Traditional Careers Expo's don't work

The careers market is fragmented.

I could sit here and copy and paste a long Chat GPT prompt showing you how the current job market is letting our younger generations down, but I wont.

Our students have not been let down at just the university level, but also at the high school level. We expect a 15 year old teenager to make vital life decisions and live with the consequences. The data is already telling..

• 21% of employed people in Australia report that their qualifcations were not even relevant to their current job. (Aus. Bureau of Statistics 2023)

• The ILO (International Labour Organisation) estimates that only 50% of workers worldwide hold jobs corresponding to their level of education. What about the other 50%?
  

Even now some of you reading this blog find yourself falling into this category. I know I have. I completed 4 degrees, spent 8 years working in what I thought was my career job, only to find that I could no longer do it.

When I was a student, I went to the annual careers expo that every high school student attends. I thought this was enough for me to understand my career choices, and what laid ahead for me. I spoke to different universities and they all showed me what I needed to do to achieve my goal. I left there thinking I had everything mapped out correctly. Guess I was wrong.

Knowing what I know now, my first mistake was allowing for a business (universities) to tell me what I should do. I should have instead spoken to professionals who are currently working in the field I wanted to move into. They would have provided me with much better guidance on the expectations, struggles, and hidden realities that come with the occupation.

That is where LaunchpadHQ came into existence. I don't want students to go to an expo and just speak to universities or trade schools who are trying to reach quotas and make money. I want them to attend a careers expo where they will meet the actual professionals in the careers they are interested in. Learn from people living their dreams, not those selling them the idea of a dream. It's crazy to think that such a platform does not exist on a large scale already!

My aim is to change that. But I cannot do that alone. I need my community. I need you!