Painter, electrician, carpenter or pilot? What happens after finishing school? The 8th/9th school year on Thursday afternoon, 29th August, dealt intensively with this topic by visiting the Ostschweizer Bildungs-Ausstellung (OBA – Eastern Switzerland Education Exhibition), at which around 150 exhibitors from a wide variety of sectors provide an overview of the Swiss professional landscape. Numerous ideas, personal experience reports and professional advice help to answer questions in the field of career choice.
Right at the beginning of the afternoon, the pupils of the 8th school year were shown the various professions and the application procedure in a playful way. During an entertaining performance by the theatre group “Tillout”, the young people learned everything they needed to know about a CV and how to behave in an interview. At the same time, the 9th school year visited the short presentation “Applying successfully” Together with two experienced experts (vocational trainers), the Yousty team (www.yousty.ch) gave tips on how young people can apply successfully (online). Following the lecture, it was possible to ask the experts open questions.
After a joint tour of the exhibition, the pupils used the second part of the afternoon to implement the visit plan, which had been individually put together in the classroom beforehand on the basis of preparatory research. Various professions could be interactively experienced and tried out. In addition, numerous exhibition stands offered personal talks with personnel managers and trainers as well as apprentices. In exchange with them, the pupils were informed about everyday working life and received answers to their questions. The wide range of take-away materials enabled the young people to organize various catalogues and brochures for further information.
Painter, electrician, carpenter or pilot? Optician, dental assistant or vehicle mechanic? What do the students take with them from the OBA visit? Certainly numerous impressions and new experiences, perhaps a self-made gadget and information from an instructive conversation – hopefully many useful impulses for further steps in their career choice process.
