Susan Thinks About a Career
Help from the business librarian
Slide 12
Notes:
I'm fourteen years old, and starting to think what I want to do when I leave school. Looking in my local library for a good read, I discovered they could help me with careers advice. Through their computer, I was able to ask about careers in engineering from something called the National Learning Network. I also got fifteen minutes' free advice from the Careers Guidance Centre twelve miles away, and I paid for another half an hour with my smartcard. I found out what qualifications I'd need and where I could study.
Leeds University looked interesting, so I visited its Web site and got a virtual tour of the campus, including the low-down on what it was really like from students there now.
Obviously I wanted to know what I would be likely to earn, and what the career prospects are like. The business information librarian helped me to pick out four local companies, and I filled in their on-screen forms for more information. They e-mailed me their salary listings and current vacancies straightaway. But do women actually work in engineering? An e-mail to the Equal Opportunities Commission gave me some statistics, which I printed out. It seems more and more women are making it in this field.
The library's video archive had a careers section, and I watched several high-powered women talking about how they'd got to where they are today. Then I joined the special-interest bulletin-board for Women in Engineering at the student rate.
I finished by looking at the online UCAS application - though it'll be a few more years before I'm ready to fill it in.
Powerpoint Users: click on the image of Susan to return to the slide about The National Digital Library..