1. Secondary school students’ perceptions of working life skills in science-related careers
ECRICE 2016, Barcelona
Tuula Keinonen, Anu Hartikainen-Ahia, Anssi Salonen

2. The context of the study MultiCO project Promoting Youth Scientific Career Awareness and its Attractiveness through Multi-stakeholder Cooperation
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No

3. Background Middle school students are not aware of career options (Maltese & Tai, 2011) Finnish secondary school students wish more information about working life (Economic Information Office, 2016) Two factors affect students’ future career choices: a lack of knowledge about science occupations and science work; the students’ self-perception about their science abilities being lower than their achievements (Cleaves, 2005) Providing students with information and advice about career options and the corresponding educational requirements seems to be critical to increase the utility value of school science. (Holmegaard, Madsen & Ulriksen, 2014)

4. The aim of this study was to find out What kind of skills the students find necessary and important in science-related careers.   The participants in this study were 144 Finnish 7th graders (aged years) from three different schools from Eastern Finland

5. Skills mentioned
Esityksen nimi / Tekijä

6. Tools for working Ways of working Chemist Ways of Thinking
Living in the world
Tools for working
Ways of working
Communication (2)
Collaboration and teamwork (3)
Personal attributes (6)
Language skills 1
Speaking skills 1
Get along with people 1
Social 1
Social skills 1
Accuracy 1
Calm 1
Cautious 2
Courage 1
Patience 1
Citizenship – local and global
Personal and social responsibility (9)
Life and career
First aid skills 1
Health care 1
Hygienic 1
Know what to do in dangerous situations 1
Reliability 1
Responsibility 1
Safety at work 3
Creativity and innovation (1)
Mindset (7)
Problem solving (6)
Applying 1
Reasoning 1
Thinking 1
Observation 1
Reading 1
Separation skills 1
Concentration 2
Clever 1
Good memory 1
Likes own profession 1
Precise 1
Flexible 1
Imagination 1
Sector-specific knowledge (21)
Technology and ICT literacy (1)
Sector-specific skills (4)
How to mix substances 2
Research skills 1
Numeracy 1
Know how to operate machines 1
Biology 1
Chemistry 3
Geography 1
Have to be a learned professor 1
Health Education 1
Home Economics 1
Know-how 1
Knowledge 1
Knowledge and properties of matter 5
Mathematics 3
Medication 1
Physics 1
Science 1

7. Air traffic controller
Ways of Thinking
Living in the world
Tools for working
Ways of working
Communication (5)
Collaboration and teamwork (1)
Personal attributes (15)
Language skills 1
Speaking skills 3
Writing skills 1
Instructing skills 1
Accuracy 2
Calm 3
Courage 1
Discipline 1
Good eyesight 2
Good hearing 1
Good nerves 1
Intuitive 1
Not afraid of heights 1
Patience 1
Stress tolerance 1
Citizenship – local and global (0)
Personal and social responsibility (3)
Life and career (0)
Honor air traffic laws and air traffic 1
Prevent air crashes 1
Responsibility 1
Creativity and innovation (0)
Mindset (8)
Problem solving (5)
Thinking 1
Interpretation 1
Perceptive skills 3
Concentration 1
Likes own profession 1
Precise 1
Systematic 1
Good memory 3
Flexible 1
Sector-specific knowledge (11)
Technology and ICT literacy (8)
Sector-specific skills (5)
Ability to read coordinates 1
Aviation skills 1
Control air traffic 1
Navigation skills 1
Prevent collisions 1
Know how to operate machines 1
Air traffic 2
Chemistry 2
Know how 2
Mathematics 2
Physics 2
Weather knowledge and terms 1

8. Conclusions
Students, with 192 different mentioned skills, have already lots of knowledge about working life skills.
We recognize that students already have in this age strong conceptions and attitudes towards science-careers. These conceptions can be seen in the results of high representation of personal attributes and mindset abilities for how students characterize these careers.
What they lack are skills related to society or citizenship, organizational skills and time management skills. Also they seem to miss the higher order thinking skills behind acquired knowledge such as critical thinking and metacognition skills.

9. Implications and further research
MultiCO project continues with interventions using career based scenarios.
For further research longitudinal studies are implied to follow the change and progress in students’ perceptions of working life skills.

10. References
Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Herman, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, M., Miller-Ricci, M., & Rumble, M Defining Twenty-First Century Skills. In P. Griffin, B. McGaw, & E. Care (Eds.). Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills. Springer. Cleaves, A The formation of science choices in secondary school. International Journal of Science Education 27 (4), Economic Information Office Kun koulu loppuu. Helsinki: Kopijyvä Oy Holmegaard, H.T., Madsen, L.M. & Ulriksen L To Choose or Not to Choose Science: Constructions of desirable identities among young people considering a STEM higher education programme. International Journal of Science Education, 36(2), Maltese, A.V. & Tai, R.H Pipeline Persistence: Examining the Association of Educational Experiences With Earned Degrees in STEM Among U.S. Students. Science Education, 95,

11. Thank you! www.multico-project.eu uef.fi
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No