Match career ideas to jobs in demand

A good option for someone leaving school is to plan for a career in a job that is in demand.

Here’s how to help your young person find out what jobs are in demand and link their career dreams to a jobs with good opportunities. However, which jobs are in demand can change over time.

You can find which jobs are in demand online. 

Tips for finding jobs in demand

1. Use our information about what's happening in the job market
2. Search job vacancy websites for which jobs pay the most. Highly paid jobs are usually more in demand.
3. Contact course providers and industry associations.
4. Research articles about jobs in demand in the business and career sections of online newspapers.

• What’s happening in the job market?
• Job vacancy and recruitment websites
• Course information and course providers

Once you’ve researched jobs in demand, check if they match your young person’s career ideas.

If their career ideas don't match jobs in demand, here's how to find jobs in demand that might suit them.

Tips for finding jobs in demand that interest your young person

• Use our Skill Matcher and Subject Matcher tools to find job ideas.

• Check your young person's Vocational Pathways graph in their NCEA results. Use this to see what industry they have a natural interest or talent for. Then our job profiles to search for jobs in demand in that industry. 

• Skill Matcher and Subject Matcher tools
• Search our job profiles

Your young person might want to choose a career that has limited job opportunities such as dancer or forensic scientist. 

Chat with your young person about the realities of finding work in that job.

Suggest they get information from talking to people in these jobs, or checking out our job profiles for information about entry requirements and job chances.

Once they’ve done their research, help them make a plan for steps they can take to get into the job they want. Also:

• make sure they include a backup plan if they can't get work in the job they want
• suggest they could plan for a portfolio career – one with a range of jobs or activities.
• Building a portfolio career
• Search our job profiles

• Act on your career plans (PDF - 54.7KB)
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