Written by: Mike Shail, Senior Careers Development Consultant, CSW Group

It is a known thing in careers world that a career is a journey. A decent way of checking on someone’s career journey is to see what has happened and is happening. Even the best Careers Guidance practitioners have not mastered the art of prophecy and perfect fortune telling. There is always that unknown factor called reality that will affect what actually will be. Gaining information on what has been and what is, leads us to the ‘what can be’.

Recently an incredible journey was completed by NASA resulting in the delivery of a space rover on to the surface of Mars. Appropriately the name of the lander is Perseverance. 210,930,000 kilometres of journey – well in excess of 5000 times around the circumference of our Earth. I suggest you need a bit of perseverance to accomplish that.

What I am also aware of, and it must be the Careers practitioner in me, is that a previous lander on Mars is called Curiosity. Why is this careers? I am a strong believer that to get anywhere you need to ask questions, you need to have curiosity. For example: What can I do after Year 11? What opportunities exist? How can I meet the expectations for the opportunity? Who can help me? What further questions do I need the answers to?…

So, what exists currently on Mars, what is happening now and has happened, is that Curiosity has preceded Perseverance. Questions have been asked and effort has then been applied, and incredible results have appeared. And Curiosity is still active on Mars, in my view highlighting that we all need to keep asking questions to continue achieving and realising our potential.

CSW Group are local delivery partners for the ASK programme in Devon and Cornwall. Although this is not a direct off shoot of the NASA Mars missions, there are all sorts of potential incredible journeys available here too. ASK is the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme – helping to explain all about Apprenticeship options and sharing information on what could be.

ASK Questions…

• Did you know there is a Higher Apprenticeship in Space Engineering?
• Did you know that Heathcoat Fabrics, the Devon based company responsible for manufacturing the space parachute for Perseverance’s drop to the surface of Mars use Apprenticeships?

Plenty more things to explore and find out…keep your curiosity and contact CSW Group to deliver a fully funded ASK related activity to your school or college.