Career guidance for the “Non-Essential” generation
I teach English as a foreign language at several universities in northeast France. Back in the USA, this is known as ESL, or English as a Second Language. Yes, there is grammar, but the nuts and bolts of this type of teaching is focused on practical, everyday situations. My students see English as a way to getting a foot in the door in a dwindling job market which has not been helped by our so-called leaders, who in turn have decided to reduce career opportunities by labelling select businesses as “essential”.
This got me thinking about what “essential” means. As long as people make their living off a business, then I’d say it’s essential. If an activity fufills a need in any way- the need to eat, to exercise, to get clothed, to learn, to read, to repair, to pray, to socialize- then it’s essential. The goalposts that define “essential” are arbitrarily moved on a regular basis, so why don’t we just simplify things by saying it’s ALL essential. Now, let’s get back to my students.
Ask a young person today what he or she wants to do later on in life, and they’ll be at a loss on how to respond, because perhaps they have realized that what they aspire to be today won’t exist as an “essential” job tomorrow. With Covid sanitary regulations making even planning for the weekend a risky pursuit, dreaming about the future is out of the question. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where today’s youth are hard-pressed to say what they enjoy doing at all. This backdrop of pessimism what we have to work with.
High schools, or Lycées, in France tend to push kids onto a career path the moment they enroll. By the equivalent of our Sophomore year in the USA, French youth have already decided if they will take a more vocational or academic route. A year later, the academically-oriented students will specialize even further, going into sciences, letters or social economics. You’d think that with all this orientation, kids would know the direction they were heading, but in fact, they don’t. And that’s fine with me.
I never felt comfortable with kids pigeon-holing themselves into careers that they may regret being in later. The problem I have is that the constant exposure to soul-crushing unemployment numbers and the growing inaccessibility of stable jobs bear on their choices. What they choose to do often has nothing to do with what they want to do. Even though I’m tasked with the job of boosting my students’ TOEIC scores, I feel compelled to help them find their way through life. Without actually forcing them into a corner to reflect on their future, I use English as a means to coax them into formulating their dreams…or at least avoid a nightmarish career choice later on.
I usually start a new term with some inner work. First we start by getting rid of self-doubt. Any negative self-assessment is gently called out. The French educational system can be quite demeaning, so by the time the students are in my English class, they are often broken, or at least lacking in self-confidence. They first need to get past that hurdle. What applies to languages is applicable to life, so I try to include pep talks in my classes.
Instinct runs against the Cartesian mindset that is so prevalent in France. A running joke is “OK, that works well in practice, but what about in theory?” Everything is overly thought out; the need to have an explanation for everything has destroyed the spontaneity of young adults. This is the next thing I work on with my students. I feel that there are parallels between the rigidity of their expression in my classes and their narrow view of the future. By working with what feels right (or doesn’t), they can start unleashing what they want to actually do later on. I often tell them to visualize themselves in an ideal workplace situation and to describe this as concretely as possible. I ask them to draw up their own job posting with a cover letter responding to it. It’s a challenging exercise for them, not only linguistically, but existentially. They are not used to being asked these sorts of questions.
After laboring through this exercise, I then remind my students that they are by no means limited in their career path and that there are boundless opportunities on the horizon- all of which will be essential. We then look at today’s problems (Lord knows, there are plenty) and brainstorm solutions, which could well be tomorrow’s job opportunities. As I look at my students seated before me, I see future organic farmers, 3-D printing specialists, naturopaths, and sustainable materials researchers. The sky’s the limit.
The next hurdle is that the French are respectful of hierarchy to the point that they don’t dare take any initiative to do anything, lest be slapped on the wrist (I learned the hard way). Unfortunately, this lack of initiative- the very thing needed for someone to knock on the door with an application for a job that doesn’t exist- is quite ingrained in French culture. I’m the person that gives them a little push to the edge of the nest. At least in my class, as long as they try, they’ll never have to worry about falling.
This leads me to my final plea: If this purely arbitrary world of the essential and non-essential does indeed take hold (and I pray it doesn’t), what I wish for the youth of today is to have the courage to create their own paradigm…and their career that fits into it.
