It's a new way of talking about work...
Start positive conversations with the Career Clusters
Use the Career Clusters to guide career education in your school or educational setting. Simply apply for verification below
An open letter from Lucy
Lucy Sattler – CEO & Chief Career Counsellor
I love speaking with young people about their plans.
Once you get past the awkward “I dunno” phase, they’re almost always eager to dive into their future and see what the world has in store.
It’s literally the best bit about what I do (and the reason why we exist as a social enterprise).
But the research shows us that young people may not have the skills and knowledge they need to make the best decisions – it’s too easy for them to get caught up in the popular careers, distracted by salary, and drawn to their Netflix heroes; and as a result they find themselves on a less-than-optimal pathway.
Which is why we created the Career Clusters.
They give us a new way to think and talk about our careers – one that breaks free of static jobs and linear career paths and allows us to think dynamically about the roles we take on as we shift and move throughout our career.
The Career Clusters, and the accompanying educational resources, are designed to help you have positive career conversations in an educational setting. We’ve incorporated our learnings from the successful Ponder Program (you can read more about how it works here), and we co-created the resources, including the quiz, with schools, which means you’ll be able to easily integrate the Clusters into your own program in a way that suits your learning environment.
It is our hope that with the Clusters you will find it easier to have career conversations that avoid limiting stereotypes and assumptions and give young people more flexibility to plan a pathway that suits their strengths.
And it’s for that reason that we’ve chosen to keep the Career Clusters free for educational use.
We want to empower schools and learning institutions to use the Clusters without subtracting from what we know are already limited careers budgets – so as an educational institution you are welcome to use the Clusters, the resources, and the quiz at no cost, now, or in the future.
Below, you’ll find more information about the research behind the Clusters and an invitation to apply for verification and join the community of educators using the Career Clusters in their classrooms. The verification process is quick, free, and easy, and it allows us to ensure that you’re delivered the right set of resources for your institution.
Together, I believe we can find a better way to support young people, and I invite you to join me on this journey.
Best regards,
Lucy Sattler – CEO & Chief Career Counsellor
Study Work Grow (creators of the Ponder Program)
Learn about the research behind the Career Clusters
Based on extensive research from both Australian and international sources, we’ve created a range of teaching resources, tools, and learning modules to enable educators to start fresh conversations with students about their future.
We live in a world with a vast array of jobs, but around half of all Australian teenagers aspire to just 1% of all jobs – not because they’re better, but simply because they don’t know what else is out there.
Rather than talking about common industries and roles in careers lessons, you can talk with them about interests, values, and transferrable skills from a Career Cluster they identify with.
Ready to teach resources
We know from working with Career Leaders that it’s not about your ability to deliver a great program, it’s about the time needed to put it together.
So we’ve created a range of free teaching resources to help you run Career Cluster lessons or special events at your school (think Family/Teacher Evenings). These include:
- Career Cluster Resource Pack (for educators)
- Career Cluster Student Workbook
- Presentation Slides – in three teaching units
- Presentation Slides – in one (high-level) teaching unit
- Unlimited student access to the Career Cluster Quiz
It’s everything you need to start great career conversations at school.
Find student insights in your school's dashboard
After delivering our easy-to-use lesson materials, if you choose to have students do the online Career Cluster Quiz, you’ll get to see:
- How many students have completed the quiz
- What year level they are in
- And the distribution of students in each cluster – which is fantastic info for your education team and school leaders to know
Share insights with your students
We find that many students are able to quickly and easily identify which Clusters resonate without even taking the quiz, but if you’d like them to use it (if they’re just like to confirm their suspicions) you can ask them to take the quiz online.
It takes around 5 minutes for students to answer the 30 easy questions, and then they can see their individual Career Cluster Profile.
Want to get started?
Apply for free access
Explore the Resources
Start innovating at school
Tell your teachers
Get free access for your school today
Verification and use of the Career Clusters is completely free for schools – all you need to do is request access, we’ll do a quick check, and then send over the details for you ASAP.
