Vodafone Ireland launch ‘See the Future’, a series of educational workshops to inspire the next generation of digital innovators

Vodafone Ireland has announced the launch of its latest educational initiative, See the Future, which is designed to shine a light on the range and scale of digital and STEM career opportunities available to Ireland’s future innovators. In an environment that continues to see high non-completion rates in technology-based third-level courses, it’s more important than ever to showcase the breadth of career opportunities awaiting the next generation.

Second-year students at Ballinteer Community School, Dublin were the first to participate in the inaugural See the Future workshop. The full-day event featured a vast array of activities from teamwork exercises to creative brainstorming sessions, as well as an Apprentice-style challenge that immersed the student in an interactive workshop on how to evolve real-life digital products and services.

Students also had the opportunity to try out Vodafone’s Future Job Finder Tool. Developed by Vodafone specialist psychologists and career advisors, the Future Jobs Finder is a series of quick psychometric tests designed to identify aptitudes and interests of an individual and then map these against the most appropriate job category within the digital economy. The individual is then directed to specific job opportunities in their chosen location, including opportunities with Vodafone. Users can also access relevant online digital skills training providers, with many of these courses available for free. On completing the tests, users also receive a summary of their skills and interests that could be used on their C.V. or in a job or internship application.

Commenting on the launch of the initiative, James Magill, Vodafone Ireland HR Director said: “The impact of digitalisation is evolving in ways we couldn’t have imagined even five years ago. This will result in fundamental changes to many jobs as we know them today and contribute to the creation of entirely new roles. In fact, 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t even been created yet and we predict that a huge majority of these will be founded in digital or STEM.

“Despite this opportunity, however, we are continuing to see high non-completion rates in tech-based courses, some of which report dropout rates of up to 80%*. The purpose of Vodafone’s See the Future initiative is to ensure that future generations have their eyes opened to the diverse range of digital and STEM career opportunities that are and will be open to them.

“I would encourage students and adults, who may be interested in a change of career, to access Vodafone’s Future Job Finder Tool as it will help provide an overview of the range of job opportunities that are not only available but linked to their interests and skill sets,” concludes Magill.

Emilie Martin, a 2nd-year student at Ballinteer Community School, said: “Today’s See the Future workshop was really cool and definitely made me think about working in digital in the future. The Future Job Finder tool recommended a number of jobs that would suit me based on what I like and don’t like to do, things like digital marketing, IT professional and technical support. That was really eye-opening for me as I thought it was only coders who worked in digital.”

Ms Michelle Chandler, Guidance Counsellor at Ballinteer Community School added: “Today’s workshop really got the students thinking about the array of career opportunities open to them in digital and STEM. As a science teacher myself, I’m all too aware of the challenge that exists in terms of getting students interested in careers in these areas and initiatives like Vodafone’s See The Future is really helping to increase the attractiveness of these career opportunities amongst our budding innovators.”

The programme of See the Future workshops take place in schools across Ireland this year.