How do you know what you want to work with? Which way should you choose? If you have chosen a path, it is too late to repent? These were just some of the many exciting and difficult issues we trainees lectured about during the inspirational evening. At the event, food and drinks were on GKN’s treat and the participants got the chance to talk to some of GKN’s many engineers, operators and ITU-students.
The evening was organized for all ninth graders who are now faced with the choice of choosing high school, and was one of our many tasks within the framework of our trainee assignments “Raise Awareness of Engineering to Adolescences” (RAEA).
The inspirational evening was meant to serve as a source of inspiration and information. We wanted to mediate how one could start a career in an easy and understandable way. At the same time, we wanted to take the opportunity to give some well-weighted advice. Advice that can make the road to a dream job a little bit easier and more fun. To conclude the evening we here present a summary of the lecture targeting ninth graders and their parents.

Why an education?
First of all, an education gives you knowledge and knowledge is all about applying and understand information. Secondly, an education gives you the tools necessary to critically examine and absorb information, tools that are becoming increasingly important in a world where misinformation has become everyday food. Knowledge also makes you sought and more independent, both of which are prerequisites for a greater freedom.

Freedom do not just mean having a lot of options to choose from, it also means having the option to choose or not to choose between available options depending on one’s wants or needs, and an education gives you just that. It gives you professional freedom, i.e. it makes it easier for you to change job or industry, or, for example, to choose where and what to work with. The professional freedom also affects your financial and private freedom, and together they constitute the three degrees of freedom that are the very foundation for a more varied, exciting and enjoyable life.
An education also gives you the chance to meet fun and interesting people, people who might become your friends for life, and who knows, someone might offer you a way to your dream job?

How do you know what you want to work with?
Finding an answer to that question can be very difficult. Maybe you will never really know what you really want to work with. However, an interest can be born and grown over time, therefore, you should not be afraid to try new things and new ways. It is also true that the better you become of something the more fun it becomes. To master a profession or a school subject is no different from mastering for example an instrument or a sport, it requires a great deal of time, patience and perseverance. So maybe you will find an interest where you now experience boredom, so take the chance, try to struggle, be persevere and give it a fair chance!

Aiming for very high goals can sometimes be difficult as it becomes hard to see which optimal way to choose right now. So a tip could be to set targets, it makes the trip a little easier. Since almost all employers today require their employees to have a high school education, which is also a necessity for studies at colleges and universities, a high school diploma is a good first milestone on your way to an exciting future with many exciting options.

If you really do not know what you want then?
Well, then you may want to choose an education that is as broad as possible, for example, an education that is both practical and theoretical. This increases the chance that you will find something you are really interested in. A good option can be the ITU program at GKN Aerospace which is conducted in collaboration with the Nils Ericson High School. The program is both work preparatory and simultaneously gives you the competence and access needed for higher studies. In other words, the ITU-program gives students a unique chance to create their own future.

With that said, we trainees want to express sincere thanks to all of those who attended the inspiration evening. For more information and inspiration please go to https://www.gymnasium.se/yrkesguiden/.