It’s Your Future – NCW Special

Welcome to the WOW Show. We've got a jam-packed show for you, especially for National Careers Week. It's all about your future and a look at some great careers you might not even have thought of. We're going to be meeting some amazing people that do extraordinary things that help save the planet, save people's lives and keep us safe. And we'll lift the lid on what it really means to be creative. And have you ever heard about soft skills? Well, we're going to be taking a hard look at how you can really boost your chances of landing that dream job. But first up, everything's gone green. We all know about things like recycling, low energy light bulbs and using less water. Have you ever heard about green building? Well, I've checked it out. It's all about changing the way we build things, being more responsible, sustainable, reducing our impact in the environment. That means some skills are going to be just as important in the future as they have been in the past. We all need to start living green and taking more into consideration about the materials we're using in the building, for example. Wood is basically one of the most sustainable materials we can use and that really appealed to me. When I was younger, I used to do like woodworking with my granddad in the garden just at his house. He showed me how to build boxes and stuff like that. That's really how we got into liking woodworking. I work for ERW and they're a brilliant company to work for. It's a family-run business and everyone gets on amazingly. We get to work all over the country in beautiful homes and buildings. Doing an apprenticeship really appealed to me because we weren't just in college in a workshop all the time. We were out on site actually learning. It's really good working in a team. Everyone knows what they're doing. We set roles when you're used to working with each other and everyone gets along. Personal skills I've learned is like working around each other and being patient, friendly and getting on with everyone. We do a lot of renovation, install a lot of timber windows and doors, fixing, making sure everything's level and plumb. We've worked on Auckland Castle, London Road Fire Station in Manchester and Pendoa Hall in Newcastle. Stepping on site at the Auckland Castle project, it's just an empty shell basically when we got there. It's really important for people in that area. It's such an old building and we're preserving it for people in the future to go and visit. Wood is getting used more and more. We're getting busier and busier and more people are wanting timber windows and doors put back into their homes instead of using plastic. It's better for their environment. More wind farms and less emissions. I think it's brilliant. Construction's taking a big step into that. We're trying to get greener and greener, finding new ways of saving energy and becoming more sustainable. It's going to be better for everyone. If you've seen the Oscars or the BAFTAs recently, you'll know that British creatives are among the best in the world. But it's not just about actors, directors and writers. There's a long list of people needed to make great films and TV. That's before we talk about things like gaming, music, fashion, design and advertising. We've been shining a spotlight on a few of these very exciting careers. It's such a fast-paced environment. There's a real buzz. You just feel a part of a team. What struck me is actually getting on a set and seeing how many jobs there are. Lighting, sound is stage management and then set building, rigging. I really get the sense that I'll leave here knowing what to expect on a professional level show. Pretty much the moment I discovered photography, I knew I wanted to do fashion photography. Essentially what happened is I accidentally pitched myself to a brand. That led to putting together a photo shoot, sending it to them and they loved it. Being creative in business is really important, especially when it comes to the marketing side of it. That's where I've always liked about business studies. So I've come away from a business degree really strong on events and marketing and that's where I found a passion. I always enjoyed creative subjects. Once you do the course, you can go into lots of different avenues and like styling while I'm buying. I think it's quite a broad range of careers you can get from it. There are so many transferable skills. You're working individually but then as part of a group. You're self-disciplined. You're doing your own time management. You're really focused. I've done composition. I've done sound design. I've done recording. I've done mixing. I've done mastering. I've done pretty much every aspect of the industry at the moment which is pretty much covered. They're trying to teach us how to go into an industry that is always changing. In today's world, it often seems like computers and robots are taking over but when it comes to improving our healthcare, there's one vital factor. The human touch. We went to the Christie NHS Foundation Trust to meet someone who really knows how teamwork and technology are working together to make a real difference to people's lives. My name is Mohammed Hassan. I'm 13 years old. I'm in year eight and I study maths, English, all the normal stuff, science, art. About three years ago, my back started hurting then my walking started to get terrible and terrible. Eventually, they pushed for a scan. They found I had a tumour in my neck. Christie's really good. It helped me so much. I met so many wonderful people. So David, what is your job and how did you get into it? My job is called a superintendent proton radiographer. My role is to manage the team that deliver the proton therapy and decide whether the treatment's going in the right place or not and then help the team to deliver it. I got into it, I went to university for two years to do a postgraduate diploma in radiotherapy and then I did further study to specialise into proton therapy. Proton therapy is a revolutionary treatment really. It's a type of radiation we use to kill cancer cells. We can directly target them precisely on the tumour. Therapeutic radiographers, you need to be good at two things which is you're very sort of technical scientific mind but then you also need to care for people as well. We have a close relationship with the nurses, with the doctors, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and we all work together to provide the sort of care pathway for that particular patient and make sure all their needs are attended to. What is your job and how did you get into your job? So I'm a paediatric nurse and I got into my job through doing a degree for three years in paediatric nursing. There's other ways of getting into the profession. Now they have a nurse associate path which is a bit more vocational. On a day-to-day basis we'll see the children before their treatment. We might do things like their bloods, we'll do their observations and check their temperature, their heart rate and their blood pressure. A lot of the time at the end of the day you go home and you can think you've made a difference to somebody else's life. I'm on HMS Belfast. She was once one of the largest and most powerful cruisers in the Navy. Her job was keeping us safe. Today the Royal Navy still helps keep us safe but it's also a great place to learn a trade and you get to travel the world at the same time. There's so much stuff you can actually do in the Navy. A lot of hands-on stuff, getting your hands dirty. I'd say it's a really sociable and fun environment. Travel the world, meet new people. It's something that you'll never experience anywhere else. Being paid to learn is everybody's dream really. The attitude for sport here is really good so you don't take time off for sport, they make time for sport. There's so many things that you can work on and so many different areas that you can go into. I forget like we are on an apprenticeship, we're just training and when we're done that's it we carry on with our job. The skills that we achieve are incredible so you're gaining huge qualifications. By the end of this course we're guaranteed a job. At first I was not mentally and physically able to do what was expected of me but as you progress you get better and better at what you're doing. Experience before you come in is not really that relevant because we want to teach you the way that we want you to learn and the skills that we want you to have. If you're willing to put the effort in, prove yourself, work hard, you are guaranteed a career. Whatever career you choose there's something you're going to need. They're called soft skills or employability skills. Sure you may have the qualifications but qualities like resilience, teamwork and good communication are just as vital. So you reckon you're pretty smart eh? Top of the class, the next big thing. You probably think you've got the skills to pay the bills. Well think again. It might surprise you but getting a job isn't all about your grades. I mean sure they're important but you're gonna need some other skills too. You may be the best writer, mechanic, scientist, chef or rapper but all this talent amounts to very little if you don't work well with other people. Some of the must-have professional qualities I'm talking about can be as important as exam qualifications. These are called the soft skills and if they aren't up to scratch you might just be limiting your chances of success. But don't panic. Everyone has some form of soft skills. There's growth mindset, resilience, communication, critical thinking and emotional intelligence to name but a few. While hard skills are measurable abilities such as science, languages or maths, soft skills are the important general qualities that make you a good employee. They're a combination of lots of things including social skills, character traits and employment qualities. And while hard skills might be important in some industries, soft skills are important in all of them. So there you have it. It's no wonder employers put so much importance on the soft skills. They won't just help you land your first job but wherever you want to work in the future they'll definitely give you a head start. Well that's just about it for now. I hope we've given you some ideas about what you might want to do for a career but I bet you've got lots of questions. So we want to hear from you. Put our panel of experts to the test. Just send us a video or email with any questions you have about what you've seen and we'll do our very best to ensure you get the answers. You'll be able to see all that in our careers cast follow-up show in a couple weeks. You can find the details on our website. Thanks so much for tuning in. See you next time. Bye!