News

Millions of workers are being urged to visit state secondary schools and talk about their jobs and career history to help young people gain better insight into the world of work.

Under a new scheme, scores of leading employers including the BBC and the NHS will call for volunteers across the country to visit a school near them once a year and spend an hour talking with young people about their job.

The Inspiring the Future campaign, thought up by the charity Education and Employers Taskforce, is designed to tackle the "skills mismatch" between jobs and young people, and inspire schoolchildren to pursue careers they would not have otherwise thought of.

Nick Chambers, director of the charity, said young people were bombarded with a "distorting influence" from the media that to be successful, you had to be a pop star or football player.

"If you look at what young people aspire to be, its vets, actors and pop stars. A lot of the roles young people see are the roles they see on TV. There are few role models in other industries," he said.

Mr Chambers added: "The chances of becoming a pop star are limited but there are lots of jobs in that industry if that's what they're interested in. This is about matching people's skills with the jobs available."

The campaign launch comes as a new survey by the TES magazine shows 98% of classroom teachers think it is important for young people to meet employers, but many do not have the chance to do so. A third of state secondary schools have already signed up to the scheme, which aims to give pupils the same opportunities independent schools offer.

Inspiring the Future is supported by teaching unions and employer groups, and is the sister campaign of Speakers for Schools, which in January saw Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, attend a south-London school to talk about careers in computing and technology.