Gone are the days when a person says they want to work for a bank and that means they have to study business. All industries are realizing they need skills from all sorts of different disciplines. From the four colors below which one best describes you? Which one do you think Google would hire?
If you answered all you are exactly right! If you chose grey, then a bachelor of science or commerce and business might be best for you. Red would be a Bachelor of Arts, Social Science or Education, yellow would be design and engineering and green digital literacy and IT solution-focused people.
When asking "what should my child study?" – the answer has to be “whatever my child is best at.” If they are fantastic communicators a bank will need them, don’t force them to go into finance and study maths if they do not enjoy it as they will be mediocre at it and it will not lead to success. Studying communications, or media and marketing could still lead them to business, but in an area they will thrive.
Job security is no longer staying at one job forever – job security is when you have great transferable skills. It’s being excellent and disciplined at your skill set and poised to use it. In the past we said if you want to be a CEO then you need a Masters in Business (MBA), now you can have a Bachelor in Creative Writing and still become a CEO. See the slides below for where some University of Melbourne Alumnae are at now and what they studied to get there.