Labour Market Information (LMI) is about:

• The nature of work - what it’s about
• Education, training and qualifications - how they affect your future
• Jobs and industries, sectors - areas of work, the jobs within them and the employers
• Skills and people that employers want
• Occupational forecasts - what jobs might be available in the future

In black and white the facts and figures may look quite boring, so it’s up to you to get the most out of it.  Let’s face it, if you were going out to buy a stereo, you know that there are lots of different shops that sell them and lots of different stereo’s.  You wouldn’t just go out and buy the first one you saw.  You would look for the best prices or the model that suited you most.  You might even check out a magazine that showed the most popular one and what people thought of it or where they had chosen to buy it.  You would do this because you are investing in something and you want quality with value for money. 

You could have just gone out and taken the easy option of buying the cheapest one you could find, but how long would it last before it stopped working and you found yourself looking for a new one with hardly any money to spend.

So what’s that got to do with LMI?

Well, it goes like this.  Like stereo’s, there are lots of different jobs in lots of areas of work.  You could just go out and get the first job you find packing boxes in a factory.  After all it pays a lot more than a training scheme and you didn’t even need any qualifications!  Everything looks fab, you got a ‘bargain’. 2 months into the job you are not only extremely bored, you are fed up of getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning and you’ve just been told that they won’t be needing you after this month.  So, just like the easy option stereo, you’ve stopped working!  You find yourself looking for a new job, with few skills to offer to a new employer.

I’ll take 50/50 please Chris!

It’s only a game show, but there is some sense in it.  There is so much information about loads of jobs and options. You need to use it to help you make decisions about your future.  With all the possibilities, you need to narrow them down, leaving you with the information and ideas that suit you.  LMI can help you do this.  If you have your heart set on a certain type of work, you need to look at whether there are those jobs where you live or whether you need to be looking further afield. 

If you want that sports car, you need to be looking at jobs in the area of the work that you are interested in that have good salaries.  To get jobs with good salaries, you will need to get good qualifications, skills and experience.  All of this needs careful planning and although it may be boring now, at least you know that you are on the right track to getting the lifestyle that you want.

Ask the audience!

LMI is available locally (facts and figures on your local area) and nationally.  So if you don’t believe the person telling you to ‘get those qualifications’ have a look for yourself. 

Figures will show you what happened to people like you when they left school, the fact that more and more people are continuing with education and training, the likely fact that they did this was because other figures showed that people with qualifications earned more money. 

Figures will also show you the areas of work that people are finding jobs and the possible areas of work that will have jobs available in the future.

Phone a friend

As if all the above wasn’t enough, you still have to make sure that you will be employable (someone that a company will want to employ).  It is highly unlikely that a job is for life, so not only do you need to get qualifications to start off with, you will also need to update them and make sure you have the skills that employers want.  The key skills that most employers look for are :

• Communication Skills
• Number/mathematical skills
• Information Technology (ICT) skills
• Working with others/team working skills
• Improving own learning and performance skills

So if you feel that you’re in the spotlight with everyone waiting for you to make that million pound decision, you don’t have to make it on your own.  Phone, talk, email your Careers / Connexions Adviser, tutor and parents and get as much help as you can in working through the labour market information available.  Once you’ve mastered that, you’ll be fully prepared to go for what you want!

Links you may find useful:

Good Luck