Career research gets aLife
Being made redundant was a blessing for warehouse and distribution executive Tom Hastwell as it gave him the time to bring a dream video project to life.
Tom had long being thinking about creating a multimedia career resource that literally brought other people’s jobs to life.
The result is “aLife” – a play on the phrase “A Day in the Life”.
Mr Hastwell thought that video profiles would provide a more interactive research experience especially for school students struggling with that age old question: “What do I want to be when I grow up?”
“I thought: ‘we could get real people talking about their real jobs and what they do on a day-to-day basis’,” Tom said.
He pitched his idea to his now business partner, Troy Jones, the owner of a Sydney-based production company who had the tools to make the videos and together they “decided to take the plunge”.
“I started by approaching some of the major industry associations such as the Motor Trades Association of Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia and the the Australian Glass and Glaziers Association.
“[These associations] are desperate to get information out in the market place about the job opportunities in their industry.”
Over two years Tom got 20 organisations on board with each association paying a fee to be part of the project. They also supplied the people profiled in the multimedia project that consists of video profiles, a tool to help students figure out what job would suit them and industry advice delivered online.
The project kicked off by creating aLife packs that were distributed free to 3,300 schools – “every secondary school in Australia”. The pack includes a downloadable software computer disc that provides access to 100 people profiles plus a user guide booklet. The plan is to eventually phase out the computer disc in favour of downloading free videos from the aLife website.
“The disc gets around streaming issues and broad band capability but that will hopefully change in the next three to six years (with the introduction of high speed broadband),” Tom explained.
“This is just our first edition. We will continue to add news profiles to the disc and website to keep it relevant for the education sector.”
As well as seeing and listening to people describe a day in the life of their career; the streaming video also features other career specific information from CEOs and industry experts.
“School kids will get the best value out of it particularly those in Year 10 who are making decisions about what they are going to study by choosing a certain career path, but it will also be good for university students, TAFE graduates those looking for other career opportunities and return-to-work mothers,” he explained.
