previously unknown. I experiment with social media and mobile technologies, trying to fit them into new areas and contexts to see what happens. In a strange and round about way, I have fulfilled my schoolboy dreams to become an astronaut.

Careers advice has changed greatly since my time in school. It had to really, because as it stood it was neither use nor ornament. Listening to Bob Athwal this morning made me realise just how far careers advice has really developed. Bob is Director of Leicester University's Careers Service, and keynoted the E-ATP Conference in Malta. Bob echoed many of my own earlier keynote points - education has to change because industry and the job market is changing, much of our education and training is still stuck in the last century, and organisations need to wake up to the fact that an entirely new generation of employees is on the threshold. These are the digital generation, who have been immersed in technology, and although they may not be fully educated in its use, they are none-the-less expectant that universities and organisations will embed these tools into their experience.

He asked whether such organisations are actually geared up to fulfill the expectations of graduates. Bob argued that for undergraduate students 'the first year is the new third year.' Students who fail to commit and engage with learning in their first year should now expect not to do so well. Bob showed that starting in their first year, students need a develop a whole range of skills and competencies to make themselves marketable in the workplace, including critical self awareness, the ability to be flexible and agile, and to be able to think creatively. Universities needed to help promote and foster these at an early stage he said. Bob also argued that in today's economy, where new kinds of jobs are being created constantly, a good degree is not enough to make graduates attractive to employers. Now they also need a good portfolio of extra-curricular activities, previous experience and a personal brand, often achieved through the maintenance of a personal digital presence that has good reputation. The implications for this in the context of digital literacies is clear.

When asked whether students are being put off by the raised university tuition fees Bob had an interesting answer. They viewed paying university tuition fees, he suggested, like they view purchasing a mobile phone contract. If they desire it, they will pay for it. The times are certainly changing, but whether universities, organisations and industry are changing quickly enough to keep pace with these dramatic changes, remains to be seen.

Photo by NASA via Wikimedia Commons


I want to be an astronaut by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.