This handbook contains all that educators need to know in order to be effective advocates for young people and their future aspirations, pathways and career aims. Regardless of one's plans for the future, many people's careers are founded on a series of chance encounters, experiences and serendipity. School, college, university, jobs, family, sports, hobbies, friends, relationships - these are all fertile grounds for career-related conversations and explorations. What if we teachers, guides, mentors, parents and peers started to notice these seemingly unconnected happenings and, indeed, started to engineer and encourage them to happen? Based on his TEDx talk 'Engineering Random Opportunities to Succeed', and on a 30-year career in education, entrepreneurship and directorship of National Careers Week, Andrew 'Bernie' Bernard's book The Ladder brings clarity, focus and ideas to educators as to how they can best start students on their own ladders to success, uncover their talents and link those talents to opportunities for growth. In writing this book, Bernie's aim is to bring young people's futures to life with some personal skills reflection and forward planning designed to help them as they embark on their fulfilling futures - regardless of their upbringing, academic achievements or ethnic background.
